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diff --git a/old/13530-8.txt b/old/13530-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3f3e8a3 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13530-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9960 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Halcyone, by Elinor Glyn + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Halcyone + +Author: Elinor Glyn + +Release Date: September 26, 2004 [EBook #13530] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HALCYONE *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + +HALCYONE + + + +BY ELINOR GLYN + +AUTHOR OF "THE REASON WHY," "HIS HOUR," "THREE WEEKS," ETC. + + +[Frontispiece] + + +1912 + + + +TO THE MEMORY +OF +MY KIND FRIEND + +LORD ST. HELIER + +WHOSE SYMPATHY WITH MY CLASSICAL STUDIES +SO GREATLY ENCOURAGED THEM + + +[Greek: DRASANTI PATHEIN] + + + +_"And now they are past the last blue headland and in the open sea; and +there is nothing round them but the waves and the sky and the wind. But +the waves are gentle and the sky is clear, and the breeze is tender and +low; for these are the days when Halcyone and Ceyx build their nest and +no storms ever ruffle the pleasant summer sea. And who were Halcyone and +Ceyx? Halcyone was a fairy maiden, the daughter of the beach and of the +wind. And she loved a sailor-boy and married him; and none on earth were +so happy as they. But at last Ceyx was wrecked; and before he could swim +to the shore, the billows swallowed him up. And Halcyone saw him +drowning and leapt into the sea to him; but in vain. Then the Immortals +took pity on them both, and changed them into two fair sea-birds, and +now they build a floating nest every year and sail up and down for ever +upon the pleasant seas of Greece."_ + +THE HEROES, _Kingsley._ + + + + + +HALCYONE + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +Outside one of the park gates there was a little house. In the +prosperous days of the La Sarthe it had been the land steward's--but +when there was no longer any land to steward it had gone with the rest, +and for several years had been uninhabited. + +One day in early spring Halcyone saw smoke coming out of the chimney. +This was too interesting a fact not to be investigated; she resented it, +too--because a hole in the park paling had often let her into the garden +and there was a particularly fine apple tree there whose fruit she had +yearly enjoyed. + +She crept nearer, a tall, slender shape, with mouse-colored hair waving +down her back, and a scarlet cap pulled jauntily over her brow--the +delightful feeling of adventure tingling in her veins. Yes, the gap was +there, it had not been mended yet--she would penetrate and see for +herself who this intruder could be. + +She climbed through and stole along the orchard and up to the house. +Signs of mending were around the windows, in the shape of a new board +here and there in the shutters; but nothing further. She peeped over the +low sill, and there her eyes met those of an old man seated in a shabby +armchair, amid piles and piles of books. He had evidently been reading +while he smoked a long, clay pipe. + +He was a fine old man with a splendid presence, his gray hair was longer +than is usual and a silvery beard flowed over his chest. + +Halcyone at once likened him to Cheiron in the picture of him in her +volume of Kingsley's "Heroes." + +They stared at one another and the old man rose and came to the window. + +Halcyone did not move. + +"Who are you, little girl?" he said. "And what do you want?" + +"I want to know who you are, and why you have come here?" she answered +fearlessly. "I am Halcyone, you know." + +The old man smiled. + +"That ought to tell me everything," he said, gravely, "but unfortunately +it does not! Who is Halcyone?" + +"I live at La Sarthe Chase with the Aunts La Sarthe," she said proudly, +as though La Sarthe Chase had been Windsor Castle--"and I have been +accustomed to play in this garden. I don't like your being here much." + +"I am sorry for that, because it suits me and I have bought it. But how +would it be if I said you might come into the garden still and play? +Would you forgive me then for being here?" + +"I might," said Halcyone. "What are all these books for?" + +"They are to read." + +"I knew that--" and she frowned, beetling her delicate dark brows, "but +why such a lot? You can never read them all." + +The old man smiled. + +"I have read most of them already," he said. "I have had plenty of time, +you see." + +"Yes, I dare say you are old," said Halcyone-- "and what are they about? +I would like to know that. My books so seldom interest me." + +He handed her one through the window, but it was written in Greek and +she could not read it. She frowned again as she turned over the pages. + +"Perhaps there is something nice in that," she said. + +"Possibly." + +"Well, won't you tell me what?" + +"That would take a long time--suppose you come in and have tea with me, +then we could talk comfortably." + +"That sounds a good plan," she said, gravely. "Shall I climb through the +window--I can quite easily--or would you like me to go round by the +door?" + +"The window will serve," said the old man. + +And with one bound as light as a young kid, Halcyone was in the room. + +There was a second armchair beyond the pile of books, and into that she +nestled, crossing her knees and clasping her hands round them. "Now we +can begin," she said. + +"Tea or talk?" asked the old man. + +"Why, talk, of course; there is no tea--" + +"But if you rang that bell some might come." + +Halcyone jumped up again and looked about for the bell. She was not +going to ask where it was--she disliked stupid people herself. The old +man watched her from under the penthouse of his eyebrows with a curious +smile. + +The bell was hidden in the carving of the mantelpiece, but she found it +at last and gave it a lusty pull. + +It seemed answered instantaneously by a strange-looking man,--a dark, +extremely thin person with black, dull eyes. + +The old man spoke to him in an unknown language and he retired silently. + +"Who was that?" asked Halcyone. + +"That is my servant,--he will bring tea." + +"He is not English?" + +"No--does that matter?" + +"Of course not--but what country does he come from?" + +"You must ask him someday." + +"I want to see countries," and she stretched out her slender arms, "I +want to fly away outside the park and see the world." + +"You have time," said the old man. + +"When I am big enough I shall run away--I get very tired of only the +Aunts La Sarthe. They never understand a word I say." "What do you say?" + +"I want to say all sorts of things, but if it isn't what they have heard +a hundred times before, they look shocked and pained." + +"You must come and say them to me then, perhaps I might understand, and +in any case I should not be shocked or pained." + +"They remind me of the Three Gray Sisters, although there are only two +of them--one eye and one tooth between them." + +"I see--there is something we can talk about at all events," said the +old man. "The Three Gray Sisters are friends of yours--are they?" + +"Not friends!" Haley one exclaimed emphatically. "I can't bear them, +silly old things nodding there, with their ridiculous answers to +Perseus, saying old things were better than new--and their day better +than his--I should have thrown their eye into the sea if I had been he. +Do all old people do that?--pretend their time was the best?--do you? I +don't mean to." + +"You are right. It is a bad habit." + +"But are they better, the old things?" + +The old man did not answer for a moment or two. He looked his visitor +through and through with his wise gray eyes--an investigation which +might have disconcerted some people, but Halcyone was unabashed. + +"I know what you are doing," she said. "You are seeing the other side of +my head--and I wish I could see the other side of yours, I can the +Aunts' La Sarthe and Priscilla's, in a minute, but yours is different." + +"I am glad of that--you might be disappointed, though, if you did see +what was there." + +"I always want to see," she said simply--"see everything; and sometimes +I find the other side not a bit what this is--even in the birds and +trees and the beetles. But you must have a huge big one." + +The old man laughed. + +"You and I are going to be good acquaintances," he said. "Tell me some +more of Perseus. What more do you know of him?" + +"I have only read 'The Heroes,'" Halcyone admitted, "but I know it by +heart--and I know it is all true though my governess says it is +fairy-tales and not for girls. I want to learn Greek, but they can't +teach me." + +"That is too bad." + +"When things are put vaguely I always want to know, them--I want to know +why Medusa turned into a gorgon? What was her sin?" + +The old man smiled. + +"I see," said Halcyone, "you won't tell me, but some day I shall know." + +"Yes, some day you shall know," he said. + +"They seem such great people, those Greeks; they knew everything--so the +preface of my 'Heroes' says, and I want to learn the things they +knew--mathematics and geometry, rather--and especially logic and +metaphysics, because I want to know the meaning of words and the art of +reasoning, and above everything I want to know about my own thoughts and +soul." "You strange little girl," said the old man. "Have you a soul?" + +"I don't know, I have something in there," and Halcyone pointed to her +head--"and it talks to me like another voice, and when I am alone up a +tree away from people, and all is beautiful, it seems to make it tight +round here,--and go from my head into my side," and she placed her lean +brown paw over her heart. + +"Yes--you perhaps have a soul," said the old man, and then he added, +half to himself--"What a pity." + +"Why a pity?" demanded Halcyone. + +"Because a woman with a soul suffers, and brings tribulation--but since +you have one we may as well teach you how to keep the thing in hand." + +At that moment, the dark servant brought tea, and the fine oriental +china pleased Halcyone whose perceptions took in the texture of every +single thing she came in contact with. + +The old man seemed to go into a reverie, he was quite silent while he +poured out the tea, forgetting to enquire her tastes as to cream and +sugar--he drank his black--and handed Halcyone a cup of the same. + +She looked at him, her inquiring eyes full of intelligence and +understanding, and she realized at once that these trifles were not in +his consideration for the moment. So she helped herself to what she +wanted and sat down again in her armchair. She did not even rattle her +teaspoon. Priscilla often made noises which irritated her when she was +thinking. The old man came back to a remembrance of her presence at +last. + +"Little girl," he said--"would you like to come here pretty often and +learn Greek, and about the Greeks?" + +Halcyone bounded from her chair with joy. + +"But of course I would!" she said. "And I am not stupid--not really +stupid Mademoiselle says, when I want to learn things." + +"No--I dare say you are not stupid," the old man said. "So it is a +bargain then; I shall teach you about my friends the Greeks, and you +shall teach me about the green trees, and your friends the rabbits and +the beetles." + +Then those instinctive good manners of Halcyone's came uppermost, +inherited, like her slender shape and balanced head, from that long line +of La Sarthe ancestors, and she thanked the old man with a quaint, +courtly, sweetly pedantic grace. Then she got up to go-- + +"I like being here--and may I come again to-morrow?" she said +afterwards. "I must go now or they will be disagreeable and perhaps make +difficulties." + +The old man watched her as she curtsied to him and vaulted through the +window again, and on down the path, and through the hole in the paling, +without once turning round. Then he muttered to himself: + +"A woman thing who refrains from looking back!--Yes, I fear she has a +soul." + +Then he returned to his pipe and his Aristotle. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +Halcyone struck straight across the park until she came to the beech +avenue, near the top, which ran south. The place had been nobly planned +by that grim old La Sarthe who raised it in the days of seventh Henry. +It stood very high with its terraced garden in the center of four +splendid avenues of oak, lime, beech and Spanish chestnut running east, +west, north and south. And four gates in different stages of +dilapidation gave entrance through a broken wall of stone to a circular +drive which connected all the avenues giving access to the house, a +battered, irregular erection of gray stone. + +To reach the splendid front door you entered from the oak avenue and +crossed the pleasance, now only an overgrown meadow where the one cow +grazed in the summer. + +Then you were obliged to mount three stately flights of stone steps +until you reached the first terrace, which was flagged near the house +and bordered with stiff flower-beds. Here you might turn and look back +due west upon a view of exquisite beauty--an undulating fertile country +beneath, and then in the far distance a line of dim blue hills. + +But if you chanced to wish to enter your carriage unwetted on a rainy +day, you were obliged to deny yourself the pleasure of passing through +the entrance hall in state, and to go out at the back by stone passages +into the courtyard where the circular avenue came up close to a +fortified door, under the arch of which you could drive. + +Everything spoke of past grandeur and present decay--only the +flower-beds of the highest terrace appeared even partly cultivated; the +two lower ones were a wild riot of weeds and straggling rose trees +unpruned and untrained, and if you looked up at the windows in the +southern wing of the house, you saw that several panes in them were +missing and that the holes had been stuffed with rags. + +At this time of the year the beech avenue presented an indescribably +lovely sight of just opening leaves of tender green. It was a +never-failing joy to Halcyone. She walked the few paces which separated +her from it and turning, stood leaning against the broken gate now, +drinking in every tone of the patches the lowered sun made of gold +between the green. For her it was full of wood nymphs and elves. It did +not contain gods and goddesses like the others. She told herself long +stories about them. + +The beech avenue was her favorite for the spring, the lime for the +summer, the chestnut for the autumn, and the oak for the winter. She +knew every tree in all four, as a huntsman knows his hounds. And when, +in the great equinoctial storm of the previous year, three giant oaks +lay shattered and broken, the sight had caused her deep grief, until she +wove a legend about them and turned them into monsters for Perseus to +subdue with Medusa's head. One, indeed, whose trunk was gnarled and +twisted, became the serpent of the brazen scales who sleepeth not, +guarding the Golden Fleece. + +"As the tree falls so shall it lie," seemed to be the motto of La Sarthe +Chase. For none were removed. + +Halcyone stretched out her arms and beckoned to her fairy friends. + +"Queen Mab," she called, "come and dance nearer to me--I can see your +wings and I want to talk to you to-day!" + +And as if in answer to this invitation, the rays of the lowered sun +shifted to an opening almost at her feet, and with a cry of joy the +child began to dance in the gorgeous light. + +"Come follow, follow me, ye fairy elves that be," she sang softly. + +And the sprites laughed with gladness, and gilded her mouse hair with +gold, and lit up her eyes, and wove scarves about her with gossamer +threads, and beneath her feet tall bluebells offered their heads as a +carpet. + +But Halcyone sprang over them, she would not have crushed the meanest +weed. + +"Queen Mab!" she said at last, as she sat down in the middle of the +sunlight, "I have found an old gentleman--and he is Cheiron, and if one +could see it in the right light, he may have a horse's body, and he is +going to teach me just what Jason learnt--and then I shall tell it to +you." + +The rays shifted again to a path beyond, and Halcyone bounded up and +went on her way. + +Old William was drawing the elder Miss La Sarthe in a dilapidated +basket-chair, up and down on the highest terrace. She held a minute +faded pink silk parasol over her head--it had an ivory handle which +folded up when she no longer needed the parasol as a shade. She wore +one-buttoned gloves, of slate-colored kid, and a wrist-band of black +velvet clasped with a buckle. An inverted cake-tin of weather-beaten +straw, trimmed with rusty velvet, shadowed her old, tired eyes; an +Indian shawl was crossed upon her thin bosom. + +"Halcyone!" she called querulously. "Where have you been, child? You +must have missed your tea." + +And Halcyone answered: + +"In the orchard." + +For of what use to inform Aunt Ginevra about that enchanting visit to +Cheiron! Aunt Ginevra who knew not of such beings! + +"The orchard's let," grunted old William--"they do say it's sold--" + +"I had rather not hear of it, William," said Miss La Sarthe frowning. +"It does not concern one what occurs beyond one's gates." + +Old William growled gently, and continued his laborious task--one of the +wheels squeaked as it turned on the flags. + +"Aunt Ginevra, you must have that oiled," said Halcyone, as she screwed +up her face. "How can you bear it? You can't see the lovely spring +things, with that noise." + +"One does not see with one's ears, Halcyone," quavered Miss La Sarthe. +"Take me in now, William." + +"And she can't even see them with her eyes--poor Aunt Ginevra!" Halcyone +said to herself, as she walked respectfully by the chair until it passed +the front door on its way to the side. Then she bounded up the steps and +through the paneled, desolate hall, taking joy in climbing the dog-gates +at the turn of the stairs, which she could easily have opened--and she +did not pause until she reached her own room in the battered south wing, +and was soon curled up in the broad window sill, her hands clasped round +her knees. + +For this was a wonderful thing which had come into her life.--She had +met someone who could see the other side of her head! Henceforth there +would be a human voice, not only a fairy's, to converse with her. +Indeed, the world was a very fair place! + +Here, Priscilla found her when it was growing dark, still with the rapt +expression of glad thought on her face. And the elderly woman shook her +head. "That child is not canny," she muttered, while aloud she chided +her for idleness and untidiness in having thrown her cap on the floor. + +But Halcyone flung her arms round Priscilla's neck and laughed in her +beard. + +"Oh, you dear old goosie! I have been with the Immortals on the blue +peaks of Olympus and there we did not wear caps!" + +"Them Immortals!" said Priscilla. "Better far you were attending to +things you can see. They'll be coming down and carrying you off, some of +these fine nights!" + +"The Immortals don't care so much about the nights, Priscilla--unless +Artemis is abroad--she does--but the others like the sunlight and great +white clouds and a still blue sky. I am quite safe--" and Halcyone +smiled. + +Priscilla began tidying up. + +"Ma'm'selle's wrote to the mistresses to say she won't come back, she +can't put up with the place any longer." + +This sounded too good to be true! Another governess going! Surely they +would see it was no use asking any more to come to La Sarthe +Chase--Halcyone had never had one who could appreciate its beauties. +Governesses to her were poor-spirited creatures afraid of rats, and the +dark passages--and one and all resentful of the rag-stuffed panes in the +long gallery. Surely with the new-found Cheiron to instruct her about +those divine Greeks a fresh governess was unnecessary. + +"I shall ask Aunt Ginevra to implore my stepfather not to send any more. +We don't want them, do we, Priscilla?" + +"That we don't, my lamb!" agreed Priscilla. "But you must learn +something more useful than gods and goddesses. Your poor, dear mother in +heaven would break her heart if she knew you were going to be brought up +ignorant." + +Halcyone raised her head haughtily. + +"I shan't be ignorant--don't be afraid. I would not remain ignorant even +if no other governess ever came near me. I can read by myself, and the +dear old gentleman I saw to-day will direct me." And then when she +perceived the look of astonishment on Priscilla's face: "Ah! That is a +secret! I had not meant to tell you--but I will. The orchard cottage is +inhabited and I've seen him, and he is Cheiron, and I am going to learn +Greek!" + +"Bless my heart!" said Priscilla. "Well, now, it is long past seven +o'clock and you must dress to go down to dessert." + +And all the time she was putting Halcyone into her too short white +frock, and brushing her mane of hair, the child kept up a brisk +conversation. Silent for hours at a time, when something suddenly +interested her she could be loquacious enough. + +One candle had to be lit before her toilet was completed, and then at +half past seven she stole down the stairs, full of shadows, and across +the hall to the great dining-room, where the Misses La Sarthe dined in +state at seven o'clock, off some thin soup and one other dish, so that +at half past seven the cloth had been cleared away by old William (in a +black evening coat now and rather a high stock), and the shining +mahogany table reflected the two candles in their superb old silver +candlesticks. + +At this stage, as Halcyone entered the room, it was customary for +William to place the dish of apples on the table in front of Miss La +Sarthe, and the dish of almonds and raisins in front of Miss Roberta. +The dessert did not vary much for months--from October to late June it +was the same; and only on Sundays was the almond and raisin dish allowed +to be partaken of, but an apple was divided into four quarters, after +being carefully peeled by Miss La Sarthe, each evening, and Miss Roberta +was given two quarters and Halcyone one, while the eldest lady nibbled +at the remaining piece herself. + +In her day, children had always come down to dessert, and had had to be +good and not greedy, or the fate of Miss Augusta Noble of that estimable +book, "The Fairchild Family," would certainly fall upon them. Halcyone, +from her earliest memory, had come down to dessert every night--except +at one or two pleasant moments when the measles or a bad cold had kept +her in bed. Half past seven o'clock, summer and winter, had meant for +her the quarter of an apple, two or three strawberries or a plum--and +almost always the same conversation. + +Miss La Sarthe sat at the head of the table, in a green silk dress cut +low upon the shoulders and trimmed with a bertha of blonde lace. Miss +Roberta--sad falling off from dignity--had her thin bones covered with a +habit shirt of tulle, because she was altogether a poorer creature than +her sister, and felt the cold badly. Both ladies wore ringlets at the +sides of their faces and little caps of ribbon and lace. + +Even within Halcyone's memory, the dining-room had lost some of its +adornments. The Chippendale chairs had gone, and had been replaced by +four stout kitchen ones. The bits of rare china were fewer--but the +portrait of the famous Timothy La Sarthe, by Holbein, still frowned from +his place of honor above the chimneypiece. All the La Sarthes had been +christened Timothy since that time. + +The affair of the governess seemed to be troubling Miss Roberta. At +intervals she had found comfort in these denizens of the outer world, +and, free from the stern eye of Sister Ginevra, had been wont to chat +with one and another. They never stayed long enough for her to know them +well, and now this lady--the fifth within two years--had refused to +return. Life seemed very dull. + +"Need I have any more governesses, Aunt Ginevra?" Halcyone said. "There +is an old gentleman who has bought the orchard house and he says he will +teach me Greek--and I already know a number of other tiresome things." + +Halcyone had not meant to tell her aunts anything about Cheiron--this +new-found joy--but she reasoned after she heard of Mademoiselle's +non-return that the knowledge that she would have some instructor might +have weight with those in charge of her. It was worth risking at all +events. + +Miss La Sarthe adjusted a gold pince-nez and looked at the little girl. + +"How old are you, Halcyone?" she asked. + +"I was twelve on the seventh of last October, Aunt Ginevra." + +"Twelve--a young gentlewoman's education is not complete at twelve years +old, child--although governesses in the house are not very pleasant, I +admit"--and Miss La Sarthe sighed. + +"Oh, I know it isn't!" said Halcyone, "but you see, I can speak French +and German quite decently, and the other things surely I might learn +myself in between the old gentleman's teaching." + +"But what do you know of this--this stranger?" demanded Miss La Sarthe. +"You allude to someone of whom neither your Aunt Roberta nor I have ever +heard." + +"I met him to-day. I went into the orchard as usual, and found the house +was inhabited, and I saw him and he asked me in to tea. He is a very old +gentleman with a long white beard, and very, very clever. His room is +full of Greek books and we had a long talk, and he was very kind and +said he would teach me to read them." + +This seemed to Halcyone to be sufficient in the way of credentials for +anyone. + +"I have heard from Hester," Miss Roberta interposed timidly, "that the +orchard house has been bought by an Oxford professor--it sounds most +respectable, does it not, sister?" + +Miss La Sarthe looked stern: + +"More than thirty-five years ago, Roberta, I told you I disapproved of +Hester's chattering. I cannot conceive personally, how you can converse +with servants as you do. Hester would not have dared to gossip to me!" + +Poor Miss Roberta looked crushed. She had often been chided on this +point before. + +Halcyone would like to have reminded her elder aunt that William, who +was equally a servant, had announced some such news to her that +afternoon; but she remained silent. She must gain her point if she +could, and to argue, she knew, was never a road to success. + +"I am sure if we could get a really nice English girl," hazarded Miss +Roberta, wishing to propitiate, "it might be company for us all, +Ginevra--but if Mrs. Anderton insists upon sending another foreign +person--" + +"And of course she will," interrupted the elder lady; "people of Mrs. +Anderton's class always think it is more genteel to have a smattering of +foreign languages than to know their own mother tongue. We may get +another German--and that I could hardly bear." + +"Then do write to my stepfather, please, please," cried Halcyone. "Say I +am going to be splendidly taught--lots of interesting things--and oh--I +will try so hard by myself to keep up what I already know. I will +practice--really, really, Aunt Ginevra--and do my German exercises and +dear Aunt Roberta can talk French to me and even teach me the Italian +songs that she sings so beautifully to her guitar!" + +This last won the day as far as Miss Roberta was concerned. Her faded +cheeks flushed pink. The trilling Italian love-songs, learnt some fifty +years ago during a two years' residence in Florence, had always been her +pride and joy. So she warmly seconded her niece's pleadings, and the +momentous decision was come to that James Anderton should be approached +upon the subject. If the child learned Greek--from a professor--and +could pick up a few of Roberta's songs as an accomplishment, she might +do well enough--and a governess in the house, in spite of the money paid +by Mr. Anderton to keep her, was a continual gall and worry to them. + +Halcyone knew very little about her stepfather. She was aware that he +had married her mother when she was a very poor and sorrowful young +widow, that she had had two stepsisters and a brother very close +together, and then that the pretty mother had died. There was evidently +something so sad connected with the whole story that Priscilla never +cared much to talk about it. It was always, "your poor sainted mother in +heaven," or, "your blessed pretty mother"--and with that instinctive +knowledge of the feelings of other people which characterized Halcyone's +point of view, she had avoided questioning her old nurse. Her +stepfather, James Anderton, was a very wealthy stockbroker--she knew +that, and also that a year or so after her mother's death he had married +again--"a person of his own class," Miss La Sarthe had said, "far more +suitable to him than poor Elaine." + +Halcyone had only been six years old at her mother's death, but she kept +a crisp memory of the horror of it. The crimson, crumpled-looking baby +brother, in his long clothes, whose coming somehow seemed responsible +for the loss of her tender angel, for a long time was viewed with +resentful hatred. It was a terrible, unspeakable grief. She remembered +perfectly the helpless sense of loss and loneliness. + +Her mother had loved her with passionate devotion. She was conscious +even then that Mabel and Ethel, the stepsisters, were as nothing in +comparison to herself in her mother's regard. She had a certainty that +her mother had loved her own father very much--the young, brilliant, +spendthrift, last La Sarthe. And her mother had been of the family, +too--a distant cousin. So she herself was La Sarthe to her finger +tips--slender and pale and distinguished-looking. She remembered the +last scene with her stepfather before her coming to La Sarthe Chase. It +was the culmination after a year of misery and unassuaged grieving for +her loss. He had come into the nursery where the three little girls were +playing--Halcyone and her two stepsisters--and he had made them all +stand up in his rough way, and see who could catch the pennies the best +that he threw from the door. His brother, "Uncle Ted," was with him. And +the two younger children, Mabel of five and Ethel of four, shouted +riotously with glee and snatched the coins from one another and greedily +quarreled over those which Halcyone caught with her superior skill and +handed to them. + +She remembered her stepfather's face--it grew heavy and sullen and he +walked to the window, where his brother followed him--and she remembered +their words and had pondered over them often since. + +"It's the damned breeding in the brat that fairly gets me raw, Ted," Mr. +Anderton had said. "Why the devil couldn't Elaine have given it to my +children, too. I can't stand it--a home must be found for her +elsewhere." + +And soon after that, Halcyone had come with her own Priscilla to La +Sarthe Chase to her great-aunts Ginevra and Roberta, in their +tumble-down mansion which her father had not lived to inherit. Under +family arrangements, it was the two old ladies' property for their +lives. + +And now the problem of what James Anderton--or rather the second Mrs. +James Anderton--would do was the question of the moment. Would there be +a fresh governess or would they all be left in peace without one? Mrs. +James Anderton, Miss Roberta had said once, was a person who "did her +duty," as people often did "in her class"--"a most worthy woman, if not +quite a lady"--and she had striven to do her best by James Anderton's +children--even his stepchild Halcyone. + +Miss La Sarthe promised to write that night before she went to bed--but +Halcyone knew it was a long process with her and that an answer could +not be expected for at least a week. Therefore there was no good +agitating herself too soon about the result. It was one of her +principles never to worry over unnecessary things. Life was full of +blessed certainties to enjoy without spoiling them by speculating over +possible unpleasantnesses. + +The old gentleman--Cheiron--and old William and the timid curate who +came to dine on Saturday nights once a month were about the only male +creatures Halcyone had ever spoken to within her recollection--their +rector was a confirmed invalid and lived abroad--but Priscilla had a +supreme contempt for them as a sex. + +"One and all set on themselves, my lamb," she said; "even your own +beautiful father had to be bowed down to and worshiped. We put up with +it in him, of course; but I never did see one that didn't think of +himself first. It is their selfishness that causes all the sorrow of the +world to women. We needn't have lost your angel mother but for Mr. +Anderton's selfishness--a kind, hard, rough man--but as selfish as a +gentleman." + +It seemed a more excusable defect to Priscilla in the upper class, but +had no redeeming touch in the status of Mr. Anderton. + +Halcyone, however, had a logical mind and reasoned with her nurse: + +"If they are _all_ selfish, Priscilla, it must be either women's fault +for letting them be, or God intended them to be so. A thing can't be +_all_ unless the big force makes it." + +This "big force"--this "God" was a real personality to Halcyone. She +could not bear it when in church she heard the meanest acts of revenge +and petty wounded vanity attributed to Him. She argued it was because +the curate did not know. Having come from a town, he could not be +speaking of the same wonderful God she knew in the woods and fields--the +God so loving and tender in the springtime to the budding flowers, so +gorgeous in the summer and autumn and so pure and cold in the winter. +With all that to attend to He could not possibly stoop to punish +ignorant people and harbor anger and wrath against them. He was the +sunlight and the moonlight and the starlight. He was the voice which +talked in the night and made her never lonely. + +And all the other things of nature and the universe were gods, +also--lesser ones obeying the supreme force and somehow fused with Him +in a whole, being part of a scheme which He had invented to complete the +felicity of the world He had created--not beings to be prayed to or +solicited for favors, but just gentle, glorious, sympathetic, invisible +friends. She was very much interested in Christ; He was certainly a part +of God, too--but she could not understand about His dying to save the +world, since the God she heard of in the church was still forever +punishing and torturing human beings, or only extending mercy after His +vanity had been flattered by offerings and sacrifices. + +"I expect," she said to herself, coming home one Sunday after one of Mr. +Miller's lengthy discourses upon God's vengeance, "when I am older and +able really to understand what is written in the Bible I shall find it +isn't that a bit, and it is either Mr. Miller can't see straight or he +has put the stops all in the wrong places and changed the sense. In any +case I shall not trouble now--the God who kept me from falling through +the hole in the loft yesterday by that ray of sunlight to show the +cracked board, is the one I am fond of." + +It was the simple and logical view of a case which always appealed to +her. + +"Halcyone" her parents had called her well--their bond of love--their +tangible proof of halcyon days. And always when Halcyone read her +"Heroes" she felt it was her beautiful father and mother who were the +real Halcyone and Ceyx, and she longed to see the blue summer sea and +the pleasant isles of Greece that she might find their floating nest and +see them sail away happily for ever over those gentle southern waves. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +Mr. Carlyon--for such was Cheiron's real name--knocked the ashes from +his long pipe next day at eleven o'clock in the morning, after his late +breakfast and began to arrange his books. His mind was away in a land of +classical lore; he had almost forgotten the sprite who had invaded his +solitude the previous afternoon, until he heard a tap at the window, and +saw her standing there--great, intelligent eyes aflame and rosy lips +apart. + +"May I come in, please?" her voice said. "I am afraid I am a little +early, but I had something so very interesting to tell you, I had to +come." + +He opened wide the window and let in the May sunshine. + +"The first of May and a May Queen," he told her presently, when they +were seated in their two chairs. "And now begin this interesting news." + +"Aunt Ginevra has promised to write to my step-father at once, and +suggest that no more governesses are sent to me. Won't it be perfectly +splendid if he agrees!" + +"I really don't know," said Cheiron. + +Halcyone's face fell. + +"You promised to teach me Greek," she said simply, "and I know from my +'Heroes' that is all that I need necessarily learn from anyone to +acquire the other things myself." + +This seemed to Mr. Carlyon a very conclusive answer--his bent of mind +found it logical. + +"Very well," he said. "When shall we begin?" + +"Perhaps to-morrow. To-day if you have time I would like to take you for +a walk in the park--and show you some of the trees. The beeches are +coming out very early this year; they have the most exquisite green just +showing, and the chestnuts in some places have quite large leaves. It is +damp under foot, though--do you mind that?" + +"Not a bit," said Cheiron. + +And so they went, creeping through the hole in the paling like two +brigands on a marauding expedition. + +"There used to be deer when I first came five years ago," Halcyone said. +"I remember them quite well, and their sweet little fawns; but the next +winter was that horribly cold one, and there was no hay to be put out to +them--my Aunts La Sarthe are very poor--and some of them died, and in +the summer the Long Man came and talked and talked, and Aunt Roberta had +red eyes all the afternoon, as she always does when he comes, and Aunt +Ginevra pretended hers were a cold in her head--and the week after a lot +of men arrived and drove all the tender, beautiful creatures into +corners, and took them away in carts with nets over them--the does--but +the bucks had pieces of wood because their horns would have torn the +nets." + +Her delicate lips quivered a moment, as though at a too painful +memory--then she smiled. + +"But one mother doe and her fawn got away--and I knew where they were +hiding, but I did not tell, of course--and now there are four of them, +or perhaps five. But they are very wild and keep in the copses, and fly +if they see anyone coming. They don't mind me, of course, but strangers. +The mother remembers that awful day, I expect." + +"No doubt," said Cheiron; "and who is the 'Long Man' you spoke of as +having instigated this outrage?" + +"He is the man of business, he was the bailiff once, but is a house +agent now in Applewood. And whenever he comes something has to go--we +all dread it. Last Michaelmas it was the Chippendale dining-room +chairs--" + +"I know him then--I bought my cottage from him. I suppose all this is +necessary, because he seemed an honest fellow." + +"Someone long ago made it necessary--it is not the Aunts' fault--" and +then Halcyone stopped abruptly and pointed to the beech avenue which +they were approaching now through the bracken, brown and crisp from last +year, with only here and there a green shoot showing. + +"Queen Mab and the elves live there in May and early June," she said. +"They dance every afternoon as the sun sets, and sometimes in the dawn, +too, and the early morning. You can see them if you keep quite still." + +"Naturally," said Cheiron. + +"Do you know, since last winter I have had a great pleasure," and +Halcyone's grave, intent eyes looked up into the old gentleman's face. +"There was a terrible storm in February--but can you really keep a +secret?"--and then, as he nodded his head seriously, she went on. "It +blew down a narrow piece of the paneling in the long gallery--it is next +to my room, you know--and I heard the noise in the night and lit a +candle and went to see. Some of the window panes are broken, so it is +very blustery there in storms. Well, there was a door behind it--a +secret door! I was so excited, but I could not keep the candle alight +and it was very cold. I saw nothing was broken--only the wind had +dislodged the spring. I was able to push it back and pull a little chest +against it, and wait till morning. And then what do you think I +found?--it led to a staircase in the thickness of the wall, which went +down and down until it came to a door right below the cellar--it took me +days of dodging Mademoiselle and Priscilla to carry down oil and things +to help me to open it--and then it came out in a hollow archway on the +second terrace, which has a stone bench in it, and is where old William +keeps his tools. It is so cleverly done you could never see it; it looks +just as if it was no door, but was only there for ornament. You may +fancy I never told anyone! It is my secret--and yours now--and it +enabled me to do what I have always longed to do--go out in the night!" + +"You go out in the night all alone!" exclaimed Cheiron, almost aghast. + +"But of course," said Halcyone. "You cannot think of the joy when there +is a moon and stars; and some of the night creatures are such +friends--they teach me wonderful things. Only the dreadful difficulty is +in avoiding Priscilla--she sleeps in the dressing-room next me. I love +her better than anyone else in the world, but she could never +understand--she would only worry about the wet feet and clothes being +spoilt. I always think it is so fortunate though, don't you, that +servants--even a dear like Priscilla--sleep so soundly. Aunt Ginevra +says they can't help it, every class has its peculiarity." + +Mr. Carlyon was extremely interested--he wanted to hear more of these +adventures. + +"How do you avoid Priscilla seeing your things in the morning then?" he +asked. + +"I have got a pair of big gutta-percha boots--they were my father's +waders once, and I found them, and have hidden them in one of the +chests, and I tuck everything into them--so there are no marks. It is +enchanting." + +"And do you often have these nocturnal outings, you odd little girl?" +Cheiron said, wonderingly. + +"Not very. I have to be so careful, you see--and I only choose moonlight +or starlight nights, and they are rare--but when the summer comes I hope +to enjoy many more of them." + +Then Mr. Carlyon's old eyes looked away into distance and seemed to +see a slender shape wrapped in a spotted fawn's skin, its head crowned +with leaves, joining the throng of those other early worshipers of +Dionysus as they beat their weird music among the dark crags of +Parnassus--searching for communion with the spiritual beyond in the only +way they knew of then to reach it, through a wild ecstasy of emotion. +Here was the same impulse, unconscious, instinctive. The probing of +nature to discover her secrets. Here was a female thing with a soul +unafraid in her pure innocence, alone in the night. + +Halcyone did not interrupt his meditations, and presently they came to +the broken gate close to the house. + +Cheiron paused and leaned on the top bar. + +"Is this the elves' home?" he asked. + +"Yes," she answered gravely. "But so late in the day you cannot see +them. You must wait again until the sun is setting; and I expect when it +is warm they come in the moonlight, too, but I have not been able to get +a fine enough night--as yet. This avenue is the most beautiful of all, +because a hundred years ago the La Sarthes had a quarrel with the +Wendovers, whose land just touches at the end of it, and they closed the +gate, and so the turf has covered the gravel. And look at the tree--you +can see the fairy ring where they dance, and I always fancy they sup +under the one with the very low branch at the side--but I don't believe +I should like 'marrow of mice,' should you?" + +"Not at all," said Cheiron. + +Then they wandered on. Halcyone led him to each of the favorite points +of view, and he became acquainted with the great serpent, and so vivid +was her picturing that he almost fancied he saw the Golden Fleece, +nailed to the tree beyond, and heard Orpheus' exquisite melodies +charming the reptile to sleep while Jason stepped over his slumbering +coils. + +"But I do not have Medea here," she said; "I play her part myself, and I +make her different. She was too cunning and had wicked thoughts in her +heart, and so the poor Heroes suffered. If she had been good and true +and had not killed Absyrtus, things might have had a different ending. I +never like to think of Absyrtus in any case--because, do you know, I +once hated my baby brother, and would have been glad if anyone had +killed him." + +Her eyes became black as night with this awful recollection. "It was +very long ago, you understand--when I was quite a little girl before I +knew the wonderful things the wind and the flowers and the stars tell +me." + +Cheiron did not ask the cause of this hate; he reserved the question for +a future time, and encouraged her to tell him of her discoveries in +wonderland. + +Some trees had strange personalities, she said. You could never guess +the other side of their heads, until you knew them very well. But all +had good in them, and it was wisest never even to see the bad. + +"I always find if you are afraid of things they become real and hurt +you, but if you are sure they are kind and true they turn gentle and +love you. I am hardly ever afraid of anything now--only I do not like a +thunderstorm. It seems as if God were really angry then, and were not +considering sufficiently just whom He meant to hit." + +Justice to her appeared to hold chief place among the virtues. + +"Do you stay here all the year round?" asked Cheiron, presently, "or do +you sometimes have a trip to the seaside?" + +"I have never been away since I first came--I would love to see the +sea," and her eyes became dreary. "I can just remember long ago with my +mother, we went once--she and I alone--" then she turned to her old +companion and looked up in his face. + +"Had you a mother? Of course you had, but I mean one that you knew?" + +The late Mrs. Carlyon had not meant anything much to her son in her +lifetime, and was now a far-off memory of forty years ago, so Cheiron +answered truthfully upon the subject, and Halcyone looked grave. + +"When we have been friends for a long time I will tell you of my +beautiful mother--and I could let you share my memory of her +perhaps--but not to-day," she said. + +And then she was silent for a while as they walked on. But when they +were turning back towards the orchard house she suddenly began to laugh, +glancing at the old gentleman with eyes full of merriment. + +"It is funny," she said, "I don't even know your name! I would like to +call you Cheiron--but you have a real name, of course." + +"It is Arnold Carlyon, and I come from Cornwall," the old gentleman +said, "but you are welcome to call me Cheiron, if you like." + +Halcyone thanked him prettily. + +"I wish you had his body--don't you? How we could gallop about, could we +not? But I can imagine you have, easily. I always can see things I +imagine, and sometimes they become realities then." + +"Heaven forbid!" exclaimed Cheiron. "What would my four legs and my +hoofs do in the little orchard house, and how should I sit in my +armchair?" + +Halcyone pealed with merry laughter; her laughs came so rarely and were +like golden bells. The comic side of the picture enchanted her. + +"Of course it would only do if we lived in a cave, as the real Cheiron +did," she admitted. "I was silly, was not I?" + +"Yes," said Mr. Carlyon, "but I don't think I mind your being so--it is +nice to laugh." + +She slipped her thin little hand into his for a moment, and caught hold +of one of his fingers. + +"I am so glad you understand that," she said. "How good it is to laugh! +That is what the birds sing to me, it is no use ever to be sad, because +it draws evil and fear to yourself, and even in the winter one must know +there is always the beautiful spring soon coming. Don't you think God is +full of love for this world?" + +"I am sure he is." + +"The Aunts' God isn't a very kind person," she went on. "But I expect, +since you know about the Greeks, yours and mine are the same." + +"Probably," said Cheiron. + +Then, being assured on this point, Halcyone felt she could almost +entrust him with her greatest secret. + +"Do you know," she said, in the gravest voice, "I will tell you +something. I have a goddess, too. I found her in the secret staircase. +She is broken, even her nose a little, but she is supremely beautiful. +It is just her head I have got, and I pretend she is my mother +sometimes, really come back to me again. We have long talks. Some day I +will show her to you. I have to keep her hidden, because Aunt Ginevra +cannot bear rubbish about, and as she is broken she would want to have +her thrown away." + +"I shall be delighted to make her acquaintance. What do you call her?" + +"That is just it," said Halcyone. "When I first found her it seemed to +me I must call her Pallas Athené, because of that noble lady in +Perseus--but as I looked and looked I knew she was not that; it seems +she cannot be anything else but just Love--her eyes are so tender, she +has many moods, and they are not often the same--but no matter how she +looks you feel all the time just love, love, love--so I have not named +her yet. You remember when Orpheus took his lyre and sang after Cheiron +had finished his song--it was of Chaos and the making of the world, and +how all things had sprung from Love--who could not live alone in the +Abyss. So I know that is she--just Love." + +"Aphrodite," said Cheiron. + +"It is a pretty name. If that is what it means, I would call her that." + +"It will do," said Cheiron. + +"Aphrodite--Aphrodite," she repeated it over and over. "It must mean +kind and tender, and soft and sweet, and beautiful and glorious, and +making you think of noble things, and making you feel perfectly happy +and warmed and comforted and blessed. Is it all that?" + +"It could be--and more," said Cheiron. + +"Then I will name her so." + +After this there was a long silence. Mr. Carlyon would not interrupt +what was evidently a serious moment to his little friend. He waited, and +then presently he turned the channel of her thoughts by asking her if +she thought he might call on her Aunts that afternoon. + +Halcyone hesitated a second. + +"We hardly ever have visitors. Aunt Ginevra has always said one must not +receive what one cannot return, and they have no carriage or horses now, +so they never see anyone. Aunt Roberta would, but Aunt Ginevra does not +let her, and she often says in the last ten years they have quite +dropped out of everything. I do not know what that means altogether, +because I do not know what there was to drop out of. I have scarcely +ever been beyond the park, and there do not seem to be any big houses +for miles--do there?--except Wendover, but it is shut up; it has been +for twenty years." + +"Then you think the Misses La Sarthe might not receive me?" + +"You could try, of course. You have not a carriage. If you just walked +it would make it even. Shall I tell them you are coming? I had better, +perhaps." + +"Yes, this afternoon." + +And if Halcyone had known it, she was receiving an unheard-of +compliment! The hermit Carlyon--the old Oxford Professor of Greek, who +had come to this out-of-the-way corner because he had been assured by +the agent there would be no sort of society around him--now intended to +put on a tall hat and frock coat, and make a formal call on two maiden +ladies--all for the sake of a child of twelve years, with serious gray +eyes--and a soul! + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +In her heart of hearts Miss Roberta felt fluttered as she walked across +the empty hall to the Italian parlor behind her sterner sister, to +receive their guest. He would come in the afternoon, Halcyone had said. +That meant about three o'clock, and it behooved ladies expecting a +gentleman to be at ease at some pretty fancy work when he should be +announced. + +The village was two miles beyond the lime lodge gates, and for the last +eight years rheumatism in the knee had made the walk there out of the +question for poor Miss Roberta--so even the sight of a man and a +stranger was an unusual thing! She had not attempted conversation with +anyone but Mr. Miller, the curate, for over eleven years. The isolation +in which the inhabitants of La Sarthe Chase lived could not be more +complete. + +The Italian parlor had its own slightly pathetic _cachet_. The walls and +ceiling had been painted by rather a bad artist from Florence at the +beginning of the nineteenth century, but the furniture was good of its +kind--a strange dark orange lacquer and gilt--and here most of the +treasures which had not yet been disposed of for daily bread, were +hoarded in cabinets and quaint glass-topped show tables. There were a +number of other priceless things about the house, the value of which the +Long Man's artistic education was as yet too unfinished to appreciate. +And the greatest treasure of all, as we have seen, was probably only +understood by Halcyone--but more of that in its place. + +At present it concerns us to know that Miss La Sarthe and her sister had +reached the Italian parlor, and were seated in their respective +chairs--Miss Roberta with a piece of delicate embroidery in her hands, +the stitches of which her eyes--without spectacles, to receive +company--were too weak adequately to perceive. + +Miss La Sarthe did not condescend to any such subterfuges. She sat quite +still doing nothing, looking very much as she had looked for the last +forty years. Her harp stood on one side of the fireplace, and Miss +Roberta's guitar hung by a faded blue ribbon from a nail at the other. + +Presently old William announced: + +"Mr. Carlyon." + +And Cheiron, in his Sunday best, walked into the room. + +Halcyone was not present. If children were wanted they were sent for. It +was not seemly for them to be idling in the drawing-rooms. + +But Miss Roberta felt so pleasantly nervous, that she said timidly, +after they had all shaken hands: + +"Ginevra, can we not tell William to ask Halcyone to come down, perhaps +Mr. Carlyon might like to see her again." + +And William, who had not got far from the door, was recalled and sent on +the errand. + +"What a very beautiful view you have from here," Mr. Carlyon said, by +way of a beginning. "It is an ideal spot." + +"We are glad you like it," Miss La Sarthe replied, graciously; "as my +sister and I live quite retired from the world it suits us. We had much +gayety here in our youth, but now we like tranquillity." + +"It is, however, delightful to have a neighbor," Miss Roberta +exclaimed--and then blushed at her temerity. + +The elder lady frowned; Roberta had always been so sadly effusive, she +felt. Men ought not to be flattered so. + +Mr. Carlyon bowed, and the platitudes were continued, each felt he or +she must approach the subject of Halcyone's lessons, but waited for the +other to begin. + +Halcyone, herself, put an end to all awkwardness after she very gently +entered the room. There was no bounding or vaulting in the presence of +the aunts. + +"Is it not kind of Mr. Carlyon to wish to teach me Greek?" she said, +including both her relatives. "I expect he has told you about it +though." + +The Misses La Sarthe were properly surprised and interested. Most kind +they thought it and expressed their appreciation in their separate ways. +They both hoped their great-niece would be diligent, and prove a worthy +pupil. It was most fortunate for Halcyone, because her stepfather, Mr. +James Anderton, might decide at their request not to send another +governess, and, "No doubt it will be most useful to her," Miss La Sarthe +continued. "In these modern days so much learning seems to be expected +of people. When we were young, a little French and Italian were all that +was necessary." + +Then Mr. Carlyon made friends of them for life, by a happy inspiration. + +"I see you are both musicians," he said, pointing to the antiquated +musical instruments. "A taste of that sort is a constant pleasure." + +"We used to play a good deal at one time," admitted Miss La Sarthe, +without a too great show of gratification, "and my sister was quite +celebrated for her Italian songs." + +"Oh!" gasped Miss Roberta, blushing again. + +"I hope I may have the pleasure of hearing you together some day," said +the Professor, gallantly. + +Both ladies smilingly acquiesced, as they depreciated their powers. + +And just before their visitor got up to leave, Miss La Sarthe said with +her grand air: + +"We hope you find your cottage comfortable. It used to be the land +steward's, before we disposed of the property we no longer required. It +always used to have a very pretty garden, but no doubt it has rather +fallen into decay." + +"I shall do my best to repair it," Mr. Carlyon said, "but it will take +some time. I and my servant have already begun to clear the weeds away, +and a new gardener is coming next week." + +"Oh, may I help?" exclaimed Halcyone. "I love gardening, and can dig +quite well. I often help William." + +"Our old butler does many useful things for us," Miss Roberta explained, +with a slightly conscious air. + +And then the adieus were said, Halcyon's first lesson having been +arranged to begin on the morrow. + +When the visitor had gone and the door was shut: + +"A very worthy, cultivated gentleman, Roberta," Miss La Sarthe announced +to her sister. "We must ask him to dinner the next time Mr. Miller is +coming. We must show him some attention for his kindness to our +great-niece; he will understand and not allow it to flatter him too +much. You remember, Roberta, our Mamma always said unmarried women--of +any age--cannot be too careful of _les convenances_, but we might ask +him to dinner under the circumstances--don't you think so?" + +"Oh, I am sure--yes, sister--but I wish you would not talk so of our +age," Miss Roberta said, rather fretfully for her. "You were only +seventy-two last November, and I shall not be sixty-nine until +March--and if you remember, Aunt Agatha lived to ninety-one, and Aunt +Mildred to ninety-four! So we are not so very old as yet." + +"The more reason for us to be careful then," retorted the elder lady, +and Miss Roberta subsided with a sigh as she took her guitar from the +wall and began in her gentle old quavering voice to trill out one of her +many love-songs. + +The guitar had not been tuned for several days, and had run down into a +pitiful flatness; Halcyone could hardly sit still, it hurt her so--but +it was only when Miss Roberta had begun a second warble that either she +or Miss La Sarthe noticed the jar. Then a helpless look grew in the +songstress's faded eyes. + +"Halcyone, dear--I think you might tune the instrument for me," she +said. "I almost think the top string is not quite true, and you do it so +quickly." + +And grateful for the chance, the child soon had it perfectly accorded, +and the concert continued. + +Meanwhile Mr. Carlyon had got back to the orchard house, and had rung +for some of his black tea. He was musing deeply upon events. And at last +he sat at his writing-table and wrote a letter to his friend and former +pupil, John Derringham, in which he described his arrival at his new +home, and his outlook, and made a casual reference to the two maiden +ladies in these terms: + +"The park and house is still owned by two antediluvian spinsters of the +name of La Sarthe--exquisite specimens of Early Victorian gentility. +They are very poor and proud and narrow-minded, and they have a +great-niece living with them, the most remarkable little female +intelligence I have ever come across. My old habit of instruction is not +to be allowed to rest, for I am going to teach the creature Greek, as a +diversion. She seems to be about twelve years old, and has the makings +of a wonderful character. In the summer you had better come down and pay +me a visit, if you are not too busy with your potent mistress, your +political ambitions." + +But John Derringham did not respond to this casual invitation for many a +long day. He had other potent interests beside his political +ambitions--and in any case, never did anything unless he felt inclined. + +Mr. Carlyon did not expect him--he knew him very well. + +Thus the days passed and by the end of June even, Halcyone had learned +more than the Greek alphabet; and had listened to many charming stories +of that wonderful people. And the night was her friend, and numerous +hours were passed in the shadow of his dark wings, as she flitted like +some pale ghost about the park and the deserted, dilapidated garden. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +The July of that year was very warm with peculiarly still days, and +Halcyone and her master, Cheiron, spent most of their time during their +hours of study, under the apple tree. They had got to a stage of +complete understanding, and seemed to have fitted into each other's +lives as though they had always been together. + +Mr. Carlyon watched his little pupil from under the shadow of his +penthouse brows with the deep speculative interest she had aroused in +him from the first. He had theories upon several subjects, which she +seemed to be going to show the result of in practice--and in his kindly +cynic's heart she was now enshrined in a special niche. + +For Halcyone he was "Cheiron," her master, who had the enchanting +quality of being able to see the other side of her head. Every idea of +her soul seemed to be developing under this touch of sympathy and +understanding. Her heterogeneous knowledge culled from the teachings of +her many changing governesses, seemed to regulate itself into distinct +branches with an upward shoot for each, and Mr. Carlyon watched and +encouraged them all. + +It was on one glorious Saturday morning when the fairies and nymphs and +gods and goddesses were presumably asleep in the sunlight, that she drew +up her knees as she sat on the grass by her Professor's chair, and +pushing away the Greek grammar, said, with grave eyes fixed upon his +face: + +"Cheiron, to-day something tells me I can show you Aphrodite. When it is +cooler, about five o'clock, will you come with me to the second terrace? +There I will leave you and go and fetch her, and as William and +Priscilla will be at tea, I can open the secret door, and you shall see +where she lives--all in the dark!" + +Mr. Carlyon felt duly honored--for they had never referred to this +subject since she had first mentioned it. The Professor felt it was one +of deep religious solemnity to his little friend, and had waited until +she herself should feel he was worthy of her complete confidence. + +"She speaks to me more than ever," Halcyone continued. "I took her out +in the moonlight on Thursday night, and she seemed to look more lovely +than before. It has pleased her that I call her Aphrodite--it was +certainly her name." + +"It is settled, then," said Cheiron, "at five o'clock I will be upon the +terrace." + +Halcyone returned to her grammar, and silence obtained between them. +Then presently Mr. Carlyon spoke. + +"I am going to have a visitor for a week or perhaps more," he announced. + +A startled pair of eyes looked up at him. + +"That seems odd," Halcyone said. "I hope whoever it is will not be much +in our way. I do not think I am glad--are you?" + +"Yes, I am glad. It is someone for whom I have a great regard," and Mr. +Carlyon knocked the ashes from his long pipe. "It is a young man who +used to be at Oxford and to whom also I taught Greek." + +"Then he will know a great deal more than I do, being older," returned +Halcyone, not at all mollified by this information. + +"Yes, he knows rather more than you do as yet," the Professor allowed. +"Perhaps you will not like him; he can be quite disagreeable when he +wishes--and he may not like you." + +Halcyone's dark brows met. + +"If he is someone for whom you have a regard he must be of those who +count. I shall be angry then, if he dislikes me--is he coming soon?" + +"On Monday, by the four o'clock train." + +"Our lesson will be over--that is something. You will not want me on +Tuesday, I expect?" and a note of regret grew in her voice. + +"I thought you might have a holiday for a while, all pupils have +holidays in the summer," the Professor returned. + +"Very well," was all she said, and then was quiet for a time, thinking +the matter over. She wished to hear more of this visitor who was going +to interrupt their pleasant intercourse. + +"Of what sort is he?" she asked presently. "A hunter like Meleager--or +cunning like Theseus--or noble like Perseus, whom I love best of all?" + +"He is not very Greek to look at, I am afraid, except perhaps in his +length of limb," and the Professor smiled. "He is just a thin, lanky, +rather distinguished young Englishman and was considered to be the most +brilliant of my pupils, taking a Double First under my auspices and +leaving Oxford with flying colors when I retired myself a year or two +ago. He has been very lucky since, he is full of ambitions in the +political line, and he has a fearless and rather caustic wit." + +"I must think of him as Pericles, then, if he is occupied with the +state," said Halcyone. "But how has he been lucky since? I would like to +know--tell me, please, and I will try not to mind his being here." + +"Yes--try--" said Mr. Carlyon. "After he took his degree he studied law +and history, you know, as well as the Greek philosophy which you may +come to some day--he went to London to the Temple to read for the bar. +He never intended to be a practicing barrister, but everything is a +means to his career. Then his luck came--he has lots of friends and +relations in the great world and at one of their country houses he met +the Prime Minister, who took a tremendous fancy to him, and the thing +going well, the great man finally asked him to be his assistant private +secretary, which post he accepted. The chief private secretary last year +being made governor of a colony, John has now stepped into his shoes, +and presently he will go into Parliament. He is a brilliant fellow and +cares for no man--following only his own star. I shall be very glad to +see him again." + +Halcyone's face fell into a brown study and the Professor watching her +mused to himself. + +"John Derringham will find her in the way. She is not woman enough yet +to attract his eye; he will only perceive she is a rather plain +child--and she will certainly see the other side of his head." + +As Halcyone walked back to La Sarthe Chase for her early dinner, she +mused also: + +"I must not feel this dislike towards Cheiron's other pupil. After all, +Jason could not have the master alone--and if I do feel it then he will +be able to harm me, should he dislike me, too--but if I try to like him, +then he will be powerless, and when he has gone he will not have left +any mark." + +Mr. Carlyon felt a perceptible glow of interest as he waited at five +o'clock that day upon the dilapidated stone bench in the archway where +old William kept his garden tools, and while the subdued light gave him +very little chance of studying minutely the walls, the general aspect +certainly presented no hint of any door. However, he had not to wait or +speculate long, for, with hardly a creak, two stones seemed to turn upon +a pivot, and Halcyone came forth from the aperture bending her head. + +"After all, I do not think you had better come in with me," she said. +"It is low like this for ten yards; it will make your back ache--so I +have brought her. If you will hold her, I will run out and see if all is +safe; and then we can carry her to the summer house and take off her +scarf." + +Cheiron held out his arms to receive the precious bundle; and he could +feel by its weight it was a marble head. It was enveloped in the +voluminous folds of the remains of an old blue silk curtain, a relic of +other days, when rich stuffs hung before the windows of La Sarthe Chase. + +"I took the covering from the Spanish Chest in the long gallery," +Halcyone announced. "I had played with it for years, and the color suits +her--it must be the same as are her real eyes." + +Then she darted out into the sunlight and returned again in a few +moments--with shining face. All was safe and the momentous hour had +come. + +She took her goddess from Mr. Carlyon's arms, and walking with the +dignity of a priestess of the Temple, she preceded her master along the +tangled path. + +A riot of things growing impeded each step. Roses which had degenerated +into little better than wild ones, showed late red and pink blooms, +honeysuckle and columbines flowered, and foxgloves raised their graceful +heads. + +At the end there was a broken bower at the corner of the terrace, with a +superb view over the park and far beyond to the high blue hills. + +This place was cleared, for Halcyone had done the necessary work +herself. It was one of her outlooks upon the world and she had even +carefully mended the cracked bench with a bit of board and a nail or +two. The table, which was of stone, still stood firmly and was quaint +and rather Greek in shape--for had not a later Timothy La Sarthe brought +it from Paris in the Empire days? + +Mr. Carlyon sat down and prepared himself for the solemn moment when the +Goddess should be unveiled. + +And when the reverent little priestess had removed the folds from the +face as it lay upon the table, he started and held his breath, for he +instantly realized that indeed this was the work of some glorious old +Greek sculptor; none other could have created that perfect head. + +And as he looked, the child slipped her hand into his and whispered +softly: + +"Watch her eyes; she is tender to-day and welcomes us. I was not quite +sure how she would receive you." + +And lo! it seemed to Mr. Carlyon as though the divine orbs softened into +a smile, such was the art of those old Greeks, who marred not the marble +with pupil or iris, who stooped to no trick of simulation, but left the +perfect modeling to speak for itself. + +The eyes of this Aphrodite conveyed volumes of love, with her nobly +planned brows and temples and her softly smooth cheeks. The slight break +of the nose even did not seem to spoil the perfect beauty of the whole. +Her mouth, tender and rather full, seemed to smile a welcome, and the +patine, unspoiled by any casts having ever been taken, gleamed as the +finest of skin. It was in a wonderful state of preservation and not +darkened to more than a soft cream color. + +So there she lay at last! Goddess of Love still for all time. The head +was broken off at the base of the slender, rounded throat. + +Halcyone perceived that Cheiron was appreciating her treasure in a +proper spirit and spoke not a word while he examined it minutely, +turning it in all lights. + +"What consummate genius!" he almost whispered at last. "You have truly a +goddess here, child, and you do well to guard her as such,--Aphrodite +you have named her well." + +"I am glad now that I have shown her to you--at first I was a little +afraid--but you understand. And now you can feel how I have my mother +always with me. She tells me to hope, and that all mean things are of no +importance, and that God intends us all to be as happy as is her +beautiful smile." + +Then Mr. Carlyon asked again for the story of the Goddess's discovery, +and heard all the details of how there was a ray of light in the dark +passage, coming from some cleverly contrived crack on the first terrace. +Here Halcyone's foot had struck against the marble upon her original +voyage of discovery, and by the other objects she encountered she +supposed someone long ago, being in flight, had gradually dropped things +which were heavy and of least value. There was a breastplate as well, +and an iron-bound box which she had never been able to move or open. + +"You might help me and we could look into it some day," she said. + +Mr. Carlyon took Aphrodite into his hands and raised her head, examining +every point with minute care, and now her expression appeared to change +and grow sad in the different effect of light. + +"I do not want her to be up upon a pillar like Artemis and Hebe, who are +still in the hall," Halcyone said. "She could not talk to me then, she +would be always the same. I like to hold her this way and that, and then +I can see her moods and the blue silks keeps her nice and warm." + +"It is a great possession," said Cheiron, "and I understand your joy in +it," and he handed the head back to the child with respect. + +Halcyone bent and caressed it with her soft little velvet cheek. + +"See," she said. "Once I was very foolish and cried about something and +the tears made this little mark," and she pointed to two small spots +which did not gleam quite so much as the rest of the surface. "Tears +always do silly things--I am never so foolish now." And then her young +voice became dreamy and her eyes widened with a look as though she saw +far beyond. + +"Cheiron--all the world is made for gladness if we only do not take the +ugly things with us everywhere. There is summer, as it is now, when we +rest and play and all the gods come down from Olympus and dance and sing +and bask in the light--and then the autumn when the colors are rich and +everything prepares for winter and sleeps. But even in the cold and dark +we must not be sad, because we know it is only for a time and to give us +change, so that we may shout for joy when the spring comes and each year +discover in it some new beauty." + +Cheiron did not speak for a while, he, too, was musing. + +"You are a little Epicurean," he said at last, "and presently we shall +read about Epicurus' great principles and his garden where he taught and +lived." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +John Derringham had been at the orchard house for three or four days +before there was any sign of Halcyone. She had kept away on purpose and +was doing her best to repress the sense of resentment the thought of the +presence of a stranger caused. Mr. Carlyon had given her some simple +books upon the Renaissance which she was devouring with joy. This period +seemed to give some echo of the Greek ideas she loved, and as was her +habit she was visualizing everything as she read, bringing the people +and the places up before her mental eyes, and regulating them into +friends or acquaintances. Cheiron did not confine himself to teaching +her Greek alone, but directed all her reading, taking a growing delight +in her intelligent mind. Thus they had many talks upon history and the +natural sciences and poetry and painting. But to hear of the famous +statues and learn from pictures to know the styles of the old sculptors +seemed to please her best of all. + +By the fifth day, a Friday, Mr. Carlyon began to feel a desire to see +his little pupil again and sent her a message by his dark, silent +servant. Would she not take tea with him that afternoon? So Halcyone +came. She was very quiet and subdued and crept through her gap in the +hedge without any leaps or bounds. + +John Derringham was stretched the whole length of his long, lean limbs +under the apple tree--her apple tree! This did not produce a favorable +note. + +Cheiron watched the meeting with inward amusement. + +"This is my little friend Halcyone La Sarthe," he said. "Halcyone, +yonder Tityus in these latter days is known by the name of John +Derringham--of Derringham in the County of Northampton. Make your bows +to one another." + +Halcyone inclined her head with dignity, but Mr. Derringham only raised +himself a little and said "Good afternoon." He did not care for +children, and was busy with his old master discussing other things. + +"You will pour out the tea, Halcyone, for us as usual," Cheiron said. +"Demetrius will bring it in a minute." And Halcyone sat down demurely +upon the basket chair near the table and crossed her hands. + +"I tell you I will not take their point of view," John Derringham said, +continuing the conversation he had been carrying on before Halcyone +arrived. "Everything in England is spoilt by this pandering to the +mediocrity. A man may not make a speech but he must choose his words so +that uneducated clods can grasp his meaning, he cannot advocate an idea +with success unless it can appeal to the lower middle classes. It is +this subservience to them which has brought us to where we are. No +ideals--no lofty ends--just a means to each one's own hand. I will never +pretend we are all equal, I will never appeal to anything but the +highest in an audience. So they can throw me out if they will!" And he +stretched out his long legs and clasped his hands under his head--so +that to Halcyone he seemed seven foot tall. + +"Tityus" she thought was a very apt name for him, and she wondered if he +would jump if the vulture suddenly gave a gnaw at his liver! + +"You are an idealist, John," said Mr. Carlyon. "All this might have been +of some use as a principle of propaganda before the franchise was so +low, but now the mediocrity is our master--so of what use? If you talked +so you would but preach to empty benches." + +"I will not do that--I will make them listen. My point is that everyone +can rise if he wishes, but until he has done so in fact, there is no use +in his pretending in words that he has. I would explain to them the +reason of things. I could have agreed with the greatest Athenian +democrats because their principle was one of sense. They had slaves to +do the lowest offices who had no voice in public affairs, but here we +let those who have no more education or comprehension than slaves have +the same power as men who have spent their lives in studying the matter. +It is all unjust, and no one has the courage to tell them to their faces +they are unfitted for the task." + +"It will be a grand stalking horse for your first essay in your +constituency," Cheiron said with his kindly twinkle of sarcasm. He loved +to encourage John Derringham to talk. + +But at that moment Demetrius brought the tea and Halcyone gravely began +her task. + +"Do you take it black like Mr. Carlyon?" she asked of the reclining +guest. + +He came back to the remembrance of her presence and glancing at her, +murmured: + +"Oh--ah, no--that is, yes--strong, only with cream and sugar. Thanks +awfully." + +But Halcyone did not rise to hand it to him, so he was obliged to get up +and take it from where she sat. She perceived then that though extremely +thin he was lithe and well-shaped. And in spite of her unconquered +prejudice, she was obliged to own she liked his steely gray hawk-like +eyes and his fine, rather ascetic, clean-shaven face. He did not look at +her specially. He may have taken in a small, pale visage and masses of +mouse-colored hair and slender legs--but nothing struck him particularly +except her feet. As his eyes dropped to the ground he caught sight of +them; they were singularly perfect feet. He admired points in man or +beast--and when he had returned to his old place stretched out under the +apple tree, he still glanced at them now and then; they satisfied his +eye. + +"What have you been doing in these days, Halcyone?" Mr. Carlyon asked. +"I have not seen you since Monday morning. Have you been getting into +any mischief?" + +Halcyone reluctantly admitted that she had not. There was, she +explained, very little chance of any of an agreeable kind coming her way +at La Sarthe Chase. She had been gardening with William--they had quite +tidied the top terrace--and she had been reading French with Aunt +Roberta, but the book was great nonsense. + +Then she added that she had brought an invitation from the Aunts La +Sarthe that Mr. Carlyon's guest should accompany him when he dined with +them on the Saturday. It had become the custom for him to partake of +this repast on the same occasions that Mr. Miller did--once a month. + +John Derringham frowned under his straw hat which he had pulled over his +eyes. He had not come into the country to be dragged out to bucolic +dinner parties. But upon some points he knew his old master was obdurate +and from his firm acceptance of the invitation this appeared to be one +of them. + +Then Halcyone asked politely if he would have a second cup of tea, but +he refused and again addressed Cheiron, ignoring her. Their conversation +now ran into philosophical questions, some of them out of her depth, but +much of the subject interested her deeply and she listened absorbed. + +At last there was a pause and her fresh young voice asked: + +"What, then, is the aim of philosophy--is it only words, or does it +bring any good?" + +And both men looked at her, staggered for a moment, and John Derringham +burst into a ringing laugh. + +"Upon my word, I don't know," he said. "It was invented so that the +Master here and I should pull each other's theories to pieces; that +evidently was its aim from the beginning of time. I do not know if it +has any other good." + +"Everything is so very simple," said Halcyone. "To have to argue about +it must be fatiguing." + +"You find things simple, do you?" asked John Derringham, now +complacently roused to look at her. "What are your rules of life then, +let us hear, oh, Oracle!--we listen with respect!" + +Halcyone reddened a little and a gleam grew in her wise eyes. She would +have refused to reply, but looking at her revered master, she saw that +he was awaiting her answer with an encouraging smile. So she thought a +second and then said calmly, measuring her words: "Things are what we +make them, they have no power in themselves; they are as inanimate as +this wood--" and she touched the table with her fine brown hand. "It is +we ourselves who give them activity. So it is our own faults if they are +bad--they could just as easily be good. Is not that simple enough?" + +"An example, please, Goddess," demanded John Derringham with a cynical +smile. + +"The dark is an example," she went on quietly. "People fill the dark +with their own frightening images and fear it because they themselves +have turned it into evil. The dark is as kind as the day." + +John Derringham laughed. He was amused at this precocious wisdom and he +suddenly remembered that his old master had mentioned some clever child +when writing to him first about the place, two months before. This was +the creature, then, who was learning Greek. She had picked up these +ideas, of course, out of some book and was showing off. Children should +be snubbed and kept in their places: + +"Then you don't cry when your nurse leaves you at night without a +candle. What a good little girl! But perhaps you take a doll to bed," he +added mockingly, "or suck your thumb." + +Halcyone did not answer, her eyes, benign as a goddess's, looked him +through and through--and Cheiron leaned back in his chair and puffed +volumes of smoke while he chuckled delightedly: + +"Take care, John--you will come off second best, for Halcyone can see +the other side of your head." + +For some unaccountable reason, John Derringham felt annoyed; but it was +too contemptible to be annoyed by a child, so he laughed as he answered +condescendingly: + +"There, I will not tease her. I expect she hates me already--" and he +pushed his hat back from his eyes. + +"No," said Halcyone. "One only hates a thing one fears; hate implies +fear. I hated my last but one governess for a while--because she told +lies and was mean and she had the power to keep me in. But once I +reasoned about it, I grew quite indifferent and she had no effect upon +me at all." + +"You have not had time to reason about me," returned John Derringham, +"but it is something that you don't hate me; I ought to feel pleased." + +"I do not know that there is occasion for that," Halcyone remarked, "it +is all a level thing which does not matter. You are Mr. Carlyon's guest +and I expect will be staying some time--" + +"So you will have to put up with me!" and John Derringham laughed, +furious now with himself for his increasing irritation. + +"I must be going," Halcyone then announced and got up from her +chair--"and I will tell my aunts that they may expect you to-morrow +night," she continued, addressing Mr. Carlyon. + +He rose and prepared to accompany her down the garden. She bowed to John +Derringham with quiet dignity as he still lay on the ground and walked +on by the side of her Professor without further words. + +"You don't like my old pupil, Halcyone?" Mr. Carlyon said when they got +to the gap in the hedge. "Tell me, what do you see at the other side of +his head?" + +"Himself," was all she answered as she bounded lightly away laughing, +and was soon lost to view in the copse beyond. + +And Cheiron, considerably amused, returned to his prostrate guest to +find him with a frown upon his face. + +"I hope to goodness, Master, you won't bore me with that brat while I am +here," he exclaimed, "chattering aphorisms like a parrot. I can't stand +children out of their place." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +"Since there will be three gentlemen, Ginevra," Miss Roberta said on +Saturday morning when they sat together in the Italian parlor after +breakfast, "do you not think we had better have Halcyone down to dinner +to-night? I know," she added timidly, "it is not in the proper order of +things, but we could make an exception." + +Miss La Sarthe frowned. Roberta so often was ready to upset regulations. +She was difficult to deal with. But this suggestion of hers had some +point. + +They would be two ladies to three of the other sex--and one of their +guests appeared to be quite a young man--perhaps it might be more +prudent to relax a rule, than to find themselves in an embarrassing +position. + +"I strongly deplore the fact of children ever being brought from their +seclusion except for dessert, but as you say, Roberta, three +gentlemen--and one a perfect stranger--might be too much for us. I +hardly think our Mamma would have approved of our giving such an +unchaperoned party, so for this once Halcyone had better come down. She +can have Mr. Miller for her partner, you will be conducted by the +Professor--and the new guest will take me in." + +Miss Roberta bridled--the Professor was now a hero in her eyes. + +"And Sister," she said, "I think we might bring six of the chairs from +Sir Timothy's bed- and dressing-room just for to-night, instead of those +Windsor ones. It would give the dining-room a better look, do you not +think so?" + +And to this also Miss La Sarthe agreed. So Miss Roberta joyfully found +Halcyone out upon the second terrace and imparted to her the good news. +They would arrange flowers in the épergne, she suggested--a few sweet +williams and mignonette and a foxglove or two. A pretty posy fixed in +sand, such as she remembered there always was in their gala days. +Halcyone was enchanted at the prospect. + +"Oh! dear Aunt Roberta, do let me do it all," she said. "You sit here on +the bench and I will run and fetch the épergne--and we can pick what we +think best. Or--don't you think just a big china bowl full of sweet peas +would be prettier? The sand might show and, and--the épergne is rather +stiff." + +But Miss Roberta looked aggrieved. The épergne with its gold and silver +fern leaves climbing up a thin stalk of glass to its top dish for fruit +had always come out for dinner parties and she liked not innovations. It +was indeed as much as Halcyone could do to get all the flowers of the +same kind, a nasturtium and a magenta stock had with care to be smuggled +away, leaving the sweet peas sole occupants of the sand. But the effect +was very festive and the two carried their work into the dining-room +well pleased. + +The best Sèvres dinner-set was had out, which that traveler Timothy had +brought from Paris among other things, and the best cut glass and +rat-tailed silver. Old William, assisted by Hester and Priscilla, had +been busy polishing most of the day--while the cook and the "young +person from the village" were contriving wonders in the vast kitchen. +And punctually at seven in broad daylight, the three Misses La Sarthe, +the two elder in their finest mauve silk evening dresses, awaited their +guests in the Italian parlor. + +Miss Roberta's heart had not fluttered like this since a county ball +some forty years ago when a certain whiskered captain of a dashing +cavalry regiment stationed at Upminster had whispered in her ear. + +Priscilla had let down Halcyone's white muslin frock and as the tucks +were rather large, it was longer than she intended, so that the child +might easily have been taken for a girl of fifteen, and her perfect feet +were encased in a pair of old-fashioned bronze slippers with elastics +crossed up the legs of her white silk stockings. A fillet of blue silk +kept back the soft cloud of her mouse-colored hair. + +Mr. Miller was announced first--very nervous, as usual, and saying the +wrong thing in his flurry. Then up the terrace steps could be seen +advancing Mr. Carlyon and his guest. They had walked over from the +cottage--and Halcyone, observing from the window, was conscious that +against her will she was admiring John Derringham's arrogant, commanding +walk. + +"He could very well be as Theseus was after he grew proud," she said to +herself. + +And soon they were announced. + +Mr. Carlyon was now on the most friendly terms with both old ladies, and +as well as coming to the monthly dinner, sometimes dropped in to tea on +Sunday afternoons, but he knew this was a real party and must be treated +as such. + +How agreeable it felt to be once more in the world, Miss Roberta +thought, and her faded pale cheeks flushed a delicate pink. + +John Derringham had been sulky as a bear at the idea of coming, but +something in the quaintly pathetic refinement of the poor and splendid +old house pleased him, and the aroma of untouched early-Victorian +prudish grace which the ancient ladies threw around them appealed to his +imagination, as any complete bit of art or nature always did. He found +himself seated between Miss La Sarthe and Halcyone and quite enjoying +himself. Everything was of the time from the épergne to the way the +bread was cut. + +Halcyone conversed with Mr. Miller, who always felt he must make nursery +jokes with her and ask her the names of her dolls. + +"He can't help it," she told Cheiron one day. "If he had any more +intelligence God would have put him to work in some busier place." + +John Derringham did not address her; he devoted himself to Miss La +Sarthe. + +He had absolutely no diffidence. He had been spoilt from his cradle, and +by the time he had left Eton--Captain of the Oppidans--had ruled all +those near him with a rod of iron, imposing his interesting enthusiastic +personality upon all companies with unqualified success. Miss La Sarthe +fell at once. He said exactly the right things to her and flattered her +by his unfeigned interest in all she spoke of. He was studying her as he +studied any rare memento of historical value. + +"My great-niece reads every morning with Mr. Carlyon," she said +presently. "Girls are expected to be so very clever nowadays, we are +told. She already knows a little Greek. It would have been considered +quite unnecessary in our day." + +"And I am sure it is in this," said John Derringham. "Learned women are +an awful bore. As a sex they were meant to be feminine, dainty, +exquisite creatures as those I see to-night," and he bowed gallantly +while Miss La Sarthe thrilled. She thoroughly approved of his +appearance. + +"So very much of a gentleman, Roberta," she afterwards said. "None of +that thick, ill-cut look we are obliged to observe in so many of the +younger people we see when we go into Upminster each year." + +"And why should he look thick or ill-cut, Sister?" Miss Roberta replied. +"Mr. Carlyon told me the Derringhams have been seated at Derringham +since fabulous times." + +Thus this last of that race was appreciated fully in at least two +antiquated female hearts. + +But meanwhile the cloth was being removed, and the port wine and old +Madeira placed before the elder hostess. + +"Our father's cellar was famous for its port," she said, "and we have a +few bottles of the '47 left." + +But now she felt it was only manners to turn to Mr. Carlyon upon her +other hand, so John Derringham was left in silence, no obligation to +talk to Halcyone making itself felt. She turned and looked at him, he +interested her very much. Mr. Carlyon had quantities of books of +photographs of all the famous statues in Europe and especially in Italy +and Greece, but she could not find any likeness to him in any of her +recollection of them. Alas! his face was not at all Greek. His nose was +high and aquiline, his forehead high and broad, and there was something +noble and dominating in his fearless regard. His hair even did not grow +very prettily, though it was thick and dark--and there was not an ounce +of superfluous flesh upon his whole person. He never for a moment +suggested repose, he gave the impression of vivid, nervous force and +action, a young knight going out to fight any impossible dragon with his +good sword and shield--unabashed by the smoke from its flaming nostrils, +undaunted by any fear of death. + +Halcyone watched him, and her prejudice slept. + +The silence had lasted quite five minutes when he allowed his natural +good manners, which he was quite aware he had kept in abeyance in regard +to her, to come uppermost. + +"The Professor has been telling me how wonderfully you work with him," +he said; "we under him at Oxford were not half so diligent it seems. I +wonder what good it will be to you at all." + +"If a thing gives pleasure, it is good," she answered gravely. "I wanted +to learn Greek because I had a book when I was little which told me +about those splendid heroes, and I thought I could read more about them +when I am grown up if I knew it--than if I did not." + +"There is something in that. What was the book?" he asked. + +Her steady eyes looked straight into his as she replied: "It was +Kingsley's 'Heroes' and if only I were a boy I would be like Perseus and +go and kill the Gorgon and rescue Andromeda from the sea monster. Pallas +Athené said some fine things to him--do you remember?--when she asked +him the question of which sort of man he would be." + +"No, I don't remember," said John Derringham. "You must tell me now." + +Then Halcyone began in a soft dream voice while her eyes widened and +darkened with that strange look as though she saw into another and +vaster world. "'I am Pallas Athené and I know the thoughts of all men's +hearts, and discern their manhood or their baseness. And from the souls +of clay I turn away; and they are blest, but not by me. They fatten at +ease like sheep in the pasture and eat what they did not sow, like oxen +in the stall. They grow and spread like the gourd along the ground, but +like the gourd they give no shade to the traveler and when they are ripe +death gathers them, and they go down unloved into hell, and their name +vanishes out of the land.'" + +She paused a second and John Derringham was astonished at himself +because he was conscious of experiencing a thrill of deep interest. + +"Yes?" he said--and her voice went on: + +"'But to the souls of fire I give more fire and to those who are manful +I give a might more than man's. These are the heroes, the sons of the +Immortals who are blest but not like the souls of clay, for I drive them +forth by strange paths, Perseus, that they may fight the Titans and +monsters, the enemies of gods and men. Through doubt and need and danger +and battle I drive them, and some of them are slain in the flower of +youth, no man knows when or where, and some of them win noble names and +a fair and green old age--but what will be their latter end, I know not, +and none, save Zeus, the father of gods and men--Tell me, now, Perseus, +which of these two sorts of men seem to you more blest?'" + +It was as if she asked him a personal question and unconsciously he +answered: + +"I should reply as Perseus did. Tell me his words." + +"'Better to die in the flower of youth on the chance of winning a noble +name than to live at ease like the sheep and die unloved and +unrenowned.'" + +He bent nearer to her and answered softly: "They are indeed fine words," +and there was no mockery whatever in his eyes as he looked at her--and +took in every detail of her pure childish face. "You wonderful, strange +little girl--soon I too am going like Perseus to fight the Gorgons, and +I shall remember this night and what you have said." + +But at that moment Mr. Miller's high, cackling laugh was heard in an +explosion of mirth. Mr. Carlyon had made some delightfully obvious joke +for his delectation and amidst a smiling company Miss La Sarthe rose +with dignity to leave the gentlemen alone with their wine. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +Next morning, John Derringham sat at a late breakfast with his whilom +master of Greek and discussed things in general over his bacon and tea. + +It was three years since he had left Oxford, and life held out many +interesting aspects for him. He was standing for the southern division +of his county in the following spring when the present member was going +to retire, and he was vehement in his views and clear as to the course +he meant to take. He was so eloquent in his discourse and so full of +that divine spark of enthusiasm, that he was always listened to, no +matter how unpalatably Tory the basic principles of his utterances were. +He never posed as anything but an aristocrat, and while he whimsically +admitted that in the present day to be one was an enormous disadvantage +for a man who wished to get on, he endeavored to palliate the misfortune +by lucid explanation of what the duties of such a status were, and of +the logical advantages which an appreciation of the truths of cause and +effect might bring to mankind. Down in his own country he was considered +the coming man. He thundered at the people and had facts and figures at +his finger tips. His sublime belief in himself never wavered and like +any inspired view, right or wrong, it had its strong effect. + +Mr. Carlyon thought highly of him, for a number of reasons. + +"If women do not make a stumbling-block for you, John, you will go far," +he said as he buttered his toast. + +"Women!" quoth John Derringham, and he laughed incredulously. "They +matter no more to me than the flowers in the garden--enchanting in the +summer time, a mere pleasure for sight and touch, but to make or mar a +man's life!--not even to be considered as factors in the scheme of +things." + +"I am glad to hear you say so," said Mr. Carlyon dryly. "And I hope that +jade, Fate, won't play you any tricks." + +John Derringham smiled. + +"I admit that a woman with money may be useful to me by and by," he +said, "because, as you know, I am always hard up, and presently when I +want to occupy a larger sphere I shall require money for my ends, but +for the time being they serve to divert me as a relaxation; that is +all." + +"You are contracting no ties, dear lad?" asked the Professor with one +eyebrow raised, while he shook back his silvery hair. "I had heard +vaguely about your attention to Lady Durrend, but I understand she has +had many preliminary canters and knows the ropes." + +John Derringham smiled. "Vivienne Durrend is a most charming woman," he +said. "She has taught me a number of things in the last two years. I am +grateful to her. Next season she is bringing a daughter out--and she has +a wonderful sense of the fitness of things." Then he sipped his tea and +got up and strolled towards the windows. + +"Besides," he continued, "I do not admit there are any ties to be +contracted. The Greeks understood the place of women; all this nonsense +of vows of fidelity and exaltation of sentiment in the home cramps a +man's ambitions. It is perfectly natural that he should take a wife if +his position calls for it, because the society in which we move has made +a figurehead of that kind necessary. But that a woman should expect a +man to be faithful to her, be she wife or mistress, is contrary to all +nature." + +"We have put nature out of the running now for a couple of thousand +years," Mr. Carlyon announced sententiously; "we have set up a standard +of impossibilities and worship hypocrisy and can no longer see any +truth. You have got to reckon with things as they are, not with what +nature meant them to be." + +"Then you think women are a force now which one must consider?" + +"I think they are as deadly as the deep sea--" and Mr. Carlyon's voice +was tense. "When they have only bodies they are dangerous enough, but +when--as many of the modern ones have--they combine a modicum of mind as +well, with all the cunning Satan originally endowed them with--then +happy is the man who escapes, even partially whole, from their claws." + +"Whew--" whistled John Derringham, "and what if they have souls? Not +that I personally admit that such a case exists--what then?" + +"When you meet a woman with a soul you will have met your match, John," +the Professor said, and opening his _Times_, which Demetrius had brought +in with the second post, he closed the conversation. + +John Derringham strolled into the garden. The place had been greatly +improved since Halcyone's first discovery of its new occupant. The +shutters were all a spruce green and the paths weeded and tidy, while +the borders were full of bedded-out plants and flowers. A famous +gardener from Upminster renowned through all the West had come over and +given his personal attention to the matter, and next year wonderful +herbaceous borders would spring up on all sides. Mr. Johnson's visits +and his council, though at first resented, had at length grown a source +of pure delight to Halcyone; she reveled in the blooms of the delicate +begonias and salvias and other blossoms which she had never seen before. +Mr. Carlyon, although desiring solitude, appreciated a beautiful and +cultivated one, and the orchard house was now becoming a very +comfortable bachelor's home. + +The day was much cooler than it had been of late. There was a fresh +breeze though the sun shone. John Derringham wandered down to the apple +tree and thence to the gap, and through it and on into the park. His +walk was for pleasure, and aimless as to destination, and presently he +sat down under a low-spreading oak and looked at the house--La Sarthe +Chase. A beautiful view of it could be obtained from there, and it +interested him--and from that his thoughts came to Halcyone and her +strange, quaint little personality, and he stretched himself out and +putting his hands under his head he looked up into the dense foliage of +the tree above him--and there his eyes met two grave, quiet ones peering +down from a mass of green, and he saw slender brown legs drawn up on a +broad branch, and a scrap of blue cotton frock. + +"Good morning," Halcyone said quite composedly, "don't make a noise, +please, or rustle--the mother doe is just coming out of the copse with +her new fawn." + +"How on earth did you get up there?" he asked, surprised. + +"I swung myself from the lower branch on the other side; it is quite +easy--would you like to come up, too? There is plenty of room--and then +we could be sure the doe would not see you and she might peep out again. +I do not wish to frighten her." + +John Derringham rose leisurely and went to the further side of the oak, +where sure enough there was a drooping branch and he was soon up beside +her, dangling his long limbs as he sat in a fork. + +"What an enchanting bower you have found," he said. "Away from all the +world." + +"No indeed, that cannot be at this time of the year," she answered. +"See, there is a squirrel far up in the top and there are birds, and +look--down there at the roots there is a rabbit hole with such a family +in it. It is only in the winter you can be alone--and not even then, for +you know there are the moles even if you cannot see them." + +"Creatures are interesting to watch, aren't they?" he said. "I have an +old place which I loved when I was a boy. It is let now because I am too +poor to live in it, but I used to like to prowl about in the early +mornings long ago." + +"We are all very poor," said Halcyone simply, "but I am sorry for you +that you have to let strangers be in your house--that must be dreadful." + +John Derringham smiled, and his face lost the _insouciante_ arrogance +which irritated his enemies so. His smile, rare enough, was singularly +sweet. + +"I don't think about it," he said. "It is best not to when anything is +disagreeable." + +"Cheiron and I often tell one another things like that." + +"Cheiron--who is Cheiron?" he asked. + +This seemed a superfluous question to Halcyone. + +"The Professor, of course. He is just like the picture in my 'Heroes,'" +she answered, "and I often pretend we are in the cave on Pelion. I +thought you would perhaps be like one of the others since you were his +pupil, too, but I cannot find which. You are not Heracles--because you +have none of those great muscles--or Æneas or Peleus. Are--are you Jason +himself, perhaps--" and her voice sounded glad with discovery. "We do +not know, he may not have had a Greek face." + +John Derringham laughed. "Jason who led the Argonauts to find the Golden +Fleece--it is a good omen. Would you help me to find the Golden Fleece +if you could?" + +"Yes, I would, if you were good and true--but the end of the story was +sad because Jason was not." + +"How must I be good and true then? I thought Jason was a straight enough +sort of a fellow and that it was Medea who brought all the +trouble--Medea, the woman." + +Halcyone's grave eyes never left his face. She saw the whimsical twinkle +in his but heeded it not. + +"He should not have had anything to do with Medea--that is where he was +wrong," she said, "but having given her his word, he should have kept +it." + +"Even though she was a witch?" Mr. Derringham asked. + +"It was still his word--don't you see? Her being a witch did not alter +his word. He did not give it because she was or was not a witch--but +because he himself wanted to at the time, I suppose; therefore, it was +binding." + +"A man should always keep his word, even to a woman, then?" and John +Derringham smiled finely. + +"Why not to a woman as well as a man?" Halcyone asked surprised. "You do +not see the point at all it seems. It is not to whom it is you give your +word--it is to you it matters that you keep it, because to break it +degrades yourself." + +"You reason well, fair nymph," he said gallantly; he was frankly amused. +"What may your age be? A thousand years more or less will not make any +difference!" + +"You may laugh at me if you like," said Halcyone, and she smiled; his +gayety was infectious, "but I am not so very young. I shall be thirteen +in October, the seventh of October." + +John Derringham appeared to be duly impressed with this antiquity, and +went on gravely: + +"So you and the Master discuss these knotty points of honor and +expediency together, do you, as a recreation from the Greek syntax? I +should like to hear you." + +"The Professor does not believe in men much," Halcyone said. "He says +they are all honorable to one another until they are tempted--and that +they are never honorable to a woman when another woman comes upon the +scene. But I do not know at all about such things, or what it means. For +me there is nothing towards other people; it only is towards yourself. +You must be honorable to yourself." + +And suddenly it seemed to John Derringham as if all the paltry shams of +the world fell together like a pack of cards, and as if he saw truth +shining naked for the first time at the bottom of the well of the +child's pure eyes. + +An extraordinary wave of emotion came over him, finely strung as he was, +and susceptible to all grades of feeling. He did not speak for a minute; +it was as if he had quaffed some elixir. A flame of noble fire seemed to +run in his veins, and his voice was changed and full of homage when at +last he addressed her. + +"Little Goddess of Truth," he said, "I would like to be with you always +that you might never let me forget this point of view. And you believe +it would have won for Jason in the end--if he had been true to himself? +Tell me--I want greatly to know." + +"But how could there be any doubt of that?" she asked surprised. "Good +only can bring good, and evil, evil." + +At this moment, out from the copse the soft head of a doe appeared, and +at the thrilling sight Halcyone slipped her hand into her companion's, +and held his tight lest he should move or rustle a leaf. + +"See," she whispered right in his ear. "She will cross to the other side +by the stream--and oh! there is the fawn! Is he not the dearest baby +angel you have ever seen--!" + +And the doe, feeling herself safe, trotted by, followed by a minute son +in pale drab velvet hardly a month old. + +The pair in the tree watched them breathlessly until they had entered +the copse again beyond the bend, and then Halcyone said: + +"That makes six--and perhaps there are more. Oh! how I hope the Long Man +will not see them!" + +John Derringham did not let go her hand at once; there was something +soft and pleasant in the touch of the cool little fingers. + +"I want to hear about everything," he said. "Tell me of the Long +Man--and the fawns, and why there are only six. I am having the happiest +morning I have had for years." + +So Halcyone began. She glossed a good deal over the facts she had told +Mr. Carlyon upon the subject because she did not feel she knew this +stranger well enough to let him into her aunts' private affairs--so she +turned the interest to the deer themselves, and they chatted on about +all sorts of animals and their ways, and John Derringham was entranced +and felt quite aggrieved when she said it was getting late and she must +go back to the house for her early dinner. He swung himself down from +the tree by the high branch with ease and stood ready to catch her, but +with a nimbleness he did not expect, she crept round to the lower side +and was landed upon the soft turf before he could reach her. + +Then he walked back with her to the broken gate, telling her about his +own old home the while, and then they paused to say good-by. + +Halcyone carried a twig of freshly sprouting oak which she had brought +from the tree, having broken it off in her lightning descent. + +"Give me one leaf and you keep the other," he said. "And then, whenever +I see it, I will try to remember that I must always be good and true." + +With grave earnestness she did as he asked, and then opened the gate. + +"I want to tell you," she said--and she looked down for a second, and +then up into his eyes from beyond the bars. "I did not like the thought +of your coming--and at first I did not like you--but now I see something +quite different at the other side of your head--Good-by." + +And before he could answer, she was off as the young fawn would have +been--a flitting shape among the trees. And John Derringham walked +slowly back to the orchard house, musing as he went. + +But when he got there a telegram from his Chief had arrived, recalling +him instantly to London. + +And he did not see Halcyone again for several years. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +The seasons came and went with peaceful regularity, unbroken by a +jarring note from the outside world. Mr. Anderton, being well assured by +the Misses La Sarthe that his stepdaughter was receiving a splendid +education, was only too glad to leave her in peace, and Mrs. Anderton +felt her duty achieved when at the beginning of each summer and winter +she sent a supply of what she considered suitable clothes. It took +Priscilla and Hester hours to alter them to Halcyone's slender shape. + +Mr. Carlyon was seldom absent from his house during this period, only +twice a year, when he spent a fortnight in London in June, and another +week in November with his brother, a squire of some note in the Cornish +world. Halcyone made green his old age with the exquisite quality of her +opening mind. And deep down in her heart there always dwelt the image of +John Derringham, and whatever new hero she read about, he unconsciously +assumed some of his features or mien. She passed through enthusiasms for +all periods, and for quite six months was under the complete spell of +the "Morte d'Arthur" and the adventures of the knights contained +therein. She read voraciously and systematically, but her first love for +all things Greek regained its hold and undoubtedly colored her whole +view of life. + +Her education was exotic and might have ruined a brain of lesser fiber. +But for her it seemed to bring forth all that was clear and fine and +polish it with a diamond luster. Twice a week alternately the French and +German master from the Applewood Grammar School came to her, and she +also learned to read music from the organist at the church, and then +played to herself with no technique but much taste. + +And of all her masters, Nature and the fearless study of her night moods +molded her soul the most. + +For the first few months after John Derringham's visit Mr. Carlyon often +spoke of him and read aloud bits of his letters, and Halcyone listened +with rapt attention, but she never embarked upon the subject +herself--and then the Professor had an accident to his knee which kept +him a prisoner for months. And somehow the interest of this seemed to +dwarf less present things, and as time went on, John Derringham grew to +be mentioned only by fits and starts, when his rapidly rising political +career called forth cynical grunts of admiration from his old master. +There had been a dissolution of Parliament and a short term of office +for the other side, and then at the General Election John Derringham's +Chief had come in again stronger than ever, and he himself had been made +Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. It was a tremendous rise +for one so young. He was at that time not more than twenty-nine years +old--but two years before this happened, when Halcyone was about +fifteen, he came again to the orchard house for a short Saturday to +Monday visit. + +From the moment that she knew he was coming a strange stillness seemed +to fall upon the child. She had grown long-legged and was at the +fledgling stage when even a pretty girl sometimes looks plain, and she, +who had as yet no claim to beauty, was at her worst. She was quite aware +of it, with her intense soul-worship of all beautiful things. Some +unreasoned impulse made her keep away from her master during the first +day, but on the Sunday he summoned her, and, as once before, she came +and poured out the tea, but it was a cold and windy autumn afternoon, +and it was not laid out of doors. John Derringham had been for a walk, +and came in while she sat in a shadowy corner behind the table, teapot +in hand. + +He was greatly changed, she thought, in the three years. He had grown a +beard! and looked considerably older, with his thin commanding figure +and arrogant head. He was not handsome now, but peculiarly +distinguished-looking. He could very well be Pericles, she decided at +once. As for him, he had almost forgotten her. Life had been so full of +many things; but, seeing a pale, slender, overgrown girl with +mouse-colored clouds of hair now confined in a demure pigtail, it came +to his mind that this must be the Professor's pupil again. Had she not +been called Hebe or Psyche--or Halcyone--some Greek name? And gradually +his former recollection of her came back, and of their morning in the +tree. + +"Why, how do you do," he said politely, and Halcyone bowed without +speaking. She felt much as Hans Andersen's Ugly Duckling used to feel, +and when John Derringham had said a few ordinary things about her having +grown out of all likeness, he turned to the Professor again, and almost +forgot her presence. + +His talk was most wonderful to listen to, she thought, his language was +so polished, and there was a courtesy added to the former vehemence. +They spoke of nothing but politics, which she did not understand, and +Cheiron chaffed him a good deal in his kindly cynical way. He was still +fighting his chimeras, it seemed, and fighting them successfully. As he +spoke, Halcyone, behind the teapot, thrilled with a kind of worship. To +be strong and young and manful, and to combat modern dragons, appeared +to her to be a god-like task. + +In the midst of a heated argument she rose to slip away. Her comings and +goings were so natural to the Professor that he was unaware that she was +leaving the room until John Derringham broke off in the middle of a +sentence, to rise and open the door for her. + +"Good-by," she said. "Aunt Roberta is not very well to-day, so I must +not be late. Good night, Cheiron"--and she went out and closed the door. + +"But it is quite dark!" exclaimed John Derringham. "Is there a servant +waiting? She can't go all alone!" + +The Professor leaned back in his chair. + +"Don't disturb yourself," he said. "Halcyone is accustomed to the +twilight. It is a strange night-creature--leave it alone." + +John Derringham sat down again. + +"She is not nearly so attractive-looking as she used to be. If I +remember, she was rather a weirdly pretty child." + +"Just a chrysalis now," grunted the professor between [**TR Note: was +betwen in original; typesetter's error.] puffs of smoke. "But there is +more true philosophy and profound knowledge of truth in that little head +than either you or I have got in ours, John." + +"You always thought the world of her, Master--you, with your +ineradicable contempt for women!" + +"She is not a woman--yet. She is an intelligence and a brain--and a +soul." + +"Oh, she has a soul, then!" and John Derringham smiled. "I remember once +you said when I should meet a woman with a soul I should meet my match! +I do not feel very alarmed." + +One of the Professor's penthouse brows raised itself about half an inch, +but he did not speak. + +"In which school have you taught her?" John Derringham asked--"you who +are so much of a cynic, Master. Does she study the ethics of Aristotle +with you here in this Lyceum, or do you reconstruct Plato's Academy? She +is no sophist, apparently, since you say she can see the truth." + +Mr. Carlyon looked into the fire. + +"She is almost an Epicurean, John, in all but the disbelief in the +immortality of the soul. She has evolved a theory of her own about that. +It partakes of Buddhism. After I have discussed metaphysical +propositions with her over which she will argue clearly, she will +suddenly cut the whole knot with a lightning flash, and you see the +naked truth, and words become meaningless, and discussion a jest." + +"All this, at fifteen!" John Derringham laughed antagonistically, and +then he suddenly remembered her words to himself upon honor in the tree +that summer morning three years ago, and he mused. + +Perhaps some heaven-taught beings were allowed to come to earth after +all, now and then as the centuries rolled on. + +"She knows Greek pretty well?" he asked. + +"Fairly, for the time she has learnt. She can read me bits of Lucian. +She would stumble over the tragedies. I read them to her." Then he +continued, as though it were a subject he loved, "She has a concrete +view upon every question; her critical faculty is marvelous. She never +lays down the law, but if you ask her, you have your answer in a +nutshell, the simplest truth, which it always appears to her so strange +that you have not seen all the time." + +"What is her parentage? Heredity plays so large a part in these things," +Mr. Derringham asked. + +"The result of a passionate love-match between distant cousins of that +fine old race, I believe. Timothy La Sarthe was at Oxford before your +day, but not under me--a brilliant, enchanting fellow, drowned while +yachting when my little friend was only a few months old." + +"And the mother?" + +"Married again to pay his debts, to a worthy stockbroker, almost +immediately, I believe. She paid the debt with herself and died after +having three children for him in a few years." + +"So your protégée lives with those cameos of the Victorian era we dined +with, and never sees the outside world?" + +"Never--from one year's end to another." + +"What a fate!" and John Derringham stretched out his arms. "Ye gods, +what a fate!" + +And again Cheiron smiled, raising his bushy left brow. + +Halcyone, meanwhile, was walking with firm certain steps across the +park, where the dusk had fallen. The turbulent Boreas blew in her face, +and she stopped and took off her soft cap and unplaited her hair so that +it flew out in a cloud as the wind rushed through it. This sensation was +a great pleasure to her, and when she came to a rising ground, a kind of +knoll where the view of the country was vast and superb, she paused +again and took in great deep breaths. She was drawing all the forces of +the air into her being and quivered presently with the joy of it. + +She could see as only those who are accustomed to the dark can. She was +aware of all the outlines of golden bracken at her feet and the head of +a buck peeping from the copse near. The sky was a passionate, +tempestuous mass of angry clouds scudding over the deep blue, where an +evening star could be seen peeping out. + +"Bring me your force and strength, that I may grow noble and beautiful, +dear wind," she said aloud. "I want to be near him when he comes again," +and then she ran and jumped the uneven places, while she hummed a +strange song. + +And Jeb Hart and Joseph Gubbs, the poachers, saw her, as she passed +within a yard of where they lay setting their snares, and Gubbs, who was +a good Catholic from Upminster, crossed himself as he muttered in his +friend's ear: + +"We'll get no swag to-night, Jeb. When she passes, blest if she don't +warn the beasts." + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +When Halcyone was nearly nineteen and had grown into a rare and radiant +maiden, the like of whom it would be difficult to find, an event +happened which was of the greatest excitement and importance to the +neighborhood. Wendover, which had been shut up for twenty years, was +reported to have been taken for a term by a very rich widow--or +_divorcée_--from America it was believed, and it was going to be +sumptuously done up and would be filled with guests. Mr. Miller took +pains to find out every detail from the Long Man at Applewood, and so +was full of information at his monthly repast with the old ladies. Mrs. +Vincent Cricklander was the new tenant's name. The Long Man had himself +taken her over the place when she first came down to look at it, and his +report was that she was the most beautiful lady he had ever seen, and +with an eye to business that could not be beaten. He held her in vast +respect. + +Then Mr. Miller coughed; he had now come to the point of his discourse +which made him nervous. + +For he had learned beyond the possibility of any doubt that Mrs. +Cricklander was, alas! not a lonely widow but had been divorced--only a +year or two ago. She had divorced her husband--not he her--he hastened +to add, and then coughed again and got very red. + +"When we were young," Miss La Sarthe remarked severely, "our Mamma would +never have allowed us to know any divorced person--and, indeed, our good +Queen Victoria would never have received one at her Court. We cannot +possibly call, Roberta." + +Poor Miss Roberta's face fell. She had been secretly much elated by the +thoughts of a neighbor, and to have all her hopes thus nipped in the bud +was painful. She had heard (from Hester again, it is to be feared!) that +Mrs. Cricklander's maid, who was a cousin of the baker in Applewood, and +who had originally instigated her discovery of Wendover, had said that +her lady knew all the greatest people in England--lords and duchesses by +the dozen, and even an archbishop! Surely that was respectable enough. + +But Miss La Sarthe, while again deploring the source of her sister's +information, was firm. Ideas might have changed, but _they_ had not. +Since the last time they had curtsied to the beloved late Queen, in +about 1879, she believed new rules had been made, but the La Sarthe had +nothing to do with such things! + +Halcyone caught Miss Roberta's piteous, subdued eye, and smiled a +tender, kind smile. With years her understanding of her ancient aunts +had grown. They were no longer rather contemptible, narrow-minded elders +in her eyes, but filled her with a pitiful and gentle respect. Their +courage under adversity, their firm self-control, and the force which +made them live up to their idea of the fitness of things, appealed to +her strongly. She had John Derringham's quality of detached +consideration, and appreciated her old relatives as exquisite relics of +the past, as well as her own kith and kin. + +"In America, divorce is not considered the heinous crime it was once in +England," Mr. Carlyon said. "Perhaps this lady may have been greatly +sinned against and deserves all our pity and regard." + +But Miss La Sarthe remained obdurate. The point was not as to who was in +the right, she explained, but that certain conventions, laid down by one +whose memory was revered, had been outraged, and she could never permit +her sister or Halcyone to have any intercourse with the tenant of +Wendover Park! + +The preparations for the new arrival went on apace all the autumn and +winter. Armies of workpeople were reported to be in possession, and +whole train-loads of splendid French furniture were known to have +arrived at Applewood, to augment the antique and time-worn pieces which +were Wendover's own. + +Miss Le Sarthe sent for the Long Man. Things had been rather better of +late, and no more precious belongings had been forced to be parted with. +An investment which had been valueless for years now began to produce +some interest which was a great comfort, for Miss La Sarthe was now +seventy-nine and Miss Roberta seventy-six. + +The orders that the agent received were precise. The gate between +Wendover and La Sarthe Chase which had been closed for over a hundred +years was to be boarded up, and their side of the haw-haw which for +nearly a mile divided the two parks was to be deepened and cleared out, +and the spikes mended in any places where the ground might have seemed +to have fallen in sufficiently, or the irons to have become broken +enough to make the passage easy. + +This would be unnecessary, Mr. Martin (the Long Man) told her. The +haw-haw was still as perfect as ever and a wonder of concealed traps for +the unwary, but the gate should be seen to at once. + +Thus La Sarthe Chase was armed fully against Wendover, when, about +Easter, Mrs. Cricklander decided she would come down and bring a few +friends. It was with a sudden violent beating of the heart that Halcyone +learned casually from Mr. Carlyon that John Derringham would be of their +number. + +The aunts took in the _Morning Post_, but until she was eighteen they +had rigorously forbidden Halcyone's perusal of it. Newspapers, except +one or two periodicals, were not fit for young ladies' reading until +they were grown up, they felt. However, their niece, having now come to +years of discretion, sometimes had the pleasure of reading John +Derringham's speeches and thrilled with joy over his felicitous daring +and caustic wit. The Government could not last much longer, but he at +least, as far as he could, would keep it full of vigor until the end. +She knew, therefore, that the last sitting before the Easter recess had +been a storm of words sharp as sword-thrusts--it was before the days of +the language of Billingsgate and the behavior of roughs. There were +quite a number of gentlemen still in the House of Commons, who often +behaved as such. + +Those wonderful forces which Halcyone culled from all nature, and +especially the night, gave her a serenity over the most moving events, +and when the sudden beating of her heart was over, she waited calmly for +the moment when she should see John Derringham again. + +Mr. Carlyon took in the _Graphic_ as well as his _Quarterly Review_ and +the _Nineteenth Century_, and it was her only medium for guessing even +what the outside world looked like, but from it she was quite aware that +a beard was a most unusual thing for a young modern man of the world, +and that John Derringham for that reason must always be distinguished +from his fellows. Carpenters and hedgers and ditchers wore them, and +nondescript young fellows she remembered seeing when she went into +Upminster with her aunts; but these excursions had been discontinued now +for the past five years, so the villagers of Sarthe-under-Crum and the +denizens of the rather larger Applewood were the only human beings she +ever saw. + +The party at Wendover were to arrive on the Thursday before Good +Friday--Priscilla had told her that--and it was just possible that some +of them might be in church. + +The aunts now drove a low basket shay which had been their pride in the +sixties, but which for countless years, until the investment began to +pay, they had been unable to keep a pair of ponies for. Now, however, +the shay was unearthed from the moldy coach-house and for the past year +two very old and quiet specimens of Shetland had been found for them by +Mr. Martin and they were able to drive to church every Sunday in state, +William sitting up behind, holding the reins between his mistresses, +while Miss La Sarthe flourished a small whip whose delicate handle was +studded with minute turquoises. From it dangled a ring which she could +slip on her finger over her one-buttoned slate-colored glove, and so +feel certain of not dropping this treasure. Halcyone always walked. + +On Good Friday there was not a sight of the Wendover party in church, +and Halcyone went back by the orchard house to look in at Cheiron, who +had had a cold in the last few days. + +Stretched in the armchair she found John Derringham. + +The brisk walk in the fresh spring air had brought some faint color to +her pale cheeks, her soft hair was wound about her head with becoming +simplicity, and she wore an ordinary suit which could not disguise her +beautiful slender limbs, so long and thin, a veritable Artemis in her +chaste perfection of balance and proportion. + +Halcyone could pass in any crowd and perhaps no one would ever notice +her and her mouse-like coloring, but once your eye was arrested, then, +like looking at some rare bit of delicate enamel, you began to perceive +undreamed-of graces which soothed the sight until you were filled with +the consciousness of an exquisite beauty as intangible as her other +charm--distinction. An infinite serenity was in her atmosphere, a +promise of all pure and tender things in her great soft eyes. The +mystery and freshness of the night seemed always to hang about her. Her +ways were noiseless--the most creaking door appeared to forget its +irritating habit when under her touch. Thus it was that John Derringham, +smoking a cigar, never even glanced up until a voice of extreme +cultivation and softness said gently: + +"Good morning. And how are you?" + +Then he bounded from his chair, startled a little, and held out his +hand. + +"My old friend, Miss Halcyone, the Priestess of Truth!" he exclaimed, +"as I am alive!" + +She smiled serenely while they shook hands, and sat down demurely by the +Professor's side. + +"I thought you would have been translated to Olympus long ago," the +visitor said. "Have you honored this ordinary earth and our friend +Cheiron's cave, ever since?" + +"Ever since!" + +"There can be nothing left for you to learn. Master, it is you and I +whom she could teach," he laughed. + +"How do you know all this?" asked Halcyone quietly, while her eyes +smiled at his raillery. "Do I look such an old-fashioned blue-stocking, +then?" + +"You look perfectly sweet," and John Derringham's expressive eyes +confirmed what he said. + +"Enough, enough, John. Halcyone is quite unaccustomed to gallants from +the world like you," the Professor growled. "If you pay her compliments +she won't believe you can really make a speech." + +So Mr. Derringham laughed and continued his interrupted conversation. He +seemed in good humor with all the world. He was going to stay at +Wendover for the whole of Easter week. Mrs. Cricklander had an amusing +party of luminaries of both sides--she was the most perfect hostess and +had a remarkable talent for collecting the right people. + +"She is quite the best-read woman I have ever met, Master," John +Derringham said. "You must let me bring her over here one day to see +you--you would delight in her wit and beauty. She does not leave you a +dull moment." + +"Yes, bring her," the Professor returned between the puffs at his long +pipe. "I have never met any of these new hothouse roses grafted upon +briar roots. I should like to study how the system has worked." + +"Quite admirably, as you will see. I do not know any Englishwomen who +are to compare to such Americans in brilliancy and fascination." + +Over Halcyone, in spite of her serenity, there crept a feeling of cold. +She did not then analyze why, and, as was her habit when anything began +to distress her, she looked out of the window, whether it were night or +day. She always did this, and when her eyes saw Nature in any of her +moods, calm returned to her. + +"She will simply revel in La Sarthe Chase when she sees it," Mr. +Derringham went on, now addressing Halcyone. "She is a past-mistress in +knowledge of the dates of things. You are going to have the most +delicious neighbor, Miss Halcyone, and in learning, a foeman worthy of +your steel." + +Cheiron was heard to chuckle wickedly, and when his former Oxford pupil +asked him with mild humor the reason of his inappropriate mirth, he +answered dryly: + +"She is never likely to see the inside of the park even. Queen Victoria +did not receive divorced persons, and the Misses La Sarthe, in +consequence, cannot either. You will have to bring her here by the road, +John!" + +Halcyone winced a little. She disliked this conversation; it was not as +_fine_ as she liked to think were the methods of both the men who were +carrying it on. + +John Derringham reddened up to his temples, where there were a few +streaks of gray in his dark hair which added to the distinction of his +finely cut, rather ascetic face. The short, well-trimmed beard was very +becoming, Halcyone thought, and gave him a look of great masculinity and +strength. His hawk's eyes were shadowed, as though he sat up very late +at night; which indeed he did. For John Derringham, at this period of +his life, burnt the candle at both ends and in the middle, too, if it +could add to the pleasure or benefit of his calculated career, mapped +out for himself by himself. + +A sensation almost of wrath rose in his breast at his old master's +words. These ignorant country people, to dare to criticise his +glittering golden pheasant, whom he was very nearly making up his mind +to take for a wife! This aspect of the case, that even these unimportant +old ladies could question the position of his choice, galled him. He had +spent up to the last penny of his diminished income in his years of +man's estate, and Derringham was mortgaged to its furthest acre--and a +gentleman must live--and with his brilliant political future expanding +before him, lack of means must not be allowed to stand in his way. He +would give this woman in gratified ambition as much or more than she +would give him in wealth, so it would be an equal bargain and benefit +them both. And, above all, he was more than half in love with her, and +could get quite a large share of pleasure out of the affair as well. He +had been too busy to trouble much over women as a sex since he had left +the University--except in the way he had once described to his old +master, regarding them as flowers in a garden--mere pleasures for sight +and touch, and experiencing ephemeral passions which left no mark. But +women either feared or adored him; and this woman, the desired of a host +of his friends, had singled him out for her especial favors. It had +amused him the whole of the last season; he had defied her efforts to +chain him to her chariot wheels, and in the winter she had gone to +Egypt, and had only just returned. But the charm was growing, and he +felt he would allow himself to be caught in her net. + +"Mrs. Cricklander would be very much amused could she hear this verdict +of the county," he said with a certain tone in his voice which did not +escape Halcyone. "In London we do not occupy ourselves with such +unimportant things--but I dare say she will get over it. And now I +really must be going back. May I walk with you through the park, Miss +Halcyone, if you are going, too? I am sure there must be an opening +somewhere, as the two places touch." + +"Yes, there is just one," Halcyone said. "The haw-haw runs the whole +way, and it is impossible to pass, except in the one spot, and I believe +no one knows of it but myself. There are a few bricks loose, and I used +to take them out and put them back when I wanted to get into +Wendover--long ago." + +"Then it will be an adventure; come," he said, and Halcyone rose. + +"Only if you will not give away my secret. Promise you will not tell +anyone else," she bargained. + +"Oh! I promise," and John Derringham jumped up--his movements were +always quick and decided and full of nervous force. "I will bring my +hostess to see you on Monday or Tuesday, Master," he announced, as he +said good-by. "And prepare yourself to fall at her feet like all the +rest of us--Merlin and Vivien, you know. It will be a just punishment +for your scathing remarks." + +When they were outside in the garden Halcyone spoke not a word. The beds +were a glory of spring bulbs, and every bud on the trees was bursting +with its promise of coming leaf. Glad, chirruping bird-notes called to +one another, and a couple of partridges ran across the lawn. + +John Derringham took in the lines of Halcyone's graceful person as she +walked ahead. She had that same dignity of movement from the hips which +the Niké of Samothrace seems to be advancing with as you come up the +steps of the Louvre. + +How tall she had grown! She must be at least five feet nine or ten. But +why would she not speak? + +He overawed her here in the daylight, and she felt silent and oppressed. + +"Whereabouts is our tree that we sat in when I was young and you were +old?" he asked, after they had got through the gap in the hedge. A +little gate had been put in the last years to keep out the increasing +herd of deer. + +"It is over there by the copse," she said shyly. "The lower branch fell +last winter, and it makes a delightful seat. One is not obliged to climb +into the tree now. See: Demetrius helped me to drag it close, and we +nailed on these two arms," and she pointed to a giant oak not far from +them, which John Derringham pretended to recognize. + +He tried his best to get her to talk to him, but some cloud of timid +aloofness on her part seemed to hang between them, and very soon below +the copse they came to the one vulnerable part in all the haw-haw's +length. She showed him how to take the bricks out and where to place his +feet, and pointed out how secluded from any eye the place was. Then, as +he climbed down and then up again, and looked across at her from +Wendover lands, she said a sedate good-by, and turning, went on among +the thickly growing saplings of the copse and, never looking back, was +soon out of sight. + +John Derringham watched her disappear with a strange feeling of ruffled +disquietude in his heart. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +It was so warm and charming an April day that Mrs. Cricklander and some +of her friends were out of doors before luncheon, walking up and down +the broad terrace walk that flanked Wendover's southern side. + +It was a Georgian house, spacious and comfortable, but not especially +beautiful. Mrs. Cricklander was a woman of enormous ability--she had a +perfect talent for discovering just the right people to work for her +pleasure and benefit, while being without a single inspiration herself. +If she engaged a professional adviser to furnish her house, and decorate +it, you could be sure he was of the best and that his services had been +measured and balanced beforehand, and that he had been generously paid +whatever he had obtained by bargaining for it, and that the agreement +was signed and every penny of the cost entered in a little book. It was +so with everything that touched her life. She had a definite idea of +what she wanted, although she did not always want the same thing for +long; but while she did, she went about getting it in a sensible, +practical way, secured it, paid for it,--and then often threw it away. + +She had felt she wanted Vincent Cricklander because he belonged to one +of the old families in New York and played polo well, and, being a great +heiress though of no pretensions to birth, she wished to have an +undisputed entry into the inner circle of her own country. He fulfilled +her requirements for quite three years, and then she felt she was +"through" with America, and wanted fresh fields for her efforts. Paris +was too easy, Berlin doubtful, Vienna and Petersburg impossible to +conquer, but London would hold out everything that she could wish for. +Only, it must be the very best of London, not the part of its society +that anyone can struggle and push and pay to get into, but the real +thing. She was "quite finished" with Vincent Cricklander, too, at this +period; to see him play polo no longer gave her any thrill. So one +morning at their lunch, on a rare occasion when they chanced to be +alone, she told him so, and asked him practically how much he would take +to let her divorce him. + +But Vincent Cricklander was a gentleman, and, what is more, an American +gentleman, which means of a chivalry towards women unknown in other +countries. + +"I do not want any of your money, Cis," he said. "I will be quite glad +to go, if it will make you happier. We'll phone T.V. Ryan this afternoon +and let him think out a scheme so that it can be done without a scandal +of any sort. My mother has old-fashioned ideas, and I would hate to pain +the poor dear lady." + +It took nearly two years, but the divorce was completed at last, and +Cecilia Cricklander found herself perfectly free and with all the keen +scent of the hunter for the chase dilating her fine nostrils as she +stood upon the deck of the great ocean liner bound for Liverpool. + +She was a very beautiful woman and refined in every point, with +exquisite feet and hands, pure, brilliant, fair coloring and a superb +figure, and even a fairly sweet voice. Her education had been a good +deal neglected because she was too spoilt by a doting father to profit +by the instruction he provided for her. She felt this keenly directly +she began to go out into the world, and immediately commenced to remedy +the defect. For her, from the very beginning, life appeared in the light +of a game. Fate was an adversary from whom she meant to win all the +stakes, and it behooved a clever woman not to overlook a single card +that might be of use to her in her play. She was quite aware of her own +limitations, and her own forces and advantages. She knew she was +beautiful and charming; she knew she was kind and generous and extremely +"cute," as her old father said. She knew that literature and art did not +interest her one atom in themselves, that most music bored her, and that +she had a rather imperfect memory; but during her brief visits to +England, when she was making up her mind that this country would be the +field for her next exertions, she had decided that to be beautiful and +charming was not just enough; there were numbers of other Americans who +were both, and they were all one as successful and sought after as the +other. She must be something beyond this--a real Queen. To beauty and +wealth and charm she must add culture as well. She must be able to talk +to the prime minister upon his pet foibles, she must be able to quote +erudite passages from all the cleverest books of the day to the +brilliant politicians and diplomats and men of polished brain who made +up the society over which she wished to rule. And how was this to be +done? She thought it all out, and during her two years of living quietly +to obtain her divorce without a breath of scandal, she had hit upon and +put into practice an admirable plan. + +She searched for and found a poor, very plain and highly cultivated +English gentlewoman, one who had been governess in a foreign Royal +family and was now trying to support an aged mother by giving private +lessons. Arabella Clinker was this treasure's name--Miss Arabella +Clinker, aged forty-two, and as ugly as it is possible for a thoroughly +nice woman to be. + +Mrs. Cricklander made no mysteries about what she required Miss +Clinker's companionship for. She explained minutely that should any +special dinner-party or _rencontre_ with any great person be in view, +Miss Clinker must do a sort of preparatory cramming for her, as boys are +prepared for examinations. + +"You must make it your business, when I give you the names of the people +I am to meet, to post me up in what they are likely to talk about. You +must read all the papers in the morning with the political speeches in +them, and then give me a quick _résumé_; if it should be any diplomat or +great artist or one of those delightful Englishmen who knows everything, +then you must suggest some suitable authors to speak of that they will +like, and I have quite enough sense myself to turn the conversation off +any that I should not know about. In this way you will soon learn what I +require of you, and I shall learn a great deal and gradually can launch +out into much more difficult things." + +Arabella Clinker had a sense of humor, and she adored her mother and +wished to give her a comfortable old age. Mrs. Cricklander's terms for +this unique position were according to her accustomed liberality. + +"I like to give splendid prices for things, and then I expect them to be +splendidly done," she said. + +Miss Clinker had promised to do her best, and their partnership had +lasted for nearly three years with the most satisfactory results to both +of them. Their only difficulty was Mrs. Cricklander's defective memory. +She _could not_ learn anything by heart, and if she were at all tired +had to keep herself tremendously in hand to make no mistakes. But the +three years of constant trying had enabled her to talk upon most +subjects in a shibboleth of the world which imposed upon everyone. Her +real talent which called for the greatest admiration was the way in +which she manipulated what she knew, and skimmed a fresh subject. She +would do so with such admirable skill and wording as to give the +impression that she was acquainted with its profoundest depths; and then +when she was safely over the chasm the first moment she was free she +would rush to Arabella for the salient points, doggedly repeat them over +and over, and on the next occasion come out with them to the same +person, convincing him more than ever of her thorough knowledge of the +subject. But her memory was her misfortune, for if Miss Clinker +instructed her, for instance, in all the different peculiarities of the +styles of Keats and Shelley, a week after she would have forgotten which +was which--because both bored her to distraction--and she would have to +be reminded again. One awful moment came when, rhapsodizing upon the +sensibility of Keats' character, she said to Sir Tedbury Delvine, the +finest litterateur of his time, that there must have come moments during +Keats' latter years when he must have felt as his own "Prometheus +Unbound"! But, seeing her mistake immediately by her listener's blank +face, she regained her ground with a skill and a flow of words which +made Sir Tedbury Delvine doubt whether his own ears had heard aright. + +"Arabella," Mrs. Cricklander said when next morning she lay smoking in +her old-rose silk bed, while she went through her usual lessons for the +day, "you must give me just a point each about those wretched old two, +so that I will remember them again. I must have a sort of keynote. +Shelley's would do with that horrible statue of him drowned, at Oxford, +that would connect his chain--but what for Keats?" + +So at last Miss Clinker invented a plan, almost Pythagorean in its way, +and it proved very helpful to her patroness. + +When she went on light, amusing excursions to Egypt and such places, she +allowed Arabella to remain with her mother, and these were months of +pure happiness to Miss Clinker. + +It had not taken Mrs. Cricklander long to conquer London with her money, +and her looks, and her triumphant belief in herself. At the end of two +years, when John Derringham was first presented to her, she had almost +reached the summit of her ambitions. To become his wife she had decided +would place her there. For was he not certain to climb to the top of the +tree, as well as being the most brilliant and most sought after young +man in all England. Of love--the love that recks not of place or gain +but just gives its being to the loved one--to such emotion she was +happily a complete stranger. John Derringham attracted her greatly, and +until now had successfully evaded all her snares and had remained beyond +the thrall of her will. To have got him to come for this whole week of +Easter was a triumph and exulted her accordingly. She particularly +affected politicians, and her house in Grosvenor Square was a +meeting-place for both parties, provided the members of each were of the +most distinguished type. And there were not more than two or three +people out of all her acquaintances, besides Arabella, who smiled a +little over her brilliant culture. + +By all this it can be seen that Mrs. Cricklander was a wonderful +character--tenacious, indomitable, full of nerve and deserving of the +greatest respect in consequence. + +The only thing the least vulgar about her was her soul--if she had +one--and it is not the business of society to look into such things. +Scrutiny of the sort is left for creatures like the Professor, Cheiron, +who have nothing else to do--but his impressions upon this subject must +come in their proper place. + +Meanwhile, John Derringham had joined the party on the terrace, and was +joyously acclaimed, and then minutely questioned as to the cause of his +lengthy absence. He had not been to church--that was certain. He had not +been out of the park, because the lodges were not in the direction from +which he had been seen advancing. Where had he been, then? All alone? He +would not give any account of himself, as was his way, and presently his +hostess drew him on ahead and down the terrace steps. She wanted to +point out to him some improvements which she contemplated. The garden +must be the most beautiful in the country--and he knew so much about +gardens, he could tell her exactly which style would suit the house +best. + +John Derringham was in a bad temper. That unaccountable sense of a +discordant note with himself still stayed with him. He unconsciously, +during his walk, had dwelt upon the Professor's information as to the +view of the old ladies of The Chase, and then Halcyone's silence and +stiffness. He felt excluded from the place which he recollected he had +held in the child's regard. His memory had jumped the brief glimpse of +her during her fledgling period, and had gone back with distinct +vividness to the summer morning in the tree, almost seven years ago. + +He answered with a carelessness which was not altogether pleasing to +Cecilia Cricklander. She saw instantly that her favorite guest was +ruffled by something. Although never fine, she was quick at observing +all the moods of her pawns, and had brought the faculty of watching for +signs from castles, knights and kings to a science. John Derringham must +be humored and cajoled by a proof of her great understanding of him--he +must be left in silence for a minute, and then she would pause and look +over the balustrade, so that he might see her handsome profile and take +in the exquisite simplicity of her perfect dress. She knew these things +pleased him. She would look a little sad, too, and far away. + +It had its effect. + +"What are you dreaming about, fair châtelaine?" he asked after a while. +"Your charming mouth has its corners drooped." + +"I was wondering--" and then she stopped. + +"Yes?" asked John Derringham. "You were wondering what?" + +"I was wondering if one could ever get you to really take an interest in +anything but your politics, and your England's advancement? How good it +would be if one could interest you for a moment in anything else." + +He leaned upon the balustrade beside her. + +"You are talking nonsense," he said. "You know very well that you +interest me every time I see you--and it is growing upon me. That was +not the only thing revolving in your clever mind." + +"Yes, indeed," and she looked down. + +"Well, then, I am interested in your garden. What do you think of doing? +Tell me." + +She explained an elaborate plan, and quoted the names of famous +gardeners and their styles, with her accustomed erudition. For had not +Arabella got them up for her only that morning, as she smoked her +seventh cigarette in bed? She inclined to French things, and she thought +that this particular part--a mere rough bit of the park--could very well +be laid out as a _Petit Trianon_. She could procure copies of the plans +of Mique, and even have a _Temple d'Amour_. + +"I love to create," she said. "The place would not have amused me if +everything had been complete, and if you will help me I shall be so +grateful." + +"Of course I will," he said. "The _Temple d'Amour_ would look quite well +up upon that rising ground, and you could have a small winding lake dug +to complete the illusion. Nothing is impossible, and I suppose you can +get permission from the old Wendover who lives in Rome to do what you +wish?" + +"I should like to have been able to take the park of the next place, La +Sarthe Chase, too--that impassable haw-haw and the boarded-up gate +irritate me. The boards have been put since I came to look over +everything last autumn. I did instruct the agent, Martin, in Applewood +to offer a large price for it, but he assured me it would be quite +useless; it belongs, it appears, to the most ridiculous old ladies, who +are almost starving, but would rather die than be sensible." + +Suddenly John Derringham was conscious that his sympathies had shifted +to the Misses La Sarthe, and he could not imagine why. + +"You told me, I think," she went on, "that you knew this neighborhood. +Do you happen to be aware of any bait I could hold out to them?" + +"No, I do not," he said. "That sort of pride is foolish, if you like; +but there it is--part of an inheritance of the spirit which in the past +has made England great. They are wonderful old ladies. I dined with them +once long ago." + +"I must really go over and see them one day. Perhaps I could persuade +them to my view." + +The flicker of a smile came into the eyes of John Derringham, and she +noticed it at once. It angered her, and deepened the pretty pink in her +fresh cheeks. + +"You think they would not be pleased to see me?" she flashed. + +"They are ridiculously old-fashioned," he said. "Not your type at all." + +"But I love curiosities," she returned, smiling now. "I am not +absolutely set upon any type. All human beings are a delightful study. +If you know them, you must bring them to see me then some day." + +But at this John Derringham laughed outright. + +"If you could picture them, you would laugh, too," he said. "There is +someone, though, whom I do want you to know, who lives close here--my +old Oxford professor of Greek, Arnold Carlyon. He is a study who will +repay you. The most whimsical cynic, as well as one of the greatest +scholars I have ever come across in my life. I promised him to-day that +I would persuade you to let me take you to see him." + +"How enchanting," she replied with enthusiasm. "And we must make him +come here. When shall we go? To-morrow?" + +"No, I said Monday or Tuesday--with your permission," and he bent over +her with caressing homage. + +"Of course--when you will. That, then, is where you were this morning. +But how did you get back through the park?" she asked. "There is no +opening at that side whatever. It is all blocked by the wicked La Sarthe +Chase." + +"I came round the edge," he said, and felt annoyed--he hated lying--"and +then turned upwards. I wanted to see the boundaries." + +"I hate boundaries," she laughed. "I always want to overstep them." + +"There is the chance of being caught in snares." + +"Which adds to the excitement," and she allowed her radiant eyes to seek +his with a challenge. + +He was not slow to take it up. + +"Enchantress," he whispered softly, "it is you whose charm lays snares +for men. You have no fear of falling into them yourself." + +She rippled a low laugh of satisfaction. And, having tamed her lion, she +now suggested it was time to go in to luncheon. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +Arabella Clinker took Sunday afternoons generally to write a long letter +to her mother, and Good Friday seemed almost a Sunday, so she went up to +her room from force of habit. But first she looked up some facts in the +countless books of reference she kept always by her. Mrs. Cricklander +had skated over some very thin ice at luncheon upon a classical subject, +when talking to the distinguished Mr. Derringham, and she must be warned +and primed up before dinner. Arabella had herself averted a catastrophe +and dexterously turned the conversation in the nick of time. Mrs. +Cricklander had a peculiarly unclassical brain, and found learning +statistics about ancient philosophies and the names of mythological +personages the most difficult of all. Fortunately in these days, even +among the most polished, this special branch of cultivation was rather +old-fashioned, Miss Clinker reflected, but still, as Mr. Derringham +seemed determined to wander along this line (Arabella had unconsciously +appropriated some apt Americanisms during her three years of bondage), +she must be loyal and not allow her employer to commit any blunders. So +she got her facts crystallized, or "tabloided," as Mrs. Cricklander +would mentally have characterized the process, and then she began her +letter to her parent. Mrs. Clinker, an Irishwoman and the widow of a +learned Dean, understood a number of things, and was clear-headed and +humorous, for all her seventy years, and these passages in her +daughter's letter amused her. + + We are entertaining a number of distinguished visitors, and among + them Mr. John Derringham, the Under Secretary of State for Foreign + Affairs. He is a most interesting personality, as perfectly sure of + what he wants in life as is M. E. (M. E. stood for "My + Employer"--names were invidious). They would be a perfect match, each + as selfish as the other, I should say. He is really very cultivated, + and believes her to be so, too. She has not made a single mistake as + yet, but frightened me at luncheon a little. I must try and get her + to keep him off classical subjects. She intends to marry him--and + then she will not require me, I suppose; or rather, I do not think he + would permit her to keep me. If it came to a measure of wills, he + would win, I think--at first, at least--but she could wear away a + stone in the end, as you know. The arranging of this place is still + amusing her, so she may decide to spend a good deal of time here. She + closed her mouth with that firm snap this morning that I have + described to you often, and said that it was going to be her delight + to make them put themselves out and come so far away from London for + her. "Them," for the moment, are Mr. Derringham and Mr. + Hanbury-Green, almost a Socialist person, who is on the other + side--very brilliantly clever but with a Cockney accent in one or two + words. M. E. does not notice this, of course. Mr. H-G. is in love + with her--Mr. D. is not, but she is determined that he shall be. I do + not know if he intends to marry her. He is making up his mind, I + think, therefore I must be doubly careful not to allow her to commit + any mistakes, because if she did it would certainly estrange him, and + as to keep her free is so much to our advantage, I feel I must be + extra careful in doing my duty. + +Arabella was a person of scrupulous honor. + +She then proceeded to describe the party, and concluded with, + + There is one American girl I like very much--perfectly natural and + bubbling with spirits, saying aloud everything she thinks, really + well educated and taking so much outdoor exercise that she has not + yet begun to have the nervous attacks that are such a distressing + feature of so many of her countrywomen. I am told it is their + climate. M. E. says it is because the men out there have always let + them have their own way. I should think so much smoking has something + to do with it. + +John Derringham meanwhile had gone with his hostess and some of the rest +of the party, Mr. Hanbury-Green among them, to inspect the small golf +links Mrs. Cricklander was having constructed in the park. Her +country-house must be complete with suitable amusements. She had taken +all the Wendover shooting, too, and what she could get of Lord +Graceworth's beyond. "You cannot drag people into the wilds and then +bore them to death," she said. What she most enjoyed was to scintillate +to a company of two or three, and fascinate them all into a desire for a +_tête-à-tête_, and then, when with difficulty one had secured this +privilege, to be elusive and tantalize him to death. To passion she was +a complete stranger, and won all her games because with her great beauty +she was as cold as ice. + +She was not feeling perfectly content this Good Friday afternoon. +Something had happened since the evening before which had altered John +Derringham's point of view towards her. She felt it distinctly with her +senses, trained like an animal's, to scent the most subtle things in +connection with herself. It was impossible to seize, she could not +analyze it, but there it was; certainly there seemed to be some change. +He was brilliant, and had been even _empressé_ before lunch, but it +was not spontaneous, and she was not perfectly sure that it was not +assumed. It was his cleverness which attracted her. She could not see the +other side of his head--not that she would have understood what that +meant, if she had heard the phrase. + +But her habit was not to sit down under an adverse circumstance, but to +probe its source and eradicate it, or, at least, counteract it. Thus, +while she chattered eloquently to Sir Tedbury Delvine, her keen brain +was weighing things. John Derringham had certainly had a look of aroused +passion in his eyes when he had pressed her hand in a lingered good +night; he had even said some words of a more advanced insinuation as to +his intentions towards her than he had ever done before. They were never +exact--always some fugitive hint to which afterwards she would try to +fix some meaning as she reviewed their meetings. She had not seen him at +breakfast because she never came down in the morning until eleven or +twelve, and he had already gone out, she heard, when she did descend. + +It followed then that either he had received some disturbing letter by +the post--only one on Good Friday--or something had occurred during his +visit to his old master. It would be her business to find out which of +these two things it was. Could the Professor be married, and might there +be some woman in the family? Or was it nothing to do with the Professor +or with a letter, or was there a more present reason? Had Cora Lutworth +attracted him with her youth and high spirits? They were walking ahead +now, and she could hear his laugh and see how they were enjoying +themselves. + +She had been a perfect fool to ask Cora. She did not fear a single +Englishwoman, the powers of most of whom in her heart she despised--but +Cora was of her own race, and well equipped to rival her in a question +of marriage. Cora was only twenty-one, and she herself was thirty--and +there was the divorce which, although she had found it no bar to her +entrance into the most exclusive English society, still might perhaps +rankle unconsciously in the mind of a man mounting the political ladder, +and determined to secure the highest honors. + +She felt she hated Cora, and would have destroyed her with a look if she +had been able. + +Miss Lutworth, meanwhile, brimful of the joy of life and _insouciance_, +was amusing herself vastly. And John Derringham was experiencing that +sense of relaxation and irresponsible pleasure he got sometimes when he +was overworked from going to an excruciatingly funny Paris farce. Miss +Lutworth did not appeal to his brain at all, although she was quite +capable of doing so; she just made him feel gay and frolicsome with her +deliciously _rusé_ view of the world and life in general. He forgot his +ruffled temper of the morning, and by the time they had returned for +tea, was his brilliant self again, and quite ready to sit in a low chair +at his hostess's side, while she leaned back among the cushions of her +sofa, in her own sitting-room, whither she had enticed him during that +nondescript hour before dinner, when each person could do what he +pleased. + +"Is not Cora sweet?" she said, smoothing the brocade beneath her hand. +Her sitting-room had been arranged by the artist who had done the house, +as a perfect bower of Italian Sixteenth Century art. Mr. Jephson, the +artist, had assured her that this period would make a perfect background +for her fresh and rather voluptuous coloring; it had not become so +_banal_ as any of the French Louis'. And so Arabella had been instructed +to drum into her head the names of the geniuses of that time, and their +works, and she could now babble sweetly all about Giorgione, Paolo +Veronese and Titian's later works without making a single mistake. And +while the pictures bored her unspeakably, she took a deep pleasure in +her own cleverness about them, and delighted in tracing the influence +Paolo Veronese must have had upon Boucher, a hint from Arabella which +she had announced as an inspiration of her own. + +She had tea-gowns made to suit this period, and adopted the stately +movements which were evidently the attribute of that time. + +John Derringham thought her superb. If he had been really in love with +her, he might have seen through her--and not cared--just as if she had +not attracted him at all, he would certainly have taken her measure and +enjoyed laying pitfalls for her. But as it was, his will was always +trying to augment his inclination. He was too busy to analyze the real +meaning of any woman, and until the Professor's words about the divorce +and the Misses La Sarthe's view of the affair, it had never even struck +him that there could be one single aspect of Mrs. Cricklander's case +which he might have to blink at. He had told himself he had better marry +a rich woman, since his old maternal uncle, Joseph Scroope, had just +taken unto himself a young wife and might any day have an heir. And this +was his only other possible source of fortune. + +Mrs. Cricklander seemed the most advantageous bargain looming upon the +horizon. She was of proved entertaining capabilities. She had passed her +examination in the power of being a perfect hostess. She had undoubted +and expanding social talents. Women did not dislike her; she was very +vivid, very handsome, very rich. What more could a man who in his +innermost being had a supreme contempt for women, and a supreme belief +in himself, desire? + +He had even balanced the advantages of marrying a rich American girl, +one like Miss Lutworth, for example. But such beings were unproven, and +might develop nerves and fads, which were of no consequence in the +delightful creatures with whom he passed occasional leisure hours of +recreation, but which in a wife would be a singular disadvantage. Since +he must marry--and soon--before the present Parliament broke up and his +Government went out, and there came some years of fighting from the +Opposition benches, when especially brilliant entertaining might be of +advantage to him--he knew he had better make up his mind speedily, and +take this ripe and luscious peach, which appeared more than willing to +drop into his mouth. + +So, this late afternoon, aided by the scents and colors and propinquity, +he did his very best to make gradual love to her, and for some +unaccountable hideously annoying reason felt every moment more aloof. It +almost seemed at last as if he were guarding something of fine and free +that was being assailed. His dual self was fighting within his soul. + +Mrs. Cricklander was experiencing all the exciting emotions which +presumably the knights of old enjoyed when engaged in a tournament. She +was not even disturbed when the dressing-gong rang and she had not yet +won. It was only a postponement of one of the most entrancing games she +had ever played in her successful life. And Mr. Hanbury-Green was going +to sit upon her left hand at dinner and would afford new flint for her +steel. He was a recent acquisition, and of undoubted coming value. His +views were in reality nearer her heart politically than those of John +Derringham. Deep down in her being was a strong class hatred--undreamed +of, and which would have been vigorously denied. She remembered the +burning rage and the vows of vengeance which had convulsed her as a +girl, because the refined and gently bred women of her own New York's +inner circle would have none of her, and how it had been her glory to +trample upon as many of them as she could, when Vincent Cricklander had +placed her as head of his fine mansion in Fifty-ninth Street, having +moved from the old family home in Washington Square. And there, +underneath, was the feeling still for those of any country who, instinct +told her, had inherited from evolution something which none of her +money, and none of her talent, and none of her indomitable will, could +buy. But of course Mr. Hanbury-Green was not to be considered, except as +a foil for her wit--a pawn in the game for the securing of John +Derringham. + +Thus it was that she was able to walk in her stately way with trailing +velvets down the broad stairs of her newly acquired home with a sense of +exaltation and complacency which was unimpaired. + +John Derringham, on the contrary, was rather abrupt with his valet and +spoilt two white ties, and swore at himself because his old Eton hand +had lost its cunning. But finally he too went down the shallow steps, +and, joining his hostess at the door, sailed in with her to the George I +saloon, his fine eyes shining and his bearing more arrogant than before. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + +After dinner there was a brisk passage of arms between the two men of +opposite party in the group by the fire, and Mrs. Cricklander incited +them to further exertions. It had arisen because Mr. Derringham had +launched forth the abominable and preposterous theory that the only +thing the Radicals would bring England to would be the necessity of +returning to barbarism and importing slaves--then their schemes applied +to the present inhabitants of the country might all work. The denizens +in the casual wards, having a vote and a competence provided by the +State, would have time to become of the leisured classes and apply +themselves to culture, and so every free citizen being equal, a company +of philosophers and an aristocracy of intellect would arise and all +would be well! + +Mrs. Cricklander glanced stealthily at his whimsical face, to be sure +whether he were joking or no--and decided he probably was. But Mr. +Hanbury-Green, so irritated by the delightful hostess's evident +_penchant_ for his rival, allowed his ill-humor to obscure his usually +keen judgment, and took the matter up in serious earnest. + +"Your side would not import, but reduce us all--we who are the defenders +of the people--to being slaves," he said with some asperity. "Your class +has had its innings long enough, it would be the best thing in the world +for you to have to come down to doing your own housework." + +"I should make a capital cook," said John Derringham, with smiling eyes, +"but I should certainly refuse to cook for anyone but myself; and you, +Mr. Green, who may be an indifferent artist in that respect, would have +perhaps a bad dinner." + +"I never understand," interrupted Mrs. Cricklander--"when everything is +socialistic, shall we not be able to live in these nice houses?" + +"Of course not," said Mr. Hanbury-Green gravely. "You will have to share +with less fortunate people." And then he drew himself up ready for +battle, and began. + +"Why, because a man or woman is born in the gutter, should not he or she +be given by the State the same chance as though born in a palace? We are +all exactly the same human beings, only until now luck and circumstance +have been different for us." + +"I am all for everyone having the same chance," agreed John Derringham, +allowing the smile to stay in his eyes, "although I do not admit we are +all the same human beings, any more than the Derby winner is the same +horse as the plow horse or the cob. They can all draw some kind of +vehicle, but they cannot all win races--they have to excel, each in his +different line. Give everyone a chance, by all means, and then make him +come up for examination, and if found fit passed on for higher things, +and if unfit, passed _out_! It is your tendency to pamper the unfit +which I deplore. You have only one idea on your Radical Socialist side +of the House, to pull down those who are in any inherited or agreeable +authority--not because they are doing their work badly, but because you +would prefer their place! The war-cry of boons for the people covers a +multitude of objects, and is the most attractive cry for the masses to +hear all over the world. The real boon for the people would be to give +them more practical sound education and ruthlessly to clear out the +unfit." Then his face lost its whimsical expression and became +interested. + +"Let us imagine a Utopian state of republic. Let every male citizen who +has reached twenty-five years, say, pass his examination in the right to +live freely, regardless of class, and if he cannot do so, let him go +into the ranks of the slaves, because, turn it how you will, we must +have some beings to do the lowest offices in life. Who would willingly +clean the drains, fill the dust-carts--and, indeed, do the hundred and +one things that are simply disgusting, but which must be done?" + +Mr. Hanbury-Green had not a sufficiently strong answer ready, so +remained loftily silent, while John Derringham went on: + +"We obscure every issue nowadays by a sickly sentiment and this craze +for words to prove black is white in order to please the mediocrity. If +we could only look facts in the face we should see that the idea of +equality of all men is perfectly ridiculous. No ancient republic ever +worked, even the most purely democratic, like the Athenian, of the fifth +and fourth centuries B.C., without an unconsidered and unrepresented +population of slaves. You know your Aristotle, Mr. Green," he went on +blandly, "and you will remember his admirable remark about some men +being born masters and others born to obey, and that, if only Nature had +made the difference in their mental capacities as apparent to the eye as +is the difference in their bodies, everyone would recognize this at +once." + +His voice grew intense: the subject interested him. + +"You may say," he went on, "that Aristotle, Plato and Socrates accepted +the fact of slavery without protest because it was an institution from +time immemorial, and so the idea did not appear to them so repugnant. +But do you mean to tell me that such consummate geniuses, such unbiased +glorious brains would have glossed over any idea, or under-considered +any point in their schemes for the advancement of man? They accepted +slavery because they saw that it was the only possible way to make a +republic work, where all citizens might aspire to be equal." + +"You would advocate slavery then? Oh! Mr. Derringham, how dreadful of +you!" exclaimed Mrs. Cricklander, half playfully. + +"Not in the least," he returned, still allowing some feeling to stay in +his voice. "I would only have it recognized that there must be some +class in my ideal republic who will do the duties of the slaves of old. +I would have it so arranged that they should occupy this class only when +they had shown they were unfit for anything higher, and I would also +arrange it that the moment they appeared capable of rising out of it +there should be no bar to their doing so. It is the cry of our all being +equal because we have two arms and two legs and a head in common, not +counting any mental endowment, which is utter trash and hypocrisy. But +when these agitators are shouting for the people's rights and inciting +poor ignorant wretches to revolt, they never suggest that the lowest of +them is not perfectly suited to the highest position! Those occupying +any station above the lowest have got there merely by superior luck and +favoritism, not merit--that is what they preach." + +Mr. Hanbury-Green was just going to answer with a biting attack when +Miss Cora Lutworth's rather high voice was heard interrupting from a +tall old chair in which she had perched herself. + +"Why, Mr. Derringham, we all want to be something very grand," she +laughed merrily. "I hate common people and love English dukes and +duchesses--don't you, Cis?" and she looked at Mrs. Cricklander, who was +standing in a position of much stately grace by the lofty mantelpiece. + +"You sweet girl!" exclaimed Lord Freynault, who was next to her. "I +cannot get any nearer to those favored folk than my uncle's being a +duke, but won't you let me in for some of your friendly feelings on that +account?" + +"I certainly will," she answered archly, "because I like the way you +look. I like how your hair is brushed, and how your clothes are cut, and +your being nice and clean and outdoor--and long and thin--" and then she +whispered--"ever so much better than Mr. Hanbury-Green's thick +appearance. He may be as clever as clever, but he is common and climbing +up, and I like best the people who are there!" + +John Derringham now addressed himself exclusively to his hostess. + +"I agree with the point of view of the old Greeks--they were so full of +common sense. Balance and harmony in everything was their aim. A +beautiful body, for instance, should be the correlative of a beautiful +soul. Therefore in general their athletics were not pursued, as are +ours, for mere pleasure and sport, and because we like to feel fit. They +did not systematically exercise just to wrest from some rival the prize +in the games, either. Their care of the body had a far higher and nobler +end: to bring it into harmony as a dwelling-place for a noble soul." + +"How divine!" said Mrs. Cricklander. + +John Derringham went on: + +"You remember Plato upon the subject--his reluctance to admit that a +physical defect must sometimes be overlooked. But nowadays everything is +distorted by ridiculous humanitarian nonsense. With our wonderful +inventions, our increasing knowledge of sanitation and science, and the +possibilities and limitations of the human body, what glorious people we +should become if we could choke this double-headed hydra of rotten +sentiment and exalt common sense!" + +But now Mrs. Cricklander saw that a storm was gathering upon Mr. +Hanbury-Green's brow and, admirable hostess that she was, she decided to +smooth the troubled waters, so she went across the room to the piano, +and began to play a seductive valse, while John Derringham followed her +and leaned upon the lid, and tried to feel as devoted as he looked. + +"Why cannot we go to-morrow and see your old master?" she asked, as her +white fingers, with their one or two superb rings, glided over the keys. +"I feel an unaccountable desire to become acquainted with him. I should +love to see what the person was like who molded you when you were a +boy." + +"Mr. Carlyon is a wonderful-looking old man," John Derringham returned. +"Someone--who knows him very well--described him long ago as 'Cheiron.' +You will see how apt it is when you meet." + +Mrs. Cricklander crashed some chords. She had never heard of this +Cheiron. She felt vaguely that Arabella had told her of some classical +or mythological personage of some such sounding name, a boatman of +sorts--but she dare not risk a statement, so she went on with the point +she wished to gain, which was to investigate at once Mr. Carlyon's +surroundings and discover, if possible, whether there was any influence +there that would be inimical to herself. + +"I dare say we can go to-morrow," John Derringham said. "You and I might +walk over--and perhaps Miss Lutworth and Freynault. We can't go a large +party, the house is so small." + +"Why cannot you and I go alone, then?" she asked. + +"Oh, I think he would like to see Miss Cora. She is such a charming +girl," and John Derringham looked over to where she sat, still dangling +a pair of blue satin feet from the high chair. And inwardly Mrs. +Cricklander burned. + +Cora was a second cousin of her divorced husband, and belonged by birth +to that inner cream of New York society which she hated in her heart. +Never, never again would she be so foolish as to chance crossing swords +with one of her own nation. But aloud she acquiesced blandly and +arranged that they should start at eleven o'clock. + +"Perhaps we could persuade him to return to lunch with us?" she +hazarded. "And that would be so nice." + +"You must do what you can with him," John Derringham said. "I have +prepared him to find you beautiful--as you are." + +"You say lovely things about me behind my back, then?" she laughed. "Now +he will be disappointed!" + +"Yes, I admit it was a _bêtíse_--but, being my real thoughts, they +slipped out when I was there to-day. You will have to be extra charming +to substantiate them." + +Before Mrs. Cricklander went to bed, she called Arabella Clinker into +her room. + +"Arabella," she said, "who was Cheiron?" But she pronounced the "ei" as +an "a," so Miss Clinker replied without any hesitation: + +"He was a boatman who carried the souls of the dead over the River Styx, +and to whom they were obliged to pay an obolus--son of Erebus and Nox. +He is represented as an old man with a hideous face and long white beard +and piercing eyes." + +"Is there anything else I ought to know about him?" her employer asked, +and Arabella thought for a moment. + +"There is the story of Hercules not showing the golden bow. Er--it is a +little complicated and has to do with the superstitions of the +ancients--er--something Egyptian, I think, for the moment--I will look +it up to-morrow. I can't say offhand." + +"Thanks, Arabella. Good night." + +And it was not until after the party of four had started next morning +that Miss Clinker suddenly thought, with a start: "She may have been +alluding to quite the other Cheiron--the Centaur--and in that case I +have given her some wrong lights!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +Cora was being more than exasperating, Mrs. Cricklander thought, as they +went through the park. Not content with Lord Freynault, who was plainly +devoted to her, she kept every now and then looking back at John +Derringham with some lively sally, and although he was being +particularly agreeable to herself, he responded to Miss Lutworth's +piquant attacks with a too ready zeal. + +Mrs. Cricklander grew more and more certain that her hold over him had +lessened in these last two days, and every force in her indomitable +personality stiffened with determination to win him at all costs. + +The Professor received them graciously. He was seated in his library, +which now was a most comfortable room surrounded with bookcases in which +lived all his rare editions of loved books. Nothing could be more +fascinating than Mrs. Cricklander's manner to him--a mixture of +deference and friendly familiarity, as though he would appreciate the +fact of a tacit understanding between them that she too had a right in +John Derringham's friends. She had been so reassured by finding that Mr. +Carlyon was unmarried and lived alone, that a glow of real warmth +towards the Professor emanated from her, while the conviction grew that +it was nothing but the influence of Cora Lutworth which had even +momentarily cooled her whilom ardent friend. + +Mr. Carlyon's imperturbable countenance gave no hint of what he thought +of her, although John Derringham watched him furtively and anxiously. He +listened to their conversation when he could, and it jarred upon him +twice when the lady of his choice altogether missed the point of +Cheiron's subtle remarks. She whom he had always considered so +understanding! + +Of Halcyone there was no sign and no mention, and for some reason which +he could not explain John Derringham felt glad. + +It seemed an eternity before Mrs. Cricklander got up to go, having been +unable to persuade Mr. Carlyon to return with them to luncheon. He had a +slight cold, he said, and meant to remain in his warm library. + +"Mr. Derringham says you are called Cheiron," Mrs. Cricklander announced +laughingly. "How ridiculous to find in you any likeness to that old +ferryman of the piercing eye. I see no resemblance but in the beard." + +"So John relegates me to the post of ferryman to the dead already, does +he!" Mr. Carlyon responded. "I had hoped he still allowed me my horse's +hoofs and my cave--I have been deceiving myself all these years, +evidently." + +A blank look grew in Mrs. Cricklander's eye. What had caves and horse's +hoofs to do with the case? She had better turn the conversation at once, +or she might be out of her depth, she felt; and this she did with her +usual skill, but not before the Professor's left eyebrow had run up into +his forehead, and his wise old eyes beneath had met and then instantly +averted themselves from those of John Derringham. + +All the way back to the house Mrs. Cricklander had the satisfaction of +listening to a much more advanced admiration of herself than she had +hoped to obtain so soon, and arrived in the best of restored humors--for +John Derringham had clenched his teeth as he left the orchard house, and +had told himself that he would not be influenced or put off by any of +these trifling things, and that it was some vixenish turn of Fate to +have allowed these currents of disillusion about a woman who was so +eminently suitable to reach him through the medium of his old friend. + +A strange thing happened to Halcyone that morning. She had made up her +mind to keep away from her usual visit to Cheiron on the Monday and +Tuesday when John Derringham had announced he might bring over his +hostess to see the Professor. She did not wish to cause complications +with her aunts by making Mrs. Cricklander's acquaintance, and underneath +she had some strange reluctance herself. Her unerring instincts warned +her that this woman might in some way trouble her life, but she thought +Saturday would be perfectly safe and was preparing to start, when some +vague longing came over her to see her goddess. She had felt less serene +since the day before, and John Derringham and his words and looks +absorbed her thoughts. The home of Aphrodite was now in a chest in the +long gallery, of which she kept the key, and as this old room was always +empty--none of the servants, not even Priscilla, caring about visiting +it--haunted, it was, they said--she had plenty of time to spend what +hours she liked with her treasure without having to do so by stealth, as +in the beginning. For any place indoors she loved the long gallery +better than any other place. The broken window panes had been mended +when the turn for the better came for the whole house, and now she +herself kept it all dusted and tidy and used it as a sitting-room and +work-room as well; and, above all, it was the temple of the goddess +wherein was her shrine. + +This day when Aphrodite was uncovered from her blue silk wrappings, her +whole expression seemed to be one of appeal; however Halcyone would hold +her, in high or low light, the eyes appeared to be asking her something. + +"What is it, sweet mother and friend?" she said. "Do you not want me to +leave you to-day? If so, indeed I will not. What are you telling me with +those beautiful, sad eyes? That something is coming into my existence +that you promised me always, and that it will cause me sorrow, and I +must pause?"--and she shivered slightly and laid her cheek against the +marble cheek. "I am not afraid, and I want whatever it must be, since it +is life." Then she put the head back, and started upon her walk. But +first one thing and then another delayed her, until last of all she sat +down under the oak near the gap in the hedge and asked herself if all +these things could be chance. And here she took to dreaming and watching +the young rabbits come out of their holes, and to wondering what Fate +held in store for her in the immediate future. What was going to be her +life? That nothing but good could happen she always knew, because since +the very beginning God--the same personal kindly force that she had +always worshiped, unaltered by her deep learning, unweakened by any +theological dissertations--was there manifesting the whole year round +His wonderful love for the world. + +And so she sat until the clock of the church at Sarthe-under-Crum struck +one, and she started up, realizing that she was too late now to go on to +Cheiron's and would only just have time to return for lunch with her +aunts. She must go instead in the afternoon. So she walked briskly to +the house, with a strange feeling of relief and joy, which she was quite +unable to account for in any explicable way. + +Nothing delayed her on her second attempt to reach the orchard house, +and she found Cheiron placidly smoking while he read a volume of Lucian. +She was quite aware what that meant. When the Professor was in an amused +and cynical humor he always read Lucian, and although he knew every word +by heart, it still caused him complete satisfaction, plainly to be +discerned by the upward raising of the left penthouse brow. + +Halcyone sat down and smiled sympathetically while she tried to detect +which volume it was, that she might have some clew to the cause of her +Professor's mood. But he carefully closed the book, so that she could +not see--it was the Judgment of Paris in the dialogue of the gods--and +she was unable to have her curiosity gratified. + +"Something has entertained you, Cheiron?" she said. + +"I have had the visit of two goddesses," he answered, chuckling. "Our +friend John Derringham brought them. He wanted to show them off and get +my opinion, I think." + +"And did you give him one?" she asked. "I suppose not!" + +"He went away with his teeth shut--" and Mr. Carlyon's smile deepened as +he stroked his white beard. + +Halcyone laughed. She seldom asked questions herself. If the Professor +wished to tell her anything about the ladies he would do so--she was +dying to hear! Presently a set of disjointed sentences flowed from her +master's lips between his puffs of smoke. + +"Girl--worth something--showy--honest--sure of +herself--clever--pretty--on her own roots--not a graft." + +"Girl"--who was the girl? Halcyone wondered. But Cheiron continued his +laconic utterances. + +"Woman--beautiful--determined--thick--roots of the commonest--grafting +of the best--octopean, tenacious--dangerous--my poor devil of a John!" + +"And did you give the apple to either, Cheiron?" Halcyone asked with a +gleam of fine humor in her wise eyes. "Or, one of the trio being absent, +did you feel yourself excused?" + +Mr. Carlyon glanced at her sharply, and then broke into a smile. + +"Young woman, I do not think I have ever allowed you to read the +Judgment of Paris," he said. "Wherefore your question is ill-timed and +irrelevant." + +Then they laughed together. How well they knew one another!--not only +over things Greek. And presently they began their reading. They were in +the middle of Symonds' "Renaissance," and so forgot the outer world. + +But after Halcyone had gone in the dusk through the park, the Professor +sat in the firelight for a while, and did not ring for lights. He was +musing deeply, and his thoughts ran something in this line: + +"John must dree his weird. Nothing anyone could say has ever influenced +him. If he marries this woman she will eat his soul; having only a sham +one of her own, she will devour his. She'll do very well to adorn the +London house and feed his friends. He'll find her out in less than a +year--it will kill his inspirations. Well, Zeus and all the gods cannot +help a man in his folly. But my business is to see that he does not +ensnare the heart of my little girl. If he had waited he could have +found her--the one woman with a soul." + + * * * * * + +Miss Roberta had, unfortunately, a bad attack of rheumatism on Easter +Sunday, augmented by a cold, and Halcyone stayed at home to rub her poor +knee with hot oil, so she did not see the Wendover party, several of +whom came to church. Miss La Sarthe occupied the family pew alone, and +was the source of much amusement and delight to the smart inhabitants of +the outer world. + +"Isn't she just too sweet, Cis?" whispered Miss Lutworth into Mrs. +Cricklander's ear. "Can't we get Mr. Derringham to take us over there +this afternoon?" + +But when the subject was broached later at luncheon by his hostess, John +Derringham threw cold water upon the idea. He had stayed behind for a +few minutes to renew his acquaintance with the ancient lady, and had +given her his arm down the short church path, and placed her with +extreme deference in the Shetland pony shay, to the absolute enchantment +of Miss Lutworth, who, with Lord Freynault, stood upon the mound of an +old forgotten grave, the better to see. It was in the earlier days of +motor-cars, and Mrs. Cricklander's fine open Charron created the +greatest excitement as it waited by the lych-gate. The two Shetlands +cocked their ears and showed various signs of nervous interest, and +William had all he could do to hold the minute creatures. But Miss La +Sarthe behaved with unimpaired dignity, never once glancing in the +direction of the great green monster. She got in, assisted by the +respectful churchwarden, and allowed John Derringham to wrap the rug +round her knees, and then carefully adjusted the ring of her +turquoise-studded whip handle. + +"Good day, Goddard," she said with benign condescension to the +churchwarden. "And see that Betsy Hodges' child with the whooping-cough +gets some of Hester's syrup and is not brought to church again next +Sunday." And she nodded a gracious dismissal. Then, turning to John +Derringham, she gave him two fingers, while she said with some show of +haughty friendliness: "My sister and I will be very pleased to see you +if you are staying in this neighborhood, Mr. Derringham, and care to +take tea with us one day." + +"I shall be more than delighted," he replied, as he bowed with homage +and stood aside, because William's face betrayed his anxiety over the +fidgety ponies. + +Miss La Sarthe turned her head with its pork-pie hat and floating veil, +and said with superb tranquillity, "You may drive on now, William." And +they rolled off between a lane of respectful, curtseying rustics. + +Mrs. Cricklander and Lady Maulevrier had already entered the motor and +were surveying the scene with amused interest, while Miss Lutworth and +Lord Freynault, chaperoned by Arabella Clinker, were preparing to walk. +It was not more than a mile across the park, and it was a glorious day. +John Derringham joined them. + +"I think I will come with you, too," he said. "You take my place, Sir +Tedbury. It is only fair you should drive one way." + +And so it was arranged, not altogether to the satisfaction of the +hostess, who would have preferred to have walked also. However, there +was nothing to be done, and so they were whizzed off, while with the +tail of her eye Cecilia Cricklander perceived that Lord Freynault had +been displaced from Cora's side and was now stalking behind the other +pair, beside Arabella Clinker. + +"What an extraordinary sight that was," she said to Sir Tedbury Delvine +as they went along. "I thought no villagers curtsied any more now in +England. That very funny-looking old lady might have been a royalty!" + +"It is because she has never had a doubt but that she is--or something +higher--complete owner of all these souls," he returned, "that they have +not yet begun to doubt it either. They and their forebears have bobbed +to the La Sarthe for hundreds of years, and they will go on doing it if +this holder of the name lives to be ninety-nine. They would never do so +to any new-comer, though, I expect." + +"But I am told they have not a penny left, and have sold every acre of +the land except the park. Is it not wonderful, Kitty?" Mrs. Cricklander +went on, turning to Lady Maulevrier. "I am dying to know them. I hope +they will call." + +But Sir Tedbury had already chanced to have talked the matter over with +John Derringham, because he himself was most anxious to see La Sarthe +Chase, which was of deep historical interest, and had incidentally been +made aware by that gentleman of the old ladies' views, so he hastily +turned the conversation, rather awkwardly, to other things. And a wonder +grew in Mrs. Cricklander's mind. + +That anyone should not be enchanted to receive her beautiful and +sought-after self could not enter her brain, but there was evidently +some bar between the acquaintance of herself and her nearest neighbors, +and Arabella should be set to find out of what it consisted. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + +"Do let us go around by the boundary," Miss Lutworth said when they got +through the Wendover gates. "I long to see even the park of that +exquisite old lady; it must look quite different to anybody else's, and +I feel I want an adventure!" + +So they struck in towards the haw-haw--the four walking almost abreast. + +When they came to beyond the copse, after it touched the Professor's +garden, they paused and took in the view. It was unspeakably beautiful +from there, rolling away towards the splendid old house, which could +only just be distinguished through the giant trees, not yet in leaf. And +suddenly, hardly twenty yards from them across the gulf, coming from the +gap in Mr. Carlyon's hedge, they saw a tall and very slender +mouse-colored figure, as Halcyone emerged on her homeward way--she had +run down to see Cheiron when her duties with Miss Roberta were over, and +was now going back to lunch. + +"Good morning!" called John Derringham, and the four advanced to the +very edge of their side, and Halcyone turned and also bordered hers, +while she bowed serenely. + +"Isn't it a day of the gods!" he continued. "And may I from across this +Stygian lake (there was a little water collected in the haw-haw here +from the recent rains) introduce Miss Lutworth to you--and Miss Clinker +and Lord Freynault? Miss Halcyone La Sarthe." + +Everyone bowed, and Halcyone smiled her sweet, grave smile. + +"We would love to jump over--or you come to us," Cora Lutworth said with +her frank, friendly charm. "Isn't there any way?" + +"I am afraid not," responded Halcyone. "You are across in another +world--we live in the shades, this side." + +"Remember something about a fellow named Orpheus getting over to fetch +his girl"--"gail" Lord Freynault pronounced it--"since old John will use +Eton cribs in describing the horrid chasm. Can't we sop old Cerberus and +somehow manage to swim, if there is no ferryman about?" + +"You would certainly be drowned," said Halcyone. "In this place the lake +is quite ten inches deep!" + +Cora Lutworth was taking in every bit of her with her clever, kindly +eyes. + +"What a sweet, distinguished violet-under-the-mossy-bank pet of a girl!" +she was saying to herself. "No wonder Mr. Derringham goes to see his +Professor! How mad Cis would be! I shan't tell her." And aloud she said: + +"You cannot imagine how I am longing to get a nearer peep of your +beautiful old house. Do we get a chance further on?" + +"No," said Halcyone. "I am so sorry. You branch further off once you +have passed the closed gate. It was very stupid--the La Sarthe quarreled +with the Wendovers a hundred years ago, and it was all closed up then, +and these wicked spikes put." + +"It is too tantalizing. But won't you walk with us to where we have to +part?" Miss Lutworth said, while John Derringham had a sudden longing to +turn back and carefully remove certain bits of iron and brick he wot of, +and ask this nymph of the woods to take him on to their tree, and tell +him more stories about Jason and Medea in that exquisitely refined voice +of hers, as she had done once before, long ago. But even though he might +not have this joy, he got rather a fine pleasure out of the fact of +sharing the secret of the crossing with her, and he had the satisfaction +of meeting her soft eyes in one lightning comprehending glance. + +They chatted on about the view and the beauties of the neighborhood, and +they all laughed often at some sally of Cora's--no one could resist her +joyous, bubbling good-fellowship. She had all the sparkle of her clever +nation, and the truest, kindest heart. Halcyone had never spoken to +another young girl in her life, and felt like a yearling horse--a desire +to whinny to a fellow colt and race up and down with him beside the +dividing fence of their paddocks. A new light of youth and sweetness +came into her pale face. + +"I do wish I might ask you to come round by the road," she said, "and +see it near, but, as Mr. Derringham knows, my aunts are very old, and +one is almost an invalid now, so we never have any visitors at all." + +"Of course, we quite understand," said Cora, quickly, touched at once by +this simple speech. "But we should so love you to come over to us." + +"Alas!" said Halcyone, "it is indeed the Styx." + +And here they arrived at the boarded-up gate, where further view was +impossible, and from which onwards the lands ceased to join. + +"Good-by!" they called to one another, even Arabella Clinker joining in +the chorus, while Cora Lutworth ran back to say: + +"Some day we'll meet--outside the Styx. Let us get Mr. Derringham to +manage it!" + +And Halcyone cried a glad "Oh, yes!" + +"What a darling! What a perfect darling!" Miss Lutworth said +enthusiastically, taking Arabella's arm as they struck rapidly inward +and up a knoll. "Did you ever see anything look so like a lady in that +impossible old dress? Tell us about her, Mr. Derringham. Does she live +with those prehistoric ladies all alone in that haunted house? Could +anything be so mysterious and romantic? Please tell us all you know." + +"Yes, she does, I believe," John Derringham said. "My old master tells +me she never sees or speaks to anyone from one year's end to another. I +have only met her very rarely myself." + +"Does it not seem too awful?" returned Cora, aghast, thinking of her own +merry, enjoyable life, with every whim gratified. "To be so young and +attractive and actually buried alive! Don't you think she is a dream, +Arabella?" + +"I was greatly impressed with her distinction and charm," Miss Clinker +said. "I wish we could do something for her to make things brighter." + +"Let us ask Cis--" and then Miss Lutworth paused, returning to her first +thought--she knew her hostess well. No, it could not bring any pleasure +into the life of this slender, lithe English lady with the wonderful +Greek name, to be made acquainted with Cecilia Cricklander, who would +tear her to pieces without compunction the moment she understood in what +direction John Derringham's eyes would probably be cast. He saw Cora's +hesitation and understood, and was grateful. + +"I believe this girl is trumps. I don't think she will even mention our +meeting," he said to himself. + +Now for a few steps Miss Lutworth drew Arabella Clinker on ahead. + +"Arabella, you dear," she whispered, "I don't want to say a word against +Cis--who, of course, is all right--but I have a feeling we won't tell +her we've met this dryad of a Halcyone La Sarthe. Have you got that +instinct, too?" + +"Quite strongly," said Arabella, who never wasted words. "I was going to +mention to you the same idea myself." + +"Then that is understood!" and she laughed her happy laugh. "I'll see +that Freynie doesn't peach!" + +Thus it was that four demure and healthful-looking beings joined the +party on the terrace of Wendover, and described their pleasant walk, +without one word spoken of their _rencontre_ with the youngest Miss La +Sarthe. And once or twice Cora Lutworth's mischievous eyes met those of +John Derringham, and they both laughed. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + +John Derringham made a point of slipping away on the Easter Tuesday +afternoon; he determined to drink tea with the Misses La Sarthe. He went +to his room with important letters to write, and then sneaked down again +like a truant schoolboy, and when he got safely out of sight, struck +obliquely across the park to the one vulnerable spot in the haw-haw, and +after fumbling a good deal, from his side, managed to get the spikes out +and to climb down, and repeat the operation upon the other side. There +was no water here, it was on rather higher ground, and he was soon +striding up the beech avenue towards the house. + +"It would be an extremely awkward place to get over in the dark," he +thought, and then he was conscious that Halcyone was far in the distance +in front of him, almost entering the house. + +So she would be in, then--that was good. + +He had never permitted his mind to dwell upon her for an instant, after +the Sunday walk. He made himself tell himself that she was a charming +child whom he felt great pity for, on account of her lonely life. That +he himself took a special interest in her he would not have admitted for +a second to his innermost thought. He had now definitely made up his +mind to propose to Cecilia Cricklander, and was only awaiting a suitable +occasion to put this intention into effect. + +Numbers of moments had come--and passed--but he was always able to find +good and sufficient fault with them. And once or twice, when Fate itself +seemed to arrange things for him, he had a sudden sensation as of a +swimmer fighting with the tide, and he had battled to the shore again, +and was still free! + +But it must come, of course, and before he left for London at the end of +the week. Private news had reached him that the Government must soon go +out, and he felt this thing must be an accomplished fact before then, +for the hand he meant to play. + +But meanwhile it was only Tuesday, and he was nearing the battered and +nail-bestudded front door of La Sarthe Chase. William said the ladies +were at home, and he was shown into the Italian parlor forthwith. + +It had not changed in the slightest degree in the seven years since he +had seen it first, nor had the two ancient spinsters themselves. They +were most graciously glad to receive him, and gave him tea out of the +thinnest china cups, and at last Miss Roberta said: + +"Our great-niece Halcyone will be coming down in a moment, Mr. +Derringham. She has grown up into a very tall girl. You will hardly +recognize her, I expect." + +And at that instant Halcyone opened the door and said a quiet word of +welcome. And if her heart beat rather faster than usual under her simple +serge bodice, nothing of any emotion showed in her tranquil face. + +She took her tea and sat down in a chair rather in the shadows and +aloof. + +Miss La Sarthe monopolized the conversation. She had no intention of +relinquishing the pleasure of this rare guest, so while Miss Roberta got +in a few sentences, Halcyone hardly spoke a word, and if she had really +been a coquette, calculating her actions, she could not have piqued John +Derringham more. + +She looked so very sylph-like as she sat there, bending her graceful +head. Her eyes were all in shadow and seemed to gleam as things of +mystery from under her dark brows, while the pure lines of her temples +and the plaiting of her soft thick hair made him think of some virgin +goddess. + +But she never spoke. + +At last John Derringham began to grow exasperated, and plunged into +temptation, which he did not admit that he ought to have avoided. + +"I am so very much interested in this wonderful old house," he said, +addressing Miss La Sarthe. "That row of bay windows is in a long +gallery, I suppose? Would it be a great impertinence if I asked to see +it?" + +"We shall be pleased for you to do so," the old lady returned, without +much warmth. "It is very cold and draughty, my sister and I have not +entered it for many years, but Halcyone, I believe, goes there +sometimes; she will show it to you if you wish." + +Halcyone rose, ready at once to obey her aunts, and led the way towards +the door. + +"We had better go up the great staircase and along through Sir Timothy's +rooms. The staircase which leads directly to it from the hall is not +quite safe," she said. "Except for me," she added, when they were +outside the door. "Then, I know exactly where to put my feet!" + +"I would follow you blindly," said John Derringham, "but we will go +which way you will. Only, you are such a strange, silent little old +friend now--I am afraid of you!" + +Halcyone was rather ahead, leading the way, and she turned and paused +while he came up close beside her. + +Her eyes were quite startled. + +"You afraid of me!" she said. + +"Yes--you seem so nymph-like and elusive. I do not know if I am really +looking at an ordinary earth-maiden, or whether you will melt away." + +"I am quite real," and she smiled, "but now you must notice these two +rooms a little that we shall pass through. They are very ghostly I +think; they were the Sir Timothy's who went to fetch James I from +Scotland. I am glad they are not mine, but the long gallery I love; it +is my sitting-room--my very own--and in it I keep something which +matters to me more than anything else in the world." Then she went on, +with a divine shyness which thrilled her companion: "And--I do not know +why--but I think I will show it to you." + +"Yes, please do that," he responded eagerly, "and do not let us stop to +look at the ghostly apartments--where you sit interests me far more." + +So they went rapidly through Sir Timothy's rooms, with the great state +bed where had slept his royal master, so the tale ran, and on down some +uneven steps, and through a small door, and there found themselves in +the long, narrow room, with its bays along the southern side, and one +splendid mullioned casement at the end with coats-of-arms emblazoned +upon each division. And through this, which looked west, there poured +the lowered afternoon sun with a broad shaft of glorious light. + +The place was almost empty, but for a chest or two and a table near this +window with writing materials and books. And upon a rough set of shelves +close at hand many more volumes reposed. + +"So it is here you live and work, you wise, lonely, little Pallas +Athené," he said. + +"You must not call me that--I am not at all like her," Halcyone answered +softly. "She was very clever and very noble--but a little hard, I think. +Wait until I have shown you my own goddess. I would rather have her soul +than any other of the Olympian gods." + +John Derringham took a step nearer to her. + +"Do you remember the night at dinner here when you told me Pallas +Athené's words to Perseus?" he said. "I have thought of them often, and +they have helped me sometimes, I think." + +"I am so glad," said Halcyone simply, while she moved towards her +treasure chest. + +He watched her with satisfied eyes--every action of hers was full of +grace, and the interest he felt in her personally obscured any for the +moment in what she was going to show him, but at last he became aware +that she had unlocked a cupboard drawer, and was taking from it a bundle +of blue silk. + +His curiosity was aroused, and he went over as near as he could. + +"Come!" whispered Halcyone, and walked to the high window-sill of the +middle section, and then put down her burden upon the old faded velvet +seat. + +"See, I will take off her veil gradually," she said, "and you must tell +me of what she makes you think." + +John Derringham was growing interested by now, but had no idea in the +world of the marvel he was going to see. He started more perceptibly +than even Mr. Carlyon had done seven years before, when he had realized +the superlative beauty of the Greek head. + +Halcyone uncovered it reverently, and then took a step back, and waited +silently for him to speak. + +He looked long into the marvelous face, and then he said as though he +were dreaming: + +"Aphrodite herself!" + +"Ah! I felt you would know and recognize her at once--Yes, that is her +name. Oh, I am glad!" and Halcyone clapped her hands. "She is my mother, +and so, you see, I am never alone here, for she speaks always to me of +love." + +John Derringham looked at her sharply as she said this, and in her eyes +he saw two wells of purity, each with an evening star melted into its +depths. + +And he suddenly was conscious of something which his whole life had +missed--for he knew he did not know what real love meant, not even that +which his mother might have given him, if she had lived. + +He did not speak for a moment; he gazed into Halcyone's face. It seemed +as if a curtain had lifted for one instant and given him a momentary +glimpse into some heaven, and then dropped again, leaving a haunting +memory of sweetness, the more beautiful because indistinct. + +"Love--" he said, still dreamily. "Surely there is yet another and a +deeper kind of love." + +Halcyone raised her head, while a strange look grew in her wide eyes, +almost of fear. It was as though he had put into words some unspoken, +unadmitted thought. + +"Yes," she said very softly, "I feel there is--but that is not all +peace; that must be gloriously terrible, because it would mean life." + +He looked at her fully now; there was not an atom of coquetry or +challenge; her face was pale and exquisite in its simple intentness. He +turned to the goddess again, and almost chaunted: + +"Oh! Aphrodite of the divine lips and soulful eyes, what mystery do you +hold for us mortals? What do you promise us? What do you make us pay? Is +the good worth the anguish? Is the fulfillment a cup worth +draining--without counting the cost?" + +"What does she answer you?" whispered Halcyone. "Does she say that to +live and fulfill destiny as the beautiful year does is the only good? It +is wiser not to question and weigh the worth, for even though we would +not drink, perhaps we cannot escape--since there is Fate." + +John Derringham pulled himself together with an effort. He felt he was +drifting into wonderland, where the paths were too tenderly sweet and +flowered for him to dare to linger, for there he might find and quaff of +the poison cup. So he said in a voice which he strove to bring back to +earth: + +"Where did you get the beautiful thing? She is of untold value, of +course you know?" + +Halcyone took the marble into her hands lovingly. + +"She came to me out of the night," she said. "Some day I might tell you +how--but not to-day. I must put her back again. No one knows but Cheiron +and me--and now--you--that she is in existence, and no one else must +ever know." + +He did not speak; he watched her while she wrapped the head in its folds +of silk. + +"Aphrodite never had so true a priestess, nor one so pure," he thought, +and a strange feeling of sadness came over him, and he thanked her +rather abruptly for showing him her treasure, and they went silently +back through Sir Timothy's rooms, and down the stair; and in the Italian +parlor he said good-by at once, and left. + +The wind had got up and blew freshly in his face. There would be a gale +before morning. It suited his mood. He struck across the park, but +instead of making for the haw-haw, he turned into Cheiron's little gate. +He wanted understanding company, he wanted to talk cynical philosophy, +and he wanted the stimulus of his old master's biting wit. + +But when he got there, he found Cheiron very taciturn--contributing +little more than a growl now and then, while he smoked his long pipe and +played with his beard. So at last he got up to go. + +"I have made up my mind to marry Mrs. Cricklander, Master," he said. + +"I supposed so," the Professor replied dryly. "A man always has to +convince himself he is doing a fine thing when he gives himself up to be +hanged." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + +John Derringham reached Wendover--by the road and the lodge gates--in an +impossible temper. He had left the orchard house coming as near to a +quarrel with his old master as such a thing could be. He absolutely +refused to let himself dwell upon the anger he had felt; and if Fate had +given him a distinct and pointed chance to ask the fair Cecilia for her +lily hand, when he knocked at her sitting-room door before dinner, he +would no doubt have left the next day--summoned again to London by his +Chief--an engaged man. But this turn of events was not in the +calculations of Destiny for the moment, and he found no less a person +than Mr. Hanbury-Green already ensconced by his hostess's side. They +were both smoking and looked very comfortable and at ease. + +"I just came in to tell you I shall be obliged to tear myself away +to-morrow," John Derringham said, "and cannot have the pleasure of +staying to the end of the week in this delightful place." + +Mrs. Cricklander got up from her reclining position among the cushions. +This was a blow. She wished now she had not encouraged Mr. Hanbury-Green +to come and sit with her; it might be a lost opportunity which it would +be difficult to recapture again. But she had felt so very much annoyed +at Mr. Derringham's capriciousness, displayed the whole of the Monday, +and then at his absenting himself to-day, having gone to see the +Professor, of course--since he was out of the house at tea-time when she +had sent to his room to enquire--that she had determined to see what a +little jealousy would do for him. But if he were off on the morrow this +might not be a safe moment to try it. + +Mr. Hanbury-Green, however, had not the slightest intention of giving up +his place, in spite of several well-directed hints, and sat on like one +belonging to the spot. + +So they all had to go off to dress without any longed-for word having +been spoken. And Mrs. Cricklander was far too circumspect a hostess to +attempt to arrange a _tête-à-tête_ after dinner under the eye of an +important social leader like Lady Maulevrier, whom she had only just +succeeded in enticing to stay in her country house. So, with the usual +semi-political chaff, the evening passed, and good-nights and good-bys +were said, and early next day John Derringham left for London. + +He would write--he decided--and all the way up in the train he buried +himself in the engrossing letters and papers he had received from his +Chief by the morning's post. + +And for the next six weeks he was in such a turmoil of hard work and +deep and serious questions about a foreign State that he very seldom had +time to go into society, and when at last he was a little more free, +Mrs. Cricklander, he found, had not returned from Paris, whither she +always went several times a year for her clothes. + +But they had written to one another once or twice. + +He had promised in the last letter that he would go down to Wendover +again for Whitsuntide, and this time he firmly determined nothing should +keep him from his obvious and delectable fate. + +Mrs. Cricklander had no haunting fears now. She could discover no reason +for John Derringham's change towards her. Arabella had been mute and had +put it down to the stress of his life. This tension with the foreign +State, it leaked out, had been known to the Ministers for a week before +it had been made public--that, of course, was the cause of his +preoccupation, and she would simply order some especially irresistible +garments in Paris, and bide her time. + +He wrote the most charming letters, though they were hardly long enough +to be called anything but notes; but there was always the insinuation in +them that she was the one person in the world who understood him, and +they were expressed with his usual cultivated taste. + +It was sheer force of will that kept John Derringham from ever thinking +of Halcyone. He resolutely crushed the thought of her every time it +presented itself, and systematically turned to his work and plunged into +it, if even a mental vision of her came to his mind's eye. + +He felt quite calm and safe when, two days before he was expected at +Wendover, the idea came to him to propose himself to the Professor, so +as not to have to go and see him and endure his cynical reflections +_after_ he should be engaged to his hostess. + +Mr. Carlyon had wired back, "Come if you like," and on this evening in +early June John Derringham arrived at the orchard house. + +Cheiron made no allusion to the matter that had caused them to part with +some breezy words upon his old pupil's side. Mrs. Cricklander or +Wendover might not have existed; their talk was upon philosophy and +politics, and contained not the shadow of a woman--even Halcyone was not +mentioned at all. + +Whitsuntide fell late that year, at the end of the first week in June, +and the spring having been exceptionally mild, the foliage was all in +full beauty of the freshest green. + +It was astonishingly hot, and every divine scent of the night came to +John Derringham as he went out into the garden before going to bed. A +young setting half-moon still hung in the sky, and there were stars. One +of those nights when all the mystery of life seems to be revealing +itself in the one word--Love. The nightingale throbbed out its note in +the copse amidst a perfect stillness, and the ground was soft without a +drop of dew. + +John Derringham, hatless, and with his hands plunged in the pockets of +his dinner coat, wandered down the garden towards the apple tree, +picking an early red rosebud as he passed a bush--its scent intoxicated +him a little. Then he went to the gate, and, opening it, he strolled +into the park. Here was a vaster and more perfect view. It was all +clothed in the unknown of the half dark, and yet he could distinguish +the outline of the giant trees. He went on as if in some delicious +dream, which yet had some heart-break in it, and at last he came to the +tree where he and Halcyone had sat those seven years ago, when she had +told him of what consisted the true point of honor in a man. He +remembered it all vividly, her very words and the cloud of her soft hair +which had blown a little over his face. He sat down upon the fallen log +that had been made into a rude bench; and there he gazed in front of +him, unconscious now of any coherent thought. + +Suddenly he was startled by a laugh so near him and so soft that he +believed himself to be dreaming, but he looked round and quickly rose to +his feet, and there at the other side of the tree he saw standing the +ethereal figure of a girl, while her filmy gray garments seemed to melt +into the night. + +"Halcyone!" he gasped. "And from where?" + +"Ah!" she said as she came towards him. "You have invaded my kingdom. +Mortal, what right have you to the things of the night? They belong to +me--who know them and love them." + +"Then have compassion upon me, sweet dryad!" he pleaded, "who am but a +pilgrim who cannot see his way. Let me shelter under your protection and +be guided aright." + +She laughed again--a ripple of silver that he had not guessed her voice +possessed. Her whole bearing was changed from the reserved, demure and +rather timid creature whom he knew. She was a sprite now, or a nymph, or +even a goddess, for her brow was imperious and her mien one of assured +command. + +"This is my kingdom," she said, "and if you obey me, I will show you +things of which you have never dreamed--" and then she came towards the +tree and sat upon the high forked branch of the broken bough while she +pointed with shadowy finger to the part which was a bench. "Sit there, +Man of Day," she ordered, "for you cannot see beyond your hand. You +cannot know how the living things are creeping about, unafraid now of +your cruel power. You cannot discern the difference in the colors of the +fresh young bracken and the undergrowth; you cannot perceive the birds +asleep in the tree." + +"No, indeed, Lady of Night," he said, "I admit I am but a mole, but you +will let me perceive them with your eyes, will you not?" + +She slipped from her perch suddenly, before he could put out a +protesting hand to stop her, and glided out of his view into the dark of +the copse, and from there he heard the intoxicating silver laughter +which maddened his every sense. + +"Halcyone! Witch!" he called. "Come back to me--I am afraid, all alone!" + +So she came, appearing like a materializing wraith from the shadow, and +with an undulating movement of incredible grace she was again seated +upon her perch, the fallen forked branch of the tree. + +John Derringham was experiencing the strongest emotion he had ever felt +in his life. + +A maddening desire to seize the elusive joy--to come nearer--to assure +himself that she was real and not a spirit of night sent to torture and +elude him--overcame all other thought. The startling change from her +deportment of the day--the very way she glided about was as the movement +of some other being. + +And as those old worshipers of Dionysus had grown intoxicated with the +night and the desire of communion with the beyond, so he--John +Derringham--cool, calculating English statesman--felt himself being +drawn into a current of emotion and enthrallment whose end could only be +an ecstasy of which he did not yet dare to dream. + +It was all so abnormal--to see her here, a shadow, a tantalizing soft +shadow with a new personality--it was no wonder he rubbed his eyes and +asked himself if he were awake. + +"Come with me," she whispered, bending nearer to him, "and I will show +you how the wild roses grow at night." + +"I will follow you to Hades," he said, "but I warn you I cannot see a +yard beyond my nose. You must lead me with your hand, if so ethereal a +spirit possesses a hand." + +Again the silver laugh, and he saw her not, but presently she appeared +from behind the tree. She had let down her misty, mouse-colored hair, +and it floated around her like a cloud. + +Then she slipped a cool, soft set of fingers into his, and led him +onward, with sure and certain steps, while he blundered, not knowing +where to put his feet, and all the time she turned every few seconds and +looked at him, and he could just distinguish the soft mystery of her +eyes, while now and then, as she walked, a tendril of her floating hair +flew out and caressed his face, as once before, long ago. + +"There are fairy things all about us," she said. "Countless pink +campions and buttercups, with an elf in each. They will feel your giant +feet, but they will know you are a mortal and cannot help your ways, +because, you poor, blind bat, you cannot see!" + +"And you?" he asked. "Who gave you these eyes?" + +"My mother," she answered softly, "the Goddess of the Night." + +And then she drew him on rapidly and stealthily, and he saw at last, in +the open space where the stars and the sinking moon gave more light, +that they were approaching the broken gate, and were near the terraced +garden, which now was better kept. + +When they got to this barrier to their path, Halcyone paused and leaned +upon it. + +"Mortal," she said, "you are wandering in a maze. You have come thus far +because I have led you, but you would have fallen if you had walked so +fast alone. Now look, and I will show you the lily-of-the-valley +cups--there are only a few there under the shelter of the gray stone +arch. Come." + +And she opened the gate, letting go of his hand as she glided beyond. + +"I cannot and will not hazard a step if you leave me," he called, and +she came back and gave him again her soft fingers to hold. So at last +they reached the summer house at the end of the second terrace, where +the archway was where old William kept his tools. + +There were very few flowers out, but a mass of wild roses, and still +some May tulips bloomed, while from the meadow beneath them came that +indescribable freshness which young clover gives. + +John Derringham knew now that he was dreaming--or drunk with some nectar +which was not of earth. And still she led him on, and then pointed to +the old bench which he could just see. + +"We shall sit here," she said, "and Aphrodite shall tell us your +future--for see, she, too, loves the night and comes here with me." + +And to his intense astonishment, as he peered on to the table, he saw a +misty mass of folds of silk, and there lay the goddess's head, that +Halcyone had shown to him that day in the long gallery more than a month +ago. + +He was so petrified with surprise at the whole thing that he had ceased +to reason. Everything came now as a matter of course, like the +preposterous sequence of events in a dream. The Aphrodite lay, as a +woman caressed, half buried in her silken folds, but Halcyone lifted her +up and propped her against a stone vase which was near, letting the silk +fall so that the broken neck did not show, and it seemed as if a living +woman's face gazed down upon them. + +John Derringham's eyes were growing more accustomed to the darkness, or +Halcyone really had some magic power, for it seemed to him that he could +see the divine features quite clearly. + +"She is saying," the soft voice of his companion whispered in his ear, +"that all the things you will grasp with your hands are but dreams--and +the things that you now believe to be dreams are all real." + +"And are you a dream, you sweet?" asked John Derringham. "Or are you +tangible, and must I drink the poison cup, after all?" + +"I would give you no noxious wine," she answered. "If you were strong +and wise and true, only the fire which I have stolen from heaven could +come to you." + +"Long ago," he said, "you gave me an oak-leaf, dryad, and I have kept it +still. What now will you grant to me?" + +"Nothing, since you fear--" and she drew back. + +"I do not fear," he answered wildly. "Halcyone!--sweetheart! I want +you--here--next my heart. Give me--yourself!" + +Then he stretched out his arms and drew her to him, all soft and loving +and unresisting, and he pressed his lips to her pure and tender lips. +And it seemed as if the heavens opened, and the Night poured down all +that was divine of bliss. + +But before he could be sure that indeed he held her safely in his arms, +she started forward, releasing herself. Then, clasping Aphrodite and her +silken folds, with a bound she was far beyond him, and had disappeared +in the shadow of the archway, on whose curve the last rays of moonlight +played, so that he saw it outlined and clear. + +He strode forward to follow her, but to his amazement, when he reached +the place, she seemed to vanish absolutely in front of his eyes, and +although he lit a match and searched everywhere, not the slightest trace +of her could he find, and there was no opening or possible corner into +which she could have disappeared. + +Absolutely dumbfounded, he groped his way back to the bench, and sitting +down buried his head in his hands. Surely it was all a dream, then, and +he had been drunk--with the Professor's Falernian wine--and had wandered +here and slept. But, God of all the nights, what an exquisite dream! + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + +The half-moon set, and the night became much darker before John +Derringham rose from his seat by the bench. A stupor had fallen upon +him. He had ceased to reason. Then he got up and made his way back to +the orchard house, under the myriads of pale stars, which shone with +diminished brilliancy from the luminous, summer night sky. + +Here he seemed to grow material again and to realize that he was indeed +awake. But what had happened to him? Whether he had been dreaming or no, +a spell had fallen upon him--he had drunk of the poison cup. And +Halcyone filled his mind. He thrilled and thrilled again as he +remembered the exquisite joy of their tender embrace--even though it had +been no real thing, but a dream, it was still the divinest good his life +had yet known. + +But what could it lead to if it were real? Nothing but sorrow and +parting and regret. For his career still mattered to him, he knew, now +that he was in his sane senses again, more than anything else in the +world. And he could not burden himself with a poor, uninfluential girl +as a wife, even though the joy of it took them both to heaven. + +The emotion he was experiencing was one quite new to him, and he almost +resented it, because it was upsetting some of his beliefs. + +The next day, at breakfast, the Professor remarked that he looked pale. + +"You rather overwork, John," he said. "To lie about the garden here and +not have to follow the caprices of fashionable ladies at Wendover, would +do you a power of good." + +There was no sight of Halcyone all the day. She was living in a +paradise, but hers contained no doubts or uncertainties. She knew that +indeed she had lived and breathed the night before, and found complete +happiness in John Derringham's arms. + +That, then, was what Aphrodite had always been telling her. She knew now +the meaning of the love in her eyes. This glorious and divine thing had +been given to her, too--out of the night. + +It was fully perceived at last, not only half glanced at almost with +fear. Love had come to her, and whatever might reck of sorrow, it meant +her whole life and soul. + +And this precious gift of the pure thing from God she had given in her +turn to John Derringham as his lips had pressed her lips. + +She spent the whole day in the garden, sitting in the summer house +surveying the world. The blue hills in the far distance were surely the +peaks of Olympus and she had been permitted to know what existence meant +there. + +Not a doubt of him entered her heart, or a fear. He certainly loved her +as she loved him; they had been created for each other since the +beginning of time. And it was only a question of arrangement when she +should go away with him and never part any more. + +Marriage, as a ceremony in church, meant nothing to her. Some such +thing, of course, must take place, because of the stupid conventions of +the world, but the sacrament, the real mating, was to be +together--alone. + +In her innocent and noble soul John Derringham now reigned as king. He +had never had a rival, and never would have while breath stayed in her +fair body. + +By the evening of that day he had reasoned himself into believing that +the whole thing was a dream--or, if not a dream, he had better consider +it as such; but at the same time, as the dusk grew, a wild longing +swelled in his heart for its recurrence, and when the night came he +could not any longer control himself, and as he had done before he +wandered to the tree. + +The moon, one day beyond its first quarter, was growing brighter, and a +strange and mysterious shimmer was over everything as though the heat of +the day were rising to give welcome and fuse itself in the night. + +He was alone with the bird who throbbed from the copse, and as he sat in +the sublime stillness he fancied he saw some does peep forth. They were +there, of course, with their new-born fawns. + +But where was she, the nymph of the night? + +His heart ached, the longing grew intense until it was a mighty force. +He felt he could stride across the luminous park which separated them, +and scale the wall to the casement window of the long gallery, to clasp +her once more in his arms. And, as it is with all those beings who have +scorned and denied his power, Love was punishing him now by a complete +annihilation of his will. At last he buried his face in his hands; it +was almost agony that he felt. + +When he uncovered his eyes again he saw, far in the distance, a filmy +shadow. It seemed to be now real, and now a wraith, as it flitted from +tree to tree, but at last he knew it was real--it was she--Halcyone! He +started to his feet, and there stood waiting for her. + +She came with the gliding movement he now knew belonged in her dual +personality to the night. + +Her hair was all unbound, and her garment was white. + +All reason, all resolution left him. He held out his arms. + +"My love!" he cried. "I have waited for you--ah, so long!" + +And Halcyone allowed herself to be clasped next his heart, and then +drawn to the bench, where they sat down, blissfully content. + +They had such a number of things to tell one another about love. He who +had always scoffed at its existence was now eloquent in his explanation +of the mystery. And Halcyone, who had never had any doubts, put her +beautiful thoughts into words. Love meant everything--it was just he, +John Derringham. She was no more herself, but had come to dwell in him. + +She was tender and absolutely pure in her broad loyalty, concealing +nothing of her fondness, letting him see that if she were Mistress of +the Night, he was Master of her Soul. + +And the complete subservience of herself, the sublime transparency +without subterfuge of her surrender, appealed to everything of chivalry +which his nature held. + +"Since the beginning," she whispered, in that soft, sweet voice of hers +which seemed to him to be of the angels, "ever since the beginning, +John, when I was a little ignorant girl, it has always been you. You +were Jason and Theseus and Perseus. You were Sir Bors and Sir Percival +and Sir Lancelot. And I knew it was just waiting--Fate." + +"My sweet, my sweet," he murmured, kissing her hair. + +"And the time you came, when I was so ugly," she went on, "and so +overgrown--I was sad then, because I knew you would not like me. But the +winds and the night were good to me. I have grown, you see, so that I am +now more as you would wish, but everything has been for you from that +first day in the tree--our tree." + +That between two lovers the thing could be a game never entered her +brain. The thought that it might be wiser to watch moods and play on +this one or that, and conceal her feelings and draw him on with mystery, +could meet with no faintest understanding in her fond heart. + +She just loved him, and belonged to him, and that was the whole meaning +of heaven and earth. Any trick of calculation would have been a thousand +miles beneath her feet. And while he was there with her, clasping her +slender willowy form to his heart, John Derringham felt exalted. The +importance of his career dwindled, the imperative necessity of +possessing Halcyone for his very own augmented, until at last he +whispered in her ear as her little head lay there upon his breast: + +"Darling child, you must marry me at once--immediately--next week. We +will go through whatever is necessary at the registry-office, and then +you must come away with me and be my very own." + +"Of course," was all she said. + +"It is absolutely impossible that we could let anyone know about it at +present--even Cheiron--" he went on, a little hurriedly. "The +circumstances are such that I cannot publicly own you as my wife, +although it would be my glory so to do. I should have to give up my +whole career, because I have no money to keep a splendid home, which +would be your due. But I dare say these things do not matter to you any +more than they do to me. Is it so, sweet, darling child?" + +"How could they matter?" Halcyone whispered from the shelter of his +clasped arms. "Of what good would they be to me? I want to be with you +when you have time; I want to caress you when you are tired, and comfort +you, and inspire you, and love you, and bring you peace. How could the +world--which I do not know--matter to me? Are you not foolish to ask me +such questions, John!" + +"Very foolish, my divine one," he said, and forgot what more he would +have spoken in the delirium of a worshiping kiss. + +But presently he brought himself back to facts again. + +"Darling," he said, "I will find out exactly how everything can be +managed, and then you will meet me here, under this tree, and we will go +away together and be married, and for a week at least I will make the +time to stay with you, as your lover, and you shall be absolutely and +truly my sweetest wife." + +"Yes," said Halcyone, perfectly content. + +"And after that," he went on, "I will arrange that you stay somewhere +near me, so that every moment that I am free I can come back to the +loving glory of your arms." + +"I cannot think of any other heaven," the tender creature murmured. And +then she nestled closer, and her voice became dreamy. + +"This is what God means in everything," she whispered. "In the +Springtime, which is waiting for the Summer--in all the flowers and all +the trees. This is the secret the night has taught me from the very +beginning, when I first was able to spend the hours in her arms." + +Then this mystery of her knowledge of the night he had to probe; and she +told him, in old-world, romantic language, how she had discovered the +stairs and Aphrodite, and even of the iron-bound box which she had never +been able to move. + +"It contains some papers of that Sir Timothy, I expect," she said. "We +know by the date of the breastplate that it was when Cromwell sent his +Ironsides to search La Sarthe that he must have escaped through the door +and got to the coast; but he was drowned crossing to France, so no one +guessed or ever knew how he had got away--and I expect the secret of the +passage died with him, and I was the first one to find it." + +"Then what do you make of the goddess's head?" asked John Derringham. +"Was that his, too?" + +"Yes, I suppose so," she answered. "He was a great, grand seigneur--we +know of that--and had traveled much in Italy when a young man, and +stayed at Florence especially. He married a relative of the Medici +belonging to some female branch, and he is even said to have been to +Greece; but in the court of the Grand Duke of Tuscany he would certainly +have learned to appreciate the divine beauty of Aphrodite. He must have +brought her from there as well as the Hebe and Artemis, which are not +nearly so good. They stand in the hall--but they say nothing to me." + +"It would be interesting to know what the papers are about," John +Derringham went on. "We must look at them together some day when you are +my wife." + +"Yes," said Halcyone, and thrilled at the thought. + +"So it was through the solid masonry you disappeared last night? No +wonder, sprite, that I believed I was dreaming! Why did you fly from me? +Why?" + +"It was too great, too glorious to take all at once," she said, and with +a sudden shyness she buried her face in his coat. + +"My darling sweet one," he murmured, drawing her to him, passion flaming +once more. "I could have cried madly"--and he quoted in Greek: + +/$ + "Wilt them fly me and deny me? + By thine own joy I vow, + By the grape upon the bough, + Thou shalt seek me in the midnight, thou shalt love me even now." +$/ + +Mr. Carlyon had not restricted Halcyone's reading: she knew it was from +the "Bacchæ" of Euripides, and answered: + +"Ah, yes, and, you see, I have sought you in the midnight, and I am +here, and I love you--even now!" + +After that, for a while they both seemed to fall into a dream of bliss. +They spoke not, they just sat close together, his arms encircling her, +her head upon his breast; and thus they watched the first precursors of +dawn streak the sky and, looking up, found the stars had faded. + +Halcyone started to her feet. + +"Ah! I must go, dear lover," she said, "though it will only be for some +few hours." + +But John Derringham held her two hands, detaining her. + +"I will make all the arrangements in these next few days," he said. "I +am going to Wendover for Whitsuntide. I will get away from there, +though, and come across the park and meet you, darling, here at our +tree, and we will settle exactly what to do and when to go." + +Then, after a last fond, sweet embrace, he let her leave him, and +watched her as she glided away among the giant trees, until she was out +of sight, a wild glory in his heart. + +For love, when he wins after stress, leaves no room but for gladness in +his worshiper's soul. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + + +It was John Derringham who was taciturn next morning, not the Professor! + +The light of day has a most sobering effect, and while still exalted in +a measure by all the strong forces of love, he was enabled to review +worldly events with a clearer eye, and could realize very well that he +was going to take a step which would not have a forwarding impetus upon +his career, even if it proved to be not one of retrogression. + +He must give up the thought of using a rich wife as an advancement; but +then, on the other hand, he would gain a companion whose divine +sweetness would be an ennobling inspiration. + +How he could ever have deceived himself in regard to his feelings he +wondered now, for he saw quite plainly that he had been drifting into +loving her from the first moment he had seen her that Good Friday +morning, the foundations having been laid years before, on the day in +the tree. + +He felt rather uncomfortable about his old master, who he knew would not +approve of any secret union with Halcyone. Not that Cheiron would reck +much of conventionalities, or care in the least if it were a marriage at +a registry-office or not, but he would certainly resent any aspect of +the case which would seem to put a slight upon his much-loved protégée +or place her in a false position. + +He would tell him nothing about it until it was an accomplished fact and +Halcyone was his wife--then they would let him into the secret. + +All the details of what she would have to say to her aunts in her letter +of farewell on leaving them would have to be thought out, too, so that +no pursuit or inopportune prying into the truth would be the +consequence. + +Of any possibility of her stepfather's ultimate interference he did not +think, not knowing that she had even any further connection with him. To +satisfy in some way the ancient aunts was all that appeared a necessity. +And that was difficult enough. He had certainly undertaken no easy task, +but he did not regret his decision. The first and only strong passion he +had ever known was mastering him. + +But there was yet one more unpleasant aspect to face--that was the +situation regarding Mrs. Cricklander. He had assuredly not committed +himself or even acted very unfairly to her. She had been playing a game +as he had been. He did not flatter himself that she really loved +him--now that he knew what love meant--and her ambition could be +gratified elsewhere; but there remained the fact that he was engaged to +stay with her for Whitsuntide, and whether to do so, and plainly show +her that he had meant nothing and only intended to be a friend, or +whether to throw the visit over, and go to London, returning just to +fetch Halcyone about Wednesday, he could not quite decide. + +Which would be the best thing to do? It worried him--but not for long, +because indecision was not, as a rule, one of his characteristics, and +he soon made up his mind to the former course. + +He would go to Wendover on Saturday, as was arranged, take pains to +disabuse his hostess's mind of any illusion upon the subject of his +intentions, and, having run over to Bristol this afternoon to give +notice to the registrar and procure the license, he would leave with the +other guests on the Tuesday, after lunch, having sent his servant up to +London in the morning to be out of the way. + +Then he would sleep that night in Upminster, getting his servant to +leave what luggage he required there--it was the junction for the main +line to London, and so that would be easy. A motor could be hired, and +in it, on the Wednesday, he would come to the oak avenue gate, as that +was far at the other side of the park upon the western road; there he +would arrange that Halcyone should be waiting for him with some small +box, and they would go over to Bristol, be married, and then go on to a +romantic spot he knew of in Wales, and there spend a week of bliss! + +By the time he got thus far in his meditations he felt intoxicated +again, and Mr. Carlyon, who was watching him as he sat there in his +chair reading the _Times_ opposite him, wondered what made him suddenly +clasp his hands and draw in his breath and smile in that idiotic way +while he gazed into space! + +Then there would be the afterwards. Of course, that would be blissful, +too. Oh! if he could only claim her before all the world how glorious it +would be--but for the present that was hopeless, and at all events her +life with him would not be more retired than the one of monotony which +she led at La Sarthe Chase, and would have his tenderest love to +brighten it. He would take a tiny house for her somewhere--one of those +very old-fashioned ones shut in with a garden still left in Chelsea, +near the Embankment--and there he would spend every moment of his spare +time, and try to make up to her for her isolation. Well arranged, the +world need not know of this--Halcyone would never be _exigeante_--or if +it did develop a suspicion, ministers before his day had been known to +have had--_chères amies_. + +But as this thought came he jumped from his chair. It was, when faced in +a concrete fashion, hideously unpalatable as touching his pure, fair +star. + +"You are rather restless to-day, John," the Professor said, as his old +pupil went hastily towards the open window and looked out. + +"Yes," said John Derringham. "It is going to rain, and I must go to +Bristol this afternoon. I have to see a man on business." + +Cheiron's left penthouse went up into his forehead. + +"Matters complicating?" was all he said. + +"Yes, the very devil," responded John Derringham. + +"Beginning to feel the noose already, poor lad?" + +"Er--no, not exactly," and he turned round. "But I don't quite know what +I ought to do about her--Mrs. Cricklander." + +"A question of honor?" + +"I suppose so." + +The Professor grunted, and then chuckled. + +"A man's honor towards a woman lasts as long as his love. When that +goes, it goes with it--to the other woman." + +"You cynic!" said John Derringham. + +"It is the truth, my son. A man's point of view of such things shifts +with his inclinations, and if other people are not likely to know, he +does not experience any qualms in thinking of the woman's feelings--it +is only of what the world will think of _him_ if it finds him out. +Complete cowards, all of us!" + +John Derringham frowned. He hated to know this was true. + +"Well, I am not going to marry Mrs. Cricklander, Master," he announced +after a while. + +"I am very glad to hear it," Cheiron said heartily. "I never like to see +a fine ship going upon the rocks. All your vitality would have been +drawn out of you by those octopus arms." + +"I do not agree with you in the least about any of those points," John +Derringham said stiffly. "I have the highest respect for Mrs. +Cricklander--but I can't do it." + +"Well, you can thank whichever of your stars has brought you to this +conclusion," growled the Professor. "I suppose I'll pull through somehow +financially," the restless visitor went on, pacing the floor--"anyway, +for a few years; there may be something more to be squeezed out of +Derringham. I must see." + +"Well, if you are not marrying that need not distress you," Cheiron +consoled him with. "Those things only matter if a man has a son." + +John Derringham stopped abruptly in his walk and looked at his old +master. + +His words gave him a strange twinge, but he crushed it down, and went on +again: + +"It is a curse, this want of money," he said. "It makes a man do base +things that his soul revolts against." And then, in his restless moving, +he absently picked up a volume of Aristotle, and his eye caught this +sentence: "The courageous man therefore faces danger and performs acts +of courage for the sake of what is noble." + +And what did an honorable man do? But this question he would not go +further into. + +"You were out very late last night, John," Mr. Carlyon said presently. +"I left this window open for you on purpose. The garden does one good +sometimes. You were not lonely, I hope?" + +"No," said John Derringham; but he would not look at his old master, for +he knew very well he should see a whimsical sparkle in his eyes. + +Mr. Carlyon, of course, must be aware of Halcyone's night wandering +proclivities. And if there had been nothing to conceal John Derringham +would have liked to have sat down now and rhapsodized all about his +darling to his old friend, who adored her, too, and knew and appreciated +all her points. He felt bitterly that Fate had not been as kind to him +as she might have been. However, there was nothing for it, so he turned +the conversation and tried to make himself grow as interested in a +question of foreign policy as he would have been able to be, say, a year +ago. And then he went out for a walk. + +And Cheiron sat musing in his chair, as was his habit. + +"The magnet of her soul is drawing his," he said to himself. "Well, now +that this has begun to work, we must leave things to Fate." + +But he did not guess how passion on the one side and complete love and +trust upon the other were precipitously forcing Fate's hand. + +The possibility of John Derringham's sending a message to Halcyone was +very slender. The post was out of the question--she probably never got +any letters, and the arrival of one in a man's handwriting would no +doubt be the cause of endless comment in the household. The foolishness +had been not to make a definite appointment with her when they had +parted before dawn. But they had been too overcome with love to think of +anything practical in those last moments, and now the only thing would +be for him to go again to-night to the tree, and hope that she would +meet him there. But the sky was clouding over, and rain looked quite +ready to fall. As a last resource he could send Demetrius--his own valet +he would not have trusted a yard. + +The rain kept off for his journey to Bristol, and his business was got +through with rapidity. And if the registrar did connect the name of John +Derringham, barrister-at-law, of the Temple, London, with John +Derringham, the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, he was a +man of discretion and said nothing about it. + +It was quite late when Mr. Carlyon's guest returned to his +roof--cross-country trains were so tiresome--and it had just begun to +pour with rain, so there was no use expecting that Halcyone would be +there by the tree. And bed, with a rather feverish sensation of +disappointment, seemed John Derringham's portion. + +Halcyone had passed a day of happy tranquillity. She was of that godlike +calm which frets not, believing always that only good could come to her, +and that, as she heard nothing from her lover, it was because--which was +indeed the truth--he was arranging for their future. If it had been fine +she had meant to go to the tree, but as it rained she went quietly to +her room, and let her Priscilla brush her hair for an hour, while she +stared in the old dark glass, seeing not her own pale and exquisite +face, but all sorts of pictures of future happiness. That she must not +tell her old nurse, for the moment, of her good fortune was her one +crumpled rose-leaf, but she had arranged that when she went she would +post a letter at once to her, and Priscilla would, of course, join her +in London, or wherever it was John Derringham would decide that she +should live. The thought of leaving her aunts did not so much trouble +her. The ancient ladies had never made her their companion or encouraged +her to have a single interest in common with them. She was even doubtful +if they would really miss her, so little had they ever taken her into +their lives. For them she was still the child to be kept in her place, +however much she had tried to grow a little nearer. Then her thoughts +turned back to ways and means. + +She so often spent the whole day with Cheiron that her absence would not +be remarked upon until bedtime. But then she suddenly remembered, with a +feeling of consternation, that the Professor intended to leave on the +Tuesday in Whitsun week for his annual fortnight in London. If the +household knew of this, it might complicate matters, and was a pity. +However, there was no use speculating about any of these things, since +she did not yet know on which day she was to start--to start for +Paradise--as the wife of her Beloved! + +Next morning it was fine again, and she decided she would go towards +their tree, and if John were not there, she would even go on to the +orchard house, because she realized fully the difficulty he would find +in sending her a message. + +But he was there waiting for her, in the bright sunlight, and she +thought him the perfection of what a man should look in his well-cut +gray flannels. + +John Derringham knew how to dress himself, and had even in his oldest +clothes that nameless, indescribable distinction which seems often to be +the birthright of Englishmen of his class. + +The daylight made her timid again; she was no more the imperious goddess +of the night. It was a shy and tender little maiden who nestled into the +protecting strong arms of her lover. + +He told her all his plans: how he had given notice for the license, and +that it would be forthcoming. And he explained that he had chosen +Bristol rather than Upminster because in this latter place everyone +would know the name of La Sarthe--even the registrar's clerk and whoever +else they would secure as a witness--but in Bristol it might pass +unnoticed. + +They discussed what should be done about Cheiron and the old ladies, and +decided that when to apprise the former of their marriage must be left +to John's discretion; and as Halcyone would not be missed until the +evening, they would simply send two telegrams from Bristol in the late +afternoon, one to Miss La Sarthe and one to Priscilla, the former +briefly to announce that Halcyone was quite safe and was writing, and +the latter asking her old nurse not to let the old ladies feel worried, +and promising a letter to her, also. + +"Then," John Derringham said, "you will be my wife by that time, +sweetheart, and you will tell your aunts the truth, ask them to keep our +secret, and say that you will return to them often, so that they shall +not be lonely. We will write it between us, darling, and I do not think +they will give us away." + +"Never," returned Halcyone, while she looked rather wistfully towards +the house. "They are too proud." + +He dropped her hand for an instant; the unconscious inference of this +speech made him wince. She understood, then, that she was going to do +something which her old kinswomen would think was a hurt to their pride, +and so would be silent over it in consequence. And yet she did not +hesitate. She must indeed love him very much. + +A tremendous wave of emotion surged through him, and he looked at her +with reverence and worship. And for one second his own part of utter +selfishness flashed into his understanding, so that he asked, with +almost an anxious note in his deep, assured voice: + +"You are not afraid, sweetheart, to come away--for all the rest of your +life--alone with me?" + +And often in the after days of anguish there would come back to him the +memory of her eyes, to tear his heart with agony in the +night-watches--her pure, true eyes, with all her fresh, untarnished soul +looking out of them into his as they glistened with love and faith. + +"Afraid?" she said. "How should I be afraid--since you are my lord and I +am your love? Do we not belong to one another?" + +"Oh, my dear," he said, as he folded her to his heart in wild, +worshiping passion, "God keep you always safe, here in my arms." + +And if she had known it, for the first time in his life there were tears +in John Derringham's proud eyes. For he knew now he had found her--the +one woman with a soul. + +Then they parted, when every smallest detail was settled, for she had +promised to help Miss Roberta with a new design for her embroidery, and +he had promised to join Mrs. Cricklander's party for an early lunch. +They intended to make an excursion to see the ruins of Graseworth Tower +in the afternoon. + +"And indeed we can bear the separation now, my darling," he said, +"because we shall both know that we must go through only four more days +before we are together--for always!" + +But even so it seemed as if they could not tear themselves apart, and +when he did let her go he strode after her again and pleaded for one +more kiss. + +"There!" she whispered, smiling while her eyes half filled with mist. +"This tree is forever sacred to us. John, it is listening now when I +tell you once more that I love you." + +And then she fled. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + + +When once John Derringham had definitely made up his mind to any course +in life, he continued in it with decision and skill, and carried off the +situation with a high-handed assurance. Thus he felt no qualms of +awkwardness in meeting Mrs. Cricklander and treating her with an +enchanting ease and friendliness which was completely disconcerting. She +had no _casus belli_; she could not find fault with his manner or his +words, and yet she was left with the blank conviction that her hopes in +regard to him were over. She despised men in her heart because, as a +rule, she was able to calculate with certainty every move in her games +with them. Feeling no slightest passion, her very mediocre intellect +proved often more than a match for the cleverest. But her supreme belief +in herself now received a heavy blow. She was never so near to loving +John Derringham as during this Whitsuntide when she felt she had lost +him. Cora Lutworth once said of her: + +"Cis is one of the happiest women in the world, because when she looks +in the glass in the morning she never sees anything but herself, and is +perfectly content. Most of us find shadows peeping over our shoulders of +what we would like to be." + +Arabella found her employer extremely trying during the Saturday and +Sunday, and was almost in tears when she wrote to her mother. + + Mr. Derringham has plainly determined not to be ensnared yet. If this + did not render M. E. so difficult to please, the situation would be + very instructive to watch. And I am not even now certain whether he + will escape eventually, because her whole pride in herself is roused + and she will stick at nothing. I have a shrewd suspicion as to what + has caused the change in his feelings and intentions towards M. E., + but I have not imparted my ideas to her, since doing so might do no + good, and would in some way certainly injure an innocent person. As + yet I believe she is unaware of this person's existence. We have done + everything we can for Mr. Derringham with the most erudite + conversation. I have been up half of the night ascertaining facts + upon all sorts of classical subjects, as that seems to be more than + ever the bent of his mind in these last two visits. (I am given to + understand from other sources that the person of whom I made mention + above is a highly-trained Greek scholar and of exceptional refinement + and cultivation, so that may be the reason.) The strain of preparing + M. E. for these talks and then my anxiety when, at meals or after + them, I hear her upon the brink of some fatal mistake, has caused me + to have most unpleasant headaches, and really, if it were not so + modern and silly a phrase, I should say the thing was getting on my + nerves. However, all the interesting guests are leaving on Tuesday + afternoon. Mr. Derringham, I understand from what he said to me, + intends to go over to his old master, Professor Carlyon's, and catch + a later train from there, but M. E. does not know this, and I have + not felt it my duty to inform her of it, because it might involve + some awkwardness connected with the person about whom I have already + given you a hint. I must close now, as I have some facts to look up + concerning the worship of Dionysus which M. E. is going to bring in + to-night. It was only yesterday I told her who he was, and I had the + greatest difficulty to get her to understand he was Bacchus as well, + as she had learned of him when younger under that name as the God of + Drunkards, and did not consider him a very nice person to mention. + But Mr. Derringham held forth upon the rude Thracian Dionysus last + night and the fundamental spirituality of his original cult, and so + she felt it might seem rather _bourgeois_ to be shocked, and has + committed to memory as well as she can some facts to-day. + +It will be seen from Miss Clinker's frank letter to her parent that Mrs. +Cricklander was leaving no stone unturned to gain her object, and such +praiseworthy toil deserves the highest commendation. + +John Derringham, meanwhile, having successfully smoothed matters to his +own satisfaction, felt at liberty to dream in his spare moments of his +love. He already began to wonder how he had ever felt any emotion +towards the fair Cecilia--she was perfectly charming, but left him as +cold as ice! + +And so at last the good-bys were said, and he got into the motor with +some of the other guests, ostensibly for the station, but in reality to +get out at the Lodge gates upon the pretense of going to see the +Professor. He intended, instead of this, to cross the haw-haw and +reconnoiter upon the hope of meeting his beloved, because there was no +necessity for him to spend a dull afternoon in Upminster when perhaps +some more agreeable hours could be snatched under the tree. He had +attended to every point, he believed, even having written a letter to +Cheiron which he had taken the precaution to give to his servant to post +from London on the following morning, so that there would be no Bristol +mark as a clew to their whereabouts. In this he merely stated that when +his old master would receive it Halcyone would be his wife, and that for +a time they had decided to keep the marriage secret, and he hoped his +old master would understand and sympathize. + +The only qualm of any sort he experienced during these three days was +when he was composing this letter, so he finished it quickly and did not +even read it over. And now, as he strode across the Wendover park, it +was safe in his servant's pocket and would be despatched duly next day. +He was unaware of the fact that Mr. Carlyon had left for London by a +morning train. + +As he came within view of the haw-haw, he saw in the far distance +Halcyone just flitting towards the beech avenue gate, and in his intense +haste to catch her up before she should get too near the house, he +removed the bricks very carelessly, not even remarking that one, and the +most important, was disposed of in such a manner that the spike left +beneath would not bear his weight. + +He had got thus far, his eyes fixed upon the slender white figure +rapidly disappearing from his view, when with a tremendous crash his +foothold gave way and he fell with fearful force into the ditch beneath, +his head striking one of the fallen bricks. And after that, all things +were blank and his soul wandered into shadowland and tasted of the pains +of death. + + * * * * * + +From the first break of day on that Tuesday when Halcyone awoke she was +conscious that some sorrow was near her. Every sense of hers, every +instinct, so highly trained by her years of communion with Nature seemed +always to warn her of coming events. + +She was restless--a state of being quite at variance with her usual +calm. The air was sultry and, though no rain fell, ominous clouds +gathered and faint thunder pealed afar off. + +"What is it? What is it, God?" she asked of the sky. But no answer came, +and at last she went out into the park and towards the tree. She had +made all her simple preparations--everything that she must take had been +put into a small bag and was safely waiting in the secret passage, ready +for her to fetch on the morrow. + +Cheiron, she knew, had gone to London. Had they not said good-by on the +evening before? And his last words had made her smile happily at the +time. + +"Things are changing, Halcyone," he had said, with the whimsical raising +of his left penthouse brow. "Perhaps you will not want to learn Greek +much longer with your crabbed old Cheiron in his cave." + +And she had flung her arms round his neck and buried her face in his +silver beard, and assured him she would always want to learn--all her +life. But now she felt a twinge of sadness--she would indeed miss him, +her dear old master, and he, too, would be lonely without her. Then she +fought with herself. Feelings of depression were never permitted to stay +for a moment, and she looked away into the trees for comfort--but only a +deathly stillness and a sullen roll of distant thunder answered, and +left her uncomforted. + +And then some force stronger than her will seemed to drive her back to +the house, and to the long gallery, and just at the very moment when she +had passed beyond her lover's sight it was as if something chased her, +so that she ran the last few yards, and paused not until she stood in +front of Aphrodite's shrine. + +It would be difficult to carry the marble head with the other few things +she proposed to take, but none the less was the necessity imperative. +She could not be married without the presence of her beloved mother to +bless her. + +As she lifted her goddess out, with her silken wrappings, the first +flash of the nearing storm lit up the dark room with lurid flame. + +Halcyone shivered. It was the one aspect of Nature with which she was +out of harmony. When thunder rolled and lightning quivered, her vitality +seemed to desert her and she experienced what in her came nearest to +fear. + +"Ah! someone has angered God greatly," she whispered aloud; and then she +carried the head to the secret door, knowing full well she would be +unwatched in her entry there--on such a day, with thunder pealing, not a +servant would have ventured into the long gallery. + +Another and louder rumble reached her with muffled sound, as she made +her way in the dark underground, and as she came to the place where +there was the contrived gleam of light and outer air, the lightning +turned the narrow space into a green dusk. + +Halcyone was trembling all over, and when she had put her precious +bundle safely into the bag with the rest of her simple preparations, she +laid it on the iron-bound box which had never been stirred, all ready +for her to lift up and take with her in the morning. Then she ran back, +cold and pale, and hastily sought Priscilla in her own room, and talked +long to her of old days, glad indeed to hear a human voice, until +presently the rain began to pour in torrents and the storm cried itself +out. + +But with each crash before this came her heart gave a bound, as if in +pain. And a wild longing grew in her for the morrow and safety in her +lover's arms. + +And he--alas! that hapless lover!--was lying there in the haw-haw, with +broken ankle and damaged head, half recovering consciousness in the +pouring rain, but unable to stir or climb from his low bed, or even to +cry aloud enough to make anyone hear him. And so at last the night came, +and the pure moonlight, and when her usual evening duties were over with +her aunts, Halcyone was free to go to bed. + +She opened her window wide, but she did not seek to wander in the wet +park. John would not be there, and she must rest, so as to be fair for +him when tomorrow they should start on life's sweet journey--together. + +But her heart was not quiet. All her prayers and pure thoughts seemed to +bring no peace, and even when, after a while, she fell into a sleep, it +was still troubled. + +And thus the day dawned that was to have seen her wedding! + +She told herself that the dull, sullen oppression she awoke with was the +result of the storm in the night, and with firm determination she +banished all she could of heaviness, and got through her usual +avocations until the moment came for her to start for the oak avenue +gate. She timed her arrival to be exactly at ten o'clock so that she +need not wait, as this of the three outlets was the one where there +might be a less remote chance of a passer-by. They had had to choose it +because it was on the road to Bristol. + +The sun was shining gorgeously again when she emerged from the secret +door, carrying her heavy bundle, and except in the renewed freshness of +all the green there seemed no trace of the storm. Yes--as she got near +the gate she saw that one huge tree beyond that old friend who had +played the part of the holder of the Golden Fleece was stricken and +cleft through by the lightning. It had fallen in helpless fashion, +blackened and yawning, its proud head in the dust. + +This grieved her deeply, and she paused to pass a tender hand over the +gaping wound. Then she went on to the gate, and there waited--waited +first in calm belief, then in expectancy, and at last in a numb agony. + +The sun seemed to scorch her, the light hurt her eyes, every sound made +her tremble and start forward, and at last she cried aloud: + +"O God, why do I feel so troubled? I who have always had peace in my +heart!" + +But no bird even answered her. There was a warm stillness, and just +there, under these trees, there were no rabbits which could have +comforted her with their living forms scuttling to and fro. + +She tried to reason calmly. Motors were uncertain things--this one might +have broken down, and that had delayed her lover. She must not stir, in +case he should come and think his lateness had frightened her and that +she had gone back to the house. Whatever befell, she must be brave and +true. + +But at last, when the afternoon shadows were lengthening, the agony +became intense. Only the baker had passed with his cart, and a farm +wagon or two, during the whole day. Gradually the conviction grew that +it could not only be an accident to the motor--if so, John would have +procured some other vehicle, or, indeed, he could have come to her on +foot by now. Something had befallen him. There must have occurred some +accident to himself; and in spite of all her calm fortitude, anguish +clutched her soul. + +She knew not what to do or which way to go. At last, as the sun began to +sink, faint and weary, she decided the orchard house would be the best +place. There, if there was any news of an accident, Sarah Porrit, the +Professor's one female servant, would have heard it. + +She started straight across the park, carrying her heavy bag, and +crossed the beech avenue, and so on to the trysting tree. A cold feeling +like some extra disquietude seemed to overcome her as she neared the +haw-haw and the copse. It was as if she feared and yet longed to get +there. But she resisted the temptation, and went straight on to the +little gate and so up the garden to the house. + +Mrs. Porrit received her with her usual kindly greeting. All was calm +and peaceful, and while Halcyone controlled herself to talk in an +ordinary voice, the postman's knock was heard. He passed the Professor's +door on the road to Applewood and left the evening mail, when there +chanced to be any. + +Mrs. Porrit received the letters--three of them--and then she adjusted +her spectacles, but took them off again. + +"After all, since you are here, miss, perhaps as you write better than I +you will be so good as to redirect them on to the master. You know his +address, as usual." And she named an old-fashioned hotel in Jermyn +Street. + +Halcyone took them in her cold, trembling fingers, and then nearly +dropped them on the floor, for the top envelope was addressed in the +handwriting of her beloved! She knew it well. Had she not, during the +past years, often seen such missives, from which the Professor had read +her scraps of news? + +She carried it to the light and scrutinized the postmark. It was +"London," and posted that very morning early! + +For a moment all was a blank, and she found herself grasping the back of +Cheiron's big chair to prevent herself from falling. + +John had been in London at the moment when she was waiting by the tree! +What mystery was here? + +At first the feeling was one of passionate relief. There had been no +accident, then; he had been obliged to go--there would be some +explanation forthcoming. Perhaps he had even written to her, too--and +she gave a bound forward, as though to run back to La Sarthe Chase. But +then she recollected the evening postman did not come to the house, and +they got no letters as Cheiron did, who was on the road. Hers could not +be there until the morning--she must wait patiently and see. + +With consummate self-control she made her voice sound natural as she +said, "Oh, I am so late, Mrs. Porrit. I must go," and, bidding the woman +a gracious good evening, walked rapidly to the house. A telegram might +have come for her, and she had been out all day. What if her aunts had +opened it! + +This thought made her quicken her pace so that at last she arrived at +the terrace breathless with running; and having deposited her bag in +safety, she came out again from the secret passage and got hastily to +the house. + +But there was no sign of a telegram in the hall, and she mounted to find +Priscilla in her room, which she discovered to be in great disorder, her +few clothes lying about on every available space. + +"Oh, my lamb, where have you been?" the elderly woman exclaimed. "At +four o'clock who should come in a fly from the Applewood station but +your step-father's wife! She was staying at Upminster, and says she +thought she would come over and see you--and now it's settled that we go +back with her to London to-morrow. Think of it, my lamb! You and me to +see the world!" Then she cried in fear: "My precious, what is it?" + +For Halcyone, overwrought and overcome, had staggered to a chair and, +falling into it, had buried her face in her hands. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + + +Mrs. James Anderton was seated in the Italian parlor with the two +ancient hostesses when Halcyone at last came into their midst. They had +evidently exhausted all possible topics of conversation and were +extremely glad of an interruption. + +Miss La Sarthe had been growing more and more annoyed at her +great-niece's lengthy absence, while Miss Roberta felt so nervous she +would like to have sniffed at her vinaigrette, but, alas! the stern eye +of her sister was upon her and she dared not. + +Mrs. James Anderton--good, worthy woman--had not passed an agreeable +afternoon either. She felt herself hopelessly out of tune with the two +old ladies, whose exquisitely reserved polished manners disconcerted +her. + +She had been made to feel--most delicately, it is true, but still +unmistakably--that she had committed a breach of taste in thus +descending upon La Sarthe Chase unannounced. And instead of the +sensation of complacent importance which she usually enjoyed when among +her own friends and acquaintances, she was experiencing a depressed +sense of being a very small personage indeed. + +Her highly colored comely face was very hot and flushed and she rather +restlessly played with her parasol handle. Miss La Sarthe's voice grew a +little acid as she said: + +"This is our great-niece, Halcyone La Sarthe, Mrs. Anderton"--and +then--"It is unfortunate that you should have been so long absent, +child." + +"I am very sorry," Halcyone returned gently, and she shook hands. She +made no excuse or explanation. + +Mrs. Anderton plunged into important matters at once. + +"Your father, Mr. Anderton"--how that word "father" jarred upon +Halcyone's sensitive ears!--"wished me to come and see you, dear, and +hopes you will return with me to-morrow to London, for a little visit to +us, that you may make the acquaintance of your brother and sisters." + +Halcyone had already made up her mind what to do, before she had left +her room. She would agree to anything they suggested in order to have no +obstacles put in her way--not admitting for a moment that these people +had any authority over her. Then, if in the morning she received a +letter from her Beloved, she would follow its instructions implicitly. +Always having at hand her certain mode of disappearance, she could slip +away, and if it seemed necessary, just leave them to think what they +pleased. Priscilla would be warned to allay at once the anxiety of her +aunts, and for the Andertons she was far too desperate to care what they +might feel. + +"Thank you; it is very good of you," she said as graciously as she +could. "My old nurse has told me of your kind invitation, and is already +beginning the preparations. I trust you left Mr. Anderton and my +stepbrother and sisters well?" + +"Hoity-toity!" thought Louisa Anderton. "Of the same sort as the old +spinsters. This won't please James, I fear!" But aloud she answered that +the family were all well, and that James Albert, who was thirteen now, +would soon be going to Eton. + +Over Halcyone, in spite of her numbness and the tension she was feeling, +though controlled by her firm will, there came the memory of the red, +crying baby, for whose life her own sweet mother had paid so dear a +price. And Mabel and Ethel--noisy, merry little girls!--she had thought +of them so seldom in these latter years--they seemed as far-off shadows +now. But James Anderton and her mother stood out sharp and clear. + +The strain and anguish of the day had left her very pale. Mrs. Anderton +thought her plain and most uncomfortably aloof; she really regretted +that she had put into her husband's head the idea of giving this +invitation. He would gladly have left Halcyone alone, but for her kindly +thought. Mabel was just seventeen, and such a handful that her father +had decided she should stay in the schoolroom with her sister for +another year, and Mrs. Anderton had felt it would be a good opportunity +for Halcyone to rejoin the family circle at a time when her presence, if +she proved good-looking, could not in any way interfere with her +stepsister's debut. + +And here, instead of being overcome with gratitude and excitement, this +cold, quiet girl was taking it all as quite an ordinary circumstance. No +wonder she, Louisa Anderton, felt aggrieved. + +They had hardly time for any more words, for Mrs. Anderton had already +put off her departure by the seven-twenty train from Applewood to +Upminster on purpose to wait for Halcyone, and now proposed to catch the +one at nine o'clock--her fly still waited in the courtyard--and they +made rapid arrangements. Halcyone, accompanied by Priscilla, was to meet +her the next day at the Upminster junction at eleven o'clock, and they +would journey to London together. + +And all the while Halcyone was agreeing to this she was thinking, if in +the improbable circumstance that she should get no letter in the +morning, it would be wiser to go to London. There was her Cheiron, who +would help her to get news. But of course she would hear, and all would +be well. + +Thus she was enabled to unfreeze a little to her stepfather's wife, who, +as they said good-by at the creaking fly's door, felt some of her soft +charm. + +"Perhaps she is shy," she said to herself as she rolled towards the +station. "Anyway, it is restful, after Mabel's laying down the law." + +That night Halcyone took her goddess to the little summer house upon the +second terrace. + +"If I start with John to-morrow, my sweet," she said, "you will come +with me as I have promised you. But if I must go to that great, restless +city, to find him, then you will wait for me here--safe in your secret +home." And then she looked out over the misty clover-grown pleasance to +the country beyond bathed in brilliant moonlight. And something in the +beauty of it stilled the wild ache in her heart. She would not admit +into her thoughts the least fear, but some unexplained, unconquerable +apprehension stayed in her innermost soul. She knew, only she refused to +face the fact, that all was not well. + +Of doubt as to John Derringham's intentions towards her, or his love, +she had none, but there were forces she knew which were strong and could +injure people, and with all her fearlessness of them, they might have +been capable of causing some trouble to her lover--her lover who was +ignorant of such things. + +She stayed some time looking at the beautiful moonlit country, and +saying her prayers to that God Who was her eternal friend, and then she +got up to steal noiselessly to bed. + +But as she was opening the secret door, to have one more look at the +sky, after she had replaced Aphrodite in the bag, it seemed as though +her lover's voice called her in anguish through the night: "Halcyone!" +and again, "Halcyone! My love!" + +She stopped, petrified with emotion, and then rushed back onto the +terrace. But all was silence; and, wild with some mad fear, she set off +hurriedly, never stopping until she came to their trysting tree. But +here there was silence also, only the nightingale throbbed from the +copse, while the faint rustle of soft zephyrs disturbed the leaves. + +And Jeb Hart and his comrade saw the tall white figure from their +hiding-place in the low overgrown brushwood, and Gubbs crossed himself +again, for whether she were living or some wraith they were never really +sure. + +At the moment when Halcyone opened the secret door, John Derringham was +just recovering consciousness in a luxurious bed at Wendover Park, +whither he had been carried when accidentally found by the keepers in +their rounds about eight o'clock. It was several days since they had +visited this part of the park, and they had lit upon him by a fortunate +chance. He had lain there in the haw-haw, unconscious all that day, +while his poor little lady-love waited for him at the oak gate, and was +now in a sorry plight indeed, as Arabella Clinker bent over him, +awaiting anxiously the verdict of the doctors who had been fetched by +motor from Upminster. Would he live or die? + +Her employer had had a bad attack of nerves upon hearing of the +accident, and was now reclining upon her boudoir sofa, quite prostrated +and in a high state of agitation until she should know the worst--or +best. + +Arabella listened intently. Surely the patient was whispering something? +Yes, she caught the words. + +"Halcyone!" he murmured, and again, "Halcyone--my love!" and then he +closed his eyes once more. + +He would live, the physicians said after some hours of doubt--with very +careful nursing. But the long exposure in the wet, twenty-four hours at +least, with that wound in the head and the broken ankle, was a very +serious matter, and absolute quiet and the most highly skilled attention +would be necessary. + +It was Arabella who made all the sensible, kind arrangements that night, +and herself sat up with the poor suffering patient until the nurses +could come. But it was Mrs. Cricklander who, dignified and composed, +received the doctors after the consultation with Sir Benjamin Grant next +day, before the celebrated surgeon left for London, and she made her +usual good impression upon the great man. + +That the local lights thought far more highly of Arabella did not +matter. Mrs. Cricklander was wise enough to know, it is upon the exalted +that a good effect must be produced. + +"And, you are sure, Sir Benjamin, that he will get quite well?" she said +tenderly, allowing her handsome eyes to melt upon the surgeon's face. +"It matters enormously to me, you know." Then she looked down. + +Thus appealed to, Sir Benjamin felt he must give her all the assurance +he could. + +"Perfectly, dear lady," he said, pressing her soft hand in sympathy. "He +is young and strong, and fortunately it has not touched his brain. But +it will take time and gentlest nursing, which you will see, of course, +that he gets." + +"Indeed, yes," the fair Cecilia said. And when they were all gone, she +summoned Arabella. + +"You will let me know, Arabella, every minute change in him," she +commanded, "especially when he seems conscious. And you will tell him +how I am watching over him and doing everything for him. I can't bear +sick people--they upset my nerves, and I just can't stand them. But the +moment he is all right enough to see me so that it won't bore me, I'll +come. You understand? Now I must really have a trional and get some +rest." + +And when she was alone she went deliberately to the glass and smiled +radiantly to herself as she whispered aloud: + +"So he isn't going to die or be an idiot. In a few years he can still be +Prime Minister. And I have got him now, as sure as fate!" + +Then she closed her mouth with that firm snap Arabella knew so well, +and, swallowing her sleeping draught, she composed herself for a +peaceful siesta. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + + +It required all Halcyone's fortitude to act the part of unconcern which +was necessary after the post had come in and no letter for herself had +arrived. The only possibility of getting through the time until she +should reach London, and be able to communicate with Cheiron would, be +resolutely to forbid her thoughts from turning in any speculative +direction. _She knew_ nothing but good could come to her--was she not +protected from all harm by every strong force of the night winds, the +beautiful stars and the God Who owned them all? Therefore it followed +that this seeming disaster to her happiness must be only a temporary +thing, and if she bore it calmly it would soon pass. Or, even if it +delayed, there was the analogy of the winter which for more than four +months of the year numbed the earth, often with weeping rain and frost, +but, however severe it should be, there was always the tender springtime +following, and glorious summer, and then the fulfillment of autumn and +its fruits. So she _must not_ be cast down--she must have faith and not +tremble. + +She made herself converse gently with her stepfather's wife, and won her +liking before they reached Paddington station. If she had not been so +highly strung and preoccupied, she would have been thrilled in all her +fine senses at the idea of leaving Upminster, further than which she had +never been for the twelve long years of her residence at La Sarthe +Chase; but now, except that all appeared a wild rush and a bewildering +noise, the journey to London made no impression upon her. It was +swallowed up in the one longing to get there--to be able somehow to +communicate with Cheiron, and have her anxiety laid to rest. + +The newsboys were selling the evening papers when they arrived, but her +eyes, so unaccustomed to all these new sights, did not warn her to scan +the headlines, though as they were reaching Grosvenor Gardens where Mr. +Anderton's town-house was situated, she did see the words: +"Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs." The sheet had fallen +forward and only this line was visible. + +They did not strike her very forcibly. She was quite unacquainted with +the custom of advertising sensational news in London. It might be the +usual political announcements--it surely was, since she saw another +sheet as they got to the door with "Crisis in the Cabinet" upon it. And +it comforted her greatly. John, of course, was concerned with this, and +had been summoned back suddenly, having had no possible time to let her +know. He who was so true an Englishman must think of his country first. +It seemed like an answer to her prayers, and enabled her to go in and +greet her stepfather with calm and quiet. + +James Anderton had come from the city in the best of tempers. The day +had been a good one. He had received his wife's telegram announcing that +Halcyone would accompany her on her return, and awaited her arrival with +a certain amount of uneasy curiosity and interest. Would the girl be +still so terribly like Elaine and the rest of the La Sarthe--especially +Timothy, that scapegrace, handsome Timothy, her father, on whose memory +and his own bargain with Timothy's widow he never cared much to dwell? + +Yes, she was, d----d like--after a while he decided; with just the same +set of head and careless grace, and that hateful stamp of breeding that +had so lamentably escaped his own children, half La Sarthe, too. It was +just Timothy of the gray eyes come back again--not Elaine so much now, +not at all, in fact, except in the line of the throat. + +His solid, coarse voice was a little husky, and those who knew him well +would have been aware that James Anderton was greatly moved as he bid +his stepdaughter welcome. + +And when she had gone off to her room, accompanied by the boisterous +Mabel and Ethel, he said to his wife: + +"Lu, you must get the girl some decent clothes. She looks confoundedly a +lady, but that rubbish isn't fair to her. Rig her out as good as the +rest--no expense spared. See to it to-morrow, my dear." + +And Mrs. Anderton promised. She adored shopping, and this would be a +labor of love. So she went off to dress for dinner, full of visions of +bright pinks and blues and laces and ribbons that would have made +Halcyone shrink if she had known. + +Mabel was magnificently patronizing and talked a jargon of fashionable +slang which Halcyone hardly understood. Some transient gleam of her +beloved mother kept suggesting itself to her when Mabel smiled. The +memory was not distinct enough for her to know what it was, but it hurt +her. The big, bouncing, overdeveloped girl had so little of the +personality which she had treasured all these years as of her +mother--treasured even more than remembered. + +Ethel had no faintest look of La Sarthe, and was a nice, jolly, ordinary +young person--dear to her father's heart. + +At last they left Halcyone alone with Priscilla, and presently the two +threw themselves into each other's arms--for the old nurse was crying +bitterly now, rocking herself to and fro. + +"Ah! how it all comes back to me, my lamb," she sobbed. "He's just the +same, only older. Hard and kind and generous and never understanding a +thing that mattered to your poor, beautiful mother. Oh! she was glad to +go at the end, but for leaving you. Dear lady!--all borne to pay your +father's debts, which Mr. Anderton had took up. I can't never forgive +him quite--I can't never." + +And Halcyone, overcome with her long strain of emotion, cried, too, for +a few minutes before she could resume her stern self-control. + +But at dinner she was calm again, and pale only for the shadows under +her wide eyes. + +She had written her letter to Cheiron--she knew not of such things as +messenger-boys or cabs, and had got Priscilla to post it for her, and +now with enforced quiet awaited his answer which she thought she could +receive on the morrow. + +"There has been a crisis in the Cabinet, has there not?" she said to her +stepfather, hoping to hear something, and James Anderton replied that +there had been some split--but for his part, the sooner this rotten lot +of sleepers had gone out the better he would be pleased; a good sound +Radical he was, like his friend Mr. Hanbury-Green. + +Halcyone abruptly turned the conversation. She could not, she felt, +discuss her beloved and his opinions, even casually, with this man of +another class. + +Oh! her poor mother--her poor, sweet mother! How terrible it must have +been to her to be married to such a person!--though her common sense +prompted her to add he was probably, under her influence, not nearly so +coarse and bluff in those days as now he appeared to be. + +Her little stepbrother, James Albert, had not returned from his private +school for the summer holidays, so she perhaps would not see him during +her visit. + +As the dinner went on everything struck her as glaring, from the +footmen's liveries to the bunches of red carnations; and the blazing +electric lights confused her brain. She, the little country mouse, +accustomed only to old William's gentle shufflings, and the two tall +silver candlesticks with their one wax taper in each! + +She could not eat the rich food, and if she had known it, she looked +like a being from some shadowy world among the hearty crew. + +Next morning Mr. Carlyon received her letter as he began his early +breakfast; and he tugged at his silver beard, while his penthouse brows +met. + +The matter required the most careful consideration. He enormously +disliked to have to play the rôle of arbiter of fate, but he loved +Halcyone more than anything else in the world, and felt bound to use +what force he possessed to secure her happiness--or, if that looked too +difficult, which he admitted it did, he must try and save her from +further unnecessary pain. + +He had the day before received John Derringham's letter written from +Wendover and which Mrs. Porrit had redirected, containing the news of +the intended wedding, and it had angered him greatly. + +He blazed with indignation! His peerless one to be made to take a +mistress's place when any man should be proud to make her his honored +wife! "The brutal selfishness of men," he said to himself, not blaming +John Derringham in particular. "He ought to have gone off and left her +alone when he felt he was beginning to care, if he had not pluck enough +to stand the racket. But we are all the same--we must have what we want, +and the women must pay--confound us!" + +He had never doubted but that, when he read the letter, Halcyone was +already his old pupil's wife--if indeed such a ceremony were legal, she +being under age. And this thought added to his wrath, and he intended to +look the matter up and see. But, before he could do so, he got an +evening paper and read a brief notice that John Derringham had met with +a severe accident--of what exact nature the press association had not +yet learned--and was lying in a critical condition at Wendover Park, the +country seat of the "beautiful American society leader, Mrs. Vincent +Cricklander," with whose name rumor had already connected the +Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in the most interesting +manner, the paragraph added. + +So Fate had stepped in and saved his pure night flower, after all! But +at what sort of price? And Cheiron stared into space with troubled eyes. + +He passed hours of anxious thought. He never did anything in a hurry, +and felt that now he must especially consider what would be his wisest +course. + +And then, this next morning, Halcyone's letter had come. + +It was very simple. It told of Mrs. Anderton's arrival at La Sarthe +Chase and of her own return to London with her--and then the real pith +of it had crept out. Had he heard any news of Mr. Derringham? Because +she had seen his writing upon a letter Mrs. Porrit was readdressing at +the orchard house and, observing it was from London, she presumed he was +there, and she hoped she should see him. + +The Professor stopped abruptly here. + +"What a woman it is, after all!" he exclaimed. He himself had never +noticed the postmark on John Derringham's envelope! Then he folded +Halcyone's pitiful little communication absently, and thought deeply. + +Two things were evident. Firstly, John Derringham had been disabled +before the hour when he should have met his bride; and secondly, she +was, when she wrote, unaware that he had had any accident at all. She +must thus be very unhappy and full of horrible anxiety--his dear little +girl! + +But what courage and fortitude she showed, he mused on, not to give the +situation away and lament even to him, her old friend. She plainly +intended to stand by the man she loved and never admit she had been +going to marry him until he himself gave her leave. + +"The one woman with a soul," Cheiron muttered, and rubbed the mist away +which had gathered in his eyes. + +He revolved the situation over and over. Halcyone must be made aware of +the accident, if she had not already read of it in the morning papers; +but she must not be allowed to do anything rash--and as he got thus far +in his meditations, a waiter knocked at the old-fashioned sitting-room +door, and Halcyone herself brushed past him into the room. + +She was deadly pale, and for a moment did not speak. + +Mrs. Anderton, it appeared, thinking she would be tired from her +unaccustomed journey, had suggested she should breakfast in bed, which +Halcyone, thankful to be alone, had gratefully agreed to; and when on +her breakfast tray which came up at eight o'clock she saw a daily paper, +she had eagerly opened it, and after searching the unfamiliar sheets for +the political news, her eye had caught the paragraph about John +Derringham's accident. In this particular journal the notice was merely +the brief one of the evening before, but it was enough to wring +Halcyone's heart. + +She bounded from bed and got Priscilla to dress her in the shortest +possible time, and the faithful nurse, seeing that her beloved lamb was +in some deep distress, forbore to question her. + +Nothing would have stopped Halcyone from going out, but she hoped to do +so unperceived. + +"Look if the way is clear to the door," she implored Priscilla, "while I +put on my hat. I must go to the Professor at once--something dreadful +has happened." + +So Priscilla went and contrived so that she got Halcyone out of the +front door while the servants were busy in the dining-room about the +breakfast. She hailed a passing hansom, and in this, to the poor child, +novel conveyance, she was whirled safely to Cheiron's little hotel in +Jermyn Street, and Priscilla returned to her room, to make believe that +her nursling was still sleeping. + +"Halcyone! My child!" the Professor exclaimed, to gain time, and then he +decided to help her out, so he went on: "I am glad to see you, but am +very distressed at the news in the paper this morning about John +Derringham--you may have seen it--and I am sure will sympathize with +me." + +Halcyone's piteous eyes thanked him. + +"Yes, indeed," she said. "What does it mean? Ought not--we--you to go to +him?" + +Mr. Carlyon avoided looking at her. + +"I cannot very well do that in Mrs. Cricklander's house," he said, +tugging at his beard, to hide the emotion he felt. "But I will telegraph +this minute and ask for news, if you will give me the forms--they are +over there," and he pointed to his writing-table. + +She handed them immediately, and as he adjusted his spectacles she rang +the bell; no time must be lost, and the waiter could be there before the +words were completed. + +"When can you get the answer?" she asked a little breathlessly. + +"In two hours, I should think, or perhaps three," the Professor +returned. "But there is a telephone downstairs--it has just been put in. +We might telephone to his rooms, or to the Foreign Office, and find out +if they have heard any further news there. That would relieve my mind a +little." + +"Yes--do," responded Halcyone eagerly. + +The tone of repressed anguish in her soft voice stabbed Cheiron's heart, +but they understood each other too well for any unnecessary words to +pass between them. The kindest thing he could do for her was to show her +he did not mean to perceive her trouble. + +The result of the telephoning--a much longer process then than it is +now--was slightly more satisfactory. Sir Benjamin Grant's report, the +Foreign Office official informed them, was that Mr. Derringham's +condition was much more hopeful, but that the most complete quiet for +some time would be absolutely necessary. + +"John is so strong," Mr. Carlyon said, as he put down the receiver which +he had with difficulty manipulated--to Halcyone's trembling impatience. +"He will pull through. And all I can do is to wait. He will probably be +up at the end of my fortnight, when I get back home." And he looked +relieved. + +"They would not give him a letter from you, of course, I suppose?" said +Halcyone. "If his head has been hurt it will be a long time before he is +allowed to read." + +Cheiron nodded. + +"I am interested," she went on, looking down. "You will let me know, at +Grosvenor Gardens, directly you hear anything, will you not, +Master?--I--" and then her voice broke a little. + +And Cheiron stirred in his chair. It was all paining him horribly, but +until he could be sure what would be best for her he must not show his +sympathy. + +"I will send Demetrius with the answer when it comes, and I will +telegraph to Wendover morning and night, dear child," he said. "I knew +you would feel for me." And with this, the sad little comedy between +them ended, for Halcyone got up to leave. + +"Thank you, Cheiron," was all she said. + +Mr. Carlyon took her down to the door and put her in the waiting hansom +which she had forgotten to dismiss, and he paid the man and reluctantly +let her go back alone. + +She was too stunned and wretched to take in anything. The streets seemed +a howling pandemonium upon this June morning at the season's full +height, and all the gayly dressed people just beginning to be on their +way to the park for their morning stroll appeared a mockery as she +passed down Piccadilly. + +Whether she had been missed or no, she cared not, and getting out, rang +the bell with numbed unconcern, never, even noticing the surprised face +of the footman as she passed him and ran up the long flights of stairs +to her room, fortunately meeting no one on the way. Here Priscilla +awaited her, having successfully hidden her absence. It was half past +ten o'clock. + +Halcyone went to the window and looked out upon the trees in the +triangular piece of green. They were not her trees, but they were still +Nature, of a stunted kind, and they would understand and comfort her or, +at all events, enable her to regain some calm. + +She took in deep breaths, and gradually a peace fell upon her. Her +friend God would never desert her, she felt. + +And Priscilla said to herself: + +"She's prayin' to them Immortals, I expect. Well, whoever she prays to, +she is a precious saint." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + + +Meanwhile, John Derringham lay betwixt life and death and was watched +over by the kind eye of Arabella Clinker. She had gathered quite a +number of facts in the night, while she had listened to his feverish +ravings--he was light-headed for several hours before the nurses +came--then the fever had decreased and though extremely weak he was +silent. + +Arabella knew now that he loved Halcyone--that wood nymph they had seen +during their Easter Sunday walk--and that he had been going to meet her +when the accident had happened. The rest was a jumble of incoherent +phrases all giving the impression of intense desire and anxiety for some +special event. It was: + +"Then we shall be happy, my sweet," or "Halcyone, you will not think me +a brute, then, will you, my darling," and there were more just detached +words about an oak tree, and a goddess and such like vaporings. + +But Arabella felt that, no doubt the moment he would be fully conscious, +he would wish to send some message--for during the two following days +whenever she went in to see him there was a hungering demand in his +haggard eyes. + +So Miss Clinker took it upon herself to stop at the Professor's house on +one of her walks, meaning to beard Cheiron in his den, and find out +how--should it be necessary--she could communicate with Halcyone. And +then she was informed by Mrs. Porrit that her master would be away for a +fortnight, and that Miss Halcyone La Sarthe had been taken off by her +stepmother--she did not know where--and that the two old ladies had +actually gone that day, with Hester and old William, to some place on +the Welsh coast they had known when they were children, for a change to +the sea! La Sarthe Chase was shut up. Arabella Clinker was not +sufficiently acquainted with the habits of its inmates to appreciate the +unparalleled upheaval this dislodgment meant, but she saw that her +informant was highly surprised and impressed. + +"I expect the poor old gentry felt too lonely to stop, once that dear +Miss Halcyone was gone," Mrs. Porrit said, "but there, when I heard it +you could have knocked me down with a feather!--them to go to the sea!" + +All this looked hopeless as far as communicating with Halcyone +went--unless through a letter to the Professor. Arabella returned to +Wendover rather cast down. + +She had been reasoning with herself severely over a point, and when her +letter went to her mother on the next Sunday, she was still undecided as +to what was her course of duty, and craved her parent's advice. + + The case is this [she wrote]. Being quite aware of M. E.'s + intentions, am I being disloyal to her, in helping to frustrate them + by aiding Mr. Derringham to establish communications with the person + whom I have already vaguely hinted to you I believe he is interested + in? I do not feel it is altogether honorable to take my salary from + M. E. and to go against what I know to be the strong desire of her + life at the present time. On the other hand, my feelings of humanity + are appealed to by Mr. Derringham's weakness, and by the very poor + chance he will have of escaping M. E. when she begins her attack + during his convalescence. I have felt more easy in conscience + hitherto because I have merely stood aside, not aided the adversary, + but now there is a parting of the ways and I am greatly disturbed. I + like Mr. Derringham very much, he has always treated me with + courteous consideration not invariably shown to me by M. E.'s guests; + and I cannot help being sorry for him, if--which I fear is almost a + certainty--she will secure him in the end. + +Then the letter ended. + +Arabella was much worried. However, she felt she might remain neutral so +far as this, that, when Mrs. Cricklander indulged in endless +speculations as to why John Derringham should have been trying to cross +that difficult and dangerous haw-haw, she gave no hint that his +destination could have been other than the Professor's little house. She +did swerve sufficiently to the other side to remark that to cross the +haw-haw would save at least a mile by the road if one were in a hurry. +And then her loyalty caused her to repeat, with extra care, to John +Derringham in a whisper the fib which Mrs. Cricklander wished--namely, +that she, the fair Cecilia, was there ready to come to him and sit up +with him, and do anything in the world for him, and was only prevented +by the doctor's strict orders, fearing the slightest excitement for the +patient--and that these orders caused her great grief. + +John Derringham's eyes looked grateful, but he did not speak. + +His head ached so terribly and his body was wracked with pain, while his +ankle, not having been set for twenty-four hours, had swollen so that it +rendered its proper setting a very difficult matter, and caused him +unspeakable suffering. Sir Benjamin Grant had to come down to Wendover +twice again before things looked in more hopeful state. + +And what agonizing thoughts coursed through his poor feverish +brain--until through sheer weakness there would be hours when he was +numb. + +What could Halcyone have thought waiting for him all that day! and now +she, of course, must have heard of his accident and there was no sign or +word. + +Or was there--and were those cruel doctors not giving him the message? +The day came--the Wednesday after Arabella had sent her letter to her +mother--when he was strong enough to speak. He waited for the moment +when Miss Clinker always arrived with Mrs. Cricklander's bunch of +flowers and morning greeting--and then, while the nurse went from the +room for a second, he whispered with dry lips: + +"Will you do me a kindness?" And Arabella's brown eyes gleamed softly +behind her glasses. "Let Miss Halcyone La Sarthe know how I am--she +would come and meet you any day at Mr. Carlyon's--" then he stopped, +disturbed by the blank look in Miss Clinker's face. + +"What is it?" he gasped, and Arabella saw that pale as he had been, with +his poor head all bandaged, he grew still more pale--and she realized +how terribly weak he must be, and how carefully she must calculate what +she could reply. + +"I understand that Mr. Carlyon is in London upon a visit, and that the +Misses La Sarthe have gone to the sea--" and then, as his eyes touched +her with their pitiful questioning surprise, she blurted out the truth. + +"Miss Halcyone La Sarthe was fetched away on last Thursday by her +stepmother--I did not hear the name--and no one knows where she has +gone. La Sarthe Chase is shut up." + +John Derringham closed his eyes--his powers of reasoning were not strong +enough yet to grasp the actual meaning of this--it seemed to him as +though Halcyone were dead, taken away from him by some fate and that all +things were at an end. + +Arabella grew very frightened. + +"Mr. Carlyon telegraphs from London every day," she ventured to +announce. + +But this appeared to bring no comfort, and the nurse returning, signed +to her to leave the room, for John Derringham lay still as one dead. + +And, when Arabella arrived at her own sanctum, she burst into tears. +What a fool she had been to tell him that, she felt. + +All these days, Halcyone passed in a repressed agony in spite of her +prayers and unshaken beliefs. She knew it was her winter time and she +must bear it until the spring should come, though it was none the less +hard to support. But she got through the hours with perfect surface +calm--and her stepsisters thought her stupid and dull, while Mrs. +Anderton decided there was something unnatural about a girl who took not +the slightest interest in shopping, and was perfectly indifferent about +all the attractive garments which were put upon her back. She always +expressed her thanks so gently, and was ever sweet and willing to be of +use, but the look of pain remained deep in those star-like, mysterious +eyes, and caused sensations of discomfort to grow in Mrs. Anderton's +kindly breast. + +Cheiron's laconic messages were delivered to Halcyone every day by +Demetrius. + +John Derringham was no worse. + +He was having every care. + +Sir Benjamin Grant had gone down again. + +His ankle was satisfactorily set. + +But never a word that he had asked for her, and yet she read in the +morning papers each day, as well as knew from her Professor's +information, that her lover was going on splendidly, and would soon be +embarked upon a convalescence. The paper appeared to regard the accident +as safely over, and the patient as returning to health. + +For Mrs. Cricklander, well-skilled in the manipulating of reporters in +her own country, knew exactly what impression she wished to give to the +press. And she had no intention of the idea getting abroad that her +injured visitor was in a very exhausted condition, because there were +those she knew who would suggest that she had bagged him while he was at +her mercy--when, later on, they heard the news of her engagement, which +she felt was each day growing more certain of becoming a fact. And in +Halcyone's brave heart not a doubt ever entered--she waited and believed +and endured, in silent pain. + +After Arabella's unfortunate announcement, for two or three days John +Derringham was too ill to know or care what occurred, and then other and +further tormenting thoughts began to trouble his weary brain. + +If Halcyone had a stepmother who had come and taken her away, there were +then more persons than her ancient aunts to reckon with. She could not +now slip off into a secret marriage with himself with small chance of +awkward questionings. That phase of the dream was over, he felt. + +No letters of any sort were given him by the doctor's strict orders, and +his private secretary had come down, an amiable and intelligent youth, +and was dealing with the necessary official correspondence--as best he +could--growing each day more infatuated with his fair hostess who felt +that no pawn on the chessboard which contained John Derringham as king +was worth neglecting. The Professor was not enjoying his fortnight in +London, and almost tugged his silver beard out while he smoked +innumerable pipes. He had come to some conclusions. + +John Derringham having been unable to keep the tryst with Halcyone was +plainly the working of the hand of Fate, which did not intend that his +sweet girl should occupy the invidious and humiliating position of +secret wife and apparent mistress to the ambitious young man. Therefore +he--Arnold Carlyon--had no right to assist her again into John +Derringham's arms. They must both suffer and work out their destinies +however cruel that might seem. + +"If John really feels she is a necessity, he will brave everything and +marry her openly as soon as he is well. If he does not--then I will not +assist her into a life of misery and disillusion." + +He remembered a talk they had had long ago, when his old pupil had given +his views about women and their place in the scheme of things. Not one +must expect a man to be faithful to her, were she wife or mistress, he +had said. So starting heavily handicapped in the rôle of his secret and +unacknowledged wife, Halcyone would stand a very poor chance of +happiness. Cheiron pictured things--John Derringham flattered and +courted by the world and surrounded by adoring woman, while Halcyone sat +at home in some quiet corner and received the scraps of his attentions +that were left. + +No! decidedly he would have no hand in aiding the sorry affair. + +So he used his influence and even a little cunning in preventing +Halcyone from writing to her lover. He was too ill yet to be troubled, +and she must wait until he should send some message to her. + +"You do not want Mrs. Cricklander to read your letter, child," he said, +when she timidly suggested one day that it would seem kinder if she +wrote to say she was concerned at the accident to her old friend.--The +sad comedy was still kept up between them.--And Halcyone had stiffened. +No, indeed! not that! She was woman enough in spite of the ennobling and +broadening effects of her knowledge of nature, to feel the stab of +jealous pain, though she had resolutely crushed from her thoughts the +insinuation she had read of in the first notice of the disaster--about +Mrs. Cricklander's interest in her lover. Her pride took fire. Certainly +until he could receive letters and read them himself, she must wait. +Cheiron would, of course, inform her when that time came. A doubt of +John Derringham's loyalty to her never even cast its shadow upon her +soul, nor a suspicion that he could doubt her either. + +All these things were the frosts and rains of their winter, but the +springtime would come and the glorious sun and flowers. + +She was growing accustomed to London and the life of continual bustle, +and was almost grateful for it all as it kept her from thinking. + +Her stepfather and his wife mixed in a rising half-set of society where +many people who were not fools came, and a number who were, but to +Halcyone they all seemed a weariness. No one appeared to see anything +straightly, and they seemed to be taken up with pursuits that could not +divert or interest a cat. She saw quite a number of young men at dinners +and was taken to the theater and suppers at the fashionable restaurants, +and these entertainments she loathed. She was too desperately unhappy +underneath to get even youth's exhilaration out of them, and when she +had been in London for nearly three weeks and Cheiron was preparing to +return to his cottage, having delayed his departure much beyond his +ordinary time, she felt she could endure the martyrdom no more. + +She had stilled every voice which had whispered to her that it was +indeed time that she heard some word from her lover. Because there were +now only occasional notices in the papers about his health, he was +supposed to be getting well. + +"I will implore Cheiron to let me go back with him," she decided firmly, +as she went downstairs to breakfast. "I will ask if I may not go out and +see him this morning," and, comforted with this thought, she entered the +dining-room with a brisker step than usual. No one but her stepfather +was down. + +He had grown accustomed, if not quite attached, to the quiet, gentle +girl, and he liked her noiseless, punctual way--they had often +breakfasted alone. + +He was reading his _Chronicle_ propped up in front of him, and handed +her the _Morning Post_ from the pile by his side. He silently went on +with his cutlet which an obsequious butler had placed for his +consumption. Halcyone turned rapidly to the column where she was +accustomed to look daily for news of her lover. And there she read that +Mrs. Cricklander had been entertaining a Saturday to Monday party, and +that Mr. John Derringham's recovery was now well advanced, even his +broken ankle was mending rapidly and he hoped soon to be well. + +A tight feeling grew round her heart, and her eyes dropped absently down +the columns of the engagement announcements in which she took no +interest, and then it seemed that her very soul was struck with agony as +she read: + +"A marriage has been arranged and will shortly take place between the +Right Honorable John Derringham of Derringham in the County of +Northampton, Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and Mrs. +Vincent Cricklander of New York, daughter of Orlando B. Muggs of +Pittsburgh, U.S.A." + +And it was here that the La Sarthe breeding stood Halcyone in good +stead, for she neither fainted nor dropped the paper--but, after a few +seconds of acute anguish, she rose and, making some little remark about +having forgotten something, quietly left the room. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + + +It is possible that, if his revolver had been lying quite near, the +morning John Derringham awoke to the remembrance that he was more or +less an engaged man, he would have shot himself, so utterly wretched and +debased did he feel. But no such weapon was there, and he lay in his +splendid gilt bed and groaned aloud as he covered his eyes with his +hand. + +The light hurt him--he was giddy, and his head swam. Surely, among other +things in the half-indistinct nightmare of the preceding evening, he +must have had too much champagne. + +From the moment, now over a week ago, that he had been allowed to sit up +in bed, and more or less distinct thought had come back to him, he had +been a prey to hideous anxiety and grief. Halcyone was gone from +him--had been snatched away by Fate, who, with relentless +vindictiveness, had filled his cup. For the first letters that he +opened, marked from his lawyers so urgently that they had been given to +him before the bandages were off his head, contained the gravest news of +his financial position. The chief mortgagee intended to foreclose in the +course of the next three months, unless an arrangement could be come to +at once, which appeared impossible. + +He was actually at bay. Thus, although in his first moments of +consciousness, he had intended to go directly he was well and demand his +love openly and chance the rest, this news made that course now quite +out of the question. He could not condemn her to wretched poverty and +tie a millstone round both their necks. The doctors had absolutely +forbidden him to read or even know of any more letters--the official +ones the secretary could deal with--but he became so restless with +anxiety that Arabella Clinker was persuaded to bring them up and at +least let him glance at the addresses. + +There was one from Cheiron, which he insisted upon opening--a brief dry +line of commiseration for his accident, with no mention of Halcyone in +it. The complete ignoring of his letter to announce their marriage cut +him deeply. He realized Mr. Carlyon guessed that the accident had +happened before that event could take place, and his silence about it +showed what he thought. John Derringham quivered with discomfort, he +hated to feel the whip of his old master's contempt. And he could not +explain matters or justify himself--there was nothing to be said. The +Professor, of course, knew of Halcyone's whereabouts--but, after his +broad hint of his want of sympathy about their relations, John +Derringham felt he could not open the subject with him again. This +channel for the assuagement of his anxieties was closed. The immense +pile of the rest of his correspondence was at last sorted. He knew most +of the writings, and the few he was doubtful about he opened--but none +were from his love. So he gave them all back to Arabella, and turned his +face from the light physically exhausted and with a storm of pain in his +heart. + +Mrs. Cricklander had carefully gone through each post as it came, and +longed to destroy one or two suspicious-looking communications she saw +in the same female handwriting--from his old friend Lady Durend, if she +had known!--but she dared not, and indeed was not really much disturbed. +She had laid her own plans with too great a nicety and felt perfectly +sure of the ultimate result of their action. Arabella was each day sent +up with the subtlest messages to the poor invalid, which her honor made +her unwillingly repeat truthfully. + +Cecilia Cricklander was an angel of sweet, watchful care, it seemed, and +John Derringham really felt deeply grateful to her. + +Then the moment came when she decided she would see him. + +"I will go this afternoon at tea-time, Arabella, if you can assure me +there won't be any horrid smell of carbolic or nasty drugs about--I know +there always are when people have cuts to be dressed, and I really could +not stand it. It would give me one of my bad attacks of nerves." + +And Miss Clinker was reluctantly obliged to assure her employer that +those days were passed, and that Mr. Derringham now only looked a pale, +but very interesting invalid, as he lay there with a black silk +handkerchief tied round his head. + +"Then I'll go," said Mrs. Cricklander--and, instead of sending the +message with her daily flowers, she wrote a tiny note. + + I can't bear it any longer--I must come! + CECELIA. + +Arabella Clinker watched his face as he read this, and saw a flush grow +in his ivory-pale skin. + +"Oh! Poor Mr. Derringham!" she thought, "it isn't fair! How can he hold +out against her when he is so weak--what ought I to do? If I only knew +what is my loyal course!" + +Arabella was perfectly aware how the reports of his rapid recovery had +been circulated--and guessed the reason--and all her kind woman's heart +was touched as she watched him lying there in splints, as pitiful and +helpless as a baby. To pretend that he was making a quick return to +health was so very far from the truth. She, herself, saw little change +for the better from day to day; indeed, his large, proud eyes seemed to +grow more anxious and haggard as the time went on. + +Mrs. Cricklander donned her most suitably ravishing tea-gown, one of +subdued simplicity--and, like a beautiful summer flower, she swept into +the invalid's room when the lowered sun blinds made the light restful +and the June roses filled the air with scent. It was the end of the +month and glorious weather was over the land. + +Nothing could have been more exquisite than Cecilia's sympathy. Indeed, +she did feel a good deal moved, and was a superb actress at all times. + +She only stayed a very short while, not to tire him, and John +Derringham, left alone, was conscious that he had been soothed and +pleased, and she departed leaving the impression that her love for him +was only kept within bounds by fear for his health! + +She had suffered _so_ during all the days! she told him, she could +hardly eat or sleep. And then to be debarred from nursing him!--the +cruelty of it! Why the doctors should have thought her presence would be +more disturbing than Arabella's, she could not think! And here she +looked down, and her white hand, with its perfectly kept nails, lying +upon the coverlet so near him, John Derringham lifted it in his feeble +grasp and touched it with his lips. He was so grateful for her +kindness--and affected by her beauty; he could not do less, he felt. + +And after that, with a deliciously girlish and confused gasp, Mrs. +Cricklander had hastily quitted the room. + +It was not until the second day that she came again--and he had begun to +wish for her. + +This time she was bright and amusing, and assumed airs of authority over +him, and was careful never to sit so that her hand might be in reach, +while she used every one of her many arts of tantalization and enjoyed +herself as only she knew how to do. + +It was perfectly divine to have him there to play upon like a violin and +to know it was only a question of time before she would secure him for +her own! + +After this, she had visitors in the house and did not come for three +days, and John Derringham felt a little peevish and aggrieved. It +rained, too, and his head ached still with the slightest exertion. + +He now began to put all thoughts of Halcyone away from him, as far as he +was able. It was too late to do anything--she must think him base, as +she had never sent him one word. This caused him restless anguish. What +was the meaning of it all? Could she have learned in the light of the +world that it was not a very great position he had offered her, and so +despised him in consequence? What aspect of it might they not have put +into her head--these people she was with--this step-mother of whom he +had never heard? In all cases Fate had parted them, and he must cut the +pain of it from his life or it would destroy him. It never occurred to +him to reflect upon the possible agony she might be suffering, his poor +little wood-nymph, all alone. The fact of his own unhappiness filled his +mind to the exclusion of any other thought for the time. In his dire +physical weakness Cecilia Cricklander's gracious beauty seemed to +augment, and Halcyone's sylph-like charm to grow of less potent force. +For Love had not done all that he would yet do with John Derringham's +soul. + +That underneath, if he could have chosen between the two women, he would +have hesitated for a second was not the case; only physical weakness, +and circumstance and propinquity were working for the one and against +the other--and so it would appear was Fate. + +Thus, the day the visitors left, Mr. Hanbury-Green among them, the +invalid was experiencing a sense of exasperating neglect. He felt +extremely miserable. Life, and all he held good in it, seemed to be over +for him, and his financial position was absolutely desperate--quite +beyond any question of marriage it threatened to swamp his actual +career. He felt impotent and beaten, lying there like a log unable to +move. + +Mrs. Cricklander sent him another little note in the afternoon. Arabella +had reported that the patient was restless, and this might mean one of +two things--either that he was becoming impatient to see her, or that he +was growing restive and bored with bed. In either case it was the moment +to strike--and to strike quickly. + +"The doctors have said you may have a taste of champagne to-night," she +wrote, which was quite untrue, but a small fib like this could not count +when such large issues were at stake. "And so I propose, if you will let +me and will have me for your guest, to come and dine with you to +celebrate the event. Say if I may. Cecilia." + +And he had eagerly scribbled in pencil, "Yes." + +So she came, and was all in white with just a red rose in her dress, and +she was solicitous about his comfort--had he enough pillows?--and she +spoke so graciously to the nurse who arranged things before she went to +her supper. + +She, Cecilia, would be his nurse, she whispered--just for to-night! and +then her own personal footman brought in an exquisite little dinner upon +a table which he set near the bed, all noiselessly--it had been arranged +outside--and she would select just the tenderest morsels for John +Derringham, or some turtle soup?--He was not hungry!--Well, never mind, +she would feed him!--and he must be good and let her pet him as she felt +inclined. + +She was looking quite extraordinarily beautiful, with all the light of +triumph in her sparkling eyes, and she sat down upon the bed and +actually pretended that if he were disobedient she would put pieces into +his mouth! + +John Derringham was a man--and, although he felt very ill and feeble, +after she had made him drink some champagne, the seduction of her began +to go to his head. Stimulant of any kind was the last thing he should +have had, and would have caused the nurse a shock of horror if she had +known. How it all came about he could not tell, what she said or he said +he could never remember, only the one thing which stood out was that as +the time for the nurse's return arrived, he knew that Cecilia +Cricklander was kissing him with apparent passion, which he felt in some +measure he was returning, and that she was murmuring: "And we shall be +married, darling John, as soon as you are well." + +He must have said something definite, he supposed. + +But, at that moment, the nurse was heard in the next room and his +_fiancée_--yes, his _fiancée_--got up and, when the woman came in in her +stiff nurse's dress, slightly apologetic that she had been so long, she +was greeted by this speech from the lady of the house: + +"Ah, Nurse Brome, you have been so good to Mr. Derringham, you must be +the first to wish us happiness and share our news. We are going to be +married as soon as ever you get him well--so you must hasten that, like +the clever woman you are!" + +And she had laughed, a soft laugh of triumph, which even in his +light-headed state had seemed to John Derringham as the mocking of some +fiend. + +Then she had left him quickly, while the footman carried the table from +the room--and after that he remembered nothing more, he had fallen into +a feverish sleep. But the next morning, when he awoke, he knew captivity +had indeed tumbled upon him, and that he was chained hand and foot. + +And all the day his temperature went up again, and he was not allowed to +see even Arabella of the kind heart, who would have come and condoled +with him, and even wept over him if she had dared, so moved did the good +creature feel at his fate. + +It was only upon the third day, when telegrams of congratulation began +to pour in upon him by the dozen, that he knew anything about the +announcement that had appeared in the _Morning Post_. + +Yes, he was caught and chained at last, and for the next week had moods +of gnashing his teeth, and feeling the most degraded of men, alternating +with hours of trying to persuade himself that it was the best thing +which could have happened to him. + +Mrs. Cricklander, now that she had gained her end, wisely left him for a +day or two in peace to the care of Arabella and the nurses, drawing the +net closer each hour by her public parade of her position as his +_fiancée_. She wrote the most exquisite and womanly letter to thank her +many friends for their kind congratulations--and lamented, now that the +truth being known would not matter, that John had had a slight relapse, +and was not quite so well. + +But, of course, she was taking every care of him, and so he soon would +be his old exuberant self! + +Thus the period of John Derringham's purgatory began. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + + +Grieving is such a satisfactory and dramatic thing when you can fling +yourself down upon the ground and cry aloud and tear your hair. But if +some great blow must be borne without a sign, then indeed it wrings the +heart and saps the forces of life. + +When Halcyone got to her room, the housemaids were there beginning to +make her bed--so it was no refuge for her--and she was obliged to go +down again. The big drawing-rooms would be untenanted at this moment, so +she turned the handle of the door and crept in there. The modern +brightly gilt Louis XVI furniture glared at her, but she sank into a big +chair thankful to find any support. + +What was this which had fallen upon her?--The winter, indeed--or, more +than that, not only the winter but the end of life, like the flash of +lightning which had struck the tree in the park the night before that +day which was to have seen her wedding? + +And as she sat there in dumb, silent, hideous agony which crushed for +the moment belief and hope, a canary from the aviary beyond set up a +trilling song. She listened for a second; it seemed to hurt her more. +The poor bird was in captivity, as was her soul. And then, while the +little songster went on, undismayed by its cage, a reaction set in. If +the soft-feathered creature could sing there beyond the bars, what right +had she to doubt God for one second? No--there should never be any +disbelief. It was only the winter, after all. She was too young to die +like the tree which had been there for some hundreds of years, She would +be as brave as the bird, and those forces of nature which she had loved +and trusted so long, would comfort her. + +She sat there for a quarter of an hour saying her prayers and stilling +the pain in her heart--and then she got up and deliberately went back to +the dining-room, where the family were all assembled now. + +They chaffed about everything, and were boisterous and jovial as usual, +and when she asked if she might go and see her old master, should Mrs. +Anderton not wish especially for her company that morning, her +stepfather offered to drive her there in his phaeton on his way to the +city. + +"She grows upon one, Lu," he said to his wife, when Halcyone had gone up +to put on her hat. "She is like some quiet, soothing book; she is a kind +of comfort--but she looks confoundedly pale to-day. Take her to the play +to-night, or ask some young fellows in to dinner, to cheer her up." + +The drive did Halcyone good, and, to the astonishment of Cheiron who had +also read the news, she walked into his sitting-room with perfect calm. +He himself was raging with indignation and disgust. + +But, when he looked into her deep eyes, his astonishment turned to pain, +for the expression in them as they burned from her lifeless face was so +pure, so pitiful and so tragic, that it left him without words for the +moment. + +At last he said--when she had greeted him: + +"I have been thinking, Halcyone, that I have not had a trip abroad for a +long time, but I am too old now to care about going alone. Do you think +that your aunts and these step-relations of yours would spare you to +accompany me, my dear?" + +And Halcyone had to turn away to the window to hide the tears which +suddenly welled up; he was so kind and understanding always--her dear +old master! + +"Yes, I am sure they would," she said in a very low voice. "How good of +you. And if we could start at once--that would be nice, would it not? I +suppose they would not let me go without Priscilla, though," she added; +"would that matter?" + +"Not at all," said the Professor. + +They neither of them mentioned John Derringham's engagement. They talked +long about the possibilities of their foreign journey, and Cheiron felt +himself repaid when he began to observe a look of returning life creep +into her white face. + +"I will call and see your stepfather in the city directly after lunch," +he said. "If you will write to your Aunts La Sarthe, I do not think +there can be any objection." + +"We could take Aphrodite, could we not?" Halcyone asked. "She is very +heavy, I know, but I would carry her, and I do not think I would like to +leave her there in the dark away from me for all that time." + +"We would certainly take her," said Cheiron. + +Halcyone knew enough about London now to know where Kensington Gardens +were. Whenever she went to see Mr. Carlyon, it was an understood thing +he would bring her safely back, so no one would be sent to fetch her. +Might they not go to Kensington Gardens this morning, she asked. She +remembered to have noticed, when she had driven past with Mr. Anderton, +that there seemed to be big trees there. She wanted to get into some +open space, London was stifling her. + +Mr. Carlyon put on his hat, and prepared to accompany her. They drove to +the first gate and got out, neither having spoken a word, as was their +habit when both were thinking. + +They wandered in among the trees and found two chairs and sat down. + +These were real trees, Halcyone felt. And, although she would have +preferred to be alone to-day without even Cheiron, the great trunks and +vast leafy canopy above them comforted her. + +She would not permit herself to think, the beauty of the summer day must +just saturate her, and soothe the cold, sick ache in her heart. And, +presently, when she was strengthened, she would face it all and see what +it could mean, and what would be best to do to bear the blow as a La +Sarthe should, and show nothing of the anguish. + +And, as she mused, her eyes absently wandered to a couple under a tree +some twenty yards beyond them. There was something familiar in the +girl's graceful back, and, as she turned her fresh face to look at her +companion, Halcyone saw that it was Cora Lutworth. + +Some magnetic spark seemed to connect them, for the pretty American girl +turned completely round in her chair, and catching sight of the two +jumped up and came towards them--with glad, laughing eyes and +out-stretched hands. + +"To see you!" she exclaimed. "That is so good! There is no Styx here, +and we must have some fun together!" + +She sat down upon a chair which Lord Freynault dragged up for her, and +he himself took another beyond the Professor--so the two girls could +talk together. + +"I am going to be married--you know!" Cora announced gayly. "Freynie and +I settled it at a ball last night, but we haven't told anyone yet! Isn't +it lovely? We just slipped out here for a little quiet talk." + +"I am so glad. I hope you will be very happy," Halcyone said, and tried +not to let the contrast of Cora's joyous prospect make her wince. + +"I am always happy," Cora returned, "and it's dear of you to wish me +nice things." + +Halcyone attracted her immensely, her quite remarkable personal +distinction was full of charm, and, now in fresh and pretty modern +clothes, to Cora's eyes she looked almost beautiful; but why so very +pale and quiet, she wondered; and then, with a flash, she remembered the +news she too had read in the paper that morning. Perhaps Halcyone minded +very much. She decided rapidly what to do. If she did not mention it at +all, she reasoned, this finely strung girl would know that she guessed +it would be painful to her--and that might hurt her pride. It was kinder +to plunge in and get it over. + +"Isn't it wonderful about Mr. Derringham and Cecilia Cricklander?" she +said, pretending to be busy untangling her parasol tassel. "She always +intended to marry him--and she is so rich I expect he felt that would be +a good thing. Freynie says he is very much harder up then anyone knows." + +Her kind, common sense told her that a man's doing even a low thing for +expediency would hurt a woman who loved him, less than that the motive +for his action should have been one of inclination. + +Halcyone came up to the scratch, although a fierce pain tightened her +heart afresh. + +"Yes," she said, "I suppose no one was surprised to read of the +engagement in the papers to-day. I can imagine that a man requires a +great deal of money to support the position in the government which Mr. +Derringham has, and no doubt Mrs. Cricklander is glad to give it to +him--he is so clever and great." And not a muscle of her face quivered +as she spoke. + +"If it does hurt--my goodness! she is game!" Cora thought, and aloud she +went on, "Cecilia isn't a bad sort--a shocking snob, as all of us are +who are not the real thing and want to be--like your own common pushers +over here. We used to laugh at her awfully when she first came from +Pittsburgh and tried to cut in before she married my cousin. Poor old +Vin! He was crazy about her." Then she went on reflectively, as Halcyone +did not answer. "We often think you English people are so odd--the way +you can't distinguish between us! You receive, with open arms, the most +impossible people if they are rich, that we at home would not touch with +a barge pole, and you say: 'Oh, they are just American,' as if we were +all the same! And then we are so awfully clever as a nation that in a +year or two these dreadful vulgarians, as we would call them in New +York, have picked up all _your_ outside polish, and pass as _our_ best! +It makes lots of the really nice old gentle-folk at home perfectly +mad--but I can't help admiring the spirit. That is why I have stuck to +Cis, though the rest of the family have given her the cold shoulder. It +is such magnificent audacity--don't you think so?" + +"Yes, indeed," agreed Halcyone. "All people have a right to obtain what +they aspire to if they fit themselves for it." + +"That is one of Mr. Derringham's pet theories," Cora laughed. "He held +forth one night, when I was staying at Wendover at Easter, about it--and +it was such fun. Cis did not really understand a single thing of the +classical allusions he was making--but she got through. I watch her with +delight. Men are sweetly simple bats, though, aren't they? Any woman can +take them in--" and Cora laughed again joyously. "I have sat sometimes +in fits to hear Cis keeping a whole group of your best politicians +enthralled, and not one seeing she is just repeating parrot sentences. +You have only to be rich and beautiful and look into a man's eyes and +flatter him, and you can make him believe you are what you please. Now +Freynie thinks I am absolutely perfect when I am really being a horrid +little capricious minx--don't you, Freynie, dear!" and she leaned over +and looked at her betrothed with sweet and tender eyes--and Lord +Freynault got up and moved his chair round, so that the four were in a +circle. + +"What preposterous thing is Cora telling you?" he laughed, with an +adoring glance at her sparkling face. "But I am getting jealous, and +shall take her away because I want to talk to her all to myself!" + +And, when they had settled that the two girls should meet at tea the +following day in Cora's sitting-room at Claridge's, where she was +staying with a friend, the newly engaged pair went off together beaming +with joy and affection. + +And Halcyone gazed after them with a wistful look in her sad eyes, which +stabbed the old Professor's heart. + +She was remembering the morning under their tree, when she and her lover +had sat and made their plans, and he had asked her if she had any fear +at the thought of giving him her future. + +It was only three weeks ago. Surely everything was a dream. How much he +had seemed to love her. And then unconsciously she started to her feet, +and strode away among the trees, forgetful of her companion--and Cheiron +sat and watched her, knowing she would come back and it was better to +let her overcome alone the agony which was convulsing her. + +Yes, John Derringham had seemed to love her--not seemed--no--it was +real--he _had_ loved her. And she would never believe but that he loved +her still. This was only a wicked turn of those bad forces which she +knew were abroad in the world. Had she not seen evil once in a man's +face crouching in the bracken, as he set a trap for some poor hare one +dark and starry night? And she had passed on, and then, when she thought +he would be gone, she had returned and loosened the spring before it +could do any harm. That poacher had evil forces round him. They were +there always for the unwary, and had fastened upon John. She would never +doubt his love, and she herself could never change, and she would pour +upon him all her tender thoughts, and call to the night winds to help +her to do her duty. + +So presently she remembered Cheiron, and turned round to see him far +away still, sitting quietly beneath a giant elm stroking his long, +silver beard. + +"My dear, kind master!" she exclaimed to herself, and went rapidly back +to him. + +"That is a charming girl--your young friend," he said to her, as he got +up to stroll to the gate; "full of life and common sense. There is +something wonderful in the vitality of her nation. They jar dreadfully +upon us old tired peoples in their worst aspects--but in their best we +must recognize a new spring of life and youth for the world. Yonder +young woman is not troubling about a soul, if she has one; she is a +fountain of living water. She has not taken on the shadows of our +crowded past. Halcyone, my dear, you and I are the inheritance of too +much culture. When I see her I want to cry with Epicurus: 'Above all, +steer clear of Culture!'" And then he branched from this subject and +plunged into a learned dissertation upon the worship of Dionysus, and +how it had cropped up again and again with wild fervor among the ancient +worlds whose senses and brains were wearied with the state religions, +and he concluded by analogy that this wild longing to return to youth's +follies and mad ecstasies, to get free from restraints, to seek +communion with the spiritual beyond in some exaltation of the +emotions--in short, to get back to nature--was an instinct in all human +beings and all nations, when their zeniths of art and cultivation had +come. + +And Halcyone, who had heard it all before and knew the subject to her +finger tips, wandered dreamily into a shadowland where she felt she was +of these people--those far back worshipers--and this was her winter when +Dionysus was dead, but would live again when the spring came and the +flowers. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + + +Mrs. Cricklander felt it would be discreet and in perfect taste if she +announced her intention of going off to Carlsbad the week after her +engagement was settled--she was always most careful of decorum. And, if +the world of her friends thought John Derringham was well enough to be +making love to her in the seclusion of her own house, it would be much +wiser for her to show that she should always remain beyond the breath of +any gossip. + +In her heart she was bored to tears. For nearly the whole of June she +had been cooped up at Wendover--for more than half the time without even +parties of visitors to keep her company--and she loathed being alone. +She had no personal resources and invariably at such times smoked too +much and got agitated nerves in consequence. + +John Derringham--strong and handsome, with his prestige and his +brilliant faculties--was a conquest worth parading chained to her +chariot wheels. But John Derringham, feeble, unable to walk, his ankle +in splints and plaster of Paris, and still suffering from headaches +whenever the light was strong, was simply a weariness to her--nothing +more nor less. + +So that, until he should be restored to his usual captivating vigor, it +was much better for her pleasure to leave him to his complete recovery +alone, now that she had got him securely in her keeping. + +Arabella could ask her mother down and keep house and see that he had +everything in the world that he wanted--and there were the devoted +nurses. And, in short, her doctor had said she must have her usual cure, +and that was the end of the matter! + +She had only made him the most fleeting visits during the week. He had +really been ill after the fever caused by the champagne. And she had +been exquisitely gentle and not too demonstrative. She had calculated +the possibility of his backing out under the plea of his health, so she +determined not to give him a chance to have the slightest excuse by +overtiring him. + +No one could have better played the part of devoted, understanding +friend who by excess of love had been betrayed into one lapse of +passionate outburst, and now wished only to soothe and comfort. + +"She is a good sort," John Derringham thought, after her first visit. +"She will let me down easy in any case," and the ceasing of his anxiety +about his financial position comforted him greatly. + +The next time she came and sat by his bed, a vision of fresh summer +laces and chiffons, he determined to make the position clear to her. + +She always bent and kissed him with airy grace, then sat down at a +discreet distance. She felt he was not overanxious to caress her, and +preferred that the rendering of this impossible should come from her +side. Indeed, unless kisses were necessary to gain an end, she did not +care for them herself--stupid, contemptible things, she thought them! + +John Derringham would have touched the hearts of most women as he lay +there, but Cecilia Cricklander had not this tiresome appendage, only the +business brain and unemotional sensibilities of her grandfather the pork +butcher. She did realize that her _fiancé_, even there with the black +silk handkerchief wound round his head and his face and hands deadly +pale and fragile-looking, was still a most arrogant and +distinguished-looking creature, and that his eyes, with their pathetic +shadows dimming the proud glance in them, were wonderfully attractive. +But she was not touched especially by his weakness. She disliked +suffering and never wanted to be made aware of it. + +John Derringham went straight into the subject which was uppermost in +his thoughts. He asked her to listen to him patiently, and stated his +exact financial situation. She must then judge if she found it worth +while to marry him; he would not deceive her about one fraction of it. + +She laughed lightly when he had ended--and there was something which +galled him in her mirth. + +"It is all a ridiculous nothing," she said. "Why, I can pay off the +whole thing with only the surplus I invest every year from my income! +Your property is quite good security--if I want any. We shall probably +have to do it in a business-like way; your house will be mine, of +course, but I will make you very comfortable as my guest!" and she +smiled with suitable playfulness. "Let the lawyers talk over these +things, not you and me--you may be sure mine will look after me!" + +John Derringham felt the blood tingling in his ears. There was nothing +to take exception to in what she had said, but it hurt him awfully. + +"Very well," he answered wearily, and closed his eyes for a moment. "If +you are satisfied, that is all that need be said. As things go on, and I +reach where I mean to get, I dare say to spend money to do the thing +beautifully will please you as much as it will gratify me. I will give +you what I can of the honors and glories--so shall we consider our +bargain equal?" + +This was not lover-like, and Mrs. Cricklander knew it, but it was better +to have got it all over. She was well aware that the "honors and +glories" would compensate her for the outlay of her dollars, but her red +mouth shut with a snap as she registered a thought. + +"When I come back it may amuse me to make him really in love with me." +Then, watching carefully, she saw that some cloud of jar and disillusion +had settled upon her _fiancé's_ face. So with her masterly skill she +tried to banish it, talking intelligently upon the political situation +and his prospects. It looked certain that the Government would not last +beyond the session--and then what would happen? + +Mr. Hanbury-Green had given her a very clear forecast of what the other +side meant to do, but this she did not impart to John Derringham. + +She made one really stupid mistake as she got up to leave the room. + +"If you want a few thousands now, John," she said, as she bent to +lightly salute his cheek, "do let me know and I will send them to your +bank. They may be useful for the wedding." + +A dull flush mounted to the roots of his hair, and then left him very +pale. + +He took her hand and kissed it with icy homage. + +"Thank you, no--" he said. "You are far too good. I will not take +anything from you until the bargain is completed." + +Then their eyes met and in his there was a flash of steel. + +And when she had gone from the room he lay and quivered, a sense of +hideous humiliation flooding his being. + +The following day she came in the morning. She looked girlish in her +short tennis frock and was rippling with smiles. She sat on the bed and +kissed him--and then slipped her hand into his. + +"John, darling," she said sweetly. "People will begin to talk if I stay +here at Wendover now that you are getting better--and you would hate +that as much as I--so I have settled to go to Carlsbad with Lady +Maulevrier--just for three weeks. By that time my splendid John will be +himself again and we can settle about our wedding--" then she bent and +kissed him once more before he could speak. "Arabella is going to get +her mother to come down," she went on, "and you will be safe here with +these devoted old ladies and your Brome who is plainly in love with you, +poor thing!" and she laughed gayly. "Say you think it is best, too, +John, dearest?" + +"Whatever you wish," he answered with some sudden quick sense of relief. +"I know I am an awful bore lying here, and I shall not be able to crawl +to a sofa even for another week, these doctors say." + +"You are not a bore--you are a darling," she murmured, patting his hand. +"And if only I were allowed to stay with you--night and day--and nurse +you like Brome, I should be perfectly happy. But these snatched +scraps--John, darling, I can't bear it!" + +He wondered if she were lying. He half thought so, but she looked so +beautiful, it enabled him to return her caresses with some tepid warmth. + +"It is too sweet of you, Cecilia," he said, as he kissed her. He had not +yet used one word of intimate endearment--she had never been his +darling, his sweet and his own, like Halcyone. + +After she had gone again, all details having been settled for her +departure upon the Monday, he almost felt that he hated her. For, when +she was in this apparently loving mood, it seemed as if her bonds +tightened round his throat and strangled him to death. "Octopus arms" he +remembered Cheiron had called them. + +When Mrs. Cricklander got back to her own favorite long seat out on the +terrace, she sat down, and settling the pillows under her head, she let +her thoughts ticket her advantages gained, in her usual concrete +fashion. + +"He is absolutely mine, body and soul. He does not love me--we shall +have the jolliest time seeing who will win presently--but I have got the +dollars, so there is no doubt of the result--and what fun it will be! It +does not matter what I do now, he cannot break away from me. He has let +me see plainly that my money has influenced him--and, although +Englishmen are fools, in his class they are ridiculously honorable. I've +got him!" and she laughed aloud. "It is all safe, he will not break the +bargain!" + +So she wrote an interesting note to Mr. Hanbury-Green with a pencil on +one of the blocks which she kept lying about for any sudden use--and +then strolled into the house for an envelope. + +And, as John Derringham lay in the darkened room upstairs, he presently +heard her joyous voice as she played tennis with his secretary, and the +reflection he made was: + +"Good Lord, how thankful I should be that at least I do not love her!" + +Then he clenched his hands, and his aching thoughts escaped the iron +control under which since his engagement he had tried always to keep +them, and they went back to Halcyone. He saw again with agonizing +clearness her little tender face, when her soft, true eyes had melted +into his as she whispered of love. + +"This is what God means in everything." Well, God had very little to do +with himself and Cecilia Cricklander! + +And then he suddenly seemed to see the brutishness of men. Here was +he--a refined, honorable gentleman--in a few weeks going to play false +to his every instinct, and take this woman whom he was growing to +despise--and perhaps dislike--into his arms and into his life, in that +most intimate relationship which, he realized now, should only be +undertaken when passionate calls of tenderest love imperatively forced +it. She would have the right to be with him day--and night. She might be +the mother of his children--and he would have to watch her instincts, +which he surely would have daily grown to loathe, coming out in them. +And all because money had failed him in his own resources and was +necessary to his ambitions, and this necessity, working with an appeal +to his senses when fired with wine, had brought about the situation. + +God Almighty! How low he felt! + +And he groaned aloud. + +Then from a small dispatch box, which he had got his servant to put by +his bed, he drew forth a little gold case, in which for all these years +he had kept an oak leaf. He had had it made in the enthusiasm of his +youth when he had returned to London after Halcyone, the wise-eyed +child, had given it to him, and it had gone about everywhere with him +since as a sort of fetish. + +It burnt his sight when he looked at it now. For had he been "good and +true"? Alas! No--nothing but a sensual, ambitious weakling. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + + +The Professor and his protégée spent the whole of that July wandering in +Brittany--going from one old-world spot to another. There had not been +much opposition raised by Mr. and Mrs. Anderton to Halcyone's +accompanying her old master. They themselves were going to Scotland, and +there Mabel had decided she would no longer be kept in the schoolroom, +and intended to come forward as a grown-up girl assisting in the +hospitalities of her father's shooting lodge. And Mrs. Anderton, knowing +her temper, thought a rival of any sort might make difficulties. So, as +far as they were concerned, Halcyone might start at once. They always +left for the north in the middle of the month, and if the Professor +wanted to get away sooner, they did not wish to interfere with his +arrangements. Halcyone must come and pay them another visit later on. + +As for the Aunts La Sarthe--their heads appeared to be completely turned +by their sojourn at the seaside! They proposed to remain there all the +summer, and put forward no objection to their niece's excursion with Mr. +Carlyon. The once quiet spot of their youth had developed into a +fashionable Welsh watering place, and Miss Roberta was taking on a new +lease of health and activity from the pleasure of seeing the crowded +parade, while the Aunt Ginevra allowed that the exhilarating breezes and +cerulean waters were certainly most refreshing! + +Before the Professor could leave for a lengthy trip abroad, it was +necessary that he should return to the orchard house for a day, and +Halcyone accompanied him, leaving Priscilla in London. Her mission was +to secure the goddess's head--but, as there was no one at La Sarthe +Chase, she decided just to go there and get her treasure and sleep the +night at Cheiron's. + +It would be an excursion of much pain to her, to be so near to her still +loved lover and to feel the cruel gulf between them, but she must face +it if she desired Aphrodite to accompany them. The Professor suggested +she might take him through the secret passage and try with his help to +open the heavy box. No such opportunity had ever occurred before or was +likely to occur again, her aunts being absent and even old William +nowhere about. It made the chance one in a thousand. So she agreed, and +determined to force herself to endure the pain which going back would +cause her. + +She was perfectly silent all the way from London to Upminster--and Mr. +Carlyon watched her furtively. He knew very well what was passing in her +mind, and admired the will which suppressed the expression of it. She +grew very pale indeed in the station-fly when they passed the gates of +Wendover. It was about half past three in the afternoon--and the +Professor had promised to come to the archway opening of the secret +passage at five. + +So Halcyone left him and took her way down the garden and through the +little gate into the park. It seemed like revisiting some scene in a +former life, so deep was the chasm which separated the last time she +walked that way from this day. She passed the oak tree without stopping. +She would not give way to any weakness or the grief which threatened to +overwhelm her. She kept her mind steadily fixed upon the object she had +in view, with a power of concentration which only those who live in +solitude can ever attain to. + +Aphrodite was there still in the bag lying on top of the heavy +iron-bound box in the secret passage, and she carried her out into the +sunlight and once more took the wrappings from the perfect face. + +"You are coming with us, sweet friend," she whispered, and gazed long +into the goddess's eyes. What she saw there gave her comfort. + +"Yes, I know," she went on gently. "I did say that, whatever came, I +would understand that it was life--And I do--and I know this evil pain +is only for the time--and so I will not admit its power. I will wait and +some day joy will return to me, like the swallow from the south. Mother, +I will grieve not." + +And all the softest summer zephyrs seemed to caress her in answer, and +there she sat silent and absorbed, looking out to the blue hills for +more than an hour. + +Then she saw Cheiron advancing up the beech avenue, and covering up +Aphrodite she went to meet him. + +They came back to the second terrace and started upon their quest. + +Mr. Carlyon had the greatest difficulty in keeping his old head bent to +get through the very low part of the dark arched place, and he held +Halcyone's hand. But at last they emerged into the one light spot and +there saw the breastplate and the box. But at first it seemed as if they +could not lift it; it had fallen with the lock downward. Cheiron, +although a most robust old man, had passed his seventieth year, and the +thing was of extreme heaviness. But at last they pushed and pulled and +got it upright, and finally, with tremendous exertions with a chisel Mr. +Carlyon had brought, managed to break open the ancient lock. + +It gave with a sudden snap, and in breathless excitement they raised the +lid. + +Inside was another case of wood. This also was locked, but at its side +lay an old key. The Professor, as well as his chisel, had prudently +brought a small bottle of oil, and eventually was able to make the key +turn in the lock, and they found that the box was in two compartments, +one entirely filled with gold pieces, and the other containing some +smaller heavy object enwound with silk. + +They lifted it out and carried it to the light, and then with great +excitement they unrolled the coverings. It proved to be a +gold-and-jeweled crucifix and beneath it lay a parchment with a seal. + +Leaving the pieces of gold in the box, they carried the crucifix and the +parchment out on to the terrace, and then the Professor adjusted his +strongest spectacles and prepared to read what he could, while Halcyone +examined the beautiful thing. + +The writing was still fairly dark and the words were in Latin. It +stated, so the Professor read, that the money and the crucifix were the +property of Timothy La Sarthe, Gentleman to Queen Henrietta Maria, and +that, should aught befall him in his flight to France upon secret +business for Her Majesty, the gold and the crucifix belonged to +whichever of his descendants should find it--or it should be handed to; +that all others were cursed who should touch it, and that it would bring +the owner fortune, as it was the work of one Benvenuto Cellini, an +artist of great renown in Florence before his day, and therefore of +great value. The quaintly phrased deed added that if it were taken to +one Reuben Zana, a Jew in the Jewry at the sign of the Golden Horn, he +would dispose of it for a large sum to the French king. The crucifix had +been brought from Florence in the dower of his wife Donna Vittoria +Tornabuoni, now dead. If his son Timothy should secure it, he was +advised not to keep it, as its possession brought trouble to the family. + +"Then it is legally ours and not treasure-trove," said Halcyone. "Oh, +how good! It will make the Aunts La Sarthe quite rich perhaps, and look +how beautiful it is, the jeweled thing." + +They examined it minutely. It was a masterpiece of that great craftsman +and artist and of untold value. Cheiron silently thrilled with the +delight of it--but Halcyone spoke. + +"I am glad Ancestor Timothy suggested selling it," she said. "I would +never keep a crucifix, the emblem of sorrow and pain. For me, Christ is +always glorified and happy in heaven. Now what must we do, Master? Must +we at once tell the aunts? But I will not consent to anyone knowing of +this staircase. That would destroy something which I could never +recover. We must pretend we have found it in the long gallery; there is +a recess in the paneling which no one knows of but I, and there we can +put it and find it again. It will be quite safe. Shall we leave it +there, Cheiron, until we come back from abroad? How much do you think it +is worth?" + +"Anything up to fifty thousand pounds perhaps to a collector," the +Professor said, "since it is an original and unique. Look at the +splendid rubies and emeralds and these two big diamonds at the top, and +there is so little of Benvenuto's work left that is authentic." + +"That is an unusual sum of money, is it not?" Halcyone asked. "That +would surely give them anything they want for their lives; perhaps we +ought not to keep them waiting." + +And so after much talk it was arranged that Halcyone should make several +journeys, taking the gold to the long gallery and then the crucifix; and +then the box could be lifted and repacked again there. And, when she had +it all stowed away carefully in the recess of the paneling, she and +Cheiron should go openly to the back door and let the caretaker know +they had arrived, and go into the house--and there ostensibly find the +treasure. Then they would write to the Misses La Sarthe about their +discovery, and take the box to Applewood and deposit it in the bank +until their return. + +All this took a long time but was duly carried out, and about eight +o'clock Halcyone and the Professor were able to go back, carrying the +crucifix with them, to keep it safe for the night and then to put it +back with the gold and the parchment, before they took the box to the +bank on the morrow. + +"It may be worth more still and there is a good deal of gold," the +Professor said, "and their coins would be worth more now. You will be +quite a little heiress some day, dear child." + +"I do not care the least about money, Cheiron," she said, "but I shall +be so glad for the aunts." + +And when eventually the old ladies received the news of their fortune +there was much rejoicing, and by following Cheiron's advice they were +not defrauded and might look forward to a most comfortable end to their +lives. Miss Roberta even dreamed of a villa at the seaside and a visit +to London Town! + +But meanwhile the Professor and Halcyone went back to London and on the +Saturday left for Dieppe. + +London, perhaps from her numbed state of misery, had said nothing to +Halcyone. It remained in her memory as a nightmare, the scene of the +confirmation of her winter of the soul. Its inhabitants were ghosts, the +young men--jolly, hearty, young fellows from the Stock Exchange, and +rising Radical politicians whom she had met--went from her record of +things as so many shadows. + +The vast buildings seemed as prisons, the rush and flurry as worrying +storms, and even the parks as only feeble reminders of her dear La +Sarthe Chase. + +Nothing had made the least real impression upon her except Kensington +Gardens, and they to the end of her life would probably be only a +reminder of pain. + +But her first view of the sea! + +That was something revivifying! + +Her memory of the one occasion when she had gone to Lowestoft with her +mother was too dim to be anything of a reality, and, when they got to +Newhaven, the Professor and Priscilla and she, with a brisk summer wind +blowing the green-blue water into crested wavelets, the first cry of +life and joy escaped her and gladdened Cheiron's heart. + +How wonderful the voyage was! She took in every smallest change in the +tones of the sky--she watched the waves from the forepart of the bridge, +and some new essence of life and the certainty that her night forces +would never desert her made themselves felt and cheered her. + +Of John Derringham she thought constantly. He was not buried in that +outer circle of oblivion from which the thoughts unconsciously shy--as +we bury our dead, their going so shrouded in pain that we long to blot +out the memory of them. John Derringham was always with her. She prayed +for his welfare with the fervor and purity of her sweet soul. He was her +spirit lover still. He could never really belong to any other woman, she +knew. And as the days went by a fresh beauty grew in her pale face. The +night sky itself seemed to be melted in her true eyes with the essence +of all its stars. + +Cheiron often wondered at her. There was never a word or allusion to the +past. She was extremely quiet, and sometimes the droop of her graceful +head and the sad curves of her tender lips would make the kind old +cynic's heart ache. But she was always cheerful, taking unfeigned +interest in the country and the people, delighting in the simple faith +of the peasants and the glory of some of the old cathedrals. + +And Aphrodite traveled everywhere with them. A special case had been +made for her--and Halcyone often took her out to keep them company in +the late evenings or when a rare rain storm kept them indoors. + +Mr. Carlyon had not written to John Derringham since his engagement had +been announced. He wished all connection with his former pupil to be +broken off. He had no mercy for his action, he could not even use his +customary lenient common sense towards the failings of mankind. + +John Derringham had made his peerless one suffer--and his name was +anathema. As far as Cheiron was concerned he was wiped off the list of +beings who count. + +Halcyone's delicate sense of obligation had been put at ease by her +stepfather. He had made over to her a few hundreds a year which he said +had belonged to her mother--the simple creature was too ignorant of all +business to be aware whether this was or was not the case. She had grown +to have a certain liking for James Anderton. There was a hard, +level-headed, shrewd honesty about him, keen to drive a bargain--even +the one about her mother to which Priscilla had alluded and to which +they had never made any further reference--but, when once he had gained +his point, he was generous and kind-hearted. + +He could not help it that he was not a gentleman, Halcyone thought, and +he did his best for everybody according to his lights. + +Her few hundreds a year seemed untold wealth to her who had never had +even a few sixpences for pocket money! But there was always some +instinctive dislike for the thing itself. It remained to her a rather +unpleasant medium for securing the necessities of life, though she was +glad she now possessed enough not to be a burden upon her aunts, and +could hand what was necessary for her trip over to the Professor. + +They wanted to get into Italy as soon as it should be cool enough. +August saw them in an out-of-the-way village in Switzerland. + +And the mountains caused Halcyone a yet deeper emotion than the sea had +done. Nature here talked to her in a voice of supreme grandeur, and bade +her never to be cast down but to go on bearing her winter with heroic +calm. + +She often stayed out the entire night and watched the stars fade and the +dawn come--Phoebus with his sun chariot! Somehow Switzerland, although +it was not at all the actual background, seemed to bring to her the +atmosphere of her "Heroes." The lower hill near their village could +certainly be Pelion, and one day she felt she had discovered Cheiron's +cave. This was a joy--and that night, when it rained and she and the +Professor sat before their wood fire in the little inn parlor, with +Aphrodite lying near them in her silken folds, she coaxed her old master +into telling her those moving tales of old. + +"You are indeed Cheiron, Master," she said--and then her eyes widened +and she looked into the glowing ashes. "And you have one pupil, who, +like Heracles in his fight with the Centaurs, has accidentally wounded +you. But I want you not to let the poison of the arrow grow in your +blood; the wound is not incurable as his was. Master, why do you never +speak to me now of Mr. Derringham?" + +Cheiron frowned. One of his eyebrows had grown in later years at least +an inch long and seemed to bristle ready for battle when he was angry. + +"I think he has behaved as no gentleman should," he growled, "and I +would rather not mention him." + +"You know of things perhaps with which I am not acquainted," said +Halcyone, "but from my point of view, there is nothing to judge him for. +Whatever he may have done in becoming engaged to marry this +lady--because she is rich--we do not know the forces that were +compelling him. It hurts me, Cheiron, that you take so stern a view--it +hurts me, Master." + +Mr. Carlyon put out his hand and stroked her soft hair as she sat there +on a low stool looking up at him. + +"Oh, my dear," he said, and could articulate no more because a lump grew +in his throat. + +"Everything is so simple when we know of it," she went on, "but everyone +has not had the fortune to learn nature and the forces which we must +encourage or guard against. And Mr. Derringham, who had to mix with the +world, ran many dangers which could not come to you and me at La Sarthe +Chase. Ah, Cheiron! Even you do not know of the ugly things which creep +away out of sight in the night--my night that I love! And they could +sting one if one did not know where to put one's feet. And so it must be +with him--he did not always see where just to put his feet, so we must +not judge him, must we?" she pleaded. + +"Not if you do not wish," Mr. Carlyon blurted out. And then he began to +puff wreaths of smoke from his long old pipe. + +"Indeed, I do not wish, Cheiron," she said. "Perhaps he is very unhappy +now--we do not know--so we should only send him good thoughts to cheer +him. I dream of him often," she went on in a far-off voice, as though +she had almost forgotten the Professor's presence, "and he cries to me +in pain. And I could not bear it that you should be thinking badly of +him, and so I had to speak because thoughts can help or injure +people--and now he wants all the gentle currents we can send him to take +him through this time." + +The Professor coughed violently; his spectacles had grown dim. + +Then Halcyone rubbed her soft cheek against his old withered hand. + +"You knew it, of course, Master," she said very softly. "I loved him +always and I love him still--and, if I have forgiven any hurt which he +brought me, surely it need not stand against him with you. To-night--oh, +he is suffering so! I cannot bear that there should be one shadow going +to him that I can take away. Cheiron, promise me you won't think hardly +ever any more--promise me, Cheiron, dear!" + +The Professor's voice was almost the growl of a bear--but Halcyone knew +he meant to acquiesce. + +"Cheiron," she whispered, while she caressed his stiff fingers, "the +winter of our souls is almost past. I feel and know the spring is near +at hand." + +"I hope to God it is," Mr. Carlyon said, very low. + +Next day they moved on into Italy, crossing the frontier and stopping +the night at Turin where they proposed to hire a motor. From thence they +intended to get down to Genoa to continue their pilgrimage. It was not +such an easy matter, in those few years ago, as it is now to hire a +motor, but one was promised to them at last--and off they started. +Halcyone took the greatest interest in everything in that quaint and +grand old town. Her keen judgment and that faculty she possessed of +always seeing everything from the simplest standpoint of truth made her +an ideal companion to wander with on this journey of cultured ease. + +"How strong a place this seems, Cheiron," she said, after two days of +their sight-seeing. "All the spirits at the zenith of Genoa's greatness +were strong--nothing weak or ascetic. They must have been filled with +gratitude to God for giving them this beautiful life, those old patrons +of decoration. There is nothing cheap or hurried; it is all an +appreciation of the magnificence due to their noble station and their +pride of race. For the _Guelphist_ of them seems to have been an +aristocrat and an autocrat in his personal _ménage_. Is it not so, +Master?" + +"I dare say," agreed Cheiron. He was watching with deep interest for her +verdict upon things. + +"It gives me the impression of solid riches," she went on, "the +encouragement of looms of costly stuffs, the encouragement for workers +in marble, in bronze, in frescoes, all the material gorgeous, tangible +pleasures of sight and touch. It is not poetic; it inspires admiration +for great deeds, victorious navies, triumphs--banquets--I have no sense +of music here except the music of feasting. I have no sense of poetry +except of odes to famous admirals or party leaders, and yet it is a +great joy in its way and a noble monument to the proud manhood of the +past." And she looked down from the balcony of the Palazzo Reale, where +they were standing, into the town below. + +Her thoughts had gone as ever to the man she loved. He had this haughty +spirit--he could have lived in those days--and she saw him a Doria, a +Brignole-Sale or a Pallavicini, gorgeous, masterful and magnificent. +England in the present day was surely a _supplice_ for such an arrogant +spirit as that of John Derringham. + +The prosperous mercantile part of Genoa said nothing to her--she wanted +always to wander where she could weave romances into the things round. +She had never seen any fine pictures before. The Anderton family were +not lovers of art and, while in London, Halcyone had been too unhappy to +care or even ask to be taken to galleries--and Cheiron had not suggested +doing so; he was a good deal occupied himself. But now it was a great +pleasure to him to watch and see what impression they would make upon a +perfectly fresh eye. The immense cultivation of her mind would guide her +taste probably--but it would be an interesting experiment. + +She stopped instantly in front of a Van Dyck, but she did not speak. In +fact she made no observations at all about the pictures until they were +back in their hotel. It was still very hot, although September had come, +and they had their dinner upon an open terrace. + +And then her thoughts came out. + +"I like the Guido Renis, Cheiron," she said; "his Magdalen in the Reale +Palazzo is exquisite--she is pure and good. But I do not like the saints +and martyrs in the throes of their agony, they say nothing to me, I have +no sympathy for them. I adore the Madonna and the Child; they touch +me--here," and she laid her hand upon her heart. "The Sassoferarto +Virgin in the Reale Palazzo is like Miss Lutworth, she is full of +kindness and youth. The early masters' works, which are badly drawn and +beautifully colored, I have to take apart--and it is unsatisfying. +Because, while I am trying not to see the wrong shape, I have only half +my faculties to appreciate the exquisite colors, and so a third +influence has to come in--the meaning of the artist who painted them and +perhaps put into them his soul. But that is altruistic--I could as well +admire something of very bad art for the same reason. For me a picture +should satisfy each of these points of view to be perfect and lift me +into heights. That is why perhaps I shall prefer sculpture on the whole, +when I shall have seen it, to painting." + +And Mr. Carlyon felt that, learned in art and old as he was, Halcyone +might give him a new point of view. + +Next day they left for Pisa. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + + +When Arabella Clinker and her mother were settled together at Wendover, +a strange peace seemed to fall upon the place. John Derringham was +conscious of it upstairs as he lay in his Louis XV bed. By the time he +was allowed to be carried to a sofa in the sitting-room which had been +arranged for him, July had well set in. + +He had parted from his Cecilia with suitable things said upon either +side. Even in his misery and abasement, John Derringham was too assured +a spirit and too much a man of the world to have any hesitation or +awkwardness. Mrs. Cricklander had been all that was sympathetic. She +looked superbly full of vigor and the joy of life as she came to say +farewell. + +"John, darling," she purred, "you will do everything you are told to by +the doctors while I am away, won't you?" and she caressed his forehead +with her soft hand. "So that I may not have to worry as dreadfully as I +have been doing, when I come back. It has made me quite ill--that is why +I must go to Carlsbad. You will be good now; so that I may find you as +strong and handsome as ever on my return." Then she bent and kissed him. + +He promised faithfully, and she never saw the whimsical gleam in his +eyes, because for the moment having gained her end her faculties had +resumed their normal condition, which was not one of superlative +sensitiveness. Like everything else in her utilitarian equipment, fine +perceptions were only assumed when the magnitude of the goal in view +demanded their presence. And even then they merely went as far as +sentinels to warn or encourage her in the progress of her aims, never +wasting themselves upon irrelevant objects. + +When her scented presence had left the room, John Derringham clasped his +hands behind his head, and, before he was aware of it, his lips had +murmured "Thank God!" + +And then Nemesis fell upon him--his schoolboy sensation of +recreation-time at hand left him, and a blank sense of failure and +hopeless bondage took its place. + +Surely he had bartered his soul for a very inadequate mess of pottage. + +And where would he sink to under this scorpion whip? Where would go all +his fine aspirations which, even in spite of all the juggling of +political life, still lived in his aims. Halcyone would have understood. + +"Oh! my love!" he cried. "My tender love!" + +Then that part of him which was strong reasserted itself. He would not +give way to this repining, the thing was done and he must make the best +of it. He asked for some volumes from the library. He would read, and he +sent the faithful and adoring Brome to request Miss Clinker to send him +up the third and fourth volume of "The Decline and Fall of the Roman +Empire." He often turned to Gibbon when he was at war with things. The +perfect balance of the English soothed him--and he felt he would read of +Julian, for whom in his heart he felt a sympathy. + +Arabella brought the volumes herself, and placed them on his table, and +then went to settle some roses in a vase before she left the room. + +A thin slip of paper fell out of one of the books as he opened it, and +he read it absently while he turned the pages. + +On the top was a date in pencil, and in a methodical fashion there was +written in red ink: + +"Notes for the instruction of M. E.," and then underneath, "Subjects to +be talked of at dinner to-night--Was there cause for Julian's apostasy? +What appealed most to Julian in the old religions--etc., etc." + +For a second the words conveyed no meaning to his brain, and for +something to say, he said aloud to Arabella: "This is your writing, I +think, Miss Clinker. I see you have a taste for our friend Gibbon, too," +and then, observing the troubled confusion of Arabella's honest face, a +sudden flash came over him of memory. He recollected distinctly that +upon the Sunday before his accident, they had talked at lunch of Julian +the Apostate, and Mrs. Cricklander had turned the conversation, and then +had referred to the subject again at dinner with an astonishing array of +facts, surprising him by her erudition. + +He looked down at the slip again--yes, the date was right, and the +red-ink heading was evidently a stereotyped one; probably Arabella kept +a supply of these papers ready, being a methodical creature. And the +questions!--were they for her own education? But no--Arabella was a +cultivated person and would not require such things, and, on that +particular Sunday, had never opened the door of her lips at either meal. + +"She prompts Cecilia," in a flash he thought, with a wild sense of +bitter mirth. "No wonder she can reel off statistics as she does. +'Subjects to be talked of at dinner'--forsooth!" + +And Arabella stood there, her kind plain face crimson, and her brown +eyes blinking pitifully behind her glasses. + +She was too fine to say anything, it would make the situation impossibly +difficult if she invented an explanation. So she just blinked--and +finally, after placing the fresh flowers by Mr. Derringham's bed, she +left the room by the door beyond. + +When she had gone it was as if a curtain were raised upon John +Derringham's understanding. Countless circumstances came back to him +when his _fiancée's_ apparent learning had aroused his admiration, and +with a twinge he remembered Cheiron's maliciously amused eyes which had +met his during her visit to the orchard house, when she had become a +little at sea in some of her conversation. The whole thing then was a +colossal bluff--Arabella was the brain! Arabella was the erudite, +cultured person and his admirable Cecilia played the rôle of extremely +clever parrot! He laughed with bitter cynical merriment until he shook +in his bed. + +And he, poor fool, had been taken in by it all--he and a number of +others. He was in company at all events! Then he saw another aspect, and +almost admired the woman for her audacity. What nerve to play such a +game, and so successfully! The determination--the application it +required--and the force of character! + +But the gall of it when she should be his wife! He saw pictures of +himself trembling with apprehension at some important function in case +mistakes should occur. He would have to play the part of Arabella, and +write out the notes for the subjects to be "talked of at dinner!" + +He lay there, and groaned with rage and disgust. + +He could not--he would not go through with it! + +But next day the irony of fate fell upon him with heavy hand. He +received the news that Joseph Scroope, his maternal uncle, was dead, not +having produced an heir, so he knew that he would inherit a comfortable +fortune from him. + +The noose had, indeed, tightened round his neck,--he could not now +release himself from his engagement to Cecilia Cricklander. Some +instincts of a gentleman still remained with him in full measure. The +hideous, hideous mockery of it all. If he had waited, he would now have +been free to seek his darling, his pure star, Halcyone, in all honor. He +could have taken her dear, tender hand, and led her proudly to the seat +by his side--and crowned her with whatever laurels her sweet spirit +would have inspired him to gain. And it was all too late! too late! + +He reviewed the whole chain of events, and perceived how it had been his +own doing--what had happened in each step--and this knowledge added to +the bitterness of his pain. It was from now onward that his nights were +often agony. Every movement, every word of Halcyone came back to him, +from the old days of long ago when she had given him the oak leaf, to +the moment of her looking into his eyes, with all her soul in hers, as +she had answered his passionate question. "Afraid? How should I be +afraid--since you are my lord and I am your love? Do not we belong to +one another?" + +And in spite of the peace Mrs. Cricklander's absence caused in the +atmosphere, John Derringham grew more unutterably wretched as time went +on. + +His cup seemed to be filling from all sides. The Government was going +out in disaster, and, instead of being able to stand by his colleagues +and fight, and perhaps avert catastrophe by his brilliant speeches and +biting wit, he was chained like a log to a sofa and was completely +impotent. + +It was no wonder his convalescence was slow, and that Arabella grew +anxious about him. She felt that some of Mrs. Cricklander's wrath and +disgust because of this state of things would fall upon her head. + +His ankle was a great deal better now, it was five weeks since the +accident, and in a day or two he hoped to leave for London. Mrs. +Cricklander would be obliged to take an after-cure at the highly +situated castle of an Austrian Prince, an old friend of hers--where the +air was most bracing, she wrote. For her strict instructions to Arabella +before she left, after telling her she might have her mother to keep her +company, and so earning the good creature's deep gratitude, had been: + +"You must keep me informed of every slightest turn in Mr. +Derringham--because, until he is perfectly well and amusing again, I +simply can't come back to England. His tragic face bores me to death. +Really, men are too tiresome when there is the slightest thing the +matter with them." + +And Arabella had faithfully carried out her instructions. + +In common honesty she could not inform her employer that John Derringham +was perfectly well or amusing! + +Poor Miss Clinker's happy summer with her mother was being a good deal +dimmed by her unassuaged sympathy and commiseration. + +"Of course, he is grieving for that sweet and distinguished girl, Miss +Halcyone La Sarthe," she told herself--and with the old maid's hungering +for romance, which even the highest education cannot quite crush from +the female breast, she longed to know what had parted them. + +Mr. Carlyon had gone abroad, she had ascertained that, and La Sarthe +Chase was still closed. + +The night before John Derringham left for London, he hobbled down to +dinner on crutches. He was not to try and use his foot for some weeks +still, but the cut on his head was mended now. It was a glorious July +evening, the roses were not over on the terrace, and every aspect of +nature was gorgeously beautiful and peaceful. + +They did not delay long over their repast, and there was still twilight +when Mrs. and Miss Clinker left their invalid alone with his wine. A +letter was in his pocket, arrived by the evening post from Mrs. +Cricklander, which he had not yet opened. It would contain her +reflections upon his changed conditions of fortune, of which he had, +when he learned of its full magnitude, duly informed her. + +He was alternately raging with misery now, or perfectly numb and, as he +sat there a shattered wreck of his former _insouciant_ self, gaunt and +haggard and pitifully thin, some of his friends would hardly have +recognized him. + +He felt it was his duty to read the missive presently, but he told +himself the lights were too dim, and taking a cigar he hobbled out upon +the terrace. His return to public life would now be too late to help to +avert disaster, he must just stand aside in these last weeks of the +session and see the shipwreck. An unspeakable bitterness invaded his +spirit. The moon was rising when he got outside, one day beyond its +full. It seemed like a golden ball in the twilight of opal tints, before +it should rise in its silver majesty to supreme command of the night. +Nature was in one of her most sensuously divine moods. The summer and +fulfillment had come. + +John Derringham sat down in a comfortable chair and gazed in front of +him. + +There had been moonlight, too, when he had spent those exquisite hours +with his love, now six weeks ago--a young half moon. Could it be only +six weeks? A lifetime of anguish appeared to have rolled between. And +where was she? Then, for the first time, the crust of his +self-absorption seemed to crumble, and he thought with new stabs of pain +how she, too, must have suffered. He began to picture her waiting by the +gate--she would be brave and quiet. And then, as the day passed--what +had she done? He could not imagine, but she must have suffered +intolerably. When could she have heard of the accident, since the next +day she had been taken away? Why had she gone? That was unlike her, to +have given in to any force which could separate them. And if he had +known this step also was unconsciously caused by his own action in +having his letter to Cheiron posted from London, it would have tortured +him the more. Another thought came, and he started forward in his chair. +Was it possible that she had written to him, and that the letter had got +mislaid, among the prodigious quantity which accumulated in those first +days of his unconsciousness? + +Then he sank back again. Even if this were so, it was too late now. +Everything was too late--from that awful night when he had become +engaged to Cecilia Cricklander. + +She had put the announcement into the paper not quite three weeks after +the accident. What could Halcyone have thought of him and his +unspeakable baseness? Now she could have nothing but loathing and +contempt in her heart, wherever she was--and what right had he to have +broken the beliefs and shattered the happiness of that pure, young soul? + +He remembered his old master's words about a man's honor towards women. +It was true then that it was regulated, not by the woman's feelings or +anguish, but by the man's inclination and whether or no the world should +hold him responsible. And he realized that this latter reason was the +force which now prevented his breaking his engagement with Mrs. +Cricklander. He had behaved with supreme selfishness in the beginning, +and afterwards with a weakness which would always make him writhe when +he thought of it. + +His self-respect was receiving a crushing blow. He clasped his thin +hands and his head sank forward upon his breast in utter dejection; he +closed his eyes as if to shut out too painful pictures. And when he +opened them again it was darker, and the moon made misty shadows through +the trees, and out of them he seemed to see Halcyone's face quite close +to him. It was tender and pitiful and full of love. The hallucination +was so startlingly vivid that he almost fancied her lips moved, and she +whispered: "Courage, beloved." Then he knew that he was dreaming, and +that he was gazing into space--alone. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + + +Mrs. Cricklander, at Carlsbad, was not altogether pleased to receive the +news of her _fiancé's_ accession to fortune. She realized that John +Derringham was not the sort of man to give up his will to any woman +unless the woman had entirely the whip hand, as she would have had if he +had been dependent upon her for the financial aid wherewith to obtain +his ambitions. She would have practically no hold over him now, and, +when he was well, he was so attractive that she might even grow to care +too deeply for him for her own welfare. To allow herself to become in +love with a husband who was answerable to her for his very food and +lodging, and whom she could punish and keep in bondage when she pleased, +was quite a different matter to experiencing that emotion towards an +imperious, independent creature going his own way, and even, perhaps, +compelling her to conform to his. + +"How stupid of the old man, Mr. Scroope, to have married so late!" she +said to herself, as usual finding everyone wrong who in any way +interfered with her wishes. + +John Derringham's letters--only two a week she received from him--were +his usual masterpieces of style, and in them he employed his skill to +say everything--and nothing. + +She felt pleased as she read, and then resentful when she thought over +them. He had never once used a word of personal endearment, although the +letters were beautifully expressed. He seemed most happy and comfortable +with Arabella. After all, perhaps she would not go and stay with Prince +Brunemetz at Brudenstein. She might make John come out and join her and +go on to St. Moritz--that would do him good. She could wire for +Arabella. The _convenances_ were so dear to her. The wedding should take +place in October, she decided. + +And two days after John Derringham had arrived in London at his old +rooms in Duke Street, she wrote and suggested this plan to him--and then +the first preliminary crossing of swords between them happened. He +answered that he would come and join her later, but until the session +was over he could not leave town, and he begged her to go and stay with +Prince Brunemetz, or do anything else which would amuse her. He was +still upon crutches, he said, and not fitted to be a cavalier to any +lady. + +She shut her mouth with a snap, and, sitting down, wrote a long letter +to Mr. Hanbury-Green, with whom she kept up a brisk correspondence. Very +well, then! she would go to Brudenstein; she would not martyrize herself +by being with a man on crutches! So half of her August passed in a most +agreeable manner, and towards the end of the month she summoned her +_fiancé_ to Florence. He could walk with a stick now--and to meet her +there and go on to Venice and out to the Lido would be quite delightful, +and could not hurt him. She deserved some attention after this long +time! + +The end of the session had come, and still the Government hung on, but +it was obvious that they had been so much discredited that the end could +not be long postponed, and that, as soon as Parliament met again, a +hostile vote would be carried against them. But for the time there was +nothing to keep John Derringham in England, and with intense reluctance +he started for Italy, the ever-nearing date for his wedding looming in +front of him like some heavy cloud. He had plunged headlong into work +when he had returned from Wendover, for which he was still quite unfit. +His whole system had received a terrible shock, and it would be months +before he could hope to be his old robust self again; and an unutterable +depression was upon him. The total silence of Halcyone, her +disappearance from the face of the earth as far as he was concerned, +seemed like something incredible. + +There were no traces of her. Mrs. Porrit was out, and the orchard house +shut up, so, he obtained no information. He had stopped there to enquire +on his way to the station when he had left Wendover. La Sarthe Chase was +entirely closed, except for a woman and her husband from the village who +slept there. But what right had he to be interested now, in any case? He +had better shut the whole matter out of his mind, and keep his thoughts +upon his coming marriage with Cecilia Cricklander. + +And it was this frame of mind which caused him to plunge recklessly into +work as soon as he reached London, though he found that nothing really +assuaged his misery. + +It was a glorious day towards the end of August when he got onto the +boat at Dover, and there ran across Miss Cora Lutworth, bent upon +_trousseau_ business in Paris. She was with her friend, the lady who +chaperoned her, and greeted him with her usual breezy charm. + +They sat down together in a comfortable corner on deck, while the lady +went to have a sleep. They talked of many things and mutual friends. He +was doing what was a comparatively rare thing in those days, taking over +a motor to tour down to Venice in, and Cora was duly interested. Freynie +adored motoring, too, she said, and that was how they intended to spend +their honeymoon. She was going to be married in a few weeks, and was +radiantly happy. + +This was the first time she had seen John Derringham since his +engagement and his accident, and the great change in him gave her an +unpleasant shock. There were quite a number of silver threads in his +dark hair above the temples, and he looked haggard and gaunt and +lifeless. Cora's kind heart was touched. + +"I am sure he does not care a rush for Cis," she thought to herself, +"and I am sure he did for that sweet Halcyone. He and Cis are not +married yet; there can be no harm in my mentioning her." So aloud she +said: + +"You remember our meeting that charming Miss Halcyone La Sarthe across +the haw-haw on Easter Sunday? Well, fancy, I came across her in London +at the end of June--in Kensington Gardens, sitting with the long-haired +old Professor. I was surprised; somehow one could not picture her out of +her own park." She watched John Derringham's face carefully, and saw +that this information moved him. + +"Did you?" he said, with an intense tone in his deep voice. "What was +she doing there, I wonder?" + +"She looked too sweet," Cora went on. "She was wearing becoming modern +clothes, and seemed to me to have grown so pretty. But she was very pale +and quiet. She came to tea with me the next day--I cannot say how she +fascinates me. I just love her--and then, on the Saturday she was to go +abroad with the Professor." + +"Really?" said John Derringham, while he could feel his heart begin to +beat very fast. "Where were they going, do you know? I would like to run +across, my old master." + +"I think to Brittany for July, and then Switzerland; but they intended +to get into Italy as soon as it was cool enough. They seemed to be going +to have a lovely trip and take a long time about it." + +"I had no idea Miss La Sarthe had any relations in London," he said. +"Who was she staying with there? Did she tell you?" + +"Her stepfather, I think," Cora said. "Her mother married twice, it +appears, and then died, and the man married again. This second wife, her +sort of stepmother, came and fetched her from La Sarthe Chase quite +suddenly one day." + +"I cannot think of her in London," said John Derringham. "Did she like +it, do you think? And was she changed?" + +"Yes, very changed," Cora answered, and made her voice casual. "She +looked as if the joy of life had fled forever, and as if she were just +getting through the time. Perhaps she hated being with her +step-family--people often do." + +Then she glanced at him stealthily as he stared out at the sea, while +she thought: "I am sure some awful tragedy is here underneath; it is not +only his broken ankle and his illness that has made him such a wreck. I +wish I could help them. I would not care a snap for Cis, who is a +rattlesnake if she wants something." + +"When was it, exactly, you saw her?" John Derringham asked. "But perhaps +you don't remember the date?" + +"Yes, I do," Cora responded quickly. "It was the day your engagement was +announced in the papers, because we spoke about it." + +"Did you?" he said, and drew in his breath a little. "And what did you +say?" + +"Just the usual things--how fortunate you were. And Halcyone said you +were clever and great." + +John Derringham did not answer for a moment. This stunned him. Then he +replied, very low, "That was good of her," and Cora noticed that even +with the fresh wind blowing in his face he had grown very pale. + +"Cis writes you are going to be married at the beginning of October," +she said, to change the conversation. "I do hope you will be awfully +happy. It is so exquisite to be in love, isn't it? I adore being +engaged!" + +But John Derringham could not bear this--the two things were so widely +severed in his case. He did not answer, and Cora saw, although his face +remained unmoved, that pain grew deep in his eyes. + +"Mr. Derringham," she said, "I am going to say something indiscreet and +perhaps in frightful taste--but I am so happy I can't bear to think that +possibly others are not quite. I know Cis awfully well--her character, I +mean. Is there anything I can do for you?" + +John Derringham turned with a chillingly haughty glance intended to +wither, but when he saw her sweet face full of frank sympathy and +kindness, it touched him and his manner changed. + +"We have each of us to fulfill our fates," he said. "I suppose we each +deserve what we receive, and I am so glad yours seems to be such a very +happy one." + +Then he made some excuse to get up and leave her--he could bear no more. + +And Cora, left alone, smiled sadly to herself while she reflected what a +foolish thing pride was, and all the other shams which robbed life of +the only thing really worth having. + +"Well, I should not let any of that nonsense ever stand between Freynie +and me, thank goodness!" she concluded. + +But John Derringham limped off to the bows of the ship, quivering with +pain. So Halcyone had spoken of his engagement and said he was "clever +and great." What could it all mean? Did he no longer interest her +then--even at that period? This stung him deeply. There was no light +anywhere. When once he had grasped the full significance of his own +conduct he was much too fine an intelligence to deceive himself, or +persuade himself to see any other aspect but the hopeless one, that the +entire chain of events was the result of his own action. But surely +there must be some way out? If he wrote straight to Cecilia and told her +the truth? And then he almost laughed bitterly as he realized the +futility of this plan. What would the truth matter to Mrs. Cricklander? +She could very well retort that he had known all this truth from the +beginning, and had been willing to marry her while his financial +position made it an advantage to himself, but was now _recalcitrant_ +only because fortune had otherwise poured gold into his lap. + +No, there was no hope. He must go through with it. + +So he crushed down his emotions and forced himself to return to Miss +Lutworth and talk brightly to her until they landed. + +And when they parted at the Gare du Nord, Cora was left with the +impression that, whatever might be the undercurrent, John Derringham was +strong enough to face his fate, and not give anyone the satisfaction of +knowing whether in it he found pleasure or pain. + +When he arrived about ten days later at the hotel in Florence, where +Mrs. Cricklander was staying, waiting for him to accompany her on to +Venice, he found her in a very bad temper. She felt that she had not +been treated with that deference and respect which was her due, to say +nothing of the ardor that a lover ought to have shown by hastening to +her side. Why had he motored, spending ten days on a journey that he +could have accomplished in two? And he made no excuses, and seemed quite +unimpressed by her mood one way or another. He was so changed, too! +Gaunt and haggard--he had certainly lost every one of his good looks, +except his distinction--that seemed more marked than ever. His arrogant +air that she had once admired so much now only caused her to feel a +great irritation. He had made the excuse of the waiter not having quite +closed the door, apparently, for only kissing her hand by way of +greeting, and then he said just the right thing about her beauty and his +pleasure in seeing her, and sat down by her side upon the sofa in far +too collected a manner for a lover to have shown after these weeks of +separation. Mrs. Cricklander grew very angry indeed. Cold and capricious +behavior should only be shown upon a woman's side, she felt! + +"Your Government made a colossal mess of things before the session was +over, did they not?" she said by way of something to start upon. "Mr. +Hanbury-Green tells me you will have to face a hostile vote when you +reassemble, and that the whole thing is a played-out game. How long +would the Radicals last if they do come in?--and it looks like a +certainty that they will." + +"Seven years, most likely," said John Derringham a little bitterly. "Or +perhaps to the end of time. Your friend Mr. Green could tell you more +accurately than I. Does the fact interest you very deeply?" + +"Yes," she said, and narrowed her eyes. "I am wildly interested in +everything that concerns you, of course--that is obvious." + +"You will help me to fight, then, for the Opposition. Your social +talents are so great, dear Cecilia, you will make a most brilliant Tory +hostess," and he took her hand--he felt he must do something. + +"I have always been on the winning side," she said, not more than half +playfully. "I do not know how I should like seven years of fighting an +uncertain fight. I might get extremely bored by it. I had no idea it +would last so long." And she laughed a little uncomfortably. "However, +we are perfectly modern, aren't we, John, and need not spend the entire +year fighting together--fortunately?" + +"No," he said. "I am sure we shall be an admirable pair of citizens of +the world. And now I suppose I must let you go and dress for dinner. How +is our estimable friend, Miss Clinker? She is with you, I suppose?--or +have you friends staying in the hotel? You did not tell me in your +letters." + +"I never waste sweetness upon the desert air," she said, smiling, with a +glitter in her eyes. "You did not appear over anxious to hear of my +doings. Our correspondence made me laugh sometimes. You never wrote as +though you had received any of my letters--yours were just masterpieces +of how little to say--and of how to say it beautifully!" + +John Derringham shrugged his shoulders slightly; he did not defend +himself, and her anger rose. So that she was leaving the room with her +head in the air and two bright spots of pink in her cheeks. + +Then he felt constrained to vindicate his position, so he put his arm +round her and drew her to him, intending to kiss her. But she looked up +into his face with an expression in her eyes which left him completely +repulsed. It was mocking and bitter and cunning, and she put out her +hand and pushed him from her. + +"I do not want any of your caresses to-night," she said. "When I do, +I'll pay for them." And she swept from the room, leaving him quivering +with debasement. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + + +There was fortunately a company assembled for dinner when John +Derringham descended to the restaurant and again joined his +_fiancée_--who never dined alone if she could help it, and reveled in +gay parties for every meal, with plenty of brilliant lights and the +chatter of other groups near at hand. Wherever she went, from Carlsbad +to Cairo, in the best restaurant you could always find her amidst her +many friends, feasting every night. And now the party consisted of some +of her compatriots, a Russian Prince, and an Italian Marchese. She +looked superbly beautiful; anger had lent a sparkle to her eyes and a +flush to her cheeks; no rouge was needed to-night, and she could +scintillate to her heart's content. She flashed words occasionally at +John Derringham, and he knew, and was horribly conscious all the time, +that once he would have found her most brilliant, but that now it was +exactly as when he had looked at the X-ray photograph of his own broken +ankle, where the sole thing which made a reality was the skeleton +substructure. He could only seem to see Cecilia Cricklander's vulgar +soul---the pink and white perfection of her body had melted into +nothingness. + +He found himself listening for some of her parrot-utterances, as a +detached spectator, and taking a sort of ugly pleasure in recognizing +which were the phrases of Arabella. The man upon her left hand was +intelligent, and was gazing at her with the rapt attention beauty always +commands, and she was uttering her finest platitudes. + +And once John Derringham leant back in his chair, when no one was +observing him, and laughed aloud. The supreme mockery of it all! And in +five weeks from this night this woman would be his wife! + +_His wife!_ Ye gods! + +They had no _tête-à-tête_ words before the party broke up, and had +hardly exchanged a sentence when, as the last guest was saying farewell, +Arabella, too, retired from the sitting-room. + +So they were alone. + +"Cecilia," he said, coming up quite close to her, "we started rather +badly to-night--at least let us be friends." And he held out his hand. +"Believe me, I wish to do all that I can to please you, but I am afraid +I make a very indifferent sort of lover. Forgive me," + +"Oh, you are well enough, I suppose," she said. "No man values what he +has won--it is only the winning of it that is any fun. I understand the +feeling myself. Don't let us talk heroics." + +John Derringham smiled. + +"Certainly not," he said. + +And then she put up her face and let him kiss her, which he did with +some sickening revolt in his heart. Even her physical beauty had no more +any effect upon him--he would as soon have kissed Arabella. + +So she sailed from the room again, with her mouth shut like a vice, and +her handsome eyes glancing at him over her shoulder. + +Next day, after having kept him waiting for an hour to take her out, she +decided they should spend what remained of the morning at the Bargello. +And, when they got there, she did her best to be a charming companion, +and pressed him to lean upon her instead of his stick. But to his +awakened understanding what was even probably true in her talk and +comprehension of the gems of art, seemed false and affected, and he was +only conscious of one continual jar as she spoke. + +A thousand little trifles, never remarked before, now appeared to loom +large in his vision. At last they came to the galleries above, to the +collection of the Della Robbias, and Mrs. Cricklander rhapsodized over +them, mixing them up with delightful unconcern. They were all just bits +of cheap-looking crockery to her eye, and it was impossibly difficult to +distinguish which was Luca's, Andrea's, or Giovanni's; and, security +having made her careless, she committed several blunders. + +John Derringham laid no pitfalls for her--indeed, he helped her out when +he could. To-day each new discovery no longer made him smile with bitter +cynicism, he was only filled with a sense of discomfort and regret. + +He stopped in front of Andrea's masterpiece, the tender young Madonna. +Something in the expression of the face made him think of Halcyone, +although the types of the two were entirely different; and Cecilia +Cricklander, watching, saw a look of deep pain grow in his eyes. + +"I wish to goodness he would get well and be human and masterful and +brilliant, as he used to be," she thought. "I am thoroughly tired out, +trying to cope with him. He is no more use now than a bump on a log. I +am sorry I made him come here!" + +"It is about time for lunch," said John Derringham, who could no longer +bear her prattle; and they returned to the hotel. + +Arabella and an American man made the _partie carrée_, and Miss Clinker +did her best to help to get through the repast, and afterwards wrote in +a letter to her mother: + + Mr. Derringham has arrived. He still looks dreadfully ill and + careworn, and I can see is feeling his position acutely. Since that + dreadful day when he found my notes in Gibbon, I have never dared to + look at him when in the company of M. E. I feel that distressing + sensation of hot and cold during the whole time. M. E., now that no + further great efforts are needed, chatters on with most disquieting + inconsequence. I can see she is very much upset at Mr. Derringham's + attitude. The impression that the Conservative Goverment cannot last + has had also a great effect upon her, and she has set me to find out + exactly the position and amount of prestige the wife of a rising + member of the Opposition would have. This morning she sent for me, + when she was dressing, to know if it were true, as Mr. Derringham had + told her, that, if the Radicals got in, they might last seven + years--because, if so, she would then be almost thirty-eight, and the + best days of her youth would be over. I do not dare to think what + these remarks may mean, but in connection with the fact that she + receives daily letters from Mr. Hanbury-Green--that unpleasant + Socialistic person who is coming so much to the front--I almost fear, + and yet hope, that there is some chance for Mr. Derringham's escape. + He is bearing his trouble as only an English gentleman could do, and + at lunch paid her every attention. + +And old Mrs. Clinker smiled when she got this letter. + +But by the end of the afternoon John Derringham's face wore no smiles; a +blank despair had settled upon him. + +They drove along the Arno and into the Gardens. + +It was warm and beautiful, but, so forceful is a hostile atmosphere +created between two people, they both found it impossible to make +conversation. + +Mrs. Cricklander was burning with rage and a sense of impotency. She +felt her words and all her arts of pleasing were being nullified, and +that she was up against an odious situation in which her strongest +weapons were powerless. It made her nervous and very cross. She +particularly resented not being able to ascertain the cause of the +change in him, and felt personally aggrieved at his still being a +wretched wreck hobbling with a stick. He ought to have got quite well by +now--it was perfectly ridiculous. What if, after all, he would not be +worth while? But the indomitable part of her character made her +tenacious. She felt it was a different matter, throwing away what she +had won, to having to relinquish something that she knew she had never +really gained. She would make one more determined effort, and then, if +he would not give her love, he should be made to feel his bondage, she +would extort from him to the last ounce, her pound of flesh. + +"John, darling," she said, slipping her hand into his, under the rug as +they drove, "this beautiful place makes me feel so romantic. I wish you +would make love to me. You sit there looking like Dante with a beard, as +cold as ice." + +"I am very sorry," he answered, startled from a reverie. "I know I am a +failure in such sort of ways. What do you want me to say?" + +This was not promising, and her annoyance increased. + +"I want you to tell me you love me--over and over again," she whispered, +controlling her voice. + +"Women always ask these questions," he said to gain time. "They never +take anything for granted as men do." + +"No!" she flashed. "Not when a man's actions point to the possibility of +several other interpretations of his sentiments--then they want words to +console them. But you give me neither." + +"I am not a demonstrative person," he responded. "I will do all I can to +make you happy, but do not ask me for impossibilities. You will have to +put up with me as I am." + +"I shall decide that!" And she snatched away her hand angrily, and then +controlled herself--the moment had not yet come. He should not have +freedom, which now she felt he craved; he should remain tied until he +had at all events paid the last price of humiliation. So for the rest of +that day and those that followed she behaved with maddening +capriciousness, keeping him waiting for every meal and every +appointment--changing her mind as to what she would do--lavishing +caresses upon him which made him wince, and then treating him with +mocking coldness; but all with such extreme cleverness that she never +once gave him the chance to bring things to an open rupture. She was +beginning really to enjoy herself in this new game--it required even +more skill to torture and hold than to attract and keep at arm's length. +But at last John Derringham could bear no more. + +They had continuous lunches and dinners with the gay party of Americans +who had been of the company on the first evening, and there was never a +moment's peace. A life in public was as the breath of Cecilia +Cricklander's nostrils, and she did not consider the wishes of her +betrothed. In fact, but for spoken sympathy over his shattered condition +and inability to walk much, she did not consider him at all, and exacted +his attendance on all occasions, whether too fatiguing for him or not. + +The very last shred of glamour about her had long fallen from John +Derringham's eyes, and indeed things seemed to him more bald than they +really were. His proud spirit chafed from morning to night--chafed +hopelessly against the knowledge that his own action had bound him as no +ordinary bond of an engagement could. His whole personality appeared to +be changing; he was taciturn or cynically caustic, casting jibes at all +manner of things he had once held sacred. But after a week of abject +misery, he refused to bear any more, and when Mrs. Cricklander grew +tired of Florence, and decided to move on to Venice, he announced his +intention of taking a few days' tour by himself. He wished to see the +country round, he said, and especially make an excursion to San +Gimignano--that gem of all Italy for its atmosphere of the past. + +"Oh! I am thoroughly tired of these moldy places," Mrs. Cricklander +announced. "The Maulevriers are in Venice, and we can have a delightful +time at the Lido; the new hotel is quite good--you had much better come +on with me now. Moping alone cannot benefit anyone. You really ought to +cheer up and get quite well, John." + +But he was firm, and after some bickerings she was obliged to decide to +go to Venice alone with Arabella, and let her _fiancé_ depart in his +motor early the next morning. + +Their parting was characteristic. + +"Good night, Cecilia," John Derringham said. No matter how capricious +she could be, he always treated her with ceremonious politeness. "I am +leaving so very early to-morrow, we had better say good-by now. I hope +my going does not really inconvenience you at all. I want a little rest +from your friends, and, when I join you at Venice again, I hope you will +let me see more of yourself." + +She put up her face, and kissed him with all the girlish rippling smiles +she had used for his seduction in the beginning. + +"Why, certainly," she said. "We will be regular old Darbys-and-Joans; so +don't you forget while you are away that you belong to me, and I am not +going to give you up to anything or anybody--so long as I want you +myself!" + +And John Derringham had gone to his room feeling more chained than ever, +and more bitterly resentful against fate. + +As soon as he left her, she sat down at her writing-table and wrote out +a telegram to be sent off the first thing the next day. It contained +only three words, and was not signed. + +But the recipient of it, Mr. Hanbury-Green, read it with wild emotion +when he received it in his rooms in London--and immediately made +arrangements to set off to Florence at once. + +"I'll beat him yet!" he said to himself, and he romantically kissed the +pink paper. For, "You may come" was what he had read. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + + +An hour or so before sunset the next day John Derringham in his motor +was climbing the steep roads which lead to San Gimignano, the city of +beautiful towers, which still stands, a record of things mediæval, +untouched by the modernizing hand of men. + +A helpless sense of bitterness mastered him, and destroyed the +loveliness and peace of the view. Everything fine and great in his +thoughts and aims seemed tarnished. To what stage of degradation would +his utter disillusion finally bring him! Of course, when Cecilia +Cricklander should once be his wife, he would not permit her to lead +this life of continuous racket--or, if she insisted upon it, she should +indulge in it only when she went abroad alone. He would not endure it in +his home. And what sort of home would it be? He was even doubtful about +that now. Since she had so often carelessly thrown off her mask, he no +longer felt sure that she would even come up to the mark of what had +hitherto seemed her chief charm, her power of being a clever and +accomplished hostess. He could picture the scenes which would take place +between them when their wishes clashed! The contemplation of the future +was perfectly ghastly. He remembered, with a cynical laugh, how in the +beginning, before that fateful Good Friday when the Professor first +planted ruffling thoughts in his mind, and before the spell of Halcyone +had fallen upon him, he had thought that one of the compensations for +having to take a rich wife he had found in Cecilia. She would be his +intellectual companion during the rather rare moments he would be able +to spare for her from his work. He would be able to live with a woman +cultured in all branches which interested him, capable of discussing +with him any book or any thought, polished in brain and in methods. He +had imagined them, when alone together, spending their time in a +delightful and intellectual communion of ideas, which would make the tie +of marriage seem as almost a pleasure. And what was the reality?--An +absolute emptiness, and the knowledge that, unless Arabella Clinker +continued her ministrations, he himself would have to play her part! He +actually regretted his accession to fortune. But for it he could have +broken off the engagement with decency, but now his hands were tied. +Only Cecilia could release him, and she did not seem to have the +slightest intention of doing so. + +He savagely clenched his white teeth when he remembered the ridiculous +waiting lackey he had been made to turn into in the last week. Then he +looked up and tried to take interest in the quaint gateway through which +he was passing and on up to the unique town and the square where is the +ancient Podesta's palace, now the hotel. But he was in a mood of rasping +cynicism--even the exquisite evening sunlight seemed to mock at him. + +His highly trained eye took in the wonderful old-world beauty around him +with some sense of unconscious satisfaction, but the saintly calm of the +place made no impression upon him. Santa Fina and her flowers could not +soften or bring peace to his galled soul. The knowledge that the whole +situation was the result of his own doings kept his bitterness always at +white heat. The expression of his thin, haggard face was sardonic, and +the groups of simple children, accustomed to ask any stranger for stamps +for their collections--a queer habit of the place--turned away from him +when once they had looked into his eyes. + +He left his motor at the hotel and wandered into the square where the +remains of the palazzos of the two great Guelph and Ghibelline families, +the Ardinghelli and the Salvucci, frown at one another not fifty yards +apart--shorn of their splendors, but the Salvucci still with two towers +from which to hurl destruction at their enemies. + +John Derringham looked up at the balcony whence Dante had spoken, and +round to the Cathedral and the picturesque square. The few people who +passed seemed not in tune with his thoughts, so calm and saintly was the +type of their faces--all in keeping with a place where a house of the +sixteenth century is considered so aggressively modern as not to be of +any interest. It was too late for him now to go into the Cathedral; +nothing but the fortress battlements were possible, and he hobbled +there, desiring to see the sunset from its superb elevation. + +The gate-keeper, homely and simple, opened to him courteously, and he +went in to the first little courtyard, with its fig tree in the middle +and old grass-grown well surrounded by olives and lilac bushes; and then +he climbed the open stairs to the bastion, from whose battlements there +is to be obtained the most perfect view imaginable of the country, the +like of which Benozzo Gozzoli loved to paint. + +It has not changed in the least since those days, except that the tiles +of the roofs, which are now dark gray with age, were then red and +brilliant. But the cypress trees still surround the monasteries, and the +high hills are still crowned with castellos, while the fields make a +patchwork of different crops of olives and vines and grain. + +John Derringham mounted the stairs with his head down, musing bitterly, +so that, until he reached the top, he was not aware that a slender +girl's figure was seated upon the old stone bench which runs round the +wall. Her hat lay upon the seat beside her, while she gazed out over the +beautiful world. He paused with a wildly beating heart in which joy and +agony fought for mastery, but, as she turned to see who this stranger +could be, thus breaking in upon her solitude, his voice, hoarse with +emotion, said aloud her name: + +"Halcyone!" + +She started to her feet, and then sank back upon the bench again +unsteadily, and he came forward to her side. They both realized that +they were alone here in the sunset--alone upon this summit of the world. + +He sat down beside her and then he buried his face in his hands, letting +his cap fall; and all the pent-up misery and anguish of the past weeks +seemed to vibrate in his voice as he murmured: + +"Ah, God!--my love!" + +Her soft eyes melted upon him in deepest tenderness and sorrow. To see +him so pale and shattered, so changed from the splendid lover she had +known! + +But he was there--beside her--and what mattered anything else? She +longed to comfort him and tend him with fond care. Had he been the +veriest outcast he would ever have found boundless welcome and solace +waiting for him in her loving heart. + +"John!" she whispered, and put out gentle fingers and caressed his hair. + +He shivered and let his hands fall from his haggard face. + +"Darling," he said, "I am not worthy to touch the hem of your garment. +Why do you not turn from such a weakling and brute?" + +"Hush! Hush," she exclaimed, aghast. "You must not speak so of yourself. +I love you always, as you know, and I cannot hear him whom I love +abused." + +And now he looked into her eyes while he took her slender hand, and +there he saw the same wells of purity and devotion brimming with divine +faith and tenderness that he had last seen glistening with happy love. + +He folded her to his heart; the passionate emotion each was feeling was +too deep, too sacred for words; and then their eyes streamed with +scorching tears. + +They sat thus close for some seconds. The thirst and hunger of all these +days of rack and anguish must be assuaged before either could talk. But +at last she drew a little back and looked up into his face. + +"John," she said softly, "I read in an English paper a week ago that +your wedding was fixed for the seventh of October--my birthday. Is it +the truth?" + +He clasped his hands in agony. + +"It can never now be so," he said. "I cannot, I will not go through with +it. Oh, Halcyone, my darling one, you would pity me, although you would +despise me, if you knew--" + +"I could never despise you," she answered, nestling once more in his +arms. "John, for me nothing you could do would make any difference--you +would still be my love; and if you were weak I would make you strong, +and if cold and hungry, I would feed and comfort you, and if wicked, I +would only see you good." + +"Oh, my dear, my dear," he said, "you were always as an angel of +sweetness. Listen to the whole degrading story, and tell me then of that +which I must do." + +She took one of his hands and held it in both of hers; and it was as if +some stream of comfort flowed to him through their soft warm touch and +enabled him to begin his ugly task. + +He told her the whole thing from the beginning. Of his ambitions, and +how they held chief place in his life, and how he had meant to marry +Cecilia Cricklander as an aid to their advancement. He glossed over +nothing of his own baseness, but went on to show how, from the moment he +had seen her upon that Good Friday at the orchard house, his +determination about Cecilia Cricklander had begun to waver, until the +night under the tree when passion overcame every barrier and he knew he +must possess her--Halcyone--for his wife. + +He made no excuse for himself; he continued the plain tale of how, his +ambitions still holding him, he had selfishly tried to keep both joy and +them, by asking her--she who was so infinitely above him--to descend to +the invidious position of a secret wife. + +She knew the rest until it came to the cause of his accident, and, when +she heard it occurred because of his haste to get to her before she +should reach the house, she gave a little moan of anguish and leaned her +head against his breast. + +So the story went on--of his agonized thoughts and fever and fears--of +his comprehension that she had been taken from him, and of the utter +hopelessness of his financial position, and the whole outlook, until he +came to the night of his engagement; and here he paused. + +"Do not try to tell me any of this part, John, my dear lover," she said. +"I know the standard of honor in a man is that he must never give away +the absent woman, and I understand--you need not put anything into +words. I knew you were unhappy and coerced. I never for a moment have +doubted your love. You were surrounded with strong and cruel forces, and +all my tenderness could not reach you quite, to protect you as it should +have done, because I was so full of foolish anguish myself. Dearest, now +only tell me the end and the facts that I must know." + +He held her close to him in thankfulness, and then went on to speak of +the shame and degradation he had suffered for his weakness; the +drawn-out days of aching wonder at her silence, and finally the news of +his Uncle Joseph Scroope's death and the fortune that would come to him, +and how this fact had tied and bound his hands. + +"But it has grown to such a pass," he said, "that I had come to +breaking-point, and now I can never go back to her again. I have found +you, my one dear love, and I will never leave you more." + +Halcyone shook her head sadly, and asked him to listen to her side. And +when he knew that her leaving La Sarthe Chase had been brought about +because of his letter to Cheiron having been posted from London, so that +she hoped to find him there, it added to his pain to feel that, even in +this small turn of events, his action had been the motive force. + +But, as she went on, her pure and exquisite love and perfect faith +shining through it all seemed to draw his soul out of the mire in which +it had lain. And at last they knew each other's stories and were face to +face with the fateful moment of to-day, and he exclaimed gladly: + +"My darling, now nothing else matters--we will never, never part again." + +Then, as he looked into her eyes, he saw that not gladness but a solemn +depth of shadow grew there, and he clasped both her hands. A cold agony +chilled his whole being. What, O God, was she going to say? + +"John," she whispered, all the tenderness of the angels in her gentle +voice as she leaned and kissed the silver threads in his dark hair. +"John, do you remember, long ago when we spoke of Jason and Medea, and +you asked me the question then, Must he keep his word to her even if she +were a witch?--and I told you that was not the point at all: it was not +because she was or was not a witch, but because it was _his +word?_"--Here her voice broke, and he could hear the tears in it, and he +wildly kissed her hands. Then she went on: + +"Oh, my dear lover, it is the same question now. _You cannot break your +word._ Nothing but misfortune could follow. It is a hard law, but I know +it is true, and it is fate. We put in action the force which brings all +that we receive, and we who have courage pay the price without +flinching, and, above and beyond all momentary pleasure or pain, we must +be true to ourselves." + +"I cannot, I cannot!" he groaned in agony. "How can you condemn me to +such a fate?--tied to this woman whose every influence is degrading to +me; parted from you whom I adore--I would rather be dead. It is not +fair--not just, if you only knew!" + +Then he continued wildly. "Ah, God--and it is all because I forgot the +meaning of your dear and sacred, pledge with me that I must always be +good and true! If I could suffer alone--my darling, my soul!--then I +would go without a word back to hell, if you sent me. But you, +too--think, Halcyone! Can you bear your life? You who are so young, +separated for evermore from love and me. Oh! my own, my own--" + +Here he stopped his mad rush of words--her face was so white and +grave--and he let her draw herself from him, and put her hands upon his +shoulders, while her eyes, with tender stars of purity melting in their +depths, gazed into his. + +"John," she said, "do not try to weaken me. All Nature, who is my +friend, and the night-winds and their voices, and that dear God Who +never deserts me, tell me that for no present good must we lower +ourselves now. Nothing can ever hurt me. Go back and do that which being +a gentleman entails upon you to do--and leave the rest to God. This is +the winter of our souls, but it will not last forever. The spring is at +hand, if you will only trust, and believe with me that first we on our +side must be ready to pay the price." + +Then she bent forward and kissed him as an angel might have done, and, +without speaking more, rose and prepared to walk towards the stairway +which descended to the lower court. + +He followed her, and she turned before she began to descend the steps, +while she pointed to the beautiful country. + +"Look at the vines, all heavy with grapes," she said, "and the fields +shorn of their corn, and the olives shimmering in the sunset; and then, +dear lover, you will know that all things have their sequence, and our +time of joy will come. Ah! sweetheart, it is not farewell for ever; it +is only that we must wait for our spring." + +"Halcyone," he said, while his proud eyes again filled with tears, "you +have the absolute worship of my being. You have taught me, as ever, the +truth. Go, my darling, and I will do as you wish, and will try to make +myself more worthy of your noble soul. God keep you until we meet +again." + +She did not speak; she only looked at him with a divine look of love and +faith, and he watched her as she went down, it seemed, out of the very +heart of the setting sun and into the shadows beneath, and so +disappeared from his adoring eyes in a peaceful purple twilight. + +Then he returned to the old stone seat and leaning forward gazed out +over the exquisite scene. + +A great hush had fallen upon his torn heart. And thus he stayed +motionless until the night fell. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + + +Mrs. Cricklander awaited Mr. Hanbury-Green's coming quite impatiently. +She felt she wanted a little warmth and humanity after the chilling week +she had passed with her betrothed. What she meant to do with this latter +she had not yet made up her mind--the justice of an affair never +bothered her, and her complete unconsciousness of having committed any +wrong often averted her action's immediate consequence. That Mr. +Hanbury-Green should suffer, or that John Derringham should suffer, +mattered to her not one jot. She was really and truly under the +impression that only her personal comfort, pleasure and feelings were of +any importance in the world. Her brain always guarded these things, and, +when they were not in any jeopardy or fear of being inconvenienced, then +she was capable of numbers of kind and generous actions. And, if she had +ever been reproached about her colossal selfishness, she would have +looked up astonished, and replied: + +"Well, who is nearer to oneself than oneself?" + +Common sense like this is not to be controverted. + +It would only be when she was growing old that she would feel the +loneliness of knowing that, apart from the passion which she had +inspired because of her sex and her beauty, not a single human being had +ever loved her. For the present she was Venus Victrix, a glorious +creature, the desired of men--and that was enough. + +Mr. Hanbury-Green was a forceful person, unhampered by any of the +instincts of a gentleman, and therefore armed with a number of weapons +for winning his battles. He had determined to rise to the top upon the +wave of class hatred which he had been clever enough to create, and he +neither knew nor cared to what state of devastation he might bring the +country. He was a fitting mate in every way for Cecilia Cricklander, and +completely equipped to play with her at her own game. + +So, when they met in her sitting-room in the Florentine hotel, each +experienced a pleasurable emotion. + +His was tempered--or augmented--by a blunt and sufficiently brutal +passion, which only the ideal of circumspect outward conduct which +dominates the non-conformist lower middle classes, from which he had +sprung, kept him from demonstrating, by seizing his desired prize in his +arms. + +He was frankly in love, and meant to leave no stone unturned to oust +John Derringham from his position as _fiancé_ of the lady--John +Derringham, whom he hated from the innermost core of his heart! + +Mrs. Cricklander fenced with him admirably. She did not need Arabella's +coachings in her dealings with him; he was quite uncultured, and +infinitely more appreciated what her old father had been used to call +her "horse sense" than he would have done her finest rhapsody upon +Nietzsche. Mrs. Cricklander had indeed with him that delightful sense of +rest and ceasing from toil that being herself gave. She felt she could +launch forth into as free a naturalness as if she had been selling +little pigs' feet in her grandfather's original shop. And all to a man +who was rising--rising in that great country of England, where some day +he might play a _rôle_ no less than Tallien's, and she could be "Notre +dame de Thermidor." + +Arabella had once told her of this lady's story, and she felt that the +time in Bordeaux when the beautiful Thérèse wore the red cap of Liberty +and hung upon the arm of one who had swum in the blood of the +aristocrats, must have been an experience worth having in life. Her +study of Madame Tallien went no further; it was the lurid revolutionary +part in her career that she liked. + +Mr. Hanbury-Green was very careful at first. He was quite aware that he +was only received with _empressement_ because he was successful; he knew +and appreciated the fact that Cecilia Cricklander only cared for members +of a winning side. He felt like that about people himself, and he +respected her for the way she fought to secure a footing among the hated +upper classes, and then trampled upon their necks. There were no shades +of her character which would have disgusted or dismayed him; even the +knowledge that her erudition was merely parrot-talk, would only have +appealed to his admiration as a further proof of her sagacity. + +They went on to Venice the day after he arrived, with Arabella to make a +chaperoning third, and for the first two days afterwards Cecilia kept +him at arm's length, but not waiting for his dinner! Some instinct told +her that in his home circle he would probably have been accustomed to +worthy, punctual women, and, while she enjoyed tantalizing him, she knew +that he had a nasty temper and could not be provoked too far. No bonds +of honor or chivalry would control his actions as they would those of +John Derringham. She was dealing with as lawless a being as herself, and +it was very refreshing. Mr. Hanbury-Green knew her one weak point--she +was intensely sensitive of the world's opinion, as are all people who +inwardly know they are shams. She would have hated to be the center of a +scandal, from the point of view that it would irreparably close doors to +her; and her resentment of barriers and barrier-makers was always +present. + +This he would remember as his strong card--the last to be played.--If +she continued being capricious until the moment of her _fiancé's_ +expected return, he would use all his cunning--and it was no +inconsiderable quantity--and compromise her irrevocably, and so get her +to surrender upon his terms. For he had made up his mind, as he sped to +Florence, that Cecilia Cricklander should return to England as his wife. + +They had four days of the usual gay parties for every meal--there +happened to be a number of people passing through and staying at +Venice--and the early September weather was glorious and very hot. + +Mrs. Cricklander delighted in a gondola. There was something about it +which set off her stately beauty, she felt, and she reveled in the +admiration she provoked; and so did Mr. Hanbury-Green--he prized that +which the crowd applauded. But time was passing, and nothing the least +definite was settled yet, although he knew he had obtained a certain +mastery over her. + +On the Friday evening a telegram was received from John Derringham +saying he would return on the Saturday night, and Mr. Hanbury-Green felt +this was the moment to act. He had no intention of having any quarrel +with his rival, or of putting himself in the position of being called +upon to give an account of himself. The news of his dismissal must be +conveyed to John Derringham by the lady as that lady's free and +determined choice. + +So Mr. Green was very cautious all the Friday evening, and made himself +as irresistible as he could, using all his clever wits to flatter and +cajole Cecilia, and leaving not a trifle unconsidered which could +interfere with his plans. + +They were simple enough. + +He claimed to have discovered a quite new and quite charming spot on the +Lido, which he was most anxious to take Mrs. Cricklander to see +alone--he put a stress upon the word _alone_, and looked into her eyes. +They would go quite early and be back before tea, as John Derringham had +timed himself to arrive upon the mainland about seven o'clock, and would +be at the Daniellis, where they were all staying, for dinner. + +Mrs. Cricklander felt she must have one more delightful afternoon, and, +as this excursion might contain a spice of adventure, it thrilled her +blood. She had been exquisitely discreet--in public--forcing Arabella +always to talk to Mr. Hanbury-Green, and devoting herself to Lady +Maulevrier, or any other lady or old gentleman who happened to be +present. And then she felt free to spend long hours alone with Mr. +Hanbury-Green in her sitting-room, whose balcony hung over the beautiful +canal. No one could say a word--Arabella's discretion could always be +counted upon; and pleasure was secured. + +She looked, perhaps, more beautiful than she had ever done in her life +as they started. Mr. Hanbury-Green had hired a special gondola, not the +one they were accustomed to float about in,--and off they went. Where +was the harm, in broad daylight! and with Arabella to accompany them--as +far as the last steps, and then to be dropped? Cecilia felt like a +school-girl on a forbidden treat. + +When they were well out of sight of all observation, Mr. Hanbury-Green +began. He told her that he loved her, in all the most impressive +language he was master of; he felt that with her he might with safety +and success use the same flamboyant metaphors and exaggerations with +which he was accustomed to move his constituents. No restraint or +attention to accuracy was necessary here. And if his voice in his honest +excitement would have sounded a little cockney in Arabella's cultured +ears, Cecilia Cricklander did not notice it. On the contrary, she +thought the whole thing was the finest-sounding harangue she had ever +heard in her life. + +He went on to say that he could not live without her, and implored her +to throw over John Derringham and promise to be his wife. + +"He thinks you are madly in love with him, darling," he said, knowing +this would sting, "and will stand any of his airs. Let him see you are +not. Give him the snub he deserves for deserting you, and fling his +dismissal in his face." + +Cecilia Cricklander reddened and thrilled, too. Here, at all events, was +warmth. But she was not won yet. So she looked down, as if too full of +emotion to speak. She must gain time to consider what this would mean, +and, if worth while, how to lay her plans. + +Should the scheme contain certain elevation for herself and certain +humiliation for John Derringham, then there was something worthy of +consideration in it, for undoubtedly Percy Hanbury-Green suited her the +better of the two, as far as just the men themselves were concerned. She +knew she would get desperately tired of having to live up to John +Derringham's standard, and a divorce in England would not be so easily +obtained or so free from scandal, as her original one in America had +been. But she must think well, and weigh the matter before plunging in. + +Mr. Hanbury-Green saw her hesitation and instantly applied another +forceful note. He dwelt upon the political situation and grew eloquent +and magnetic, as when he was on the platform--for was he not playing for +stakes which, for the moment, he valued even more than some thousands of +votes? + +It was no wonder Cecilia Cricklander's imagination grew inflamed. He let +her see that as his wife she would, for seven years or more, ride on the +crest of the wave of an ever-rising tide to undreamed-of heights of +excitement and intrigue. "With you at my side, darling," Mr. Green said +passionately, "I could be stimulated into being Dictator myself. The +days of kings and constitutions are over. The people want a strong +despotic leader who has first brought about their downfall. And they +will get him--in ME!" + +This clinched the matter, and Cecilia, seeing visions of herself as +Madame Tallien, allowed herself to be drawn into his arms! + + * * * * * + +"Do you know, my beauty," the triumphant lover said as they floated back +to pick up Arabella upon the last steps, rather late in the afternoon, +"I had meant to get you somehow to-day. If you had refused to listen, I +intended to take you to the Lido and keep you there all night--the +gondolier and the people there are bribed--then you would have had no +choice but to marry me. Oh, you cannot balk me!" + +And all Cecilia Cricklander replied was, with a girlish giggle of +pleasure: + +"Oh, Percy, dear!" + +In the innermost recesses of their hearts there are a number of cold +women who adore a bold buccaneer! + +She had made one stipulation with him before they landed, and this was +one which in the future--little as she knew it then--would rob her of +all her triumph over John Derringham, and plant an everlasting and +bitter sting in her breast. + +She insisted that, as she did not wish to create a nine days' wonder, no +mention of his engagement to herself should be made public by Mr. +Hanbury-Green for at least a month after people were aware that she had +closed hers with John Derringham. All should be done with decency and in +order, so as not to militate in any way against her future position as +queen of the winning side. + +And, knowing that he had already telegraphed the announcement that the +marriage arranged between the Right Honorable John Derringham and Mrs. +Vincent Cricklander would not take place, so that it should appear in +the Monday morning papers--Mr. Hanbury-Green felt he could safely comply +with her caprice and bide his time. He had not the slightest intention +of ever permitting a whim of hers to interfere with his real wishes in +any way, and having a full command of her own weapons and methods, he +looked forward to a time of uninterrupted bliss when once she should be +his wife. To dissemble for a month or so would not hurt him, and might +even amuse him as a new game. + +So they entered Daniellis in subdued triumph, and said good night before +Arabella, with prim decorum, and then Cecilia mounted to make herself +look beautiful for the flinging of his _congé_ in John Derringham's +face. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + + +When Halcyone left the Fortezza she was conscious of no feeling of +depression or grief. Rather a gladness and security filled her heart. +She had seen him with her mortal eyes--her dear lover--and he was in +truth greatly in need of all her care and tender thoughts. Her beliefs +were so intense in those forces of protection with which that God Whom +she worshiped so truly surrounded her, that she never for a moment +doubted but these invisible currents would be directed to the +disentangling of destiny's threads. + +She made no speculations as to how this would be--God would find the +way. Her attitude was never one of pious resignation to a divine +chastisement. She did not believe God ever meant to chastise anyone. For +good or ill each circumstance was brought about by the individual's own +action in setting the sequence of events in motion, as the planting of +seed in the early spring produced fair flowers in the summer--or the +bruising of a limb produced pain. And the motion must go on until the +price had been paid or the pleasure obtained. And, when long ago she had +heard Cheiron and John Derringham having abstruse arguments upon Chance, +she used silently to wonder how they could be so dull as not to +understand there was no such thing really as Chance--if people were only +enabled to see clearly enough. If they could only trace events in their +lives to their sources, they would find that they themselves had long +ago--even perhaps in some former existence--put in motion the currents +to draw the events to themselves. What could be called "chance" in the +matter was only another name for ignorance. + +And, if people knew about these wonderful forces of nature, they could +connect themselves with only the good ones, and protect themselves from +the bad. Misfortune came through--figuratively--not knowing just where +to put the feet, and through not looking ahead to see what would be the +result of actions. + +Only, above and beyond all these forces of nature and these currents of +cause and effect, there was still the great, eternal Source of all +things, who was able to dispel ignorance and to endow one individual +with the power to help another by his prayers and thoughts. This God +could hasten and bring Happiness, if only He were believed in with +absolute faith. But that He would ever stoop to punish was an unheard-of +blasphemy. He was only and entirely concerned with good. Punishments +came as the results of actions. It followed then that John Derringham, +having paid the price of much sorrow for all his mistakes, would now +come into peace--and her prayers, and exceptional advantages in having +been allowed for years to learn the forces of nature, would be permitted +to help him. That he would be obliged to marry Mrs. Cricklander would +seem to be an overexaction, and not just. But they were not the judges, +and must in all cases fulfill their part of honesty and truth, no matter +what might betide. + +These were her convictions, and so they caused her to feel only a +God-like calm--as she went away into the purple shadows of the old +streets. + +Cheiron and she had been at San Gimignano for half a week, and almost +every child in the place knew and loved her. She had always a gracious +word or a merry smile when they clustered round her, as is their +friendly way with all travelers, when she came from the Cathedral or the +strange old solitary chapel of St. Jacopo. + +The Professor was waiting for her on the hotel steps, and he saw by some +extra radiance in her face that something unusual had happened. + +"What is it, my child?" he asked, as they went in and up to their dinner +in the big _salle à manger_ upon the first floor, which was then nearly +always empty of guests. + +"John Derringham is here, Master," she said--"and we have talked, and +now all shadows are gone--and we must only wait." + +"I am glad to hear it," replied Cheiron, and bristled his brows. + +This is all that was said between them on the subject, and, immediately +the meal was over, they retired to their rooms. But when alone in hers, +Halcyone took from the silken wrappings the Goddess Aphrodite, and in +the divine eyes read a glad blessing, and, as soon as her head touched +her pillow, she fell into a soft sweet sleep, while the warm night winds +flew in at the wide-opened windows and caressed her hair. + +And John Derringham, when the dark had fallen, came down from his high +watch tower, and walked slowly back to the hotel, leaning upon his +stick. He was still filled with the hush of his loved one's serene calm. +Surely, after all, there must be some truth in her beliefs, and he would +trust to them, too, and wait and hope--and above all keep his word, as +she had said, with that honor which is entailed upon a gentleman. + +He ordered his motor for dawn the next morning, so as to be away before +the chance of disturbing the two should occur. + +The rare and wonderful sight of a motor in those days caused a crowd to +collect whenever one should arrive or depart. It was an unheard-of thing +that two should visit the city at the same time--there had only been +three in the whole year--so Halcyone, when she heard the whizz next +morning, bounded from her bed and rushed to peep between the green +shutters. Some instinct told her that the noise indicated it was he--her +dear lover--about to start, and she had the happiness of gazing down +upon his upturned face unperceived, as his eyes searched the windows, +perhaps in some vague hope of being able to discern which was hers. + +And she showered upon him blessings of love and tenderness, and called +all the currents of good from the sky and the air, to comfort and +protect him and give him strength to go back and keep his word. And, +just as he was starting, a white pigeon flew down and circled round John +Derringham's head--and he was conscious that at the same moment the sun +must have risen above the horizon, for it suddenly gilded the highest +towers. And he passed out of the dark gate into its glory, and took the +Siena road, a mighty purpose of strength in his heart. + +After a few days of wandering, during which he strove not to let grief +or depression master him again, he sent a telegram to Venice to Cecilia +Cricklander. And on that Saturday evening, he walked into her +sitting-room with a pale and composed face. + +She was seated upon the sofa and arranged with every care, and was +looking triumphantly beautiful as she smoked a cigarette. Her fine eyes +had in them all the mocking of the fiend as she greeted him lazily. + +"How are you, John?" she said casually--and puffed rings of smoke, +curling up her red lips to do so in a manner that, John Derringham was +unpleasantly aware, he would once have found attractive, but that now +only filled him with disgust. + +"I am well," he said, "thank you,--better for the change and the sight +of some most interesting things." + +"And I, also," she responded with provoking glances from under her lids, +"am better--for the change! I have seen--a man, since which I seem to be +able the better to value your love!" + +And she leaned back and laughed with rasping mockery, which galled his +ears--although for some strange reason she could no longer gall his +soul. He felt calm and blandly indifferent to her, like someone acting +in a dream. + +"I am glad you were, and are, amused," he said. He had not made the +slightest attempt to kiss her in greeting--and she had not even held out +her hand. + +"You are quite rich now, John, aren't you?" after a short silence she +presently asked nonchalantly--"that is, as you English count riches--ten +or twelve thousand a year. I suppose it will keep you in comfort." + +He leaned back and smiled one of his old cynical smiles. + +"Yes," he said, "it is extremely rich for me; my personal wants are not +great." + +"That is splendid, then," she went on, "because I shall not feel I am +really depriving you of anything by doing what I intend to do in +throwing you over--otherwise I should have been glad to settle something +upon you for life!" + +As he listened, John Derringham's eyes flashed forth steel, but the pith +of her speech had in it such divine portent, as it fell upon his ears, +that the insult of its wording left him less roused than she hoped he +would have been. + +She saw that it was joy, not rage, which lay deep in his eyes, and the +fury of her whole nature blazed up, so that she forgot the years of +polish that she had acquired--forgot her elaborately prepared plan that +for an hour she would torture and play with him, as a cat plays with a +mouse, and, crimsoning with wrath, she hurled forth her displeasure, +cutting things short. + +"You are only a paltry fortune-hunter, John Derringham, for all your +fine talk," she said loudly, raising her voice, and allowing it to +regain its original broad accent, "and I have kept you on just to punish +you. But, if you thought I was ever going to marry you now that you are +no better than a cripple, and don't amount to thirty cents in the +opinion of the world--you or your Government either!--you made a great +mistake. I have something much more delightful on hand--so you can take +back your ring and your freedom--and go and find some meeker woman who +will put up with your airs." + +And she picked up from a table beside her his diamond gage, which she +had taken from her hand before his entrance, and threw it over to +him--and then leaned back as if exhausted with anger among the cushions. + +John Derringham had grown very pale as the insulting words fell from her +lips--and now he rose to his feet, and standing there looked at her with +pitying contempt. + +"Then I will say good-by, Cecilia," he said. "The manner of your release +of me cancels the pain it might otherwise have caused me. I can only +wish you all success with any new venture you may make--and assure you +always of my deep respect." + +And, calmly putting the ring in his pocket, he turned round and slowly +left the room--when, meeting Arabella upon the stairs, she was startled +to see him shaking with sardonic laughter. + +"Good-night, and good-by, dear Miss Clinker," he said; "I am glad to +have had this opportunity of thanking you again and again for your sweet +goodness to me when I was ill; it was something which I shall never +forget." + +"Oh, Mr. Derringham!" said Arabella, "you haven't parted from Mrs. +Cricklander, have you?" But she saw from his laughing eyes that he had, +and, before she was aware of it, good, honest soul, she had blurted out: +"Oh, I'm so glad!" + +Then they shook hands heartily, to hide her dreadful confusion, and John +Derringham went on to his rooms at the Britannia, where he was staying, +with nothing but a mad, wild joy in his heart. + +What did Cecilia Cricklander's insults matter? What did anything on +earth matter? He was free to go and seek his beloved one--and have every +sorrow healed as he held her to his heart. The only necessary thing now +was to find her immediately, which would require some thinking out. It +was too late to get an answer to any telegrams to England--he must wait +until the morning. Mrs. Porrit would know where Cheiron's next address +would be. Yes, he could hope to come up with the wanderers perhaps not +later than the day after tomorrow. + +But when Arabella entered her employer's sitting-room after wishing him +good-by, she found Mrs. Cricklander in violent hysterics, and she had to +have the doctor and a sleeping draught before she could be calmed. + +The hatefulness, the impossible arrogance and insolence of the man, she +had thought! and the humiliation to herself of knowing full well that, +instead of making this dismissal a scene of subtle superlative +cleverness, so that through all his torture he would be obliged to +admire and respect her skill--she had let her temper get the better of +her, and had shown him a side of herself that, she was well aware, was +most unrefined, so that he had been able to leave her, not as a humbled, +beaten cur, as she had intended, but feeling what she knew to be +unfeigned contempt. + +No wonder she had hysterics! It was galling beyond compare, and not all +Mr. Hanbury-Green's devotion or flattery next day could heal the bitter +hurt. + +"Oh, how I will help you, Percy!" she said, "to pull them all down from +their pedestals, and drag them to the guillotine!" + +And Mr. Hanbury-Green had laughed, and said it gratified him greatly to +feel her sympathy and coöperation would be with him, but he feared they +would never have the humorous pleasure of getting as far as that! + +And, it being a Sunday, Arabella Clinker wrote to her mother to apprise +her of these events. + + The engagement is over [Mrs. Clinker was told]--the advent of Mr. + Hanbury-Green (a very unpleasant personality, afraid of being polite + to me in case I should fancy myself his equal) seemed to clinch + matters in M. E.'s mind. I suppose he was able to give her some + definite assurance of the future of the Government. In any case, I + could see, when they returned from their excursion in the gondola + yesterday, that things were upon a very familiar footing between + them. Mr. H.G. has none of Mr. Derringham's restraint or refinement, + and, after M. E. had seen Mr. Derringham and, I presume, returned him + his freedom, she had a terrible fit of hysterics, only calmed when + Mr. Hanbury-Green entered the room and suggested emptying the water + jug over her. It appears he has a sister who is subject to these + attacks, and this is the only method which has any effect upon her. I + suppose in his circle they would have a number of crude remedies + which we are unaccustomed to, but it seemed to be the right one for + M. E., who pulled herself together at once. + + They told me privately that they are engaged, but do not intend to + announce it yet, and I believe they are really suited to each other. + I had thought at one time that Mr. Derringham might be equally a mate + for her, because of his selfishness, but, after I grew to know him + when he was ill, I saw that he was infinitely above her, and not + really more selfish than other men--and, as you know, I have extended + to him my pity and commiseration ever since. Your liking of him + confirmed my good opinion. I am to stay on with M. E. as long as I + will, because Mr. Hanbury-Green, she says, is not cultivated either, + and I may be of use to them both, she thinks, in the future, although + she has not imparted this to him. I do not believe I shall like + having to render his speeches erudite, because my political + convictions are all upon the other side. But something else may turn + up, and it is a comfort to know things are settled for the present. + Mr. Derringham looked so joyous as he came from her sitting-room, + after his dismissal, that I am sure he will go off at once to that + person I have often given you a hint about,--and his restoration to + health may consequently be looked upon as a certainty. I fear the + influences we shall have to live under now will not encourage that + high tone which endeavoring to keep up with Mr. Derringham and his + party entailed, and it may grow more than I can bear. The inference + to be drawn from M. E.'s defection to the other side is not + felicitous, and gives me cause for the most gloomy foreboding as to + the future of the country, because she would never have done it if + she had not received from Mr. Hanbury-Green absolute guarantees that + with him she will occupy the highest position. Everything + Conservative is _vieux jeu_ now, she says, and she must go with the + tide. + +And from this the letter wandered on to personal matters. + +Meanwhile John Derringham had received Mrs. Porrit's answer and had +ascertained the Professor's probable address, and was joyously speeding +his way on to Rome. + + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + + +The Palace of the Cæsars was lying in blazing heat when Halcyone and the +Professor decided to spend the afternoon there. People had warned them +not to get to Rome until October, but they were both lovers of the sun, +and paid no heed. It would be particularly delightful to have the +eternal city to themselves, and they had come straight down from San +Gimignano, meaning to pick up their motor again at Perugia on their way +back, as the roads to the south were so bad. + +They had only arrived the evening before, and felt the Palatine hill +should be their first pilgrimage. It was completely deserted in the heat +and they wandered in peace. They had gone all through the dark rooms +which overlook the Forum, and had reached the garden upon the top, with +its cypress and cool shade. Here Halcyone sat down on a bench, looking +over the wonderful scene. She wanted to re-read a letter from her Aunt +Roberta which had arrived as they were starting out. + +The old ladies were delighted with their accession to a modest fortune, +the matter was turning out well, and they hoped to have their ancient +brougham repainted and a quiet horse to draw it, before very long, so +that, even when it rained, they could have the pleasure of going to +church. + +William, the Aunt Roberta added, was really growing a little old for so +many duties, and would, under the new and more prosperous _régime_, +confine himself to being only butler. Halcyone would find several +changes on her return; among them the four gates had been mended! + +As she read this part of the letter, Halcyone almost sighed! The gates, +especially the one of the beech avenue, had always been such friends of +hers, she knew and loved each crack. And then her thoughts wandered, as +ever, to her lover. Where was he and how had it fared with him? Her +serene calm was not disturbed--she felt certainty in every breath of the +soft warm air--the certainty that the springtime of their souls had +come. + +Now, that same morning, John Derringham had arrived at the Grand Hotel, +and, after breakfasting, had made his way to the hotel to which Mrs. +Porrit had informed him the Professor's letters were to be addressed. +And Demetrius, whom he asked for, hearing Mr. Carlyon was out, was able +to give him information as to where his master had gone; so that he set +off at once. + +The Palace of the Cæsars was rather a labyrinth to expect to find +anybody in, but he would do his best. And so it happened, after about an +hour's search, that he came upon Cheiron alone, just as he reached +Livia's house. + +Mr. Carlyon held out his hand. + +"Well, John," he said, "and so we meet again." + +His old pupil shook it heartily, and Cheiron, seeing that joyous light +in his eyes, raised his left penthouse with a whimsical smile. + +"Got clear of the Octopus, I should imagine," he said laconically. +"Well, better late than never--Halcyone is over on the bench under the +cypress, gazing upon the Tarpeian rock; perhaps you may like to go to +her--" and he pointed in that direction. + +"It is what I have come at post-haste from Venice to do, Master," John +Derringham said. "Mrs. Cricklander was kind enough to release me on +Saturday evening--she has other views, it seems!"--and he laughed with +his old boyish gayety. + +"Well, I won't keep you," Cheiron answered. "Bring my little girl back +to the hotel when these gates shut. No doubt you will have enough to +talk about till then," and he smiled benignly. + +"You will give us your blessing, Master?" John Derringham asked. But the +Professor growled as he turned to go on. + +"She has my blessing always," he said, "and you will have it, too, if +you make her happy, but you don't deserve her, you know, John." + +John Derringham drew himself up and looked straight out in front of +him--his face was moved. + +"I know I do not," he said, "but I hope you believe me, Cheiron, when I +tell you that I mean to devote the rest of my life to attain that +object--and at least no man could worship her more." + +"Get on with your courting then, lad!" said the Professor, pointing with +his stick in Halcyone's direction, while his wise eyes smiled. "I +suppose she will think you perfect in any case--it is her incredible +conviction!" And with this he shook his old pupil's hand again, and the +two men went their separate ways; John Derringham forgetful of even his +lame ankle as he rapidly approached his beloved. + +She saw him coming--she had been thinking of him deeply in an exquisite +day-dream, and this seemed just the sequence of it, and quite natural +and yet divine. + +She rose and held out both hands to him, the radiance of heaven in her +tender eyes. For she knew that all was well and joy had come. + +And they spoke not a word as he folded her in his arms. + + * * * * * + +A week later they were married very quietly at the Embassy, and went +south to spend their honeymoon, leaving Mr. Carlyon to go back to +England alone. He was tired of wandering, he said, and sighed for the +comforts of the orchard house and his pipe and his Aristotle. + +And Aphrodite went with the bridal pair, no doubt content. + +The manner of Mrs. Cricklander's dismissal of John Derringham had left +him unhampered by any consideration for her feelings. + +And when she read the announcement in the _New York Herald_ the day +after the wedding, she burned with furious rage. + +So this was the meaning of everything all along! It had not been Cora +Lutworth or his political preoccupations, or anything but simply the +odious fact that he had been in love with somebody else! This wretched +English girl had taken him from her--a creature of whose existence she +had never even heard! + +And the world would know of his marriage before her own news had been +made public! The gall of the whole thing was hardly to be borne! + +She felt that, had she been aware that John Derringham's affections were +really given elsewhere, nothing would have induced her to break off the +engagement! Mr. Hanbury-Green was all very well, and was being a most +exceptional lover, only this hateful humiliation and blow to her +self-love mattered more than any mere man! + +But of such things the married two recked not at all. Their springtime +of bliss had come. + +And, as they sat absolutely alone upon the inner steps of the Temple of +Poseidon at Paestum, looking out upon the sapphire sea and azure sky, +the noble columns in front of them all bathed in golden light, and a +solemn crow perched above as priest to bless them, Halcyone drew the +wrappings from the goddess's head. + +"See, John," she said, "Aphrodite is perfectly happy; she is smiling as +never before. She knows that we have found all her message." And she +laid her head against his shoulder as he encircled her with his arm. + +"Dear," she went on, with that misty look in her serene eyes as though +they could see into the beyond, "for me, however much beautiful things +exalt me and take me to God, I can never go there alone. It always seems +as if I must put out my hand and take your hand." + +"Sweetheart," he answered, holding her close, "and long ago I called +love a draught of the poison cup--what a poor blind fool was I!" + +"Yes," she said tenderly. "John, we are much wiser now--and, when we +return to the world out of this divine dream-country, you will teach me +of that life which you must live in the fierce arena where you will +fight for a principle against such odds; and I shall be always there to +comfort you and give you of my sympathy and tenderness. And, as you +instruct me in the day and its strenuous toils, I will teach you of the +soothing, peaceful currents of the night. And we shall know only joy, +because we have seen how it always comes if we go straight on and leave +the tangled threads to God." + +John Derringham bent and kissed her lips and he murmured: + +"My darling--my one woman with a soul." + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Halcyone, by Elinor Glyn + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HALCYONE *** + +***** This file should be named 13530-8.txt or 13530-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/5/3/13530/ + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Halcyone + +Author: Elinor Glyn + +Release Date: September 26, 2004 [EBook #13530] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HALCYONE *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + +</pre> + +<h1>HALCYONE</h1> + +<hr style="width: 45%;"> + +<h2>BY ELINOR GLYN</h2> + +<h6>AUTHOR OF "THE REASON WHY," "HIS HOUR,"<br> +"THREE WEEKS," ETC. +</h6> + + +<br><hr style="width: 45%;"><br> + + +<h5> +1912</h5> + + +<br><hr style="width: 45%;"><br> + + +<h5>TO THE MEMORY<br> +OF<br> +MY KIND FRIEND</h5> +<h4> +LORD ST. HELIER</h4> +<h5>WHOSE SYMPATHY WITH MY CLASSICAL STUDIES<br> +SO GREATLY ENCOURAGED THEM +</h5> + +<br><hr style="width: 45%;"><br> + + +<p style="text-align: center">ΔΡΑΣΑΝΤΙ +ΠΑΘΕΙΝ</p> + + +<br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br> + +<p><i>"And now they are past the last blue headland and in the open sea; and +there is nothing round them but the waves and the sky and the wind. But +the waves are gentle and the sky is clear, and the breeze is tender and +low; for these are the days when Halcyone and Ceyx build their nest and +no storms ever ruffle the pleasant summer sea. And who were Halcyone and +Ceyx? Halcyone was a fairy maiden, the daughter of the beach and of the +wind. And she loved a sailor-boy and married him; and none on earth were +so happy as they. But at last Ceyx was wrecked; and before he could swim +to the shore, the billows swallowed him up. And Halcyone saw him +drowning and leapt into the sea to him; but in vain. Then the Immortals +took pity on them both, and changed them into two fair sea-birds, and +now they build a floating nest every year and sail up and down for ever +upon the pleasant seas of Greece."</i></p> + +<p><b>THE HEROES</b>, <i>Kingsley.</i></p> + + + + + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br> +<a name="CHAPTER_I"></a><h2>CHAPTER I</h2> +<br> + +<p>Outside one of the park gates there was a little house. In the +prosperous days of the La Sarthe it had been the land steward's—but +when there was no longer any land to steward it had gone with the rest, +and for several years had been uninhabited.</p> + +<p>One day in early spring Halcyone saw smoke coming out of the chimney. +This was too interesting a fact not to be investigated; she resented it, +too—because a hole in the park paling had often let her into the garden +and there was a particularly fine apple tree there whose fruit she had +yearly enjoyed.</p> + +<p>She crept nearer, a tall, slender shape, with mouse-colored hair waving +down her back, and a scarlet cap pulled jauntily over her brow—the +delightful feeling of adventure tingling in her veins. Yes, the gap was +there, it had not been mended yet—she would penetrate and see for +herself who this intruder could be.</p> + +<p>She climbed through and stole along the orchard and up to the house. +Signs of mending were around the windows, in the shape of a new board +here and there in the shutters; but nothing further. She peeped over the +low sill, and there her eyes met those of an old man seated in a shabby +armchair, amid piles and piles of books. He had evidently been reading +while he smoked a long, clay pipe.</p> + +<p>He was a fine old man with a splendid presence, his gray hair was longer +than is usual and a silvery beard flowed over his chest.</p> + +<p>Halcyone at once likened him to Cheiron in the picture of him in her +volume of Kingsley's "Heroes."</p> + +<p>They stared at one another and the old man rose and came to the window.</p> + +<p>Halcyone did not move.</p> + +<p>"Who are you, little girl?" he said. "And what do you want?"</p> + +<p>"I want to know who you are, and why you have come here?" she answered +fearlessly. "I am Halcyone, you know."</p> + +<p>The old man smiled.</p> + +<p>"That ought to tell me everything," he said, gravely, "but unfortunately +it does not! Who is Halcyone?"</p> + +<p>"I live at La Sarthe Chase with the Aunts La Sarthe," she said proudly, +as though La Sarthe Chase had been Windsor Castle—"and I have been +accustomed to play in this garden. I don't like your being here much."</p> + +<p>"I am sorry for that, because it suits me and I have bought it. But how +would it be if I said you might come into the garden still and play? +Would you forgive me then for being here?"</p> + +<p>"I might," said Halcyone. "What are all these books for?"</p> + +<p>"They are to read."</p> + +<p>"I knew that—" and she frowned, beetling her delicate dark brows, "but +why such a lot? You can never read them all."</p> + +<p>The old man smiled.</p> + +<p>"I have read most of them already," he said. "I have had plenty of time, +you see."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I dare say you are old," said Halcyone— "and what are they about? +I would like to know that. My books so seldom interest me."</p> + +<p>He handed her one through the window, but it was written in Greek and +she could not read it. She frowned again as she turned over the pages.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps there is something nice in that," she said.</p> + +<p>"Possibly."</p> + +<p>"Well, won't you tell me what?"</p> + +<p>"That would take a long time—suppose you come in and have tea with me, +then we could talk comfortably."</p> + +<p>"That sounds a good plan," she said, gravely. "Shall I climb through the +window—I can quite easily—or would you like me to go round by the +door?"</p> + +<p>"The window will serve," said the old man.</p> + +<p>And with one bound as light as a young kid, Halcyone was in the room.</p> + +<p>There was a second armchair beyond the pile of books, and into that she +nestled, crossing her knees and clasping her hands round them. "Now we +can begin," she said.</p> + +<p>"Tea or talk?" asked the old man.</p> + +<p>"Why, talk, of course; there is no tea—"</p> + +<p>"But if you rang that bell some might come."</p> + +<p>Halcyone jumped up again and looked about for the bell. She was not +going to ask where it was—she disliked stupid people herself. The old +man watched her from under the penthouse of his eyebrows with a curious +smile.</p> + +<p>The bell was hidden in the carving of the mantelpiece, but she found it +at last and gave it a lusty pull.</p> + +<p>It seemed answered instantaneously by a strange-looking man,—a dark, +extremely thin person with black, dull eyes.</p> + +<p>The old man spoke to him in an unknown language and he retired silently.</p> + +<p>"Who was that?" asked Halcyone.</p> + +<p>"That is my servant,—he will bring tea."</p> + +<p>"He is not English?"</p> + +<p>"No—does that matter?"</p> + +<p>"Of course not—but what country does he come from?"</p> + +<p>"You must ask him someday."</p> + +<p>"I want to see countries," and she stretched out her slender arms, "I +want to fly away outside the park and see the world."</p> + +<p>"You have time," said the old man.</p> + +<p>"When I am big enough I shall run away—I get very tired of only the +Aunts La Sarthe. They never understand a word I say." "What do you say?"</p> + +<p>"I want to say all sorts of things, but if it isn't what they have heard +a hundred times before, they look shocked and pained."</p> + +<p>"You must come and say them to me then, perhaps I might understand, and +in any case I should not be shocked or pained."</p> + +<p>"They remind me of the Three Gray Sisters, although there are only two +of them—one eye and one tooth between them."</p> + +<p>"I see—there is something we can talk about at all events," said the +old man. "The Three Gray Sisters are friends of yours—are they?"</p> + +<p>"Not friends!" Haley one exclaimed emphatically. "I can't bear them, +silly old things nodding there, with their ridiculous answers to +Perseus, saying old things were better than new—and their day better +than his—I should have thrown their eye into the sea if I had been he. +Do all old people do that?—pretend their time was the best?—do you? I +don't mean to."</p> + +<p>"You are right. It is a bad habit."</p> + +<p>"But are they better, the old things?"</p> + +<p>The old man did not answer for a moment or two. He looked his visitor +through and through with his wise gray eyes—an investigation which +might have disconcerted some people, but Halcyone was unabashed.</p> + +<p>"I know what you are doing," she said. "You are seeing the other side of +my head—and I wish I could see the other side of yours, I can the +Aunts' La Sarthe and Priscilla's, in a minute, but yours is different."</p> + +<p>"I am glad of that—you might be disappointed, though, if you did see +what was there."</p> + +<p>"I always want to see," she said simply—"see everything; and sometimes +I find the other side not a bit what this is—even in the birds and +trees and the beetles. But you must have a huge big one."</p> + +<p>The old man laughed.</p> + +<p>"You and I are going to be good acquaintances," he said. "Tell me some +more of Perseus. What more do you know of him?"</p> + +<p>"I have only read 'The Heroes,'" Halcyone admitted, "but I know it by +heart—and I know it is all true though my governess says it is +fairy-tales and not for girls. I want to learn Greek, but they can't +teach me."</p> + +<p>"That is too bad."</p> + +<p>"When things are put vaguely I always want to know, them—I want to know +why Medusa turned into a gorgon? What was her sin?"</p> + +<p>The old man smiled.</p> + +<p>"I see," said Halcyone, "you won't tell me, but some day I shall know."</p> + +<p>"Yes, some day you shall know," he said.</p> + +<p>"They seem such great people, those Greeks; they knew everything—so the +preface of my 'Heroes' says, and I want to learn the things they +knew—mathematics and geometry, rather—and especially logic and +metaphysics, because I want to know the meaning of words and the art of +reasoning, and above everything I want to know about my own thoughts and +soul." "You strange little girl," said the old man. "Have you a soul?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know, I have something in there," and Halcyone pointed to her +head—"and it talks to me like another voice, and when I am alone up a +tree away from people, and all is beautiful, it seems to make it tight +round here,—and go from my head into my side," and she placed her lean +brown paw over her heart.</p> + +<p>"Yes—you perhaps have a soul," said the old man, and then he added, +half to himself—"What a pity."</p> + +<p>"Why a pity?" demanded Halcyone.</p> + +<p>"Because a woman with a soul suffers, and brings tribulation—but since +you have one we may as well teach you how to keep the thing in hand."</p> + +<p>At that moment, the dark servant brought tea, and the fine oriental +china pleased Halcyone whose perceptions took in the texture of every +single thing she came in contact with.</p> + +<p>The old man seemed to go into a reverie, he was quite silent while he +poured out the tea, forgetting to enquire her tastes as to cream and +sugar—he drank his black—and handed Halcyone a cup of the same.</p> + +<p>She looked at him, her inquiring eyes full of intelligence and +understanding, and she realized at once that these trifles were not in +his consideration for the moment. So she helped herself to what she +wanted and sat down again in her armchair. She did not even rattle her +teaspoon. Priscilla often made noises which irritated her when she was +thinking. The old man came back to a remembrance of her presence at +last.</p> + +<p>"Little girl," he said—"would you like to come here pretty often and +learn Greek, and about the Greeks?"</p> + +<p>Halcyone bounded from her chair with joy.</p> + +<p>"But of course I would!" she said. "And I am not stupid—not really +stupid Mademoiselle says, when I want to learn things."</p> + +<p>"No—I dare say you are not stupid," the old man said. "So it is a +bargain then; I shall teach you about my friends the Greeks, and you +shall teach me about the green trees, and your friends the rabbits and +the beetles."</p> + +<p>Then those instinctive good manners of Halcyone's came uppermost, +inherited, like her slender shape and balanced head, from that long line +of La Sarthe ancestors, and she thanked the old man with a quaint, +courtly, sweetly pedantic grace. Then she got up to go—</p> + +<p>"I like being here—and may I come again to-morrow?" she said +afterwards. "I must go now or they will be disagreeable and perhaps make +difficulties."</p> + +<p>The old man watched her as she curtsied to him and vaulted through the +window again, and on down the path, and through the hole in the paling, +without once turning round. Then he muttered to himself:</p> + +<p>"A woman thing who refrains from looking back!—Yes, I fear she has a +soul."</p> + +<p>Then he returned to his pipe and his Aristotle.</p> + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br> +<a name="CHAPTER_II"></a><h2>CHAPTER II</h2> +<br> + +<p>Halcyone struck straight across the park until she came to the beech +avenue, near the top, which ran south. The place had been nobly planned +by that grim old La Sarthe who raised it in the days of seventh Henry. +It stood very high with its terraced garden in the center of four +splendid avenues of oak, lime, beech and Spanish chestnut running east, +west, north and south. And four gates in different stages of +dilapidation gave entrance through a broken wall of stone to a circular +drive which connected all the avenues giving access to the house, a +battered, irregular erection of gray stone.</p> + +<p>To reach the splendid front door you entered from the oak avenue and +crossed the pleasance, now only an overgrown meadow where the one cow +grazed in the summer.</p> + +<p>Then you were obliged to mount three stately flights of stone steps +until you reached the first terrace, which was flagged near the house +and bordered with stiff flower-beds. Here you might turn and look back +due west upon a view of exquisite beauty—an undulating fertile country +beneath, and then in the far distance a line of dim blue hills.</p> + +<p>But if you chanced to wish to enter your carriage unwetted on a rainy +day, you were obliged to deny yourself the pleasure of passing through +the entrance hall in state, and to go out at the back by stone passages +into the courtyard where the circular avenue came up close to a +fortified door, under the arch of which you could drive.</p> + +<p>Everything spoke of past grandeur and present decay—only the +flower-beds of the highest terrace appeared even partly cultivated; the +two lower ones were a wild riot of weeds and straggling rose trees +unpruned and untrained, and if you looked up at the windows in the +southern wing of the house, you saw that several panes in them were +missing and that the holes had been stuffed with rags.</p> + +<p>At this time of the year the beech avenue presented an indescribably +lovely sight of just opening leaves of tender green. It was a +never-failing joy to Halcyone. She walked the few paces which separated +her from it and turning, stood leaning against the broken gate now, +drinking in every tone of the patches the lowered sun made of gold +between the green. For her it was full of wood nymphs and elves. It did +not contain gods and goddesses like the others. She told herself long +stories about them.</p> + +<p>The beech avenue was her favorite for the spring, the lime for the +summer, the chestnut for the autumn, and the oak for the winter. She +knew every tree in all four, as a huntsman knows his hounds. And when, +in the great equinoctial storm of the previous year, three giant oaks +lay shattered and broken, the sight had caused her deep grief, until she +wove a legend about them and turned them into monsters for Perseus to +subdue with Medusa's head. One, indeed, whose trunk was gnarled and +twisted, became the serpent of the brazen scales who sleepeth not, +guarding the Golden Fleece.</p> + +<p>"As the tree falls so shall it lie," seemed to be the motto of La Sarthe +Chase. For none were removed.</p> + +<p>Halcyone stretched out her arms and beckoned to her fairy friends.</p> + +<p>"Queen Mab," she called, "come and dance nearer to me—I can see your +wings and I want to talk to you to-day!"</p> + +<p>And as if in answer to this invitation, the rays of the lowered sun +shifted to an opening almost at her feet, and with a cry of joy the +child began to dance in the gorgeous light.</p> + +<p>"Come follow, follow me, ye fairy elves that be," she sang softly.</p> + +<p>And the sprites laughed with gladness, and gilded her mouse hair with +gold, and lit up her eyes, and wove scarves about her with gossamer +threads, and beneath her feet tall bluebells offered their heads as a +carpet.</p> + +<p>But Halcyone sprang over them, she would not have crushed the meanest +weed.</p> + +<p>"Queen Mab!" she said at last, as she sat down in the middle of the +sunlight, "I have found an old gentleman—and he is Cheiron, and if one +could see it in the right light, he may have a horse's body, and he is +going to teach me just what Jason learnt—and then I shall tell it to +you."</p> + +<p>The rays shifted again to a path beyond, and Halcyone bounded up and +went on her way.</p> + +<p>Old William was drawing the elder Miss La Sarthe in a dilapidated +basket-chair, up and down on the highest terrace. She held a minute +faded pink silk parasol over her head—it had an ivory handle which +folded up when she no longer needed the parasol as a shade. She wore +one-buttoned gloves, of slate-colored kid, and a wrist-band of black +velvet clasped with a buckle. An inverted cake-tin of weather-beaten +straw, trimmed with rusty velvet, shadowed her old, tired eyes; an +Indian shawl was crossed upon her thin bosom.</p> + +<p>"Halcyone!" she called querulously. "Where have you been, child? You +must have missed your tea."</p> + +<p>And Halcyone answered:</p> + +<p>"In the orchard."</p> + +<p>For of what use to inform Aunt Ginevra about that enchanting visit to +Cheiron! Aunt Ginevra who knew not of such beings!</p> + +<p>"The orchard's let," grunted old William—"they do say it's sold—"</p> + +<p>"I had rather not hear of it, William," said Miss La Sarthe frowning. +"It does not concern one what occurs beyond one's gates."</p> + +<p>Old William growled gently, and continued his laborious task—one of the +wheels squeaked as it turned on the flags.</p> + +<p>"Aunt Ginevra, you must have that oiled," said Halcyone, as she screwed +up her face. "How can you bear it? You can't see the lovely spring +things, with that noise."</p> + +<p>"One does not see with one's ears, Halcyone," quavered Miss La Sarthe. +"Take me in now, William."</p> + +<p>"And she can't even see them with her eyes—poor Aunt Ginevra!" Halcyone +said to herself, as she walked respectfully by the chair until it passed +the front door on its way to the side. Then she bounded up the steps and +through the paneled, desolate hall, taking joy in climbing the dog-gates +at the turn of the stairs, which she could easily have opened—and she +did not pause until she reached her own room in the battered south wing, +and was soon curled up in the broad window sill, her hands clasped round +her knees.</p> + +<p>For this was a wonderful thing which had come into her life.—She had +met someone who could see the other side of her head! Henceforth there +would be a human voice, not only a fairy's, to converse with her. +Indeed, the world was a very fair place!</p> + +<p>Here, Priscilla found her when it was growing dark, still with the rapt +expression of glad thought on her face. And the elderly woman shook her +head. "That child is not canny," she muttered, while aloud she chided +her for idleness and untidiness in having thrown her cap on the floor.</p> + +<p>But Halcyone flung her arms round Priscilla's neck and laughed in her +beard.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you dear old goosie! I have been with the Immortals on the blue +peaks of Olympus and there we did not wear caps!"</p> + +<p>"Them Immortals!" said Priscilla. "Better far you were attending to +things you can see. They'll be coming down and carrying you off, some of +these fine nights!"</p> + +<p>"The Immortals don't care so much about the nights, Priscilla—unless +Artemis is abroad—she does—but the others like the sunlight and great +white clouds and a still blue sky. I am quite safe—" and Halcyone +smiled.</p> + +<p>Priscilla began tidying up.</p> + +<p>"Ma'm'selle's wrote to the mistresses to say she won't come back, she +can't put up with the place any longer."</p> + +<p>This sounded too good to be true! Another governess going! Surely they +would see it was no use asking any more to come to La Sarthe +Chase—Halcyone had never had one who could appreciate its beauties. +Governesses to her were poor-spirited creatures afraid of rats, and the +dark passages—and one and all resentful of the rag-stuffed panes in the +long gallery. Surely with the new-found Cheiron to instruct her about +those divine Greeks a fresh governess was unnecessary.</p> + +<p>"I shall ask Aunt Ginevra to implore my stepfather not to send any more. +We don't want them, do we, Priscilla?"</p> + +<p>"That we don't, my lamb!" agreed Priscilla. "But you must learn +something more useful than gods and goddesses. Your poor, dear mother in +heaven would break her heart if she knew you were going to be brought up +ignorant."</p> + +<p>Halcyone raised her head haughtily.</p> + +<p>"I shan't be ignorant—don't be afraid. I would not remain ignorant even +if no other governess ever came near me. I can read by myself, and the +dear old gentleman I saw to-day will direct me." And then when she +perceived the look of astonishment on Priscilla's face: "Ah! That is a +secret! I had not meant to tell you—but I will. The orchard cottage is +inhabited and I've seen him, and he is Cheiron, and I am going to learn +Greek!"</p> + +<p>"Bless my heart!" said Priscilla. "Well, now, it is long past seven +o'clock and you must dress to go down to dessert."</p> + +<p>And all the time she was putting Halcyone into her too short white +frock, and brushing her mane of hair, the child kept up a brisk +conversation. Silent for hours at a time, when something suddenly +interested her she could be loquacious enough.</p> + +<p>One candle had to be lit before her toilet was completed, and then at +half past seven she stole down the stairs, full of shadows, and across +the hall to the great dining-room, where the Misses La Sarthe dined in +state at seven o'clock, off some thin soup and one other dish, so that +at half past seven the cloth had been cleared away by old William (in a +black evening coat now and rather a high stock), and the shining +mahogany table reflected the two candles in their superb old silver +candlesticks.</p> + +<p>At this stage, as Halcyone entered the room, it was customary for +William to place the dish of apples on the table in front of Miss La +Sarthe, and the dish of almonds and raisins in front of Miss Roberta. +The dessert did not vary much for months—from October to late June it +was the same; and only on Sundays was the almond and raisin dish allowed +to be partaken of, but an apple was divided into four quarters, after +being carefully peeled by Miss La Sarthe, each evening, and Miss Roberta +was given two quarters and Halcyone one, while the eldest lady nibbled +at the remaining piece herself.</p> + +<p>In her day, children had always come down to dessert, and had had to be +good and not greedy, or the fate of Miss Augusta Noble of that estimable +book, "The Fairchild Family," would certainly fall upon them. Halcyone, +from her earliest memory, had come down to dessert every night—except +at one or two pleasant moments when the measles or a bad cold had kept +her in bed. Half past seven o'clock, summer and winter, had meant for +her the quarter of an apple, two or three strawberries or a plum—and +almost always the same conversation.</p> + +<p>Miss La Sarthe sat at the head of the table, in a green silk dress cut +low upon the shoulders and trimmed with a bertha of blonde lace. Miss +Roberta—sad falling off from dignity—had her thin bones covered with a +habit shirt of tulle, because she was altogether a poorer creature than +her sister, and felt the cold badly. Both ladies wore ringlets at the +sides of their faces and little caps of ribbon and lace.</p> + +<p>Even within Halcyone's memory, the dining-room had lost some of its +adornments. The Chippendale chairs had gone, and had been replaced by +four stout kitchen ones. The bits of rare china were fewer—but the +portrait of the famous Timothy La Sarthe, by Holbein, still frowned from +his place of honor above the chimneypiece. All the La Sarthes had been +christened Timothy since that time.</p> + +<p>The affair of the governess seemed to be troubling Miss Roberta. At +intervals she had found comfort in these denizens of the outer world, +and, free from the stern eye of Sister Ginevra, had been wont to chat +with one and another. They never stayed long enough for her to know them +well, and now this lady—the fifth within two years—had refused to +return. Life seemed very dull.</p> + +<p>"Need I have any more governesses, Aunt Ginevra?" Halcyone said. "There +is an old gentleman who has bought the orchard house and he says he will +teach me Greek—and I already know a number of other tiresome things."</p> + +<p>Halcyone had not meant to tell her aunts anything about Cheiron—this +new-found joy—but she reasoned after she heard of Mademoiselle's +non-return that the knowledge that she would have some instructor might +have weight with those in charge of her. It was worth risking at all +events.</p> + +<p>Miss La Sarthe adjusted a gold pince-nez and looked at the little girl.</p> + +<p>"How old are you, Halcyone?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"I was twelve on the seventh of last October, Aunt Ginevra."</p> + +<p>"Twelve—a young gentlewoman's education is not complete at twelve years +old, child—although governesses in the house are not very pleasant, I +admit"—and Miss La Sarthe sighed.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I know it isn't!" said Halcyone, "but you see, I can speak French +and German quite decently, and the other things surely I might learn +myself in between the old gentleman's teaching."</p> + +<p>"But what do you know of this—this stranger?" demanded Miss La Sarthe. +"You allude to someone of whom neither your Aunt Roberta nor I have ever +heard."</p> + +<p>"I met him to-day. I went into the orchard as usual, and found the house +was inhabited, and I saw him and he asked me in to tea. He is a very old +gentleman with a long white beard, and very, very clever. His room is +full of Greek books and we had a long talk, and he was very kind and +said he would teach me to read them."</p> + +<p>This seemed to Halcyone to be sufficient in the way of credentials for +anyone.</p> + +<p>"I have heard from Hester," Miss Roberta interposed timidly, "that the +orchard house has been bought by an Oxford professor—it sounds most +respectable, does it not, sister?"</p> + +<p>Miss La Sarthe looked stern:</p> + +<p>"More than thirty-five years ago, Roberta, I told you I disapproved of +Hester's chattering. I cannot conceive personally, how you can converse +with servants as you do. Hester would not have dared to gossip to me!"</p> + +<p>Poor Miss Roberta looked crushed. She had often been chided on this +point before.</p> + +<p>Halcyone would like to have reminded her elder aunt that William, who +was equally a servant, had announced some such news to her that +afternoon; but she remained silent. She must gain her point if she +could, and to argue, she knew, was never a road to success.</p> + +<p>"I am sure if we could get a really nice English girl," hazarded Miss +Roberta, wishing to propitiate, "it might be company for us all, +Ginevra—but if Mrs. Anderton insists upon sending another foreign +person—"</p> + +<p>"And of course she will," interrupted the elder lady; "people of Mrs. +Anderton's class always think it is more genteel to have a smattering of +foreign languages than to know their own mother tongue. We may get +another German—and that I could hardly bear."</p> + +<p>"Then do write to my stepfather, please, please," cried Halcyone. "Say I +am going to be splendidly taught—lots of interesting things—and oh—I +will try so hard by myself to keep up what I already know. I will +practice—really, really, Aunt Ginevra—and do my German exercises and +dear Aunt Roberta can talk French to me and even teach me the Italian +songs that she sings so beautifully to her guitar!"</p> + +<p>This last won the day as far as Miss Roberta was concerned. Her faded +cheeks flushed pink. The trilling Italian love-songs, learnt some fifty +years ago during a two years' residence in Florence, had always been her +pride and joy. So she warmly seconded her niece's pleadings, and the +momentous decision was come to that James Anderton should be approached +upon the subject. If the child learned Greek—from a professor—and +could pick up a few of Roberta's songs as an accomplishment, she might +do well enough—and a governess in the house, in spite of the money paid +by Mr. Anderton to keep her, was a continual gall and worry to them.</p> + +<p>Halcyone knew very little about her stepfather. She was aware that he +had married her mother when she was a very poor and sorrowful young +widow, that she had had two stepsisters and a brother very close +together, and then that the pretty mother had died. There was evidently +something so sad connected with the whole story that Priscilla never +cared much to talk about it. It was always, "your poor sainted mother in +heaven," or, "your blessed pretty mother"—and with that instinctive +knowledge of the feelings of other people which characterized Halcyone's +point of view, she had avoided questioning her old nurse. Her +stepfather, James Anderton, was a very wealthy stockbroker—she knew +that, and also that a year or so after her mother's death he had married +again—"a person of his own class," Miss La Sarthe had said, "far more +suitable to him than poor Elaine."</p> + +<p>Halcyone had only been six years old at her mother's death, but she kept +a crisp memory of the horror of it. The crimson, crumpled-looking baby +brother, in his long clothes, whose coming somehow seemed responsible +for the loss of her tender angel, for a long time was viewed with +resentful hatred. It was a terrible, unspeakable grief. She remembered +perfectly the helpless sense of loss and loneliness.</p> + +<p>Her mother had loved her with passionate devotion. She was conscious +even then that Mabel and Ethel, the stepsisters, were as nothing in +comparison to herself in her mother's regard. She had a certainty that +her mother had loved her own father very much—the young, brilliant, +spendthrift, last La Sarthe. And her mother had been of the family, +too—a distant cousin. So she herself was La Sarthe to her finger +tips—slender and pale and distinguished-looking. She remembered the +last scene with her stepfather before her coming to La Sarthe Chase. It +was the culmination after a year of misery and unassuaged grieving for +her loss. He had come into the nursery where the three little girls were +playing—Halcyone and her two stepsisters—and he had made them all +stand up in his rough way, and see who could catch the pennies the best +that he threw from the door. His brother, "Uncle Ted," was with him. And +the two younger children, Mabel of five and Ethel of four, shouted +riotously with glee and snatched the coins from one another and greedily +quarreled over those which Halcyone caught with her superior skill and +handed to them.</p> + +<p>She remembered her stepfather's face—it grew heavy and sullen and he +walked to the window, where his brother followed him—and she remembered +their words and had pondered over them often since.</p> + +<p>"It's the damned breeding in the brat that fairly gets me raw, Ted," Mr. +Anderton had said. "Why the devil couldn't Elaine have given it to my +children, too. I can't stand it—a home must be found for her +elsewhere."</p> + +<p>And soon after that, Halcyone had come with her own Priscilla to La +Sarthe Chase to her great-aunts Ginevra and Roberta, in their +tumble-down mansion which her father had not lived to inherit. Under +family arrangements, it was the two old ladies' property for their +lives.</p> + +<p>And now the problem of what James Anderton—or rather the second Mrs. +James Anderton—would do was the question of the moment. Would there be +a fresh governess or would they all be left in peace without one? Mrs. +James Anderton, Miss Roberta had said once, was a person who "did her +duty," as people often did "in her class"—"a most worthy woman, if not +quite a lady"—and she had striven to do her best by James Anderton's +children—even his stepchild Halcyone.</p> + +<p>Miss La Sarthe promised to write that night before she went to bed—but +Halcyone knew it was a long process with her and that an answer could +not be expected for at least a week. Therefore there was no good +agitating herself too soon about the result. It was one of her +principles never to worry over unnecessary things. Life was full of +blessed certainties to enjoy without spoiling them by speculating over +possible unpleasantnesses.</p> + +<p>The old gentleman—Cheiron—and old William and the timid curate who +came to dine on Saturday nights once a month were about the only male +creatures Halcyone had ever spoken to within her recollection—their +rector was a confirmed invalid and lived abroad—but Priscilla had a +supreme contempt for them as a sex.</p> + +<p>"One and all set on themselves, my lamb," she said; "even your own +beautiful father had to be bowed down to and worshiped. We put up with +it in him, of course; but I never did see one that didn't think of +himself first. It is their selfishness that causes all the sorrow of the +world to women. We needn't have lost your angel mother but for Mr. +Anderton's selfishness—a kind, hard, rough man—but as selfish as a +gentleman."</p> + +<p>It seemed a more excusable defect to Priscilla in the upper class, but +had no redeeming touch in the status of Mr. Anderton.</p> + +<p>Halcyone, however, had a logical mind and reasoned with her nurse:</p> + +<p>"If they are <i>all</i> selfish, Priscilla, it must be either women's fault +for letting them be, or God intended them to be so. A thing can't be +<i>all</i> unless the big force makes it."</p> + +<p>This "big force"—this "God" was a real personality to Halcyone. She +could not bear it when in church she heard the meanest acts of revenge +and petty wounded vanity attributed to Him. She argued it was because +the curate did not know. Having come from a town, he could not be +speaking of the same wonderful God she knew in the woods and fields—the +God so loving and tender in the springtime to the budding flowers, so +gorgeous in the summer and autumn and so pure and cold in the winter. +With all that to attend to He could not possibly stoop to punish +ignorant people and harbor anger and wrath against them. He was the +sunlight and the moonlight and the starlight. He was the voice which +talked in the night and made her never lonely.</p> + +<p>And all the other things of nature and the universe were gods, +also—lesser ones obeying the supreme force and somehow fused with Him +in a whole, being part of a scheme which He had invented to complete the +felicity of the world He had created—not beings to be prayed to or +solicited for favors, but just gentle, glorious, sympathetic, invisible +friends. She was very much interested in Christ; He was certainly a part +of God, too—but she could not understand about His dying to save the +world, since the God she heard of in the church was still forever +punishing and torturing human beings, or only extending mercy after His +vanity had been flattered by offerings and sacrifices.</p> + +<p>"I expect," she said to herself, coming home one Sunday after one of Mr. +Miller's lengthy discourses upon God's vengeance, "when I am older and +able really to understand what is written in the Bible I shall find it +isn't that a bit, and it is either Mr. Miller can't see straight or he +has put the stops all in the wrong places and changed the sense. In any +case I shall not trouble now—the God who kept me from falling through +the hole in the loft yesterday by that ray of sunlight to show the +cracked board, is the one I am fond of."</p> + +<p>It was the simple and logical view of a case which always appealed to +her.</p> + +<p>"Halcyone" her parents had called her well—their bond of love—their +tangible proof of halcyon days. And always when Halcyone read her +"Heroes" she felt it was her beautiful father and mother who were the +real Halcyone and Ceyx, and she longed to see the blue summer sea and +the pleasant isles of Greece that she might find their floating nest and +see them sail away happily for ever over those gentle southern waves.</p> + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br> +<a name="CHAPTER_III"></a><h2>CHAPTER III</h2> +<br> + +<p>Mr. Carlyon—for such was Cheiron's real name—knocked the ashes from +his long pipe next day at eleven o'clock in the morning, after his late +breakfast and began to arrange his books. His mind was away in a land of +classical lore; he had almost forgotten the sprite who had invaded his +solitude the previous afternoon, until he heard a tap at the window, and +saw her standing there—great, intelligent eyes aflame and rosy lips +apart.</p> + +<p>"May I come in, please?" her voice said. "I am afraid I am a little +early, but I had something so very interesting to tell you, I had to +come."</p> + +<p>He opened wide the window and let in the May sunshine.</p> + +<p>"The first of May and a May Queen," he told her presently, when they +were seated in their two chairs. "And now begin this interesting news."</p> + +<p>"Aunt Ginevra has promised to write to my step-father at once, and +suggest that no more governesses are sent to me. Won't it be perfectly +splendid if he agrees!"</p> + +<p>"I really don't know," said Cheiron.</p> + +<p>Halcyone's face fell.</p> + +<p>"You promised to teach me Greek," she said simply, "and I know from my +'Heroes' that is all that I need necessarily learn from anyone to +acquire the other things myself."</p> + +<p>This seemed to Mr. Carlyon a very conclusive answer—his bent of mind +found it logical.</p> + +<p>"Very well," he said. "When shall we begin?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps to-morrow. To-day if you have time I would like to take you for +a walk in the park—and show you some of the trees. The beeches are +coming out very early this year; they have the most exquisite green just +showing, and the chestnuts in some places have quite large leaves. It is +damp under foot, though—do you mind that?"</p> + +<p>"Not a bit," said Cheiron.</p> + +<p>And so they went, creeping through the hole in the paling like two +brigands on a marauding expedition.</p> + +<p>"There used to be deer when I first came five years ago," Halcyone said. +"I remember them quite well, and their sweet little fawns; but the next +winter was that horribly cold one, and there was no hay to be put out to +them—my Aunts La Sarthe are very poor—and some of them died, and in +the summer the Long Man came and talked and talked, and Aunt Roberta had +red eyes all the afternoon, as she always does when he comes, and Aunt +Ginevra pretended hers were a cold in her head—and the week after a lot +of men arrived and drove all the tender, beautiful creatures into +corners, and took them away in carts with nets over them—the does—but +the bucks had pieces of wood because their horns would have torn the +nets."</p> + +<p>Her delicate lips quivered a moment, as though at a too painful +memory—then she smiled.</p> + +<p>"But one mother doe and her fawn got away—and I knew where they were +hiding, but I did not tell, of course—and now there are four of them, +or perhaps five. But they are very wild and keep in the copses, and fly +if they see anyone coming. They don't mind me, of course, but strangers. +The mother remembers that awful day, I expect."</p> + +<p>"No doubt," said Cheiron; "and who is the 'Long Man' you spoke of as +having instigated this outrage?"</p> + +<p>"He is the man of business, he was the bailiff once, but is a house +agent now in Applewood. And whenever he comes something has to go—we +all dread it. Last Michaelmas it was the Chippendale dining-room +chairs—"</p> + +<p>"I know him then—I bought my cottage from him. I suppose all this is +necessary, because he seemed an honest fellow."</p> + +<p>"Someone long ago made it necessary—it is not the Aunts' fault—" and +then Halcyone stopped abruptly and pointed to the beech avenue which +they were approaching now through the bracken, brown and crisp from last +year, with only here and there a green shoot showing.</p> + +<p>"Queen Mab and the elves live there in May and early June," she said. +"They dance every afternoon as the sun sets, and sometimes in the dawn, +too, and the early morning. You can see them if you keep quite still."</p> + +<p>"Naturally," said Cheiron.</p> + +<p>"Do you know, since last winter I have had a great pleasure," and +Halcyone's grave, intent eyes looked up into the old gentleman's face. +"There was a terrible storm in February—but can you really keep a +secret?"—and then, as he nodded his head seriously, she went on. "It +blew down a narrow piece of the paneling in the long gallery—it is next +to my room, you know—and I heard the noise in the night and lit a +candle and went to see. Some of the window panes are broken, so it is +very blustery there in storms. Well, there was a door behind it—a +secret door! I was so excited, but I could not keep the candle alight +and it was very cold. I saw nothing was broken—only the wind had +dislodged the spring. I was able to push it back and pull a little chest +against it, and wait till morning. And then what do you think I +found?—it led to a staircase in the thickness of the wall, which went +down and down until it came to a door right below the cellar—it took me +days of dodging Mademoiselle and Priscilla to carry down oil and things +to help me to open it—and then it came out in a hollow archway on the +second terrace, which has a stone bench in it, and is where old William +keeps his tools. It is so cleverly done you could never see it; it looks +just as if it was no door, but was only there for ornament. You may +fancy I never told anyone! It is my secret—and yours now—and it +enabled me to do what I have always longed to do—go out in the night!"</p> + +<p>"You go out in the night all alone!" exclaimed Cheiron, almost aghast.</p> + +<p>"But of course," said Halcyone. "You cannot think of the joy when there +is a moon and stars; and some of the night creatures are such +friends—they teach me wonderful things. Only the dreadful difficulty is +in avoiding Priscilla—she sleeps in the dressing-room next me. I love +her better than anyone else in the world, but she could never +understand—she would only worry about the wet feet and clothes being +spoilt. I always think it is so fortunate though, don't you, that +servants—even a dear like Priscilla—sleep so soundly. Aunt Ginevra +says they can't help it, every class has its peculiarity."</p> + +<p>Mr. Carlyon was extremely interested—he wanted to hear more of these +adventures.</p> + +<p>"How do you avoid Priscilla seeing your things in the morning then?" he +asked.</p> + +<p>"I have got a pair of big gutta-percha boots—they were my father's +waders once, and I found them, and have hidden them in one of the +chests, and I tuck everything into them—so there are no marks. It is +enchanting."</p> + +<p>"And do you often have these nocturnal outings, you odd little girl?" +Cheiron said, wonderingly.</p> + +<p>"Not very. I have to be so careful, you see—and I only choose moonlight +or starlight nights, and they are rare—but when the summer comes I hope +to enjoy many more of them."</p> + +<p>Then Mr. Carlyon's old eyes looked away into distance and seemed to see +a slender shape wrapped in a spotted fawn's skin, its head crowned with +leaves, joining the throng of those other early worshipers of Dionysus +as they beat their weird music among the dark crags of +Parnassus—searching for communion with the spiritual beyond in the only +way they knew of then to reach it, through a wild ecstasy of emotion. +Here was the same impulse, unconscious, instinctive. The probing of +nature to discover her secrets. Here was a female thing with a soul +unafraid in her pure innocence, alone in the night.</p> + +<p>Halcyone did not interrupt his meditations, and presently they came to +the broken gate close to the house.</p> + +<p>Cheiron paused and leaned on the top bar.</p> + +<p>"Is this the elves' home?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes," she answered gravely. "But so late in the day you cannot see +them. You must wait again until the sun is setting; and I expect when it +is warm they come in the moonlight, too, but I have not been able to get +a fine enough night—as yet. This avenue is the most beautiful of all, +because a hundred years ago the La Sarthes had a quarrel with the +Wendovers, whose land just touches at the end of it, and they closed the +gate, and so the turf has covered the gravel. And look at the tree—you +can see the fairy ring where they dance, and I always fancy they sup +under the one with the very low branch at the side—but I don't believe +I should like 'marrow of mice,' should you?"</p> + +<p>"Not at all," said Cheiron.</p> + +<p>Then they wandered on. Halcyone led him to each of the favorite points +of view, and he became acquainted with the great serpent, and so vivid +was her picturing that he almost fancied he saw the Golden Fleece, +nailed to the tree beyond, and heard Orpheus' exquisite melodies +charming the reptile to sleep while Jason stepped over his slumbering +coils.</p> + +<p>"But I do not have Medea here," she said; "I play her part myself, and I +make her different. She was too cunning and had wicked thoughts in her +heart, and so the poor Heroes suffered. If she had been good and true +and had not killed Absyrtus, things might have had a different ending. I +never like to think of Absyrtus in any case—because, do you know, I +once hated my baby brother, and would have been glad if anyone had +killed him."</p> + +<p>Her eyes became black as night with this awful recollection. "It was +very long ago, you understand—when I was quite a little girl before I +knew the wonderful things the wind and the flowers and the stars tell +me."</p> + +<p>Cheiron did not ask the cause of this hate; he reserved the question for +a future time, and encouraged her to tell him of her discoveries in +wonderland.</p> + +<p>Some trees had strange personalities, she said. You could never guess +the other side of their heads, until you knew them very well. But all +had good in them, and it was wisest never even to see the bad.</p> + +<p>"I always find if you are afraid of things they become real and hurt +you, but if you are sure they are kind and true they turn gentle and +love you. I am hardly ever afraid of anything now—only I do not like a +thunderstorm. It seems as if God were really angry then, and were not +considering sufficiently just whom He meant to hit."</p> + +<p>Justice to her appeared to hold chief place among the virtues.</p> + +<p>"Do you stay here all the year round?" asked Cheiron, presently, "or do +you sometimes have a trip to the seaside?"</p> + +<p>"I have never been away since I first came—I would love to see the +sea," and her eyes became dreary. "I can just remember long ago with my +mother, we went once—she and I alone—" then she turned to her old +companion and looked up in his face.</p> + +<p>"Had you a mother? Of course you had, but I mean one that you knew?"</p> + +<p>The late Mrs. Carlyon had not meant anything much to her son in her +lifetime, and was now a far-off memory of forty years ago, so Cheiron +answered truthfully upon the subject, and Halcyone looked grave.</p> + +<p>"When we have been friends for a long time I will tell you of my +beautiful mother—and I could let you share my memory of her +perhaps—but not to-day," she said.</p> + +<p>And then she was silent for a while as they walked on. But when they +were turning back towards the orchard house she suddenly began to laugh, +glancing at the old gentleman with eyes full of merriment.</p> + +<p>"It is funny," she said, "I don't even know your name! I would like to +call you Cheiron—but you have a real name, of course."</p> + +<p>"It is Arnold Carlyon, and I come from Cornwall," the old gentleman +said, "but you are welcome to call me Cheiron, if you like."</p> + +<p>Halcyone thanked him prettily.</p> + +<p>"I wish you had his body—don't you? How we could gallop about, could we +not? But I can imagine you have, easily. I always can see things I +imagine, and sometimes they become realities then."</p> + +<p>"Heaven forbid!" exclaimed Cheiron. "What would my four legs and my +hoofs do in the little orchard house, and how should I sit in my +armchair?"</p> + +<p>Halcyone pealed with merry laughter; her laughs came so rarely and were +like golden bells. The comic side of the picture enchanted her.</p> + +<p>"Of course it would only do if we lived in a cave, as the real Cheiron +did," she admitted. "I was silly, was not I?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Mr. Carlyon, "but I don't think I mind your being so—it is +nice to laugh."</p> + +<p>She slipped her thin little hand into his for a moment, and caught hold +of one of his fingers.</p> + +<p>"I am so glad you understand that," she said. "How good it is to laugh! +That is what the birds sing to me, it is no use ever to be sad, because +it draws evil and fear to yourself, and even in the winter one must know +there is always the beautiful spring soon coming. Don't you think God is +full of love for this world?"</p> + +<p>"I am sure he is."</p> + +<p>"The Aunts' God isn't a very kind person," she went on. "But I expect, +since you know about the Greeks, yours and mine are the same."</p> + +<p>"Probably," said Cheiron.</p> + +<p>Then, being assured on this point, Halcyone felt she could almost +entrust him with her greatest secret.</p> + +<p>"Do you know," she said, in the gravest voice, "I will tell you +something. I have a goddess, too. I found her in the secret staircase. +She is broken, even her nose a little, but she is supremely beautiful. +It is just her head I have got, and I pretend she is my mother +sometimes, really come back to me again. We have long talks. Some day I +will show her to you. I have to keep her hidden, because Aunt Ginevra +cannot bear rubbish about, and as she is broken she would want to have +her thrown away."</p> + +<p>"I shall be delighted to make her acquaintance. What do you call her?"</p> + +<p>"That is just it," said Halcyone. "When I first found her it seemed to +me I must call her Pallas Athené, because of that noble lady in +Perseus—but as I looked and looked I knew she was not that; it seems +she cannot be anything else but just Love—her eyes are so tender, she +has many moods, and they are not often the same—but no matter how she +looks you feel all the time just love, love, love—so I have not named +her yet. You remember when Orpheus took his lyre and sang after Cheiron +had finished his song—it was of Chaos and the making of the world, and +how all things had sprung from Love—who could not live alone in the +Abyss. So I know that is she—just Love."</p> + +<p>"Aphrodite," said Cheiron.</p> + +<p>"It is a pretty name. If that is what it means, I would call her that."</p> + +<p>"It will do," said Cheiron.</p> + +<p>"Aphrodite—Aphrodite," she repeated it over and over. "It must mean +kind and tender, and soft and sweet, and beautiful and glorious, and +making you think of noble things, and making you feel perfectly happy +and warmed and comforted and blessed. Is it all that?"</p> + +<p>"It could be—and more," said Cheiron.</p> + +<p>"Then I will name her so."</p> + +<p>After this there was a long silence. Mr. Carlyon would not interrupt +what was evidently a serious moment to his little friend. He waited, and +then presently he turned the channel of her thoughts by asking her if +she thought he might call on her Aunts that afternoon.</p> + +<p>Halcyone hesitated a second.</p> + +<p>"We hardly ever have visitors. Aunt Ginevra has always said one must not +receive what one cannot return, and they have no carriage or horses now, +so they never see anyone. Aunt Roberta would, but Aunt Ginevra does not +let her, and she often says in the last ten years they have quite +dropped out of everything. I do not know what that means altogether, +because I do not know what there was to drop out of. I have scarcely +ever been beyond the park, and there do not seem to be any big houses +for miles—do there?—except Wendover, but it is shut up; it has been +for twenty years."</p> + +<p>"Then you think the Misses La Sarthe might not receive me?"</p> + +<p>"You could try, of course. You have not a carriage. If you just walked +it would make it even. Shall I tell them you are coming? I had better, +perhaps."</p> + +<p>"Yes, this afternoon."</p> + +<p>And if Halcyone had known it, she was receiving an unheard-of +compliment! The hermit Carlyon—the old Oxford Professor of Greek, who +had come to this out-of-the-way corner because he had been assured by +the agent there would be no sort of society around him—now intended to +put on a tall hat and frock coat, and make a formal call on two maiden +ladies—all for the sake of a child of twelve years, with serious gray +eyes—and a soul!</p> + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br> +<a name="CHAPTER_IV"></a><h2>CHAPTER IV</h2> +<br> + +<p>In her heart of hearts Miss Roberta felt fluttered as she walked across +the empty hall to the Italian parlor behind her sterner sister, to +receive their guest. He would come in the afternoon, Halcyone had said. +That meant about three o'clock, and it behooved ladies expecting a +gentleman to be at ease at some pretty fancy work when he should be +announced.</p> + +<p>The village was two miles beyond the lime lodge gates, and for the last +eight years rheumatism in the knee had made the walk there out of the +question for poor Miss Roberta—so even the sight of a man and a +stranger was an unusual thing! She had not attempted conversation with +anyone but Mr. Miller, the curate, for over eleven years. The isolation +in which the inhabitants of La Sarthe Chase lived could not be more +complete.</p> + +<p>The Italian parlor had its own slightly pathetic <i>cachet</i>. The walls and +ceiling had been painted by rather a bad artist from Florence at the +beginning of the nineteenth century, but the furniture was good of its +kind—a strange dark orange lacquer and gilt—and here most of the +treasures which had not yet been disposed of for daily bread, were +hoarded in cabinets and quaint glass-topped show tables. There were a +number of other priceless things about the house, the value of which the +Long Man's artistic education was as yet too unfinished to appreciate. +And the greatest treasure of all, as we have seen, was probably only +understood by Halcyone—but more of that in its place.</p> + +<p>At present it concerns us to know that Miss La Sarthe and her sister had +reached the Italian parlor, and were seated in their respective +chairs—Miss Roberta with a piece of delicate embroidery in her hands, +the stitches of which her eyes—without spectacles, to receive +company—were too weak adequately to perceive.</p> + +<p>Miss La Sarthe did not condescend to any such subterfuges. She sat quite +still doing nothing, looking very much as she had looked for the last +forty years. Her harp stood on one side of the fireplace, and Miss +Roberta's guitar hung by a faded blue ribbon from a nail at the other.</p> + +<p>Presently old William announced:</p> + +<p>"Mr. Carlyon."</p> + +<p>And Cheiron, in his Sunday best, walked into the room.</p> + +<p>Halcyone was not present. If children were wanted they were sent for. It +was not seemly for them to be idling in the drawing-rooms.</p> + +<p>But Miss Roberta felt so pleasantly nervous, that she said timidly, +after they had all shaken hands:</p> + +<p>"Ginevra, can we not tell William to ask Halcyone to come down, perhaps +Mr. Carlyon might like to see her again."</p> + +<p>And William, who had not got far from the door, was recalled and sent on +the errand.</p> + +<p>"What a very beautiful view you have from here," Mr. Carlyon said, by +way of a beginning. "It is an ideal spot."</p> + +<p>"We are glad you like it," Miss La Sarthe replied, graciously; "as my +sister and I live quite retired from the world it suits us. We had much +gayety here in our youth, but now we like tranquillity."</p> + +<p>"It is, however, delightful to have a neighbor," Miss Roberta +exclaimed—and then blushed at her temerity.</p> + +<p>The elder lady frowned; Roberta had always been so sadly effusive, she +felt. Men ought not to be flattered so.</p> + +<p>Mr. Carlyon bowed, and the platitudes were continued, each felt he or +she must approach the subject of Halcyone's lessons, but waited for the +other to begin.</p> + +<p>Halcyone, herself, put an end to all awkwardness after she very gently +entered the room. There was no bounding or vaulting in the presence of +the aunts.</p> + +<p>"Is it not kind of Mr. Carlyon to wish to teach me Greek?" she said, +including both her relatives. "I expect he has told you about it +though."</p> + +<p>The Misses La Sarthe were properly surprised and interested. Most kind +they thought it and expressed their appreciation in their separate ways. +They both hoped their great-niece would be diligent, and prove a worthy +pupil. It was most fortunate for Halcyone, because her stepfather, Mr. +James Anderton, might decide at their request not to send another +governess, and, "No doubt it will be most useful to her," Miss La Sarthe +continued. "In these modern days so much learning seems to be expected +of people. When we were young, a little French and Italian were all that +was necessary."</p> + +<p>Then Mr. Carlyon made friends of them for life, by a happy inspiration.</p> + +<p>"I see you are both musicians," he said, pointing to the antiquated +musical instruments. "A taste of that sort is a constant pleasure."</p> + +<p>"We used to play a good deal at one time," admitted Miss La Sarthe, +without a too great show of gratification, "and my sister was quite +celebrated for her Italian songs."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" gasped Miss Roberta, blushing again.</p> + +<p>"I hope I may have the pleasure of hearing you together some day," said +the Professor, gallantly.</p> + +<p>Both ladies smilingly acquiesced, as they depreciated their powers.</p> + +<p>And just before their visitor got up to leave, Miss La Sarthe said with +her grand air:</p> + +<p>"We hope you find your cottage comfortable. It used to be the land +steward's, before we disposed of the property we no longer required. It +always used to have a very pretty garden, but no doubt it has rather +fallen into decay."</p> + +<p>"I shall do my best to repair it," Mr. Carlyon said, "but it will take +some time. I and my servant have already begun to clear the weeds away, +and a new gardener is coming next week."</p> + +<p>"Oh, may I help?" exclaimed Halcyone. "I love gardening, and can dig +quite well. I often help William."</p> + +<p>"Our old butler does many useful things for us," Miss Roberta explained, +with a slightly conscious air.</p> + +<p>And then the adieus were said, Halcyon's first lesson having been +arranged to begin on the morrow.</p> + +<p>When the visitor had gone and the door was shut:</p> + +<p>"A very worthy, cultivated gentleman, Roberta," Miss La Sarthe announced +to her sister. "We must ask him to dinner the next time Mr. Miller is +coming. We must show him some attention for his kindness to our +great-niece; he will understand and not allow it to flatter him too +much. You remember, Roberta, our Mamma always said unmarried women—of +any age—cannot be too careful of <i>les convenances</i>, but we might ask +him to dinner under the circumstances—don't you think so?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I am sure—yes, sister—but I wish you would not talk so of our +age," Miss Roberta said, rather fretfully for her. "You were only +seventy-two last November, and I shall not be sixty-nine until +March—and if you remember, Aunt Agatha lived to ninety-one, and Aunt +Mildred to ninety-four! So we are not so very old as yet."</p> + +<p>"The more reason for us to be careful then," retorted the elder lady, +and Miss Roberta subsided with a sigh as she took her guitar from the +wall and began in her gentle old quavering voice to trill out one of her +many love-songs.</p> + +<p>The guitar had not been tuned for several days, and had run down into a +pitiful flatness; Halcyone could hardly sit still, it hurt her so—but +it was only when Miss Roberta had begun a second warble that either she +or Miss La Sarthe noticed the jar. Then a helpless look grew in the +songstress's faded eyes.</p> + +<p>"Halcyone, dear—I think you might tune the instrument for me," she +said. "I almost think the top string is not quite true, and you do it so +quickly."</p> + +<p>And grateful for the chance, the child soon had it perfectly accorded, +and the concert continued.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Mr. Carlyon had got back to the orchard house, and had rung +for some of his black tea. He was musing deeply upon events. And at last +he sat at his writing-table and wrote a letter to his friend and former +pupil, John Derringham, in which he described his arrival at his new +home, and his outlook, and made a casual reference to the two maiden +ladies in these terms:</p> + +<p>"The park and house is still owned by two antediluvian spinsters of the +name of La Sarthe—exquisite specimens of Early Victorian gentility. +They are very poor and proud and narrow-minded, and they have a +great-niece living with them, the most remarkable little female +intelligence I have ever come across. My old habit of instruction is not +to be allowed to rest, for I am going to teach the creature Greek, as a +diversion. She seems to be about twelve years old, and has the makings +of a wonderful character. In the summer you had better come down and pay +me a visit, if you are not too busy with your potent mistress, your +political ambitions."</p> + +<p>But John Derringham did not respond to this casual invitation for many a +long day. He had other potent interests beside his political +ambitions—and in any case, never did anything unless he felt inclined.</p> + +<p>Mr. Carlyon did not expect him—he knew him very well.</p> + +<p>Thus the days passed and by the end of June even, Halcyone had learned +more than the Greek alphabet; and had listened to many charming stories +of that wonderful people. And the night was her friend, and numerous +hours were passed in the shadow of his dark wings, as she flitted like +some pale ghost about the park and the deserted, dilapidated garden.</p> + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br> +<a name="CHAPTER_V"></a><h2>CHAPTER V</h2> +<br> + +<p>The July of that year was very warm with peculiarly still days, and +Halcyone and her master, Cheiron, spent most of their time during their +hours of study, under the apple tree. They had got to a stage of +complete understanding, and seemed to have fitted into each other's +lives as though they had always been together.</p> + +<p>Mr. Carlyon watched his little pupil from under the shadow of his +penthouse brows with the deep speculative interest she had aroused in +him from the first. He had theories upon several subjects, which she +seemed to be going to show the result of in practice—and in his kindly +cynic's heart she was now enshrined in a special niche.</p> + +<p>For Halcyone he was "Cheiron," her master, who had the enchanting +quality of being able to see the other side of her head. Every idea of +her soul seemed to be developing under this touch of sympathy and +understanding. Her heterogeneous knowledge culled from the teachings of +her many changing governesses, seemed to regulate itself into distinct +branches with an upward shoot for each, and Mr. Carlyon watched and +encouraged them all.</p> + +<p>It was on one glorious Saturday morning when the fairies and nymphs and +gods and goddesses were presumably asleep in the sunlight, that she drew +up her knees as she sat on the grass by her Professor's chair, and +pushing away the Greek grammar, said, with grave eyes fixed upon his +face:</p> + +<p>"Cheiron, to-day something tells me I can show you Aphrodite. When it is +cooler, about five o'clock, will you come with me to the second terrace? +There I will leave you and go and fetch her, and as William and +Priscilla will be at tea, I can open the secret door, and you shall see +where she lives—all in the dark!"</p> + +<p>Mr. Carlyon felt duly honored—for they had never referred to this +subject since she had first mentioned it. The Professor felt it was one +of deep religious solemnity to his little friend, and had waited until +she herself should feel he was worthy of her complete confidence.</p> + +<p>"She speaks to me more than ever," Halcyone continued. "I took her out +in the moonlight on Thursday night, and she seemed to look more lovely +than before. It has pleased her that I call her Aphrodite—it was +certainly her name."</p> + +<p>"It is settled, then," said Cheiron, "at five o'clock I will be upon the +terrace."</p> + +<p>Halcyone returned to her grammar, and silence obtained between them. +Then presently Mr. Carlyon spoke.</p> + +<p>"I am going to have a visitor for a week or perhaps more," he announced.</p> + +<p>A startled pair of eyes looked up at him.</p> + +<p>"That seems odd," Halcyone said. "I hope whoever it is will not be much +in our way. I do not think I am glad—are you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I am glad. It is someone for whom I have a great regard," and Mr. +Carlyon knocked the ashes from his long pipe. "It is a young man who +used to be at Oxford and to whom also I taught Greek."</p> + +<p>"Then he will know a great deal more than I do, being older," returned +Halcyone, not at all mollified by this information.</p> + +<p>"Yes, he knows rather more than you do as yet," the Professor allowed. +"Perhaps you will not like him; he can be quite disagreeable when he +wishes—and he may not like you."</p> + +<p>Halcyone's dark brows met.</p> + +<p>"If he is someone for whom you have a regard he must be of those who +count. I shall be angry then, if he dislikes me—is he coming soon?"</p> + +<p>"On Monday, by the four o'clock train."</p> + +<p>"Our lesson will be over—that is something. You will not want me on +Tuesday, I expect?" and a note of regret grew in her voice.</p> + +<p>"I thought you might have a holiday for a while, all pupils have +holidays in the summer," the Professor returned.</p> + +<p>"Very well," was all she said, and then was quiet for a time, thinking +the matter over. She wished to hear more of this visitor who was going +to interrupt their pleasant intercourse.</p> + +<p>"Of what sort is he?" she asked presently. "A hunter like Meleager—or +cunning like Theseus—or noble like Perseus, whom I love best of all?"</p> + +<p>"He is not very Greek to look at, I am afraid, except perhaps in his +length of limb," and the Professor smiled. "He is just a thin, lanky, +rather distinguished young Englishman and was considered to be the most +brilliant of my pupils, taking a Double First under my auspices and +leaving Oxford with flying colors when I retired myself a year or two +ago. He has been very lucky since, he is full of ambitions in the +political line, and he has a fearless and rather caustic wit."</p> + +<p>"I must think of him as Pericles, then, if he is occupied with the +state," said Halcyone. "But how has he been lucky since? I would like to +know—tell me, please, and I will try not to mind his being here."</p> + +<p>"Yes—try—" said Mr. Carlyon. "After he took his degree he studied law +and history, you know, as well as the Greek philosophy which you may +come to some day—he went to London to the Temple to read for the bar. +He never intended to be a practicing barrister, but everything is a +means to his career. Then his luck came—he has lots of friends and +relations in the great world and at one of their country houses he met +the Prime Minister, who took a tremendous fancy to him, and the thing +going well, the great man finally asked him to be his assistant private +secretary, which post he accepted. The chief private secretary last year +being made governor of a colony, John has now stepped into his shoes, +and presently he will go into Parliament. He is a brilliant fellow and +cares for no man—following only his own star. I shall be very glad to +see him again."</p> + +<p>Halcyone's face fell into a brown study and the Professor watching her +mused to himself.</p> + +<p>"John Derringham will find her in the way. She is not woman enough yet +to attract his eye; he will only perceive she is a rather plain +child—and she will certainly see the other side of his head."</p> + +<p>As Halcyone walked back to La Sarthe Chase for her early dinner, she +mused also:</p> + +<p>"I must not feel this dislike towards Cheiron's other pupil. After all, +Jason could not have the master alone—and if I do feel it then he will +be able to harm me, should he dislike me, too—but if I try to like him, +then he will be powerless, and when he has gone he will not have left +any mark."</p> + +<p>Mr. Carlyon felt a perceptible glow of interest as he waited at five +o'clock that day upon the dilapidated stone bench in the archway where +old William kept his garden tools, and while the subdued light gave him +very little chance of studying minutely the walls, the general aspect +certainly presented no hint of any door. However, he had not to wait or +speculate long, for, with hardly a creak, two stones seemed to turn upon +a pivot, and Halcyone came forth from the aperture bending her head.</p> + +<p>"After all, I do not think you had better come in with me," she said. +"It is low like this for ten yards; it will make your back ache—so I +have brought her. If you will hold her, I will run out and see if all is +safe; and then we can carry her to the summer house and take off her +scarf."</p> + +<p>Cheiron held out his arms to receive the precious bundle; and he could +feel by its weight it was a marble head. It was enveloped in the +voluminous folds of the remains of an old blue silk curtain, a relic of +other days, when rich stuffs hung before the windows of La Sarthe Chase.</p> + +<p>"I took the covering from the Spanish Chest in the long gallery," +Halcyone announced. "I had played with it for years, and the color suits +her—it must be the same as are her real eyes."</p> + +<p>Then she darted out into the sunlight and returned again in a few +moments—with shining face. All was safe and the momentous hour had +come.</p> + +<p>She took her goddess from Mr. Carlyon's arms, and walking with the +dignity of a priestess of the Temple, she preceded her master along the +tangled path.</p> + +<p>A riot of things growing impeded each step. Roses which had degenerated +into little better than wild ones, showed late red and pink blooms, +honeysuckle and columbines flowered, and foxgloves raised their graceful +heads.</p> + +<p>At the end there was a broken bower at the corner of the terrace, with a +superb view over the park and far beyond to the high blue hills.</p> + +<p>This place was cleared, for Halcyone had done the necessary work +herself. It was one of her outlooks upon the world and she had even +carefully mended the cracked bench with a bit of board and a nail or +two. The table, which was of stone, still stood firmly and was quaint +and rather Greek in shape—for had not a later Timothy La Sarthe brought +it from Paris in the Empire days?</p> + +<p>Mr. Carlyon sat down and prepared himself for the solemn moment when the +Goddess should be unveiled.</p> + +<p>And when the reverent little priestess had removed the folds from the +face as it lay upon the table, he started and held his breath, for he +instantly realized that indeed this was the work of some glorious old +Greek sculptor; none other could have created that perfect head.</p> + +<p>And as he looked, the child slipped her hand into his and whispered +softly:</p> + +<p>"Watch her eyes; she is tender to-day and welcomes us. I was not quite +sure how she would receive you."</p> + +<p>And lo! it seemed to Mr. Carlyon as though the divine orbs softened into +a smile, such was the art of those old Greeks, who marred not the marble +with pupil or iris, who stooped to no trick of simulation, but left the +perfect modeling to speak for itself.</p> + +<p>The eyes of this Aphrodite conveyed volumes of love, with her nobly +planned brows and temples and her softly smooth cheeks. The slight break +of the nose even did not seem to spoil the perfect beauty of the whole. +Her mouth, tender and rather full, seemed to smile a welcome, and the +patine, unspoiled by any casts having ever been taken, gleamed as the +finest of skin. It was in a wonderful state of preservation and not +darkened to more than a soft cream color.</p> + +<p>So there she lay at last! Goddess of Love still for all time. The head +was broken off at the base of the slender, rounded throat.</p> + +<p>Halcyone perceived that Cheiron was appreciating her treasure in a +proper spirit and spoke not a word while he examined it minutely, +turning it in all lights.</p> + +<p>"What consummate genius!" he almost whispered at last. "You have truly a +goddess here, child, and you do well to guard her as such,—Aphrodite +you have named her well."</p> + +<p>"I am glad now that I have shown her to you—at first I was a little +afraid—but you understand. And now you can feel how I have my mother +always with me. She tells me to hope, and that all mean things are of no +importance, and that God intends us all to be as happy as is her +beautiful smile."</p> + +<p>Then Mr. Carlyon asked again for the story of the Goddess's discovery, +and heard all the details of how there was a ray of light in the dark +passage, coming from some cleverly contrived crack on the first terrace. +Here Halcyone's foot had struck against the marble upon her original +voyage of discovery, and by the other objects she encountered she +supposed someone long ago, being in flight, had gradually dropped things +which were heavy and of least value. There was a breastplate as well, +and an iron-bound box which she had never been able to move or open.</p> + +<p>"You might help me and we could look into it some day," she said.</p> + +<p>Mr. Carlyon took Aphrodite into his hands and raised her head, examining +every point with minute care, and now her expression appeared to change +and grow sad in the different effect of light.</p> + +<p>"I do not want her to be up upon a pillar like Artemis and Hebe, who are +still in the hall," Halcyone said. "She could not talk to me then, she +would be always the same. I like to hold her this way and that, and then +I can see her moods and the blue silks keeps her nice and warm."</p> + +<p>"It is a great possession," said Cheiron, "and I understand your joy in +it," and he handed the head back to the child with respect.</p> + +<p>Halcyone bent and caressed it with her soft little velvet cheek.</p> + +<p>"See," she said. "Once I was very foolish and cried about something and +the tears made this little mark," and she pointed to two small spots +which did not gleam quite so much as the rest of the surface. "Tears +always do silly things—I am never so foolish now." And then her young +voice became dreamy and her eyes widened with a look as though she saw +far beyond.</p> + +<p>"Cheiron—all the world is made for gladness if we only do not take the +ugly things with us everywhere. There is summer, as it is now, when we +rest and play and all the gods come down from Olympus and dance and sing +and bask in the light—and then the autumn when the colors are rich and +everything prepares for winter and sleeps. But even in the cold and dark +we must not be sad, because we know it is only for a time and to give us +change, so that we may shout for joy when the spring comes and each year +discover in it some new beauty."</p> + +<p>Cheiron did not speak for a while, he, too, was musing.</p> + +<p>"You are a little Epicurean," he said at last, "and presently we shall +read about Epicurus' great principles and his garden where he taught and +lived."</p> + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br> +<a name="CHAPTER_VI"></a><h2>CHAPTER VI</h2> +<br> + +<p>John Derringham had been at the orchard house for three or four days +before there was any sign of Halcyone. She had kept away on purpose and +was doing her best to repress the sense of resentment the thought of the +presence of a stranger caused. Mr. Carlyon had given her some simple +books upon the Renaissance which she was devouring with joy. This period +seemed to give some echo of the Greek ideas she loved, and as was her +habit she was visualizing everything as she read, bringing the people +and the places up before her mental eyes, and regulating them into +friends or acquaintances. Cheiron did not confine himself to teaching +her Greek alone, but directed all her reading, taking a growing delight +in her intelligent mind. Thus they had many talks upon history and the +natural sciences and poetry and painting. But to hear of the famous +statues and learn from pictures to know the styles of the old sculptors +seemed to please her best of all.</p> + +<p>By the fifth day, a Friday, Mr. Carlyon began to feel a desire to see +his little pupil again and sent her a message by his dark, silent +servant. Would she not take tea with him that afternoon? So Halcyone +came. She was very quiet and subdued and crept through her gap in the +hedge without any leaps or bounds.</p> + +<p>John Derringham was stretched the whole length of his long, lean limbs +under the apple tree—her apple tree! This did not produce a favorable +note.</p> + +<p>Cheiron watched the meeting with inward amusement.</p> + +<p>"This is my little friend Halcyone La Sarthe," he said. "Halcyone, +yonder Tityus in these latter days is known by the name of John +Derringham—of Derringham in the County of Northampton. Make your bows +to one another."</p> + +<p>Halcyone inclined her head with dignity, but Mr. Derringham only raised +himself a little and said "Good afternoon." He did not care for +children, and was busy with his old master discussing other things.</p> + +<p>"You will pour out the tea, Halcyone, for us as usual," Cheiron said. +"Demetrius will bring it in a minute." And Halcyone sat down demurely +upon the basket chair near the table and crossed her hands.</p> + +<p>"I tell you I will not take their point of view," John Derringham said, +continuing the conversation he had been carrying on before Halcyone +arrived. "Everything in England is spoilt by this pandering to the +mediocrity. A man may not make a speech but he must choose his words so +that uneducated clods can grasp his meaning, he cannot advocate an idea +with success unless it can appeal to the lower middle classes. It is +this subservience to them which has brought us to where we are. No +ideals—no lofty ends—just a means to each one's own hand. I will never +pretend we are all equal, I will never appeal to anything but the +highest in an audience. So they can throw me out if they will!" And he +stretched out his long legs and clasped his hands under his head—so +that to Halcyone he seemed seven foot tall.</p> + +<p>"Tityus" she thought was a very apt name for him, and she wondered if he +would jump if the vulture suddenly gave a gnaw at his liver!</p> + +<p>"You are an idealist, John," said Mr. Carlyon. "All this might have been +of some use as a principle of propaganda before the franchise was so +low, but now the mediocrity is our master—so of what use? If you talked +so you would but preach to empty benches."</p> + +<p>"I will not do that—I will make them listen. My point is that everyone +can rise if he wishes, but until he has done so in fact, there is no use +in his pretending in words that he has. I would explain to them the +reason of things. I could have agreed with the greatest Athenian +democrats because their principle was one of sense. They had slaves to +do the lowest offices who had no voice in public affairs, but here we +let those who have no more education or comprehension than slaves have +the same power as men who have spent their lives in studying the matter. +It is all unjust, and no one has the courage to tell them to their faces +they are unfitted for the task."</p> + +<p>"It will be a grand stalking horse for your first essay in your +constituency," Cheiron said with his kindly twinkle of sarcasm. He loved +to encourage John Derringham to talk.</p> + +<p>But at that moment Demetrius brought the tea and Halcyone gravely began +her task.</p> + +<p>"Do you take it black like Mr. Carlyon?" she asked of the reclining +guest.</p> + +<p>He came back to the remembrance of her presence and glancing at her, +murmured:</p> + +<p>"Oh—ah, no—that is, yes—strong, only with cream and sugar. Thanks +awfully."</p> + +<p>But Halcyone did not rise to hand it to him, so he was obliged to get up +and take it from where she sat. She perceived then that though extremely +thin he was lithe and well-shaped. And in spite of her unconquered +prejudice, she was obliged to own she liked his steely gray hawk-like +eyes and his fine, rather ascetic, clean-shaven face. He did not look at +her specially. He may have taken in a small, pale visage and masses of +mouse-colored hair and slender legs—but nothing struck him particularly +except her feet. As his eyes dropped to the ground he caught sight of +them; they were singularly perfect feet. He admired points in man or +beast—and when he had returned to his old place stretched out under the +apple tree, he still glanced at them now and then; they satisfied his +eye.</p> + +<p>"What have you been doing in these days, Halcyone?" Mr. Carlyon asked. +"I have not seen you since Monday morning. Have you been getting into +any mischief?"</p> + +<p>Halcyone reluctantly admitted that she had not. There was, she +explained, very little chance of any of an agreeable kind coming her way +at La Sarthe Chase. She had been gardening with William—they had quite +tidied the top terrace—and she had been reading French with Aunt +Roberta, but the book was great nonsense.</p> + +<p>Then she added that she had brought an invitation from the Aunts La +Sarthe that Mr. Carlyon's guest should accompany him when he dined with +them on the Saturday. It had become the custom for him to partake of +this repast on the same occasions that Mr. Miller did—once a month.</p> + +<p>John Derringham frowned under his straw hat which he had pulled over his +eyes. He had not come into the country to be dragged out to bucolic +dinner parties. But upon some points he knew his old master was obdurate +and from his firm acceptance of the invitation this appeared to be one +of them.</p> + +<p>Then Halcyone asked politely if he would have a second cup of tea, but +he refused and again addressed Cheiron, ignoring her. Their conversation +now ran into philosophical questions, some of them out of her depth, but +much of the subject interested her deeply and she listened absorbed.</p> + +<p>At last there was a pause and her fresh young voice asked:</p> + +<p>"What, then, is the aim of philosophy—is it only words, or does it +bring any good?"</p> + +<p>And both men looked at her, staggered for a moment, and John Derringham +burst into a ringing laugh.</p> + +<p>"Upon my word, I don't know," he said. "It was invented so that the +Master here and I should pull each other's theories to pieces; that +evidently was its aim from the beginning of time. I do not know if it +has any other good."</p> + +<p>"Everything is so very simple," said Halcyone. "To have to argue about +it must be fatiguing."</p> + +<p>"You find things simple, do you?" asked John Derringham, now +complacently roused to look at her. "What are your rules of life then, +let us hear, oh, Oracle!—we listen with respect!"</p> + +<p>Halcyone reddened a little and a gleam grew in her wise eyes. She would +have refused to reply, but looking at her revered master, she saw that +he was awaiting her answer with an encouraging smile. So she thought a +second and then said calmly, measuring her words: "Things are what we +make them, they have no power in themselves; they are as inanimate as +this wood—" and she touched the table with her fine brown hand. "It is +we ourselves who give them activity. So it is our own faults if they are +bad—they could just as easily be good. Is not that simple enough?"</p> + +<p>"An example, please, Goddess," demanded John Derringham with a cynical +smile.</p> + +<p>"The dark is an example," she went on quietly. "People fill the dark +with their own frightening images and fear it because they themselves +have turned it into evil. The dark is as kind as the day."</p> + +<p>John Derringham laughed. He was amused at this precocious wisdom and he +suddenly remembered that his old master had mentioned some clever child +when writing to him first about the place, two months before. This was +the creature, then, who was learning Greek. She had picked up these +ideas, of course, out of some book and was showing off. Children should +be snubbed and kept in their places:</p> + +<p>"Then you don't cry when your nurse leaves you at night without a +candle. What a good little girl! But perhaps you take a doll to bed," he +added mockingly, "or suck your thumb."</p> + +<p>Halcyone did not answer, her eyes, benign as a goddess's, looked him +through and through—and Cheiron leaned back in his chair and puffed +volumes of smoke while he chuckled delightedly:</p> + +<p>"Take care, John—you will come off second best, for Halcyone can see +the other side of your head."</p> + +<p>For some unaccountable reason, John Derringham felt annoyed; but it was +too contemptible to be annoyed by a child, so he laughed as he answered +condescendingly:</p> + +<p>"There, I will not tease her. I expect she hates me already—" and he +pushed his hat back from his eyes.</p> + +<p>"No," said Halcyone. "One only hates a thing one fears; hate implies +fear. I hated my last but one governess for a while—because she told +lies and was mean and she had the power to keep me in. But once I +reasoned about it, I grew quite indifferent and she had no effect upon +me at all."</p> + +<p>"You have not had time to reason about me," returned John Derringham, +"but it is something that you don't hate me; I ought to feel pleased."</p> + +<p>"I do not know that there is occasion for that," Halcyone remarked, "it +is all a level thing which does not matter. You are Mr. Carlyon's guest +and I expect will be staying some time—"</p> + +<p>"So you will have to put up with me!" and John Derringham laughed, +furious now with himself for his increasing irritation.</p> + +<p>"I must be going," Halcyone then announced and got up from her +chair—"and I will tell my aunts that they may expect you to-morrow +night," she continued, addressing Mr. Carlyon.</p> + +<p>He rose and prepared to accompany her down the garden. She bowed to John +Derringham with quiet dignity as he still lay on the ground and walked +on by the side of her Professor without further words.</p> + +<p>"You don't like my old pupil, Halcyone?" Mr. Carlyon said when they got +to the gap in the hedge. "Tell me, what do you see at the other side of +his head?"</p> + +<p>"Himself," was all she answered as she bounded lightly away laughing, +and was soon lost to view in the copse beyond.</p> + +<p>And Cheiron, considerably amused, returned to his prostrate guest to +find him with a frown upon his face.</p> + +<p>"I hope to goodness, Master, you won't bore me with that brat while I am +here," he exclaimed, "chattering aphorisms like a parrot. I can't stand +children out of their place."</p> + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br> +<a name="CHAPTER_VII"></a><h2>CHAPTER VII</h2> +<br> + +<p>"Since there will be three gentlemen, Ginevra," Miss Roberta said on +Saturday morning when they sat together in the Italian parlor after +breakfast, "do you not think we had better have Halcyone down to dinner +to-night? I know," she added timidly, "it is not in the proper order of +things, but we could make an exception."</p> + +<p>Miss La Sarthe frowned. Roberta so often was ready to upset regulations. +She was difficult to deal with. But this suggestion of hers had some +point.</p> + +<p>They would be two ladies to three of the other sex—and one of their +guests appeared to be quite a young man—perhaps it might be more +prudent to relax a rule, than to find themselves in an embarrassing +position.</p> + +<p>"I strongly deplore the fact of children ever being brought from their +seclusion except for dessert, but as you say, Roberta, three +gentlemen—and one a perfect stranger—might be too much for us. I +hardly think our Mamma would have approved of our giving such an +unchaperoned party, so for this once Halcyone had better come down. She +can have Mr. Miller for her partner, you will be conducted by the +Professor—and the new guest will take me in."</p> + +<p>Miss Roberta bridled—the Professor was now a hero in her eyes.</p> + +<p>"And Sister," she said, "I think we might bring six of the chairs from +Sir Timothy's bed- and dressing-room just for to-night, instead of those +Windsor ones. It would give the dining-room a better look, do you not +think so?"</p> + +<p>And to this also Miss La Sarthe agreed. So Miss Roberta joyfully found +Halcyone out upon the second terrace and imparted to her the good news. +They would arrange flowers in the épergne, she suggested—a few sweet +williams and mignonette and a foxglove or two. A pretty posy fixed in +sand, such as she remembered there always was in their gala days. +Halcyone was enchanted at the prospect.</p> + +<p>"Oh! dear Aunt Roberta, do let me do it all," she said. "You sit here on +the bench and I will run and fetch the épergne—and we can pick what we +think best. Or—don't you think just a big china bowl full of sweet peas +would be prettier? The sand might show and, and—the épergne is rather +stiff."</p> + +<p>But Miss Roberta looked aggrieved. The épergne with its gold and silver +fern leaves climbing up a thin stalk of glass to its top dish for fruit +had always come out for dinner parties and she liked not innovations. It +was indeed as much as Halcyone could do to get all the flowers of the +same kind, a nasturtium and a magenta stock had with care to be smuggled +away, leaving the sweet peas sole occupants of the sand. But the effect +was very festive and the two carried their work into the dining-room +well pleased.</p> + +<p>The best Sèvres dinner-set was had out, which that traveler Timothy had +brought from Paris among other things, and the best cut glass and +rat-tailed silver. Old William, assisted by Hester and Priscilla, had +been busy polishing most of the day—while the cook and the "young +person from the village" were contriving wonders in the vast kitchen. +And punctually at seven in broad daylight, the three Misses La Sarthe, +the two elder in their finest mauve silk evening dresses, awaited their +guests in the Italian parlor.</p> + +<p>Miss Roberta's heart had not fluttered like this since a county ball +some forty years ago when a certain whiskered captain of a dashing +cavalry regiment stationed at Upminster had whispered in her ear.</p> + +<p>Priscilla had let down Halcyone's white muslin frock and as the tucks +were rather large, it was longer than she intended, so that the child +might easily have been taken for a girl of fifteen, and her perfect feet +were encased in a pair of old-fashioned bronze slippers with elastics +crossed up the legs of her white silk stockings. A fillet of blue silk +kept back the soft cloud of her mouse-colored hair.</p> + +<p>Mr. Miller was announced first—very nervous, as usual, and saying the +wrong thing in his flurry. Then up the terrace steps could be seen +advancing Mr. Carlyon and his guest. They had walked over from the +cottage—and Halcyone, observing from the window, was conscious that +against her will she was admiring John Derringham's arrogant, commanding +walk.</p> + +<p>"He could very well be as Theseus was after he grew proud," she said to +herself.</p> + +<p>And soon they were announced.</p> + +<p>Mr. Carlyon was now on the most friendly terms with both old ladies, and +as well as coming to the monthly dinner, sometimes dropped in to tea on +Sunday afternoons, but he knew this was a real party and must be treated +as such.</p> + +<p>How agreeable it felt to be once more in the world, Miss Roberta +thought, and her faded pale cheeks flushed a delicate pink.</p> + +<p>John Derringham had been sulky as a bear at the idea of coming, but +something in the quaintly pathetic refinement of the poor and splendid +old house pleased him, and the aroma of untouched early-Victorian +prudish grace which the ancient ladies threw around them appealed to his +imagination, as any complete bit of art or nature always did. He found +himself seated between Miss La Sarthe and Halcyone and quite enjoying +himself. Everything was of the time from the épergne to the way the +bread was cut.</p> + +<p>Halcyone conversed with Mr. Miller, who always felt he must make nursery +jokes with her and ask her the names of her dolls.</p> + +<p>"He can't help it," she told Cheiron one day. "If he had any more +intelligence God would have put him to work in some busier place."</p> + +<p>John Derringham did not address her; he devoted himself to Miss La +Sarthe.</p> + +<p>He had absolutely no diffidence. He had been spoilt from his cradle, and +by the time he had left Eton—Captain of the Oppidans—had ruled all +those near him with a rod of iron, imposing his interesting enthusiastic +personality upon all companies with unqualified success. Miss La Sarthe +fell at once. He said exactly the right things to her and flattered her +by his unfeigned interest in all she spoke of. He was studying her as he +studied any rare memento of historical value.</p> + +<p>"My great-niece reads every morning with Mr. Carlyon," she said +presently. "Girls are expected to be so very clever nowadays, we are +told. She already knows a little Greek. It would have been considered +quite unnecessary in our day."</p> + +<p>"And I am sure it is in this," said John Derringham. "Learned women are +an awful bore. As a sex they were meant to be feminine, dainty, +exquisite creatures as those I see to-night," and he bowed gallantly +while Miss La Sarthe thrilled. She thoroughly approved of his +appearance.</p> + +<p>"So very much of a gentleman, Roberta," she afterwards said. "None of +that thick, ill-cut look we are obliged to observe in so many of the +younger people we see when we go into Upminster each year."</p> + +<p>"And why should he look thick or ill-cut, Sister?" Miss Roberta replied. +"Mr. Carlyon told me the Derringhams have been seated at Derringham +since fabulous times."</p> + +<p>Thus this last of that race was appreciated fully in at least two +antiquated female hearts.</p> + +<p>But meanwhile the cloth was being removed, and the port wine and old +Madeira placed before the elder hostess.</p> + +<p>"Our father's cellar was famous for its port," she said, "and we have a +few bottles of the '47 left."</p> + +<p>But now she felt it was only manners to turn to Mr. Carlyon upon her +other hand, so John Derringham was left in silence, no obligation to +talk to Halcyone making itself felt. She turned and looked at him, he +interested her very much. Mr. Carlyon had quantities of books of +photographs of all the famous statues in Europe and especially in Italy +and Greece, but she could not find any likeness to him in any of her +recollection of them. Alas! his face was not at all Greek. His nose was +high and aquiline, his forehead high and broad, and there was something +noble and dominating in his fearless regard. His hair even did not grow +very prettily, though it was thick and dark—and there was not an ounce +of superfluous flesh upon his whole person. He never for a moment +suggested repose, he gave the impression of vivid, nervous force and +action, a young knight going out to fight any impossible dragon with his +good sword and shield—unabashed by the smoke from its flaming nostrils, +undaunted by any fear of death.</p> + +<p>Halcyone watched him, and her prejudice slept.</p> + +<p>The silence had lasted quite five minutes when he allowed his natural +good manners, which he was quite aware he had kept in abeyance in regard +to her, to come uppermost.</p> + +<p>"The Professor has been telling me how wonderfully you work with him," +he said; "we under him at Oxford were not half so diligent it seems. I +wonder what good it will be to you at all."</p> + +<p>"If a thing gives pleasure, it is good," she answered gravely. "I wanted +to learn Greek because I had a book when I was little which told me +about those splendid heroes, and I thought I could read more about them +when I am grown up if I knew it—than if I did not."</p> + +<p>"There is something in that. What was the book?" he asked.</p> + +<p>Her steady eyes looked straight into his as she replied: "It was +Kingsley's 'Heroes' and if only I were a boy I would be like Perseus and +go and kill the Gorgon and rescue Andromeda from the sea monster. Pallas +Athené said some fine things to him—do you remember?—when she asked +him the question of which sort of man he would be."</p> + +<p>"No, I don't remember," said John Derringham. "You must tell me now."</p> + +<p>Then Halcyone began in a soft dream voice while her eyes widened and +darkened with that strange look as though she saw into another and +vaster world. "'I am Pallas Athené and I know the thoughts of all men's +hearts, and discern their manhood or their baseness. And from the souls +of clay I turn away; and they are blest, but not by me. They fatten at +ease like sheep in the pasture and eat what they did not sow, like oxen +in the stall. They grow and spread like the gourd along the ground, but +like the gourd they give no shade to the traveler and when they are ripe +death gathers them, and they go down unloved into hell, and their name +vanishes out of the land.'"</p> + +<p>She paused a second and John Derringham was astonished at himself +because he was conscious of experiencing a thrill of deep interest.</p> + +<p>"Yes?" he said—and her voice went on:</p> + +<p>"'But to the souls of fire I give more fire and to those who are manful +I give a might more than man's. These are the heroes, the sons of the +Immortals who are blest but not like the souls of clay, for I drive them +forth by strange paths, Perseus, that they may fight the Titans and +monsters, the enemies of gods and men. Through doubt and need and danger +and battle I drive them, and some of them are slain in the flower of +youth, no man knows when or where, and some of them win noble names and +a fair and green old age—but what will be their latter end, I know not, +and none, save Zeus, the father of gods and men—Tell me, now, Perseus, +which of these two sorts of men seem to you more blest?'"</p> + +<p>It was as if she asked him a personal question and unconsciously he +answered:</p> + +<p>"I should reply as Perseus did. Tell me his words."</p> + +<p>"'Better to die in the flower of youth on the chance of winning a noble +name than to live at ease like the sheep and die unloved and +unrenowned.'"</p> + +<p>He bent nearer to her and answered softly: "They are indeed fine words," +and there was no mockery whatever in his eyes as he looked at her—and +took in every detail of her pure childish face. "You wonderful, strange +little girl—soon I too am going like Perseus to fight the Gorgons, and +I shall remember this night and what you have said."</p> + +<p>But at that moment Mr. Miller's high, cackling laugh was heard in an +explosion of mirth. Mr. Carlyon had made some delightfully obvious joke +for his delectation and amidst a smiling company Miss La Sarthe rose +with dignity to leave the gentlemen alone with their wine.</p> + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br> +<a name="CHAPTER_VIII"></a><h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2> +<br> + +<p>Next morning, John Derringham sat at a late breakfast with his whilom +master of Greek and discussed things in general over his bacon and tea.</p> + +<p>It was three years since he had left Oxford, and life held out many +interesting aspects for him. He was standing for the southern division +of his county in the following spring when the present member was going +to retire, and he was vehement in his views and clear as to the course +he meant to take. He was so eloquent in his discourse and so full of +that divine spark of enthusiasm, that he was always listened to, no +matter how unpalatably Tory the basic principles of his utterances were. +He never posed as anything but an aristocrat, and while he whimsically +admitted that in the present day to be one was an enormous disadvantage +for a man who wished to get on, he endeavored to palliate the misfortune +by lucid explanation of what the duties of such a status were, and of +the logical advantages which an appreciation of the truths of cause and +effect might bring to mankind. Down in his own country he was considered +the coming man. He thundered at the people and had facts and figures at +his finger tips. His sublime belief in himself never wavered and like +any inspired view, right or wrong, it had its strong effect.</p> + +<p>Mr. Carlyon thought highly of him, for a number of reasons.</p> + +<p>"If women do not make a stumbling-block for you, John, you will go far," +he said as he buttered his toast.</p> + +<p>"Women!" quoth John Derringham, and he laughed incredulously. "They +matter no more to me than the flowers in the garden—enchanting in the +summer time, a mere pleasure for sight and touch, but to make or mar a +man's life!—not even to be considered as factors in the scheme of +things."</p> + +<p>"I am glad to hear you say so," said Mr. Carlyon dryly. "And I hope that +jade, Fate, won't play you any tricks."</p> + +<p>John Derringham smiled.</p> + +<p>"I admit that a woman with money may be useful to me by and by," he +said, "because, as you know, I am always hard up, and presently when I +want to occupy a larger sphere I shall require money for my ends, but +for the time being they serve to divert me as a relaxation; that is +all."</p> + +<p>"You are contracting no ties, dear lad?" asked the Professor with one +eyebrow raised, while he shook back his silvery hair. "I had heard +vaguely about your attention to Lady Durrend, but I understand she has +had many preliminary canters and knows the ropes."</p> + +<p>John Derringham smiled. "Vivienne Durrend is a most charming woman," he +said. "She has taught me a number of things in the last two years. I am +grateful to her. Next season she is bringing a daughter out—and she has +a wonderful sense of the fitness of things." Then he sipped his tea and +got up and strolled towards the windows.</p> + +<p>"Besides," he continued, "I do not admit there are any ties to be +contracted. The Greeks understood the place of women; all this nonsense +of vows of fidelity and exaltation of sentiment in the home cramps a +man's ambitions. It is perfectly natural that he should take a wife if +his position calls for it, because the society in which we move has made +a figurehead of that kind necessary. But that a woman should expect a +man to be faithful to her, be she wife or mistress, is contrary to all +nature."</p> + +<p>"We have put nature out of the running now for a couple of thousand +years," Mr. Carlyon announced sententiously; "we have set up a standard +of impossibilities and worship hypocrisy and can no longer see any +truth. You have got to reckon with things as they are, not with what +nature meant them to be."</p> + +<p>"Then you think women are a force now which one must consider?"</p> + +<p>"I think they are as deadly as the deep sea—" and Mr. Carlyon's voice +was tense. "When they have only bodies they are dangerous enough, but +when—as many of the modern ones have—they combine a modicum of mind as +well, with all the cunning Satan originally endowed them with—then +happy is the man who escapes, even partially whole, from their claws."</p> + +<p>"Whew—" whistled John Derringham, "and what if they have souls? Not +that I personally admit that such a case exists—what then?"</p> + +<p>"When you meet a woman with a soul you will have met your match, John," +the Professor said, and opening his <i>Times</i>, which Demetrius had brought +in with the second post, he closed the conversation.</p> + +<p>John Derringham strolled into the garden. The place had been greatly +improved since Halcyone's first discovery of its new occupant. The +shutters were all a spruce green and the paths weeded and tidy, while +the borders were full of bedded-out plants and flowers. A famous +gardener from Upminster renowned through all the West had come over and +given his personal attention to the matter, and next year wonderful +herbaceous borders would spring up on all sides. Mr. Johnson's visits +and his council, though at first resented, had at length grown a source +of pure delight to Halcyone; she reveled in the blooms of the delicate +begonias and salvias and other blossoms which she had never seen before. +Mr. Carlyon, although desiring solitude, appreciated a beautiful and +cultivated one, and the orchard house was now becoming a very +comfortable bachelor's home.</p> + +<p>The day was much cooler than it had been of late. There was a fresh +breeze though the sun shone. John Derringham wandered down to the apple +tree and thence to the gap, and through it and on into the park. His +walk was for pleasure, and aimless as to destination, and presently he +sat down under a low-spreading oak and looked at the house—La Sarthe +Chase. A beautiful view of it could be obtained from there, and it +interested him—and from that his thoughts came to Halcyone and her +strange, quaint little personality, and he stretched himself out and +putting his hands under his head he looked up into the dense foliage of +the tree above him—and there his eyes met two grave, quiet ones peering +down from a mass of green, and he saw slender brown legs drawn up on a +broad branch, and a scrap of blue cotton frock.</p> + +<p>"Good morning," Halcyone said quite composedly, "don't make a noise, +please, or rustle—the mother doe is just coming out of the copse with +her new fawn."</p> + +<p>"How on earth did you get up there?" he asked, surprised.</p> + +<p>"I swung myself from the lower branch on the other side; it is quite +easy—would you like to come up, too? There is plenty of room—and then +we could be sure the doe would not see you and she might peep out again. +I do not wish to frighten her."</p> + +<p>John Derringham rose leisurely and went to the further side of the oak, +where sure enough there was a drooping branch and he was soon up beside +her, dangling his long limbs as he sat in a fork.</p> + +<p>"What an enchanting bower you have found," he said. "Away from all the +world."</p> + +<p>"No indeed, that cannot be at this time of the year," she answered. +"See, there is a squirrel far up in the top and there are birds, and +look—down there at the roots there is a rabbit hole with such a family +in it. It is only in the winter you can be alone—and not even then, for +you know there are the moles even if you cannot see them."</p> + +<p>"Creatures are interesting to watch, aren't they?" he said. "I have an +old place which I loved when I was a boy. It is let now because I am too +poor to live in it, but I used to like to prowl about in the early +mornings long ago."</p> + +<p>"We are all very poor," said Halcyone simply, "but I am sorry for you +that you have to let strangers be in your house—that must be dreadful."</p> + +<p>John Derringham smiled, and his face lost the <i>insouciante</i> arrogance +which irritated his enemies so. His smile, rare enough, was singularly +sweet.</p> + +<p>"I don't think about it," he said. "It is best not to when anything is +disagreeable."</p> + +<p>"Cheiron and I often tell one another things like that."</p> + +<p>"Cheiron—who is Cheiron?" he asked.</p> + +<p>This seemed a superfluous question to Halcyone.</p> + +<p>"The Professor, of course. He is just like the picture in my 'Heroes,'" +she answered, "and I often pretend we are in the cave on Pelion. I +thought you would perhaps be like one of the others since you were his +pupil, too, but I cannot find which. You are not Heracles—because you +have none of those great muscles—or Æneas or Peleus. Are—are you Jason +himself, perhaps—" and her voice sounded glad with discovery. "We do +not know, he may not have had a Greek face."</p> + +<p>John Derringham laughed. "Jason who led the Argonauts to find the Golden +Fleece—it is a good omen. Would you help me to find the Golden Fleece +if you could?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I would, if you were good and true—but the end of the story was +sad because Jason was not."</p> + +<p>"How must I be good and true then? I thought Jason was a straight enough +sort of a fellow and that it was Medea who brought all the +trouble—Medea, the woman."</p> + +<p>Halcyone's grave eyes never left his face. She saw the whimsical twinkle +in his but heeded it not.</p> + +<p>"He should not have had anything to do with Medea—that is where he was +wrong," she said, "but having given her his word, he should have kept +it."</p> + +<p>"Even though she was a witch?" Mr. Derringham asked.</p> + +<p>"It was still his word—don't you see? Her being a witch did not alter +his word. He did not give it because she was or was not a witch—but +because he himself wanted to at the time, I suppose; therefore, it was +binding."</p> + +<p>"A man should always keep his word, even to a woman, then?" and John +Derringham smiled finely.</p> + +<p>"Why not to a woman as well as a man?" Halcyone asked surprised. "You do +not see the point at all it seems. It is not to whom it is you give your +word—it is to you it matters that you keep it, because to break it +degrades yourself."</p> + +<p>"You reason well, fair nymph," he said gallantly; he was frankly amused. +"What may your age be? A thousand years more or less will not make any +difference!"</p> + +<p>"You may laugh at me if you like," said Halcyone, and she smiled; his +gayety was infectious, "but I am not so very young. I shall be thirteen +in October, the seventh of October."</p> + +<p>John Derringham appeared to be duly impressed with this antiquity, and +went on gravely:</p> + +<p>"So you and the Master discuss these knotty points of honor and +expediency together, do you, as a recreation from the Greek syntax? I +should like to hear you."</p> + +<p>"The Professor does not believe in men much," Halcyone said. "He says +they are all honorable to one another until they are tempted—and that +they are never honorable to a woman when another woman comes upon the +scene. But I do not know at all about such things, or what it means. For +me there is nothing towards other people; it only is towards yourself. +You must be honorable to yourself."</p> + +<p>And suddenly it seemed to John Derringham as if all the paltry shams of +the world fell together like a pack of cards, and as if he saw truth +shining naked for the first time at the bottom of the well of the +child's pure eyes.</p> + +<p>An extraordinary wave of emotion came over him, finely strung as he was, +and susceptible to all grades of feeling. He did not speak for a minute; +it was as if he had quaffed some elixir. A flame of noble fire seemed to +run in his veins, and his voice was changed and full of homage when at +last he addressed her.</p> + +<p>"Little Goddess of Truth," he said, "I would like to be with you always +that you might never let me forget this point of view. And you believe +it would have won for Jason in the end—if he had been true to himself? +Tell me—I want greatly to know."</p> + +<p>"But how could there be any doubt of that?" she asked surprised. "Good +only can bring good, and evil, evil."</p> + +<p>At this moment, out from the copse the soft head of a doe appeared, and +at the thrilling sight Halcyone slipped her hand into her companion's, +and held his tight lest he should move or rustle a leaf.</p> + +<p>"See," she whispered right in his ear. "She will cross to the other side +by the stream—and oh! there is the fawn! Is he not the dearest baby +angel you have ever seen—!"</p> + +<p>And the doe, feeling herself safe, trotted by, followed by a minute son +in pale drab velvet hardly a month old.</p> + +<p>The pair in the tree watched them breathlessly until they had entered +the copse again beyond the bend, and then Halcyone said:</p> + +<p>"That makes six—and perhaps there are more. Oh! how I hope the Long Man +will not see them!"</p> + +<p>John Derringham did not let go her hand at once; there was something +soft and pleasant in the touch of the cool little fingers.</p> + +<p>"I want to hear about everything," he said. "Tell me of the Long +Man—and the fawns, and why there are only six. I am having the happiest +morning I have had for years."</p> + +<p>So Halcyone began. She glossed a good deal over the facts she had told +Mr. Carlyon upon the subject because she did not feel she knew this +stranger well enough to let him into her aunts' private affairs—so she +turned the interest to the deer themselves, and they chatted on about +all sorts of animals and their ways, and John Derringham was entranced +and felt quite aggrieved when she said it was getting late and she must +go back to the house for her early dinner. He swung himself down from +the tree by the high branch with ease and stood ready to catch her, but +with a nimbleness he did not expect, she crept round to the lower side +and was landed upon the soft turf before he could reach her.</p> + +<p>Then he walked back with her to the broken gate, telling her about his +own old home the while, and then they paused to say good-by.</p> + +<p>Halcyone carried a twig of freshly sprouting oak which she had brought +from the tree, having broken it off in her lightning descent.</p> + +<p>"Give me one leaf and you keep the other," he said. "And then, whenever +I see it, I will try to remember that I must always be good and true."</p> + +<p>With grave earnestness she did as he asked, and then opened the gate.</p> + +<p>"I want to tell you," she said—and she looked down for a second, and +then up into his eyes from beyond the bars. "I did not like the thought +of your coming—and at first I did not like you—but now I see something +quite different at the other side of your head—Good-by."</p> + +<p>And before he could answer, she was off as the young fawn would have +been—a flitting shape among the trees. And John Derringham walked +slowly back to the orchard house, musing as he went.</p> + +<p>But when he got there a telegram from his Chief had arrived, recalling +him instantly to London.</p> + +<p>And he did not see Halcyone again for several years.</p> + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br> +<a name="CHAPTER_IX"></a><h2>CHAPTER IX</h2> +<br> + +<p>The seasons came and went with peaceful regularity, unbroken by a +jarring note from the outside world. Mr. Anderton, being well assured by +the Misses La Sarthe that his stepdaughter was receiving a splendid +education, was only too glad to leave her in peace, and Mrs. Anderton +felt her duty achieved when at the beginning of each summer and winter +she sent a supply of what she considered suitable clothes. It took +Priscilla and Hester hours to alter them to Halcyone's slender shape.</p> + +<p>Mr. Carlyon was seldom absent from his house during this period, only +twice a year, when he spent a fortnight in London in June, and another +week in November with his brother, a squire of some note in the Cornish +world. Halcyone made green his old age with the exquisite quality of her +opening mind. And deep down in her heart there always dwelt the image of +John Derringham, and whatever new hero she read about, he unconsciously +assumed some of his features or mien. She passed through enthusiasms for +all periods, and for quite six months was under the complete spell of +the "Morte d'Arthur" and the adventures of the knights contained +therein. She read voraciously and systematically, but her first love for +all things Greek regained its hold and undoubtedly colored her whole +view of life.</p> + +<p>Her education was exotic and might have ruined a brain of lesser fiber. +But for her it seemed to bring forth all that was clear and fine and +polish it with a diamond luster. Twice a week alternately the French and +German master from the Applewood Grammar School came to her, and she +also learned to read music from the organist at the church, and then +played to herself with no technique but much taste.</p> + +<p>And of all her masters, Nature and the fearless study of her night moods +molded her soul the most.</p> + +<p>For the first few months after John Derringham's visit Mr. Carlyon often +spoke of him and read aloud bits of his letters, and Halcyone listened +with rapt attention, but she never embarked upon the subject +herself—and then the Professor had an accident to his knee which kept +him a prisoner for months. And somehow the interest of this seemed to +dwarf less present things, and as time went on, John Derringham grew to +be mentioned only by fits and starts, when his rapidly rising political +career called forth cynical grunts of admiration from his old master. +There had been a dissolution of Parliament and a short term of office +for the other side, and then at the General Election John Derringham's +Chief had come in again stronger than ever, and he himself had been made +Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. It was a tremendous rise +for one so young. He was at that time not more than twenty-nine years +old—but two years before this happened, when Halcyone was about +fifteen, he came again to the orchard house for a short Saturday to +Monday visit.</p> + +<p>From the moment that she knew he was coming a strange stillness seemed +to fall upon the child. She had grown long-legged and was at the +fledgling stage when even a pretty girl sometimes looks plain, and she, +who had as yet no claim to beauty, was at her worst. She was quite aware +of it, with her intense soul-worship of all beautiful things. Some +unreasoned impulse made her keep away from her master during the first +day, but on the Sunday he summoned her, and, as once before, she came +and poured out the tea, but it was a cold and windy autumn afternoon, +and it was not laid out of doors. John Derringham had been for a walk, +and came in while she sat in a shadowy corner behind the table, teapot +in hand.</p> + +<p>He was greatly changed, she thought, in the three years. He had grown a +beard! and looked considerably older, with his thin commanding figure +and arrogant head. He was not handsome now, but peculiarly +distinguished-looking. He could very well be Pericles, she decided at +once. As for him, he had almost forgotten her. Life had been so full of +many things; but, seeing a pale, slender, overgrown girl with +mouse-colored clouds of hair now confined in a demure pigtail, it came +to his mind that this must be the Professor's pupil again. Had she not +been called Hebe or Psyche—or Halcyone—some Greek name? And gradually +his former recollection of her came back, and of their morning in the +tree.</p> + +<p>"Why, how do you do," he said politely, and Halcyone bowed without +speaking. She felt much as Hans Andersen's Ugly Duckling used to feel, +and when John Derringham had said a few ordinary things about her having +grown out of all likeness, he turned to the Professor again, and almost +forgot her presence.</p> + +<p>His talk was most wonderful to listen to, she thought, his language was +so polished, and there was a courtesy added to the former vehemence. +They spoke of nothing but politics, which she did not understand, and +Cheiron chaffed him a good deal in his kindly cynical way. He was still +fighting his chimeras, it seemed, and fighting them successfully. As he +spoke, Halcyone, behind the teapot, thrilled with a kind of worship. To +be strong and young and manful, and to combat modern dragons, appeared +to her to be a god-like task.</p> + +<p>In the midst of a heated argument she rose to slip away. Her comings and +goings were so natural to the Professor that he was unaware that she was +leaving the room until John Derringham broke off in the middle of a +sentence, to rise and open the door for her.</p> + +<p>"Good-by," she said. "Aunt Roberta is not very well to-day, so I must +not be late. Good night, Cheiron"—and she went out and closed the door.</p> + +<p>"But it is quite dark!" exclaimed John Derringham. "Is there a servant +waiting? She can't go all alone!"</p> + +<p>The Professor leaned back in his chair.</p> + +<p>"Don't disturb yourself," he said. "Halcyone is accustomed to the +twilight. It is a strange night-creature—leave it alone."</p> + +<p>John Derringham sat down again.</p> + +<p>"She is not nearly so attractive-looking as she used to be. If I +remember, she was rather a weirdly pretty child."</p> + +<p>"Just a chrysalis now," grunted the professor between [**TR Note: was +betwen in original; typesetter's error.] puffs of smoke. "But there is +more true philosophy and profound knowledge of truth in that little head +than either you or I have got in ours, John."</p> + +<p>"You always thought the world of her, Master—you, with your +ineradicable contempt for women!"</p> + +<p>"She is not a woman—yet. She is an intelligence and a brain—and a +soul."</p> + +<p>"Oh, she has a soul, then!" and John Derringham smiled. "I remember once +you said when I should meet a woman with a soul I should meet my match! +I do not feel very alarmed."</p> + +<p>One of the Professor's penthouse brows raised itself about half an inch, +but he did not speak.</p> + +<p>"In which school have you taught her?" John Derringham asked—"you who +are so much of a cynic, Master. Does she study the ethics of Aristotle +with you here in this Lyceum, or do you reconstruct Plato's Academy? She +is no sophist, apparently, since you say she can see the truth."</p> + +<p>Mr. Carlyon looked into the fire.</p> + +<p>"She is almost an Epicurean, John, in all but the disbelief in the +immortality of the soul. She has evolved a theory of her own about that. +It partakes of Buddhism. After I have discussed metaphysical +propositions with her over which she will argue clearly, she will +suddenly cut the whole knot with a lightning flash, and you see the +naked truth, and words become meaningless, and discussion a jest."</p> + +<p>"All this, at fifteen!" John Derringham laughed antagonistically, and +then he suddenly remembered her words to himself upon honor in the tree +that summer morning three years ago, and he mused.</p> + +<p>Perhaps some heaven-taught beings were allowed to come to earth after +all, now and then as the centuries rolled on.</p> + +<p>"She knows Greek pretty well?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Fairly, for the time she has learnt. She can read me bits of Lucian. +She would stumble over the tragedies. I read them to her." Then he +continued, as though it were a subject he loved, "She has a concrete +view upon every question; her critical faculty is marvelous. She never +lays down the law, but if you ask her, you have your answer in a +nutshell, the simplest truth, which it always appears to her so strange +that you have not seen all the time."</p> + +<p>"What is her parentage? Heredity plays so large a part in these things," +Mr. Derringham asked.</p> + +<p>"The result of a passionate love-match between distant cousins of that +fine old race, I believe. Timothy La Sarthe was at Oxford before your +day, but not under me—a brilliant, enchanting fellow, drowned while +yachting when my little friend was only a few months old."</p> + +<p>"And the mother?"</p> + +<p>"Married again to pay his debts, to a worthy stockbroker, almost +immediately, I believe. She paid the debt with herself and died after +having three children for him in a few years."</p> + +<p>"So your protégée lives with those cameos of the Victorian era we dined +with, and never sees the outside world?"</p> + +<p>"Never—from one year's end to another."</p> + +<p>"What a fate!" and John Derringham stretched out his arms. "Ye gods, +what a fate!"</p> + +<p>And again Cheiron smiled, raising his bushy left brow.</p> + +<p>Halcyone, meanwhile, was walking with firm certain steps across the +park, where the dusk had fallen. The turbulent Boreas blew in her face, +and she stopped and took off her soft cap and unplaited her hair so that +it flew out in a cloud as the wind rushed through it. This sensation was +a great pleasure to her, and when she came to a rising ground, a kind of +knoll where the view of the country was vast and superb, she paused +again and took in great deep breaths. She was drawing all the forces of +the air into her being and quivered presently with the joy of it.</p> + +<p>She could see as only those who are accustomed to the dark can. She was +aware of all the outlines of golden bracken at her feet and the head of +a buck peeping from the copse near. The sky was a passionate, +tempestuous mass of angry clouds scudding over the deep blue, where an +evening star could be seen peeping out.</p> + +<p>"Bring me your force and strength, that I may grow noble and beautiful, +dear wind," she said aloud. "I want to be near him when he comes again," +and then she ran and jumped the uneven places, while she hummed a +strange song.</p> + +<p>And Jeb Hart and Joseph Gubbs, the poachers, saw her, as she passed +within a yard of where they lay setting their snares, and Gubbs, who was +a good Catholic from Upminster, crossed himself as he muttered in his +friend's ear:</p> + +<p>"We'll get no swag to-night, Jeb. When she passes, blest if she don't +warn the beasts."</p> + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br> +<a name="CHAPTER_X"></a><h2>CHAPTER X</h2> +<br> + +<p>When Halcyone was nearly nineteen and had grown into a rare and radiant +maiden, the like of whom it would be difficult to find, an event +happened which was of the greatest excitement and importance to the +neighborhood. Wendover, which had been shut up for twenty years, was +reported to have been taken for a term by a very rich widow—or +<i>divorcée</i>—from America it was believed, and it was going to be +sumptuously done up and would be filled with guests. Mr. Miller took +pains to find out every detail from the Long Man at Applewood, and so +was full of information at his monthly repast with the old ladies. Mrs. +Vincent Cricklander was the new tenant's name. The Long Man had himself +taken her over the place when she first came down to look at it, and his +report was that she was the most beautiful lady he had ever seen, and +with an eye to business that could not be beaten. He held her in vast +respect.</p> + +<p>Then Mr. Miller coughed; he had now come to the point of his discourse +which made him nervous.</p> + +<p>For he had learned beyond the possibility of any doubt that Mrs. +Cricklander was, alas! not a lonely widow but had been divorced—only a +year or two ago. She had divorced her husband—not he her—he hastened +to add, and then coughed again and got very red.</p> + +<p>"When we were young," Miss La Sarthe remarked severely, "our Mamma would +never have allowed us to know any divorced person—and, indeed, our good +Queen Victoria would never have received one at her Court. We cannot +possibly call, Roberta."</p> + +<p>Poor Miss Roberta's face fell. She had been secretly much elated by the +thoughts of a neighbor, and to have all her hopes thus nipped in the bud +was painful. She had heard (from Hester again, it is to be feared!) that +Mrs. Cricklander's maid, who was a cousin of the baker in Applewood, and +who had originally instigated her discovery of Wendover, had said that +her lady knew all the greatest people in England—lords and duchesses by +the dozen, and even an archbishop! Surely that was respectable enough.</p> + +<p>But Miss La Sarthe, while again deploring the source of her sister's +information, was firm. Ideas might have changed, but <i>they</i> had not. +Since the last time they had curtsied to the beloved late Queen, in +about 1879, she believed new rules had been made, but the La Sarthe had +nothing to do with such things!</p> + +<p>Halcyone caught Miss Roberta's piteous, subdued eye, and smiled a +tender, kind smile. With years her understanding of her ancient aunts +had grown. They were no longer rather contemptible, narrow-minded elders +in her eyes, but filled her with a pitiful and gentle respect. Their +courage under adversity, their firm self-control, and the force which +made them live up to their idea of the fitness of things, appealed to +her strongly. She had John Derringham's quality of detached +consideration, and appreciated her old relatives as exquisite relics of +the past, as well as her own kith and kin.</p> + +<p>"In America, divorce is not considered the heinous crime it was once in +England," Mr. Carlyon said. "Perhaps this lady may have been greatly +sinned against and deserves all our pity and regard."</p> + +<p>But Miss La Sarthe remained obdurate. The point was not as to who was in +the right, she explained, but that certain conventions, laid down by one +whose memory was revered, had been outraged, and she could never permit +her sister or Halcyone to have any intercourse with the tenant of +Wendover Park!</p> + +<p>The preparations for the new arrival went on apace all the autumn and +winter. Armies of workpeople were reported to be in possession, and +whole train-loads of splendid French furniture were known to have +arrived at Applewood, to augment the antique and time-worn pieces which +were Wendover's own.</p> + +<p>Miss Le Sarthe sent for the Long Man. Things had been rather better of +late, and no more precious belongings had been forced to be parted with. +An investment which had been valueless for years now began to produce +some interest which was a great comfort, for Miss La Sarthe was now +seventy-nine and Miss Roberta seventy-six.</p> + +<p>The orders that the agent received were precise. The gate between +Wendover and La Sarthe Chase which had been closed for over a hundred +years was to be boarded up, and their side of the haw-haw which for +nearly a mile divided the two parks was to be deepened and cleared out, +and the spikes mended in any places where the ground might have seemed +to have fallen in sufficiently, or the irons to have become broken +enough to make the passage easy.</p> + +<p>This would be unnecessary, Mr. Martin (the Long Man) told her. The +haw-haw was still as perfect as ever and a wonder of concealed traps for +the unwary, but the gate should be seen to at once.</p> + +<p>Thus La Sarthe Chase was armed fully against Wendover, when, about +Easter, Mrs. Cricklander decided she would come down and bring a few +friends. It was with a sudden violent beating of the heart that Halcyone +learned casually from Mr. Carlyon that John Derringham would be of their +number.</p> + +<p>The aunts took in the <i>Morning Post</i>, but until she was eighteen they +had rigorously forbidden Halcyone's perusal of it. Newspapers, except +one or two periodicals, were not fit for young ladies' reading until +they were grown up, they felt. However, their niece, having now come to +years of discretion, sometimes had the pleasure of reading John +Derringham's speeches and thrilled with joy over his felicitous daring +and caustic wit. The Government could not last much longer, but he at +least, as far as he could, would keep it full of vigor until the end. +She knew, therefore, that the last sitting before the Easter recess had +been a storm of words sharp as sword-thrusts—it was before the days of +the language of Billingsgate and the behavior of roughs. There were +quite a number of gentlemen still in the House of Commons, who often +behaved as such.</p> + +<p>Those wonderful forces which Halcyone culled from all nature, and +especially the night, gave her a serenity over the most moving events, +and when the sudden beating of her heart was over, she waited calmly for +the moment when she should see John Derringham again.</p> + +<p>Mr. Carlyon took in the <i>Graphic</i> as well as his <i>Quarterly Review</i> and +the <i>Nineteenth Century</i>, and it was her only medium for guessing even +what the outside world looked like, but from it she was quite aware that +a beard was a most unusual thing for a young modern man of the world, +and that John Derringham for that reason must always be distinguished +from his fellows. Carpenters and hedgers and ditchers wore them, and +nondescript young fellows she remembered seeing when she went into +Upminster with her aunts; but these excursions had been discontinued now +for the past five years, so the villagers of Sarthe-under-Crum and the +denizens of the rather larger Applewood were the only human beings she +ever saw.</p> + +<p>The party at Wendover were to arrive on the Thursday before Good +Friday—Priscilla had told her that—and it was just possible that some +of them might be in church.</p> + +<p>The aunts now drove a low basket shay which had been their pride in the +sixties, but which for countless years, until the investment began to +pay, they had been unable to keep a pair of ponies for. Now, however, +the shay was unearthed from the moldy coach-house and for the past year +two very old and quiet specimens of Shetland had been found for them by +Mr. Martin and they were able to drive to church every Sunday in state, +William sitting up behind, holding the reins between his mistresses, +while Miss La Sarthe flourished a small whip whose delicate handle was +studded with minute turquoises. From it dangled a ring which she could +slip on her finger over her one-buttoned slate-colored glove, and so +feel certain of not dropping this treasure. Halcyone always walked.</p> + +<p>On Good Friday there was not a sight of the Wendover party in church, +and Halcyone went back by the orchard house to look in at Cheiron, who +had had a cold in the last few days.</p> + +<p>Stretched in the armchair she found John Derringham.</p> + +<p>The brisk walk in the fresh spring air had brought some faint color to +her pale cheeks, her soft hair was wound about her head with becoming +simplicity, and she wore an ordinary suit which could not disguise her +beautiful slender limbs, so long and thin, a veritable Artemis in her +chaste perfection of balance and proportion.</p> + +<p>Halcyone could pass in any crowd and perhaps no one would ever notice +her and her mouse-like coloring, but once your eye was arrested, then, +like looking at some rare bit of delicate enamel, you began to perceive +undreamed-of graces which soothed the sight until you were filled with +the consciousness of an exquisite beauty as intangible as her other +charm—distinction. An infinite serenity was in her atmosphere, a +promise of all pure and tender things in her great soft eyes. The +mystery and freshness of the night seemed always to hang about her. Her +ways were noiseless—the most creaking door appeared to forget its +irritating habit when under her touch. Thus it was that John Derringham, +smoking a cigar, never even glanced up until a voice of extreme +cultivation and softness said gently:</p> + +<p>"Good morning. And how are you?"</p> + +<p>Then he bounded from his chair, startled a little, and held out his +hand.</p> + +<p>"My old friend, Miss Halcyone, the Priestess of Truth!" he exclaimed, +"as I am alive!"</p> + +<p>She smiled serenely while they shook hands, and sat down demurely by the +Professor's side.</p> + +<p>"I thought you would have been translated to Olympus long ago," the +visitor said. "Have you honored this ordinary earth and our friend +Cheiron's cave, ever since?"</p> + +<p>"Ever since!"</p> + +<p>"There can be nothing left for you to learn. Master, it is you and I +whom she could teach," he laughed.</p> + +<p>"How do you know all this?" asked Halcyone quietly, while her eyes +smiled at his raillery. "Do I look such an old-fashioned blue-stocking, +then?"</p> + +<p>"You look perfectly sweet," and John Derringham's expressive eyes +confirmed what he said.</p> + +<p>"Enough, enough, John. Halcyone is quite unaccustomed to gallants from +the world like you," the Professor growled. "If you pay her compliments +she won't believe you can really make a speech."</p> + +<p>So Mr. Derringham laughed and continued his interrupted conversation. He +seemed in good humor with all the world. He was going to stay at +Wendover for the whole of Easter week. Mrs. Cricklander had an amusing +party of luminaries of both sides—she was the most perfect hostess and +had a remarkable talent for collecting the right people.</p> + +<p>"She is quite the best-read woman I have ever met, Master," John +Derringham said. "You must let me bring her over here one day to see +you—you would delight in her wit and beauty. She does not leave you a +dull moment."</p> + +<p>"Yes, bring her," the Professor returned between the puffs at his long +pipe. "I have never met any of these new hothouse roses grafted upon +briar roots. I should like to study how the system has worked."</p> + +<p>"Quite admirably, as you will see. I do not know any Englishwomen who +are to compare to such Americans in brilliancy and fascination."</p> + +<p>Over Halcyone, in spite of her serenity, there crept a feeling of cold. +She did not then analyze why, and, as was her habit when anything began +to distress her, she looked out of the window, whether it were night or +day. She always did this, and when her eyes saw Nature in any of her +moods, calm returned to her.</p> + +<p>"She will simply revel in La Sarthe Chase when she sees it," Mr. +Derringham went on, now addressing Halcyone. "She is a past-mistress in +knowledge of the dates of things. You are going to have the most +delicious neighbor, Miss Halcyone, and in learning, a foeman worthy of +your steel."</p> + +<p>Cheiron was heard to chuckle wickedly, and when his former Oxford pupil +asked him with mild humor the reason of his inappropriate mirth, he +answered dryly:</p> + +<p>"She is never likely to see the inside of the park even. Queen Victoria +did not receive divorced persons, and the Misses La Sarthe, in +consequence, cannot either. You will have to bring her here by the road, +John!"</p> + +<p>Halcyone winced a little. She disliked this conversation; it was not as +<i>fine</i> as she liked to think were the methods of both the men who were +carrying it on.</p> + +<p>John Derringham reddened up to his temples, where there were a few +streaks of gray in his dark hair which added to the distinction of his +finely cut, rather ascetic face. The short, well-trimmed beard was very +becoming, Halcyone thought, and gave him a look of great masculinity and +strength. His hawk's eyes were shadowed, as though he sat up very late +at night; which indeed he did. For John Derringham, at this period of +his life, burnt the candle at both ends and in the middle, too, if it +could add to the pleasure or benefit of his calculated career, mapped +out for himself by himself.</p> + +<p>A sensation almost of wrath rose in his breast at his old master's +words. These ignorant country people, to dare to criticise his +glittering golden pheasant, whom he was very nearly making up his mind +to take for a wife! This aspect of the case, that even these unimportant +old ladies could question the position of his choice, galled him. He had +spent up to the last penny of his diminished income in his years of +man's estate, and Derringham was mortgaged to its furthest acre—and a +gentleman must live—and with his brilliant political future expanding +before him, lack of means must not be allowed to stand in his way. He +would give this woman in gratified ambition as much or more than she +would give him in wealth, so it would be an equal bargain and benefit +them both. And, above all, he was more than half in love with her, and +could get quite a large share of pleasure out of the affair as well. He +had been too busy to trouble much over women as a sex since he had left +the University—except in the way he had once described to his old +master, regarding them as flowers in a garden—mere pleasures for sight +and touch, and experiencing ephemeral passions which left no mark. But +women either feared or adored him; and this woman, the desired of a host +of his friends, had singled him out for her especial favors. It had +amused him the whole of the last season; he had defied her efforts to +chain him to her chariot wheels, and in the winter she had gone to +Egypt, and had only just returned. But the charm was growing, and he +felt he would allow himself to be caught in her net.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Cricklander would be very much amused could she hear this verdict +of the county," he said with a certain tone in his voice which did not +escape Halcyone. "In London we do not occupy ourselves with such +unimportant things—but I dare say she will get over it. And now I +really must be going back. May I walk with you through the park, Miss +Halcyone, if you are going, too? I am sure there must be an opening +somewhere, as the two places touch."</p> + +<p>"Yes, there is just one," Halcyone said. "The haw-haw runs the whole +way, and it is impossible to pass, except in the one spot, and I believe +no one knows of it but myself. There are a few bricks loose, and I used +to take them out and put them back when I wanted to get into +Wendover—long ago."</p> + +<p>"Then it will be an adventure; come," he said, and Halcyone rose.</p> + +<p>"Only if you will not give away my secret. Promise you will not tell +anyone else," she bargained.</p> + +<p>"Oh! I promise," and John Derringham jumped up—his movements were +always quick and decided and full of nervous force. "I will bring my +hostess to see you on Monday or Tuesday, Master," he announced, as he +said good-by. "And prepare yourself to fall at her feet like all the +rest of us—Merlin and Vivien, you know. It will be a just punishment +for your scathing remarks."</p> + +<p>When they were outside in the garden Halcyone spoke not a word. The beds +were a glory of spring bulbs, and every bud on the trees was bursting +with its promise of coming leaf. Glad, chirruping bird-notes called to +one another, and a couple of partridges ran across the lawn.</p> + +<p>John Derringham took in the lines of Halcyone's graceful person as she +walked ahead. She had that same dignity of movement from the hips which +the Niké of Samothrace seems to be advancing with as you come up the +steps of the Louvre.</p> + +<p>How tall she had grown! She must be at least five feet nine or ten. But +why would she not speak?</p> + +<p>He overawed her here in the daylight, and she felt silent and oppressed.</p> + +<p>"Whereabouts is our tree that we sat in when I was young and you were +old?" he asked, after they had got through the gap in the hedge. A +little gate had been put in the last years to keep out the increasing +herd of deer.</p> + +<p>"It is over there by the copse," she said shyly. "The lower branch fell +last winter, and it makes a delightful seat. One is not obliged to climb +into the tree now. See: Demetrius helped me to drag it close, and we +nailed on these two arms," and she pointed to a giant oak not far from +them, which John Derringham pretended to recognize.</p> + +<p>He tried his best to get her to talk to him, but some cloud of timid +aloofness on her part seemed to hang between them, and very soon below +the copse they came to the one vulnerable part in all the haw-haw's +length. She showed him how to take the bricks out and where to place his +feet, and pointed out how secluded from any eye the place was. Then, as +he climbed down and then up again, and looked across at her from +Wendover lands, she said a sedate good-by, and turning, went on among +the thickly growing saplings of the copse and, never looking back, was +soon out of sight.</p> + +<p>John Derringham watched her disappear with a strange feeling of ruffled +disquietude in his heart.</p> + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br> +<a name="CHAPTER_XI"></a><h2>CHAPTER XI</h2> +<br> + +<p>It was so warm and charming an April day that Mrs. Cricklander and some +of her friends were out of doors before luncheon, walking up and down +the broad terrace walk that flanked Wendover's southern side.</p> + +<p>It was a Georgian house, spacious and comfortable, but not especially +beautiful. Mrs. Cricklander was a woman of enormous ability—she had a +perfect talent for discovering just the right people to work for her +pleasure and benefit, while being without a single inspiration herself. +If she engaged a professional adviser to furnish her house, and decorate +it, you could be sure he was of the best and that his services had been +measured and balanced beforehand, and that he had been generously paid +whatever he had obtained by bargaining for it, and that the agreement +was signed and every penny of the cost entered in a little book. It was +so with everything that touched her life. She had a definite idea of +what she wanted, although she did not always want the same thing for +long; but while she did, she went about getting it in a sensible, +practical way, secured it, paid for it,—and then often threw it away.</p> + +<p>She had felt she wanted Vincent Cricklander because he belonged to one +of the old families in New York and played polo well, and, being a great +heiress though of no pretensions to birth, she wished to have an +undisputed entry into the inner circle of her own country. He fulfilled +her requirements for quite three years, and then she felt she was +"through" with America, and wanted fresh fields for her efforts. Paris +was too easy, Berlin doubtful, Vienna and Petersburg impossible to +conquer, but London would hold out everything that she could wish for. +Only, it must be the very best of London, not the part of its society +that anyone can struggle and push and pay to get into, but the real +thing. She was "quite finished" with Vincent Cricklander, too, at this +period; to see him play polo no longer gave her any thrill. So one +morning at their lunch, on a rare occasion when they chanced to be +alone, she told him so, and asked him practically how much he would take +to let her divorce him.</p> + +<p>But Vincent Cricklander was a gentleman, and, what is more, an American +gentleman, which means of a chivalry towards women unknown in other +countries.</p> + +<p>"I do not want any of your money, Cis," he said. "I will be quite glad +to go, if it will make you happier. We'll phone T.V. Ryan this afternoon +and let him think out a scheme so that it can be done without a scandal +of any sort. My mother has old-fashioned ideas, and I would hate to pain +the poor dear lady."</p> + +<p>It took nearly two years, but the divorce was completed at last, and +Cecilia Cricklander found herself perfectly free and with all the keen +scent of the hunter for the chase dilating her fine nostrils as she +stood upon the deck of the great ocean liner bound for Liverpool.</p> + +<p>She was a very beautiful woman and refined in every point, with +exquisite feet and hands, pure, brilliant, fair coloring and a superb +figure, and even a fairly sweet voice. Her education had been a good +deal neglected because she was too spoilt by a doting father to profit +by the instruction he provided for her. She felt this keenly directly +she began to go out into the world, and immediately commenced to remedy +the defect. For her, from the very beginning, life appeared in the light +of a game. Fate was an adversary from whom she meant to win all the +stakes, and it behooved a clever woman not to overlook a single card +that might be of use to her in her play. She was quite aware of her own +limitations, and her own forces and advantages. She knew she was +beautiful and charming; she knew she was kind and generous and extremely +"cute," as her old father said. She knew that literature and art did not +interest her one atom in themselves, that most music bored her, and that +she had a rather imperfect memory; but during her brief visits to +England, when she was making up her mind that this country would be the +field for her next exertions, she had decided that to be beautiful and +charming was not just enough; there were numbers of other Americans who +were both, and they were all one as successful and sought after as the +other. She must be something beyond this—a real Queen. To beauty and +wealth and charm she must add culture as well. She must be able to talk +to the prime minister upon his pet foibles, she must be able to quote +erudite passages from all the cleverest books of the day to the +brilliant politicians and diplomats and men of polished brain who made +up the society over which she wished to rule. And how was this to be +done? She thought it all out, and during her two years of living quietly +to obtain her divorce without a breath of scandal, she had hit upon and +put into practice an admirable plan.</p> + +<p>She searched for and found a poor, very plain and highly cultivated +English gentlewoman, one who had been governess in a foreign Royal +family and was now trying to support an aged mother by giving private +lessons. Arabella Clinker was this treasure's name—Miss Arabella +Clinker, aged forty-two, and as ugly as it is possible for a thoroughly +nice woman to be.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Cricklander made no mysteries about what she required Miss +Clinker's companionship for. She explained minutely that should any +special dinner-party or <i>rencontre</i> with any great person be in view, +Miss Clinker must do a sort of preparatory cramming for her, as boys are +prepared for examinations.</p> + +<p>"You must make it your business, when I give you the names of the people +I am to meet, to post me up in what they are likely to talk about. You +must read all the papers in the morning with the political speeches in +them, and then give me a quick <i>résumé</i>; if it should be any diplomat or +great artist or one of those delightful Englishmen who knows everything, +then you must suggest some suitable authors to speak of that they will +like, and I have quite enough sense myself to turn the conversation off +any that I should not know about. In this way you will soon learn what I +require of you, and I shall learn a great deal and gradually can launch +out into much more difficult things."</p> + +<p>Arabella Clinker had a sense of humor, and she adored her mother and +wished to give her a comfortable old age. Mrs. Cricklander's terms for +this unique position were according to her accustomed liberality.</p> + +<p>"I like to give splendid prices for things, and then I expect them to be +splendidly done," she said.</p> + +<p>Miss Clinker had promised to do her best, and their partnership had +lasted for nearly three years with the most satisfactory results to both +of them. Their only difficulty was Mrs. Cricklander's defective memory. +She <i>could not</i> learn anything by heart, and if she were at all tired +had to keep herself tremendously in hand to make no mistakes. But the +three years of constant trying had enabled her to talk upon most +subjects in a shibboleth of the world which imposed upon everyone. Her +real talent which called for the greatest admiration was the way in +which she manipulated what she knew, and skimmed a fresh subject. She +would do so with such admirable skill and wording as to give the +impression that she was acquainted with its profoundest depths; and then +when she was safely over the chasm the first moment she was free she +would rush to Arabella for the salient points, doggedly repeat them over +and over, and on the next occasion come out with them to the same +person, convincing him more than ever of her thorough knowledge of the +subject. But her memory was her misfortune, for if Miss Clinker +instructed her, for instance, in all the different peculiarities of the +styles of Keats and Shelley, a week after she would have forgotten which +was which—because both bored her to distraction—and she would have to +be reminded again. One awful moment came when, rhapsodizing upon the +sensibility of Keats' character, she said to Sir Tedbury Delvine, the +finest litterateur of his time, that there must have come moments during +Keats' latter years when he must have felt as his own "Prometheus +Unbound"! But, seeing her mistake immediately by her listener's blank +face, she regained her ground with a skill and a flow of words which +made Sir Tedbury Delvine doubt whether his own ears had heard aright.</p> + +<p>"Arabella," Mrs. Cricklander said when next morning she lay smoking in +her old-rose silk bed, while she went through her usual lessons for the +day, "you must give me just a point each about those wretched old two, +so that I will remember them again. I must have a sort of keynote. +Shelley's would do with that horrible statue of him drowned, at Oxford, +that would connect his chain—but what for Keats?"</p> + +<p>So at last Miss Clinker invented a plan, almost Pythagorean in its way, +and it proved very helpful to her patroness.</p> + +<p>When she went on light, amusing excursions to Egypt and such places, she +allowed Arabella to remain with her mother, and these were months of +pure happiness to Miss Clinker.</p> + +<p>It had not taken Mrs. Cricklander long to conquer London with her money, +and her looks, and her triumphant belief in herself. At the end of two +years, when John Derringham was first presented to her, she had almost +reached the summit of her ambitions. To become his wife she had decided +would place her there. For was he not certain to climb to the top of the +tree, as well as being the most brilliant and most sought after young +man in all England. Of love—the love that recks not of place or gain +but just gives its being to the loved one—to such emotion she was +happily a complete stranger. John Derringham attracted her greatly, and +until now had successfully evaded all her snares and had remained beyond +the thrall of her will. To have got him to come for this whole week of +Easter was a triumph and exulted her accordingly. She particularly +affected politicians, and her house in Grosvenor Square was a +meeting-place for both parties, provided the members of each were of the +most distinguished type. And there were not more than two or three +people out of all her acquaintances, besides Arabella, who smiled a +little over her brilliant culture.</p> + +<p>By all this it can be seen that Mrs. Cricklander was a wonderful +character—tenacious, indomitable, full of nerve and deserving of the +greatest respect in consequence.</p> + +<p>The only thing the least vulgar about her was her soul—if she had +one—and it is not the business of society to look into such things. +Scrutiny of the sort is left for creatures like the Professor, Cheiron, +who have nothing else to do—but his impressions upon this subject must +come in their proper place.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, John Derringham had joined the party on the terrace, and was +joyously acclaimed, and then minutely questioned as to the cause of his +lengthy absence. He had not been to church—that was certain. He had not +been out of the park, because the lodges were not in the direction from +which he had been seen advancing. Where had he been, then? All alone? He +would not give any account of himself, as was his way, and presently his +hostess drew him on ahead and down the terrace steps. She wanted to +point out to him some improvements which she contemplated. The garden +must be the most beautiful in the country—and he knew so much about +gardens, he could tell her exactly which style would suit the house +best.</p> + +<p>John Derringham was in a bad temper. That unaccountable sense of a +discordant note with himself still stayed with him. He unconsciously, +during his walk, had dwelt upon the Professor's information as to the +view of the old ladies of The Chase, and then Halcyone's silence and +stiffness. He felt excluded from the place which he recollected he had +held in the child's regard. His memory had jumped the brief glimpse of +her during her fledgling period, and had gone back with distinct +vividness to the summer morning in the tree, almost seven years ago.</p> + +<p>He answered with a carelessness which was not altogether pleasing to +Cecilia Cricklander. She saw instantly that her favorite guest was +ruffled by something. Although never fine, she was quick at observing +all the moods of her pawns, and had brought the faculty of watching for +signs from castles, knights and kings to a science. John Derringham must +be humored and cajoled by a proof of her great understanding of him—he +must be left in silence for a minute, and then she would pause and look +over the balustrade, so that he might see her handsome profile and take +in the exquisite simplicity of her perfect dress. She knew these things +pleased him. She would look a little sad, too, and far away.</p> + +<p>It had its effect.</p> + +<p>"What are you dreaming about, fair châtelaine?" he asked after a while. +"Your charming mouth has its corners drooped."</p> + +<p>"I was wondering—" and then she stopped.</p> + +<p>"Yes?" asked John Derringham. "You were wondering what?"</p> + +<p>"I was wondering if one could ever get you to really take an interest in +anything but your politics, and your England's advancement? How good it +would be if one could interest you for a moment in anything else."</p> + +<p>He leaned upon the balustrade beside her.</p> + +<p>"You are talking nonsense," he said. "You know very well that you +interest me every time I see you—and it is growing upon me. That was +not the only thing revolving in your clever mind."</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed," and she looked down.</p> + +<p>"Well, then, I am interested in your garden. What do you think of doing? +Tell me."</p> + +<p>She explained an elaborate plan, and quoted the names of famous +gardeners and their styles, with her accustomed erudition. For had not +Arabella got them up for her only that morning, as she smoked her +seventh cigarette in bed? She inclined to French things, and she thought +that this particular part—a mere rough bit of the park—could very well +be laid out as a <i>Petit Trianon</i>. She could procure copies of the plans +of Mique, and even have a <i>Temple d'Amour</i>.</p> + +<p>"I love to create," she said. "The place would not have amused me if +everything had been complete, and if you will help me I shall be so +grateful."</p> + +<p>"Of course I will," he said. "The <i>Temple d'Amour</i> would look quite well +up upon that rising ground, and you could have a small winding lake dug +to complete the illusion. Nothing is impossible, and I suppose you can +get permission from the old Wendover who lives in Rome to do what you +wish?"</p> + +<p>"I should like to have been able to take the park of the next place, La +Sarthe Chase, too—that impassable haw-haw and the boarded-up gate +irritate me. The boards have been put since I came to look over +everything last autumn. I did instruct the agent, Martin, in Applewood +to offer a large price for it, but he assured me it would be quite +useless; it belongs, it appears, to the most ridiculous old ladies, who +are almost starving, but would rather die than be sensible."</p> + +<p>Suddenly John Derringham was conscious that his sympathies had shifted +to the Misses La Sarthe, and he could not imagine why.</p> + +<p>"You told me, I think," she went on, "that you knew this neighborhood. +Do you happen to be aware of any bait I could hold out to them?"</p> + +<p>"No, I do not," he said. "That sort of pride is foolish, if you like; +but there it is—part of an inheritance of the spirit which in the past +has made England great. They are wonderful old ladies. I dined with them +once long ago."</p> + +<p>"I must really go over and see them one day. Perhaps I could persuade +them to my view."</p> + +<p>The flicker of a smile came into the eyes of John Derringham, and she +noticed it at once. It angered her, and deepened the pretty pink in her +fresh cheeks.</p> + +<p>"You think they would not be pleased to see me?" she flashed.</p> + +<p>"They are ridiculously old-fashioned," he said. "Not your type at all."</p> + +<p>"But I love curiosities," she returned, smiling now. "I am not +absolutely set upon any type. All human beings are a delightful study. +If you know them, you must bring them to see me then some day."</p> + +<p>But at this John Derringham laughed outright.</p> + +<p>"If you could picture them, you would laugh, too," he said. "There is +someone, though, whom I do want you to know, who lives close here—my +old Oxford professor of Greek, Arnold Carlyon. He is a study who will +repay you. The most whimsical cynic, as well as one of the greatest +scholars I have ever come across in my life. I promised him to-day that +I would persuade you to let me take you to see him."</p> + +<p>"How enchanting," she replied with enthusiasm. "And we must make him +come here. When shall we go? To-morrow?"</p> + +<p>"No, I said Monday or Tuesday—with your permission," and he bent over +her with caressing homage.</p> + +<p>"Of course—when you will. That, then, is where you were this morning. +But how did you get back through the park?" she asked. "There is no +opening at that side whatever. It is all blocked by the wicked La Sarthe +Chase."</p> + +<p>"I came round the edge," he said, and felt annoyed—he hated lying—"and +then turned upwards. I wanted to see the boundaries."</p> + +<p>"I hate boundaries," she laughed. "I always want to overstep them."</p> + +<p>"There is the chance of being caught in snares."</p> + +<p>"Which adds to the excitement," and she allowed her radiant eyes to seek +his with a challenge.</p> + +<p>He was not slow to take it up.</p> + +<p>"Enchantress," he whispered softly, "it is you whose charm lays snares +for men. You have no fear of falling into them yourself."</p> + +<p>She rippled a low laugh of satisfaction. And, having tamed her lion, she +now suggested it was time to go in to luncheon.</p> + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br> +<a name="CHAPTER_XII"></a><h2>CHAPTER XII</h2> +<br> + +<p>Arabella Clinker took Sunday afternoons generally to write a long letter +to her mother, and Good Friday seemed almost a Sunday, so she went up to +her room from force of habit. But first she looked up some facts in the +countless books of reference she kept always by her. Mrs. Cricklander +had skated over some very thin ice at luncheon upon a classical subject, +when talking to the distinguished Mr. Derringham, and she must be warned +and primed up before dinner. Arabella had herself averted a catastrophe +and dexterously turned the conversation in the nick of time. Mrs. +Cricklander had a peculiarly unclassical brain, and found learning +statistics about ancient philosophies and the names of mythological +personages the most difficult of all. Fortunately in these days, even +among the most polished, this special branch of cultivation was rather +old-fashioned, Miss Clinker reflected, but still, as Mr. Derringham +seemed determined to wander along this line (Arabella had unconsciously +appropriated some apt Americanisms during her three years of bondage), +she must be loyal and not allow her employer to commit any blunders. So +she got her facts crystallized, or "tabloided," as Mrs. Cricklander +would mentally have characterized the process, and then she began her +letter to her parent. Mrs. Clinker, an Irishwoman and the widow of a +learned Dean, understood a number of things, and was clear-headed and +humorous, for all her seventy years, and these passages in her +daughter's letter amused her.</p> + +<blockquote> +We are entertaining a number of distinguished visitors, and among +them Mr. John Derringham, the Under Secretary of State for Foreign +Affairs. He is a most interesting personality, as perfectly sure of +what he wants in life as is M. E. (M. E. stood for "My +Employer"—names were invidious). They would be a perfect match, each +as selfish as the other, I should say. He is really very cultivated, +and believes her to be so, too. She has not made a single mistake as +yet, but frightened me at luncheon a little. I must try and get her +to keep him off classical subjects. She intends to marry him—and +then she will not require me, I suppose; or rather, I do not think he +would permit her to keep me. If it came to a measure of wills, he +would win, I think—at first, at least—but she could wear away a +stone in the end, as you know. The arranging of this place is still +amusing her, so she may decide to spend a good deal of time here. She +closed her mouth with that firm snap this morning that I have +described to you often, and said that it was going to be her delight +to make them put themselves out and come so far away from London for +her. "Them," for the moment, are Mr. Derringham and Mr. +Hanbury-Green, almost a Socialist person, who is on the other +side—very brilliantly clever but with a Cockney accent in one or two +words. M. E. does not notice this, of course. Mr. H-G. is in love +with her—Mr. D. is not, but she is determined that he shall be. I do +not know if he intends to marry her. He is making up his mind, I +think, therefore I must be doubly careful not to allow her to commit +any mistakes, because if she did it would certainly estrange him, and +as to keep her free is so much to our advantage, I feel I must be +extra careful in doing my duty. +</blockquote> + +<p>Arabella was a person of scrupulous honor.</p> + +<p>She then proceeded to describe the party, and concluded with,</p> + +<blockquote> +There is one American girl I like very much—perfectly natural and +bubbling with spirits, saying aloud everything she thinks, really +well educated and taking so much outdoor exercise that she has not +yet begun to have the nervous attacks that are such a distressing +feature of so many of her countrywomen. I am told it is their +climate. M. E. says it is because the men out there have always let +them have their own way. I should think so much smoking has something +to do with it. +</blockquote> + +<p>John Derringham meanwhile had gone with his hostess and some of the rest +of the party, Mr. Hanbury-Green among them, to inspect the small golf +links Mrs. Cricklander was having constructed in the park. Her +country-house must be complete with suitable amusements. She had taken +all the Wendover shooting, too, and what she could get of Lord +Graceworth's beyond. "You cannot drag people into the wilds and then +bore them to death," she said. What she most enjoyed was to scintillate +to a company of two or three, and fascinate them all into a desire for a +<i>tête-à-tête</i>, and then, when with difficulty one had secured this +privilege, to be elusive and tantalize him to death. To passion she was +a complete stranger, and won all her games because with her great beauty +she was as cold as ice.</p> + +<p>She was not feeling perfectly content this Good Friday afternoon. +Something had happened since the evening before which had altered John +Derringham's point of view towards her. She felt it distinctly with her +senses, trained like an animal's, to scent the most subtle things in +connection with herself. It was impossible to seize, she could not +analyze it, but there it was; certainly there seemed to be some change. +He was brilliant, and had been even <i>empressé</i> before lunch, but it was +not spontaneous, and she was not perfectly sure that it was not assumed. +It was his cleverness which attracted her. She could not see the other +side of his head—not that she would have understood what that meant, if +she had heard the phrase.</p> + +<p>But her habit was not to sit down under an adverse circumstance, but to +probe its source and eradicate it, or, at least, counteract it. Thus, +while she chattered eloquently to Sir Tedbury Delvine, her keen brain +was weighing things. John Derringham had certainly had a look of aroused +passion in his eyes when he had pressed her hand in a lingered good +night; he had even said some words of a more advanced insinuation as to +his intentions towards her than he had ever done before. They were never +exact—always some fugitive hint to which afterwards she would try to +fix some meaning as she reviewed their meetings. She had not seen him at +breakfast because she never came down in the morning until eleven or +twelve, and he had already gone out, she heard, when she did descend.</p> + +<p>It followed then that either he had received some disturbing letter by +the post—only one on Good Friday—or something had occurred during his +visit to his old master. It would be her business to find out which of +these two things it was. Could the Professor be married, and might there +be some woman in the family? Or was it nothing to do with the Professor +or with a letter, or was there a more present reason? Had Cora Lutworth +attracted him with her youth and high spirits? They were walking ahead +now, and she could hear his laugh and see how they were enjoying +themselves.</p> + +<p>She had been a perfect fool to ask Cora. She did not fear a single +Englishwoman, the powers of most of whom in her heart she despised—but +Cora was of her own race, and well equipped to rival her in a question +of marriage. Cora was only twenty-one, and she herself was thirty—and +there was the divorce which, although she had found it no bar to her +entrance into the most exclusive English society, still might perhaps +rankle unconsciously in the mind of a man mounting the political ladder, +and determined to secure the highest honors.</p> + +<p>She felt she hated Cora, and would have destroyed her with a look if she +had been able.</p> + +<p>Miss Lutworth, meanwhile, brimful of the joy of life and <i>insouciance</i>, +was amusing herself vastly. And John Derringham was experiencing that +sense of relaxation and irresponsible pleasure he got sometimes when he +was overworked from going to an excruciatingly funny Paris farce. Miss +Lutworth did not appeal to his brain at all, although she was quite +capable of doing so; she just made him feel gay and frolicsome with her +deliciously <i>rusé</i> view of the world and life in general. He forgot his +ruffled temper of the morning, and by the time they had returned for +tea, was his brilliant self again, and quite ready to sit in a low chair +at his hostess's side, while she leaned back among the cushions of her +sofa, in her own sitting-room, whither she had enticed him during that +nondescript hour before dinner, when each person could do what he +pleased.</p> + +<p>"Is not Cora sweet?" she said, smoothing the brocade beneath her hand. +Her sitting-room had been arranged by the artist who had done the house, +as a perfect bower of Italian Sixteenth Century art. Mr. Jephson, the +artist, had assured her that this period would make a perfect background +for her fresh and rather voluptuous coloring; it had not become so +<i>banal</i> as any of the French Louis'. And so Arabella had been instructed +to drum into her head the names of the geniuses of that time, and their +works, and she could now babble sweetly all about Giorgione, Paolo +Veronese and Titian's later works without making a single mistake. And +while the pictures bored her unspeakably, she took a deep pleasure in +her own cleverness about them, and delighted in tracing the influence +Paolo Veronese must have had upon Boucher, a hint from Arabella which +she had announced as an inspiration of her own.</p> + +<p>She had tea-gowns made to suit this period, and adopted the stately +movements which were evidently the attribute of that time.</p> + +<p>John Derringham thought her superb. If he had been really in love with +her, he might have seen through her—and not cared—just as if she had +not attracted him at all, he would certainly have taken her measure and +enjoyed laying pitfalls for her. But as it was, his will was always +trying to augment his inclination. He was too busy to analyze the real +meaning of any woman, and until the Professor's words about the divorce +and the Misses La Sarthe's view of the affair, it had never even struck +him that there could be one single aspect of Mrs. Cricklander's case +which he might have to blink at. He had told himself he had better marry +a rich woman, since his old maternal uncle, Joseph Scroope, had just +taken unto himself a young wife and might any day have an heir. And this +was his only other possible source of fortune.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Cricklander seemed the most advantageous bargain looming upon the +horizon. She was of proved entertaining capabilities. She had passed her +examination in the power of being a perfect hostess. She had undoubted +and expanding social talents. Women did not dislike her; she was very +vivid, very handsome, very rich. What more could a man who in his +innermost being had a supreme contempt for women, and a supreme belief +in himself, desire?</p> + +<p>He had even balanced the advantages of marrying a rich American girl, +one like Miss Lutworth, for example. But such beings were unproven, and +might develop nerves and fads, which were of no consequence in the +delightful creatures with whom he passed occasional leisure hours of +recreation, but which in a wife would be a singular disadvantage. Since +he must marry—and soon—before the present Parliament broke up and his +Government went out, and there came some years of fighting from the +Opposition benches, when especially brilliant entertaining might be of +advantage to him—he knew he had better make up his mind speedily, and +take this ripe and luscious peach, which appeared more than willing to +drop into his mouth.</p> + +<p>So, this late afternoon, aided by the scents and colors and propinquity, +he did his very best to make gradual love to her, and for some +unaccountable hideously annoying reason felt every moment more aloof. It +almost seemed at last as if he were guarding something of fine and free +that was being assailed. His dual self was fighting within his soul.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Cricklander was experiencing all the exciting emotions which +presumably the knights of old enjoyed when engaged in a tournament. She +was not even disturbed when the dressing-gong rang and she had not yet +won. It was only a postponement of one of the most entrancing games she +had ever played in her successful life. And Mr. Hanbury-Green was going +to sit upon her left hand at dinner and would afford new flint for her +steel. He was a recent acquisition, and of undoubted coming value. His +views were in reality nearer her heart politically than those of John +Derringham. Deep down in her being was a strong class hatred—undreamed +of, and which would have been vigorously denied. She remembered the +burning rage and the vows of vengeance which had convulsed her as a +girl, because the refined and gently bred women of her own New York's +inner circle would have none of her, and how it had been her glory to +trample upon as many of them as she could, when Vincent Cricklander had +placed her as head of his fine mansion in Fifty-ninth Street, having +moved from the old family home in Washington Square. And there, +underneath, was the feeling still for those of any country who, instinct +told her, had inherited from evolution something which none of her +money, and none of her talent, and none of her indomitable will, could +buy. But of course Mr. Hanbury-Green was not to be considered, except as +a foil for her wit—a pawn in the game for the securing of John +Derringham.</p> + +<p>Thus it was that she was able to walk in her stately way with trailing +velvets down the broad stairs of her newly acquired home with a sense of +exaltation and complacency which was unimpaired.</p> + +<p>John Derringham, on the contrary, was rather abrupt with his valet and +spoilt two white ties, and swore at himself because his old Eton hand +had lost its cunning. But finally he too went down the shallow steps, +and, joining his hostess at the door, sailed in with her to the George I +saloon, his fine eyes shining and his bearing more arrogant than before.</p> + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br> +<a name="CHAPTER_XIII"></a><h2>CHAPTER XIII</h2> +<br> + +<p>After dinner there was a brisk passage of arms between the two men of +opposite party in the group by the fire, and Mrs. Cricklander incited +them to further exertions. It had arisen because Mr. Derringham had +launched forth the abominable and preposterous theory that the only +thing the Radicals would bring England to would be the necessity of +returning to barbarism and importing slaves—then their schemes applied +to the present inhabitants of the country might all work. The denizens +in the casual wards, having a vote and a competence provided by the +State, would have time to become of the leisured classes and apply +themselves to culture, and so every free citizen being equal, a company +of philosophers and an aristocracy of intellect would arise and all +would be well!</p> + +<p>Mrs. Cricklander glanced stealthily at his whimsical face, to be sure +whether he were joking or no—and decided he probably was. But Mr. +Hanbury-Green, so irritated by the delightful hostess's evident +<i>penchant</i> for his rival, allowed his ill-humor to obscure his usually +keen judgment, and took the matter up in serious earnest.</p> + +<p>"Your side would not import, but reduce us all—we who are the defenders +of the people—to being slaves," he said with some asperity. "Your class +has had its innings long enough, it would be the best thing in the world +for you to have to come down to doing your own housework."</p> + +<p>"I should make a capital cook," said John Derringham, with smiling eyes, +"but I should certainly refuse to cook for anyone but myself; and you, +Mr. Green, who may be an indifferent artist in that respect, would have +perhaps a bad dinner."</p> + +<p>"I never understand," interrupted Mrs. Cricklander—"when everything is +socialistic, shall we not be able to live in these nice houses?"</p> + +<p>"Of course not," said Mr. Hanbury-Green gravely. "You will have to share +with less fortunate people." And then he drew himself up ready for +battle, and began.</p> + +<p>"Why, because a man or woman is born in the gutter, should not he or she +be given by the State the same chance as though born in a palace? We are +all exactly the same human beings, only until now luck and circumstance +have been different for us."</p> + +<p>"I am all for everyone having the same chance," agreed John Derringham, +allowing the smile to stay in his eyes, "although I do not admit we are +all the same human beings, any more than the Derby winner is the same +horse as the plow horse or the cob. They can all draw some kind of +vehicle, but they cannot all win races—they have to excel, each in his +different line. Give everyone a chance, by all means, and then make him +come up for examination, and if found fit passed on for higher things, +and if unfit, passed <i>out</i>! It is your tendency to pamper the unfit +which I deplore. You have only one idea on your Radical Socialist side +of the House, to pull down those who are in any inherited or agreeable +authority—not because they are doing their work badly, but because you +would prefer their place! The war-cry of boons for the people covers a +multitude of objects, and is the most attractive cry for the masses to +hear all over the world. The real boon for the people would be to give +them more practical sound education and ruthlessly to clear out the +unfit." Then his face lost its whimsical expression and became +interested.</p> + +<p>"Let us imagine a Utopian state of republic. Let every male citizen who +has reached twenty-five years, say, pass his examination in the right to +live freely, regardless of class, and if he cannot do so, let him go +into the ranks of the slaves, because, turn it how you will, we must +have some beings to do the lowest offices in life. Who would willingly +clean the drains, fill the dust-carts—and, indeed, do the hundred and +one things that are simply disgusting, but which must be done?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Hanbury-Green had not a sufficiently strong answer ready, so +remained loftily silent, while John Derringham went on:</p> + +<p>"We obscure every issue nowadays by a sickly sentiment and this craze +for words to prove black is white in order to please the mediocrity. If +we could only look facts in the face we should see that the idea of +equality of all men is perfectly ridiculous. No ancient republic ever +worked, even the most purely democratic, like the Athenian, of the fifth +and fourth centuries B.C., without an unconsidered and unrepresented +population of slaves. You know your Aristotle, Mr. Green," he went on +blandly, "and you will remember his admirable remark about some men +being born masters and others born to obey, and that, if only Nature had +made the difference in their mental capacities as apparent to the eye as +is the difference in their bodies, everyone would recognize this at +once."</p> + +<p>His voice grew intense: the subject interested him.</p> + +<p>"You may say," he went on, "that Aristotle, Plato and Socrates accepted +the fact of slavery without protest because it was an institution from +time immemorial, and so the idea did not appear to them so repugnant. +But do you mean to tell me that such consummate geniuses, such unbiased +glorious brains would have glossed over any idea, or under-considered +any point in their schemes for the advancement of man? They accepted +slavery because they saw that it was the only possible way to make a +republic work, where all citizens might aspire to be equal."</p> + +<p>"You would advocate slavery then? Oh! Mr. Derringham, how dreadful of +you!" exclaimed Mrs. Cricklander, half playfully.</p> + +<p>"Not in the least," he returned, still allowing some feeling to stay in +his voice. "I would only have it recognized that there must be some +class in my ideal republic who will do the duties of the slaves of old. +I would have it so arranged that they should occupy this class only when +they had shown they were unfit for anything higher, and I would also +arrange it that the moment they appeared capable of rising out of it +there should be no bar to their doing so. It is the cry of our all being +equal because we have two arms and two legs and a head in common, not +counting any mental endowment, which is utter trash and hypocrisy. But +when these agitators are shouting for the people's rights and inciting +poor ignorant wretches to revolt, they never suggest that the lowest of +them is not perfectly suited to the highest position! Those occupying +any station above the lowest have got there merely by superior luck and +favoritism, not merit—that is what they preach."</p> + +<p>Mr. Hanbury-Green was just going to answer with a biting attack when +Miss Cora Lutworth's rather high voice was heard interrupting from a +tall old chair in which she had perched herself.</p> + +<p>"Why, Mr. Derringham, we all want to be something very grand," she +laughed merrily. "I hate common people and love English dukes and +duchesses—don't you, Cis?" and she looked at Mrs. Cricklander, who was +standing in a position of much stately grace by the lofty mantelpiece.</p> + +<p>"You sweet girl!" exclaimed Lord Freynault, who was next to her. "I +cannot get any nearer to those favored folk than my uncle's being a +duke, but won't you let me in for some of your friendly feelings on that +account?"</p> + +<p>"I certainly will," she answered archly, "because I like the way you +look. I like how your hair is brushed, and how your clothes are cut, and +your being nice and clean and outdoor—and long and thin—" and then she +whispered— "ever so much better than Mr. Hanbury-Green's thick +appearance. He may be as clever as clever, but he is common and climbing +up, and I like best the people who are there!"</p> + +<p>John Derringham now addressed himself exclusively to his hostess.</p> + +<p>"I agree with the point of view of the old Greeks—they were so full of +common sense. Balance and harmony in everything was their aim. A +beautiful body, for instance, should be the correlative of a beautiful +soul. Therefore in general their athletics were not pursued, as are +ours, for mere pleasure and sport, and because we like to feel fit. They +did not systematically exercise just to wrest from some rival the prize +in the games, either. Their care of the body had a far higher and nobler +end: to bring it into harmony as a dwelling-place for a noble soul."</p> + +<p>"How divine!" said Mrs. Cricklander.</p> + +<p>John Derringham went on:</p> + +<p>"You remember Plato upon the subject—his reluctance to admit that a +physical defect must sometimes be overlooked. But nowadays everything is +distorted by ridiculous humanitarian nonsense. With our wonderful +inventions, our increasing knowledge of sanitation and science, and the +possibilities and limitations of the human body, what glorious people we +should become if we could choke this double-headed hydra of rotten +sentiment and exalt common sense!"</p> + +<p>But now Mrs. Cricklander saw that a storm was gathering upon Mr. +Hanbury-Green's brow and, admirable hostess that she was, she decided to +smooth the troubled waters, so she went across the room to the piano, +and began to play a seductive valse, while John Derringham followed her +and leaned upon the lid, and tried to feel as devoted as he looked.</p> + +<p>"Why cannot we go to-morrow and see your old master?" she asked, as her +white fingers, with their one or two superb rings, glided over the keys. +"I feel an unaccountable desire to become acquainted with him. I should +love to see what the person was like who molded you when you were a +boy."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Carlyon is a wonderful-looking old man," John Derringham returned. +"Someone—who knows him very well—described him long ago as 'Cheiron.' +You will see how apt it is when you meet."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Cricklander crashed some chords. She had never heard of this +Cheiron. She felt vaguely that Arabella had told her of some classical +or mythological personage of some such sounding name, a boatman of +sorts—but she dare not risk a statement, so she went on with the point +she wished to gain, which was to investigate at once Mr. Carlyon's +surroundings and discover, if possible, whether there was any influence +there that would be inimical to herself.</p> + +<p>"I dare say we can go to-morrow," John Derringham said. "You and I might +walk over—and perhaps Miss Lutworth and Freynault. We can't go a large +party, the house is so small."</p> + +<p>"Why cannot you and I go alone, then?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I think he would like to see Miss Cora. She is such a charming +girl," and John Derringham looked over to where she sat, still dangling +a pair of blue satin feet from the high chair. And inwardly Mrs. +Cricklander burned.</p> + +<p>Cora was a second cousin of her divorced husband, and belonged by birth +to that inner cream of New York society which she hated in her heart. +Never, never again would she be so foolish as to chance crossing swords +with one of her own nation. But aloud she acquiesced blandly and +arranged that they should start at eleven o'clock.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps we could persuade him to return to lunch with us?" she +hazarded. "And that would be so nice."</p> + +<p>"You must do what you can with him," John Derringham said. "I have +prepared him to find you beautiful—as you are."</p> + +<p>"You say lovely things about me behind my back, then?" she laughed. "Now +he will be disappointed!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I admit it was a <i>bêtíse</i>—but, being my real thoughts, they +slipped out when I was there to-day. You will have to be extra charming +to substantiate them."</p> + +<p>Before Mrs. Cricklander went to bed, she called Arabella Clinker into +her room.</p> + +<p>"Arabella," she said, "who was Cheiron?" But she pronounced the "ei" as +an "a," so Miss Clinker replied without any hesitation:</p> + +<p>"He was a boatman who carried the souls of the dead over the River Styx, +and to whom they were obliged to pay an obolus—son of Erebus and Nox. +He is represented as an old man with a hideous face and long white beard +and piercing eyes."</p> + +<p>"Is there anything else I ought to know about him?" her employer asked, +and Arabella thought for a moment.</p> + +<p>"There is the story of Hercules not showing the golden bow. Er—it is a +little complicated and has to do with the superstitions of the +ancients—er—something Egyptian, I think, for the moment—I will look +it up to-morrow. I can't say offhand."</p> + +<p>"Thanks, Arabella. Good night."</p> + +<p>And it was not until after the party of four had started next morning +that Miss Clinker suddenly thought, with a start: "She may have been +alluding to quite the other Cheiron—the Centaur—and in that case I +have given her some wrong lights!"</p> + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br> +<a name="CHAPTER_XIV"></a><h2>CHAPTER XIV</h2> +<br> + +<p>Cora was being more than exasperating, Mrs. Cricklander thought, as they +went through the park. Not content with Lord Freynault, who was plainly +devoted to her, she kept every now and then looking back at John +Derringham with some lively sally, and although he was being +particularly agreeable to herself, he responded to Miss Lutworth's +piquant attacks with a too ready zeal.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Cricklander grew more and more certain that her hold over him had +lessened in these last two days, and every force in her indomitable +personality stiffened with determination to win him at all costs.</p> + +<p>The Professor received them graciously. He was seated in his library, +which now was a most comfortable room surrounded with bookcases in which +lived all his rare editions of loved books. Nothing could be more +fascinating than Mrs. Cricklander's manner to him—a mixture of +deference and friendly familiarity, as though he would appreciate the +fact of a tacit understanding between them that she too had a right in +John Derringham's friends. She had been so reassured by finding that Mr. +Carlyon was unmarried and lived alone, that a glow of real warmth +towards the Professor emanated from her, while the conviction grew that +it was nothing but the influence of Cora Lutworth which had even +momentarily cooled her whilom ardent friend.</p> + +<p>Mr. Carlyon's imperturbable countenance gave no hint of what he thought +of her, although John Derringham watched him furtively and anxiously. He +listened to their conversation when he could, and it jarred upon him +twice when the lady of his choice altogether missed the point of +Cheiron's subtle remarks. She whom he had always considered so +understanding!</p> + +<p>Of Halcyone there was no sign and no mention, and for some reason which +he could not explain John Derringham felt glad.</p> + +<p>It seemed an eternity before Mrs. Cricklander got up to go, having been +unable to persuade Mr. Carlyon to return with them to luncheon. He had a +slight cold, he said, and meant to remain in his warm library.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Derringham says you are called Cheiron," Mrs. Cricklander announced +laughingly. "How ridiculous to find in you any likeness to that old +ferryman of the piercing eye. I see no resemblance but in the beard."</p> + +<p>"So John relegates me to the post of ferryman to the dead already, does +he!" Mr. Carlyon responded. "I had hoped he still allowed me my horse's +hoofs and my cave—I have been deceiving myself all these years, +evidently."</p> + +<p>A blank look grew in Mrs. Cricklander's eye. What had caves and horse's +hoofs to do with the case? She had better turn the conversation at once, +or she might be out of her depth, she felt; and this she did with her +usual skill, but not before the Professor's left eyebrow had run up into +his forehead, and his wise old eyes beneath had met and then instantly +averted themselves from those of John Derringham.</p> + +<p>All the way back to the house Mrs. Cricklander had the satisfaction of +listening to a much more advanced admiration of herself than she had +hoped to obtain so soon, and arrived in the best of restored humors—for +John Derringham had clenched his teeth as he left the orchard house, and +had told himself that he would not be influenced or put off by any of +these trifling things, and that it was some vixenish turn of Fate to +have allowed these currents of disillusion about a woman who was so +eminently suitable to reach him through the medium of his old friend.</p> + +<p>A strange thing happened to Halcyone that morning. She had made up her +mind to keep away from her usual visit to Cheiron on the Monday and +Tuesday when John Derringham had announced he might bring over his +hostess to see the Professor. She did not wish to cause complications +with her aunts by making Mrs. Cricklander's acquaintance, and underneath +she had some strange reluctance herself. Her unerring instincts warned +her that this woman might in some way trouble her life, but she thought +Saturday would be perfectly safe and was preparing to start, when some +vague longing came over her to see her goddess. She had felt less serene +since the day before, and John Derringham and his words and looks +absorbed her thoughts. The home of Aphrodite was now in a chest in the +long gallery, of which she kept the key, and as this old room was always +empty—none of the servants, not even Priscilla, caring about visiting +it—haunted, it was, they said—she had plenty of time to spend what +hours she liked with her treasure without having to do so by stealth, as +in the beginning. For any place indoors she loved the long gallery +better than any other place. The broken window panes had been mended +when the turn for the better came for the whole house, and now she +herself kept it all dusted and tidy and used it as a sitting-room and +work-room as well; and, above all, it was the temple of the goddess +wherein was her shrine.</p> + +<p>This day when Aphrodite was uncovered from her blue silk wrappings, her +whole expression seemed to be one of appeal; however Halcyone would hold +her, in high or low light, the eyes appeared to be asking her something.</p> + +<p>"What is it, sweet mother and friend?" she said. "Do you not want me to +leave you to-day? If so, indeed I will not. What are you telling me with +those beautiful, sad eyes? That something is coming into my existence +that you promised me always, and that it will cause me sorrow, and I +must pause?"—and she shivered slightly and laid her cheek against the +marble cheek. "I am not afraid, and I want whatever it must be, since it +is life." Then she put the head back, and started upon her walk. But +first one thing and then another delayed her, until last of all she sat +down under the oak near the gap in the hedge and asked herself if all +these things could be chance. And here she took to dreaming and watching +the young rabbits come out of their holes, and to wondering what Fate +held in store for her in the immediate future. What was going to be her +life? That nothing but good could happen she always knew, because since +the very beginning God—the same personal kindly force that she had +always worshiped, unaltered by her deep learning, unweakened by any +theological dissertations—was there manifesting the whole year round +His wonderful love for the world.</p> + +<p>And so she sat until the clock of the church at Sarthe-under-Crum struck +one, and she started up, realizing that she was too late now to go on to +Cheiron's and would only just have time to return for lunch with her +aunts. She must go instead in the afternoon. So she walked briskly to +the house, with a strange feeling of relief and joy, which she was quite +unable to account for in any explicable way.</p> + +<p>Nothing delayed her on her second attempt to reach the orchard house, +and she found Cheiron placidly smoking while he read a volume of Lucian. +She was quite aware what that meant. When the Professor was in an amused +and cynical humor he always read Lucian, and although he knew every word +by heart, it still caused him complete satisfaction, plainly to be +discerned by the upward raising of the left penthouse brow.</p> + +<p>Halcyone sat down and smiled sympathetically while she tried to detect +which volume it was, that she might have some clew to the cause of her +Professor's mood. But he carefully closed the book, so that she could +not see—it was the Judgment of Paris in the dialogue of the gods—and +she was unable to have her curiosity gratified.</p> + +<p>"Something has entertained you, Cheiron?" she said.</p> + +<p>"I have had the visit of two goddesses," he answered, chuckling. "Our +friend John Derringham brought them. He wanted to show them off and get +my opinion, I think."</p> + +<p>"And did you give him one?" she asked. "I suppose not!"</p> + +<p>"He went away with his teeth shut—" and Mr. Carlyon's smile deepened as +he stroked his white beard.</p> + +<p>Halcyone laughed. She seldom asked questions herself. If the Professor +wished to tell her anything about the ladies he would do so—she was +dying to hear! Presently a set of disjointed sentences flowed from her +master's lips between his puffs of smoke.</p> + +<p>"Girl—worth something—showy—honest—sure of +herself—clever—pretty—on her own roots—not a graft."</p> + +<p>"Girl"—who was the girl? Halcyone wondered. But Cheiron continued his +laconic utterances.</p> + +<p>"Woman—beautiful—determined—thick—roots of the commonest—grafting +of the best—octopean, tenacious—dangerous—my poor devil of a John!"</p> + +<p>"And did you give the apple to either, Cheiron?" Halcyone asked with a +gleam of fine humor in her wise eyes. "Or, one of the trio being absent, +did you feel yourself excused?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Carlyon glanced at her sharply, and then broke into a smile.</p> + +<p>"Young woman, I do not think I have ever allowed you to read the +Judgment of Paris," he said. "Wherefore your question is ill-timed and +irrelevant."</p> + +<p>Then they laughed together. How well they knew one another!—not only +over things Greek. And presently they began their reading. They were in +the middle of Symonds' "Renaissance," and so forgot the outer world.</p> + +<p>But after Halcyone had gone in the dusk through the park, the Professor +sat in the firelight for a while, and did not ring for lights. He was +musing deeply, and his thoughts ran something in this line:</p> + +<p>"John must dree his weird. Nothing anyone could say has ever influenced +him. If he marries this woman she will eat his soul; having only a sham +one of her own, she will devour his. She'll do very well to adorn the +London house and feed his friends. He'll find her out in less than a +year—it will kill his inspirations. Well, Zeus and all the gods cannot +help a man in his folly. But my business is to see that he does not +ensnare the heart of my little girl. If he had waited he could have +found her—the one woman with a soul."</p> + +<br><hr style="width: 45%;"><br> + +<p>Miss Roberta had, unfortunately, a bad attack of rheumatism on Easter +Sunday, augmented by a cold, and Halcyone stayed at home to rub her poor +knee with hot oil, so she did not see the Wendover party, several of +whom came to church. Miss La Sarthe occupied the family pew alone, and +was the source of much amusement and delight to the smart inhabitants of +the outer world.</p> + +<p>"Isn't she just too sweet, Cis?" whispered Miss Lutworth into Mrs. +Cricklander's ear. "Can't we get Mr. Derringham to take us over there +this afternoon?"</p> + +<p>But when the subject was broached later at luncheon by his hostess, John +Derringham threw cold water upon the idea. He had stayed behind for a +few minutes to renew his acquaintance with the ancient lady, and had +given her his arm down the short church path, and placed her with +extreme deference in the Shetland pony shay, to the absolute enchantment +of Miss Lutworth, who, with Lord Freynault, stood upon the mound of an +old forgotten grave, the better to see. It was in the earlier days of +motor-cars, and Mrs. Cricklander's fine open Charron created the +greatest excitement as it waited by the lych-gate. The two Shetlands +cocked their ears and showed various signs of nervous interest, and +William had all he could do to hold the minute creatures. But Miss La +Sarthe behaved with unimpaired dignity, never once glancing in the +direction of the great green monster. She got in, assisted by the +respectful churchwarden, and allowed John Derringham to wrap the rug +round her knees, and then carefully adjusted the ring of her +turquoise-studded whip handle.</p> + +<p>"Good day, Goddard," she said with benign condescension to the +churchwarden. "And see that Betsy Hodges' child with the whooping-cough +gets some of Hester's syrup and is not brought to church again next +Sunday." And she nodded a gracious dismissal. Then, turning to John +Derringham, she gave him two fingers, while she said with some show of +haughty friendliness: "My sister and I will be very pleased to see you +if you are staying in this neighborhood, Mr. Derringham, and care to +take tea with us one day."</p> + +<p>"I shall be more than delighted," he replied, as he bowed with homage +and stood aside, because William's face betrayed his anxiety over the +fidgety ponies.</p> + +<p>Miss La Sarthe turned her head with its pork-pie hat and floating veil, +and said with superb tranquillity, "You may drive on now, William." And +they rolled off between a lane of respectful, curtseying rustics.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Cricklander and Lady Maulevrier had already entered the motor and +were surveying the scene with amused interest, while Miss Lutworth and +Lord Freynault, chaperoned by Arabella Clinker, were preparing to walk. +It was not more than a mile across the park, and it was a glorious day. +John Derringham joined them.</p> + +<p>"I think I will come with you, too," he said. "You take my place, Sir +Tedbury. It is only fair you should drive one way."</p> + +<p>And so it was arranged, not altogether to the satisfaction of the +hostess, who would have preferred to have walked also. However, there +was nothing to be done, and so they were whizzed off, while with the +tail of her eye Cecilia Cricklander perceived that Lord Freynault had +been displaced from Cora's side and was now stalking behind the other +pair, beside Arabella Clinker.</p> + +<p>"What an extraordinary sight that was," she said to Sir Tedbury Delvine +as they went along. "I thought no villagers curtsied any more now in +England. That very funny-looking old lady might have been a royalty!"</p> + +<p>"It is because she has never had a doubt but that she is—or something +higher—complete owner of all these souls," he returned, "that they have +not yet begun to doubt it either. They and their forebears have bobbed +to the La Sarthe for hundreds of years, and they will go on doing it if +this holder of the name lives to be ninety-nine. They would never do so +to any new-comer, though, I expect."</p> + +<p>"But I am told they have not a penny left, and have sold every acre of +the land except the park. Is it not wonderful, Kitty?" Mrs. Cricklander +went on, turning to Lady Maulevrier. "I am dying to know them. I hope +they will call."</p> + +<p>But Sir Tedbury had already chanced to have talked the matter over with +John Derringham, because he himself was most anxious to see La Sarthe +Chase, which was of deep historical interest, and had incidentally been +made aware by that gentleman of the old ladies' views, so he hastily +turned the conversation, rather awkwardly, to other things. And a wonder +grew in Mrs. Cricklander's mind.</p> + +<p>That anyone should not be enchanted to receive her beautiful and +sought-after self could not enter her brain, but there was evidently +some bar between the acquaintance of herself and her nearest neighbors, +and Arabella should be set to find out of what it consisted.</p> + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br> +<a name="CHAPTER_XV"></a><h2>CHAPTER XV</h2> +<br> + +<p>"Do let us go around by the boundary," Miss Lutworth said when they got +through the Wendover gates. "I long to see even the park of that +exquisite old lady; it must look quite different to anybody else's, and +I feel I want an adventure!"</p> + +<p>So they struck in towards the haw-haw—the four walking almost abreast.</p> + +<p>When they came to beyond the copse, after it touched the Professor's +garden, they paused and took in the view. It was unspeakably beautiful +from there, rolling away towards the splendid old house, which could +only just be distinguished through the giant trees, not yet in leaf. And +suddenly, hardly twenty yards from them across the gulf, coming from the +gap in Mr. Carlyon's hedge, they saw a tall and very slender +mouse-colored figure, as Halcyone emerged on her homeward way—she had +run down to see Cheiron when her duties with Miss Roberta were over, and +was now going back to lunch.</p> + +<p>"Good morning!" called John Derringham, and the four advanced to the +very edge of their side, and Halcyone turned and also bordered hers, +while she bowed serenely.</p> + +<p>"Isn't it a day of the gods!" he continued. "And may I from across this +Stygian lake (there was a little water collected in the haw-haw here +from the recent rains) introduce Miss Lutworth to you—and Miss Clinker +and Lord Freynault? Miss Halcyone La Sarthe."</p> + +<p>Everyone bowed, and Halcyone smiled her sweet, grave smile.</p> + +<p>"We would love to jump over—or you come to us," Cora Lutworth said with +her frank, friendly charm. "Isn't there any way?"</p> + +<p>"I am afraid not," responded Halcyone. "You are across in another +world—we live in the shades, this side."</p> + +<p>"Remember something about a fellow named Orpheus getting over to fetch +his girl"—"gail" Lord Freynault pronounced it—"since old John will use +Eton cribs in describing the horrid chasm. Can't we sop old Cerberus and +somehow manage to swim, if there is no ferryman about?"</p> + +<p>"You would certainly be drowned," said Halcyone. "In this place the lake +is quite ten inches deep!"</p> + +<p>Cora Lutworth was taking in every bit of her with her clever, kindly +eyes.</p> + +<p>"What a sweet, distinguished violet-under-the-mossy-bank pet of a girl!" +she was saying to herself. "No wonder Mr. Derringham goes to see his +Professor! How mad Cis would be! I shan't tell her." And aloud she said:</p> + +<p>"You cannot imagine how I am longing to get a nearer peep of your +beautiful old house. Do we get a chance further on?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Halcyone. "I am so sorry. You branch further off once you +have passed the closed gate. It was very stupid—the La Sarthe quarreled +with the Wendovers a hundred years ago, and it was all closed up then, +and these wicked spikes put."</p> + +<p>"It is too tantalizing. But won't you walk with us to where we have to +part?" Miss Lutworth said, while John Derringham had a sudden longing to +turn back and carefully remove certain bits of iron and brick he wot of, +and ask this nymph of the woods to take him on to their tree, and tell +him more stories about Jason and Medea in that exquisitely refined voice +of hers, as she had done once before, long ago. But even though he might +not have this joy, he got rather a fine pleasure out of the fact of +sharing the secret of the crossing with her, and he had the satisfaction +of meeting her soft eyes in one lightning comprehending glance.</p> + +<p>They chatted on about the view and the beauties of the neighborhood, and +they all laughed often at some sally of Cora's—no one could resist her +joyous, bubbling good-fellowship. She had all the sparkle of her clever +nation, and the truest, kindest heart. Halcyone had never spoken to +another young girl in her life, and felt like a yearling horse—a desire +to whinny to a fellow colt and race up and down with him beside the +dividing fence of their paddocks. A new light of youth and sweetness +came into her pale face.</p> + +<p>"I do wish I might ask you to come round by the road," she said, "and +see it near, but, as Mr. Derringham knows, my aunts are very old, and +one is almost an invalid now, so we never have any visitors at all."</p> + +<p>"Of course, we quite understand," said Cora, quickly, touched at once by +this simple speech. "But we should so love you to come over to us."</p> + +<p>"Alas!" said Halcyone, "it is indeed the Styx."</p> + +<p>And here they arrived at the boarded-up gate, where further view was +impossible, and from which onwards the lands ceased to join.</p> + +<p>"Good-by!" they called to one another, even Arabella Clinker joining in +the chorus, while Cora Lutworth ran back to say:</p> + +<p>"Some day we'll meet—outside the Styx. Let us get Mr. Derringham to +manage it!"</p> + +<p>And Halcyone cried a glad "Oh, yes!"</p> + +<p>"What a darling! What a perfect darling!" Miss Lutworth said +enthusiastically, taking Arabella's arm as they struck rapidly inward +and up a knoll. "Did you ever see anything look so like a lady in that +impossible old dress? Tell us about her, Mr. Derringham. Does she live +with those prehistoric ladies all alone in that haunted house? Could +anything be so mysterious and romantic? Please tell us all you know."</p> + +<p>"Yes, she does, I believe," John Derringham said. "My old master tells +me she never sees or speaks to anyone from one year's end to another. I +have only met her very rarely myself."</p> + +<p>"Does it not seem too awful?" returned Cora, aghast, thinking of her own +merry, enjoyable life, with every whim gratified. "To be so young and +attractive and actually buried alive! Don't you think she is a dream, +Arabella?"</p> + +<p>"I was greatly impressed with her distinction and charm," Miss Clinker +said. "I wish we could do something for her to make things brighter."</p> + +<p>"Let us ask Cis—" and then Miss Lutworth paused, returning to her first +thought—she knew her hostess well. No, it could not bring any pleasure +into the life of this slender, lithe English lady with the wonderful +Greek name, to be made acquainted with Cecilia Cricklander, who would +tear her to pieces without compunction the moment she understood in what +direction John Derringham's eyes would probably be cast. He saw Cora's +hesitation and understood, and was grateful.</p> + +<p>"I believe this girl is trumps. I don't think she will even mention our +meeting," he said to himself.</p> + +<p>Now for a few steps Miss Lutworth drew Arabella Clinker on ahead.</p> + +<p>"Arabella, you dear," she whispered, "I don't want to say a word against +Cis—who, of course, is all right—but I have a feeling we won't tell +her we've met this dryad of a Halcyone La Sarthe. Have you got that +instinct, too?"</p> + +<p>"Quite strongly," said Arabella, who never wasted words. "I was going to +mention to you the same idea myself."</p> + +<p>"Then that is understood!" and she laughed her happy laugh. "I'll see +that Freynie doesn't peach!"</p> + +<p>Thus it was that four demure and healthful-looking beings joined the +party on the terrace of Wendover, and described their pleasant walk, +without one word spoken of their <i>rencontre</i> with the youngest Miss La +Sarthe. And once or twice Cora Lutworth's mischievous eyes met those of +John Derringham, and they both laughed.</p> + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br> +<a name="CHAPTER_XVI"></a><h2>CHAPTER XVI</h2> +<br> + +<p>John Derringham made a point of slipping away on the Easter Tuesday +afternoon; he determined to drink tea with the Misses La Sarthe. He went +to his room with important letters to write, and then sneaked down again +like a truant schoolboy, and when he got safely out of sight, struck +obliquely across the park to the one vulnerable spot in the haw-haw, and +after fumbling a good deal, from his side, managed to get the spikes out +and to climb down, and repeat the operation upon the other side. There +was no water here, it was on rather higher ground, and he was soon +striding up the beech avenue towards the house.</p> + +<p>"It would be an extremely awkward place to get over in the dark," he +thought, and then he was conscious that Halcyone was far in the distance +in front of him, almost entering the house.</p> + +<p>So she would be in, then—that was good.</p> + +<p>He had never permitted his mind to dwell upon her for an instant, after +the Sunday walk. He made himself tell himself that she was a charming +child whom he felt great pity for, on account of her lonely life. That +he himself took a special interest in her he would not have admitted for +a second to his innermost thought. He had now definitely made up his +mind to propose to Cecilia Cricklander, and was only awaiting a suitable +occasion to put this intention into effect.</p> + +<p>Numbers of moments had come—and passed—but he was always able to find +good and sufficient fault with them. And once or twice, when Fate itself +seemed to arrange things for him, he had a sudden sensation as of a +swimmer fighting with the tide, and he had battled to the shore again, +and was still free!</p> + +<p>But it must come, of course, and before he left for London at the end of +the week. Private news had reached him that the Government must soon go +out, and he felt this thing must be an accomplished fact before then, +for the hand he meant to play.</p> + +<p>But meanwhile it was only Tuesday, and he was nearing the battered and +nail-bestudded front door of La Sarthe Chase. William said the ladies +were at home, and he was shown into the Italian parlor forthwith.</p> + +<p>It had not changed in the slightest degree in the seven years since he +had seen it first, nor had the two ancient spinsters themselves. They +were most graciously glad to receive him, and gave him tea out of the +thinnest china cups, and at last Miss Roberta said:</p> + +<p>"Our great-niece Halcyone will be coming down in a moment, Mr. +Derringham. She has grown up into a very tall girl. You will hardly +recognize her, I expect."</p> + +<p>And at that instant Halcyone opened the door and said a quiet word of +welcome. And if her heart beat rather faster than usual under her simple +serge bodice, nothing of any emotion showed in her tranquil face.</p> + +<p>She took her tea and sat down in a chair rather in the shadows and +aloof.</p> + +<p>Miss La Sarthe monopolized the conversation. She had no intention of +relinquishing the pleasure of this rare guest, so while Miss Roberta got +in a few sentences, Halcyone hardly spoke a word, and if she had really +been a coquette, calculating her actions, she could not have piqued John +Derringham more.</p> + +<p>She looked so very sylph-like as she sat there, bending her graceful +head. Her eyes were all in shadow and seemed to gleam as things of +mystery from under her dark brows, while the pure lines of her temples +and the plaiting of her soft thick hair made him think of some virgin +goddess.</p> + +<p>But she never spoke.</p> + +<p>At last John Derringham began to grow exasperated, and plunged into +temptation, which he did not admit that he ought to have avoided.</p> + +<p>"I am so very much interested in this wonderful old house," he said, +addressing Miss La Sarthe. "That row of bay windows is in a long +gallery, I suppose? Would it be a great impertinence if I asked to see +it?"</p> + +<p>"We shall be pleased for you to do so," the old lady returned, without +much warmth. "It is very cold and draughty, my sister and I have not +entered it for many years, but Halcyone, I believe, goes there +sometimes; she will show it to you if you wish."</p> + +<p>Halcyone rose, ready at once to obey her aunts, and led the way towards +the door.</p> + +<p>"We had better go up the great staircase and along through Sir Timothy's +rooms. The staircase which leads directly to it from the hall is not +quite safe," she said. "Except for me," she added, when they were +outside the door. "Then, I know exactly where to put my feet!"</p> + +<p>"I would follow you blindly," said John Derringham, "but we will go +which way you will. Only, you are such a strange, silent little old +friend now—I am afraid of you!"</p> + +<p>Halcyone was rather ahead, leading the way, and she turned and paused +while he came up close beside her.</p> + +<p>Her eyes were quite startled.</p> + +<p>"You afraid of me!" she said.</p> + +<p>"Yes—you seem so nymph-like and elusive. I do not know if I am really +looking at an ordinary earth-maiden, or whether you will melt away."</p> + +<p>"I am quite real," and she smiled, "but now you must notice these two +rooms a little that we shall pass through. They are very ghostly I +think; they were the Sir Timothy's who went to fetch James I from +Scotland. I am glad they are not mine, but the long gallery I love; it +is my sitting-room—my very own—and in it I keep something which +matters to me more than anything else in the world." Then she went on, +with a divine shyness which thrilled her companion: "And—I do not know +why—but I think I will show it to you."</p> + +<p>"Yes, please do that," he responded eagerly, "and do not let us stop to +look at the ghostly apartments—where you sit interests me far more."</p> + +<p>So they went rapidly through Sir Timothy's rooms, with the great state +bed where had slept his royal master, so the tale ran, and on down some +uneven steps, and through a small door, and there found themselves in +the long, narrow room, with its bays along the southern side, and one +splendid mullioned casement at the end with coats-of-arms emblazoned +upon each division. And through this, which looked west, there poured +the lowered afternoon sun with a broad shaft of glorious light.</p> + +<p>The place was almost empty, but for a chest or two and a table near this +window with writing materials and books. And upon a rough set of shelves +close at hand many more volumes reposed.</p> + +<p>"So it is here you live and work, you wise, lonely, little Pallas +Athené," he said.</p> + +<p>"You must not call me that—I am not at all like her," Halcyone answered +softly. "She was very clever and very noble—but a little hard, I think. +Wait until I have shown you my own goddess. I would rather have her soul +than any other of the Olympian gods."</p> + +<p>John Derringham took a step nearer to her.</p> + +<p>"Do you remember the night at dinner here when you told me Pallas +Athené's words to Perseus?" he said. "I have thought of them often, and +they have helped me sometimes, I think."</p> + +<p>"I am so glad," said Halcyone simply, while she moved towards her +treasure chest.</p> + +<p>He watched her with satisfied eyes—every action of hers was full of +grace, and the interest he felt in her personally obscured any for the +moment in what she was going to show him, but at last he became aware +that she had unlocked a cupboard drawer, and was taking from it a bundle +of blue silk.</p> + +<p>His curiosity was aroused, and he went over as near as he could.</p> + +<p>"Come!" whispered Halcyone, and walked to the high window-sill of the +middle section, and then put down her burden upon the old faded velvet +seat.</p> + +<p>"See, I will take off her veil gradually," she said, "and you must tell +me of what she makes you think."</p> + +<p>John Derringham was growing interested by now, but had no idea in the +world of the marvel he was going to see. He started more perceptibly +than even Mr. Carlyon had done seven years before, when he had realized +the superlative beauty of the Greek head.</p> + +<p>Halcyone uncovered it reverently, and then took a step back, and waited +silently for him to speak.</p> + +<p>He looked long into the marvelous face, and then he said as though he +were dreaming:</p> + +<p>"Aphrodite herself!"</p> + +<p>"Ah! I felt you would know and recognize her at once—Yes, that is her +name. Oh, I am glad!" and Halcyone clapped her hands. "She is my mother, +and so, you see, I am never alone here, for she speaks always to me of +love."</p> + +<p>John Derringham looked at her sharply as she said this, and in her eyes +he saw two wells of purity, each with an evening star melted into its +depths.</p> + +<p>And he suddenly was conscious of something which his whole life had +missed—for he knew he did not know what real love meant, not even that +which his mother might have given him, if she had lived.</p> + +<p>He did not speak for a moment; he gazed into Halcyone's face. It seemed +as if a curtain had lifted for one instant and given him a momentary +glimpse into some heaven, and then dropped again, leaving a haunting +memory of sweetness, the more beautiful because indistinct.</p> + +<p>"Love—" he said, still dreamily. "Surely there is yet another and a +deeper kind of love."</p> + +<p>Halcyone raised her head, while a strange look grew in her wide eyes, +almost of fear. It was as though he had put into words some unspoken, +unadmitted thought.</p> + +<p>"Yes," she said very softly, "I feel there is—but that is not all +peace; that must be gloriously terrible, because it would mean life."</p> + +<p>He looked at her fully now; there was not an atom of coquetry or +challenge; her face was pale and exquisite in its simple intentness. He +turned to the goddess again, and almost chaunted:</p> + +<p>"Oh! Aphrodite of the divine lips and soulful eyes, what mystery do you +hold for us mortals? What do you promise us? What do you make us pay? Is +the good worth the anguish? Is the fulfillment a cup worth +draining—without counting the cost?"</p> + +<p>"What does she answer you?" whispered Halcyone. "Does she say that to +live and fulfill destiny as the beautiful year does is the only good? It +is wiser not to question and weigh the worth, for even though we would +not drink, perhaps we cannot escape—since there is Fate."</p> + +<p>John Derringham pulled himself together with an effort. He felt he was +drifting into wonderland, where the paths were too tenderly sweet and +flowered for him to dare to linger, for there he might find and quaff of +the poison cup. So he said in a voice which he strove to bring back to +earth:</p> + +<p>"Where did you get the beautiful thing? She is of untold value, of +course you know?"</p> + +<p>Halcyone took the marble into her hands lovingly.</p> + +<p>"She came to me out of the night," she said. "Some day I might tell you +how—but not to-day. I must put her back again. No one knows but Cheiron +and me—and now—you—that she is in existence, and no one else must +ever know."</p> + +<p>He did not speak; he watched her while she wrapped the head in its folds +of silk.</p> + +<p>"Aphrodite never had so true a priestess, nor one so pure," he thought, +and a strange feeling of sadness came over him, and he thanked her +rather abruptly for showing him her treasure, and they went silently +back through Sir Timothy's rooms, and down the stair; and in the Italian +parlor he said good-by at once, and left.</p> + +<p>The wind had got up and blew freshly in his face. There would be a gale +before morning. It suited his mood. He struck across the park, but +instead of making for the haw-haw, he turned into Cheiron's little gate. +He wanted understanding company, he wanted to talk cynical philosophy, +and he wanted the stimulus of his old master's biting wit.</p> + +<p>But when he got there, he found Cheiron very taciturn—contributing +little more than a growl now and then, while he smoked his long pipe and +played with his beard. So at last he got up to go.</p> + +<p>"I have made up my mind to marry Mrs. Cricklander, Master," he said.</p> + +<p>"I supposed so," the Professor replied dryly. "A man always has to +convince himself he is doing a fine thing when he gives himself up to be +hanged."</p> + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br> +<a name="CHAPTER_XVII"></a><h2>CHAPTER XVII</h2> +<br> + +<p>John Derringham reached Wendover—by the road and the lodge gates—in an +impossible temper. He had left the orchard house coming as near to a +quarrel with his old master as such a thing could be. He absolutely +refused to let himself dwell upon the anger he had felt; and if Fate had +given him a distinct and pointed chance to ask the fair Cecilia for her +lily hand, when he knocked at her sitting-room door before dinner, he +would no doubt have left the next day—summoned again to London by his +Chief—an engaged man. But this turn of events was not in the +calculations of Destiny for the moment, and he found no less a person +than Mr. Hanbury-Green already ensconced by his hostess's side. They +were both smoking and looked very comfortable and at ease.</p> + +<p>"I just came in to tell you I shall be obliged to tear myself away +to-morrow," John Derringham said, "and cannot have the pleasure of +staying to the end of the week in this delightful place."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Cricklander got up from her reclining position among the cushions. +This was a blow. She wished now she had not encouraged Mr. Hanbury-Green +to come and sit with her; it might be a lost opportunity which it would +be difficult to recapture again. But she had felt so very much annoyed +at Mr. Derringham's capriciousness, displayed the whole of the Monday, +and then at his absenting himself to-day, having gone to see the +Professor, of course—since he was out of the house at tea-time when she +had sent to his room to enquire—that she had determined to see what a +little jealousy would do for him. But if he were off on the morrow this +might not be a safe moment to try it.</p> + +<p>Mr. Hanbury-Green, however, had not the slightest intention of giving up +his place, in spite of several well-directed hints, and sat on like one +belonging to the spot.</p> + +<p>So they all had to go off to dress without any longed-for word having +been spoken. And Mrs. Cricklander was far too circumspect a hostess to +attempt to arrange a <i>tête-à-tête</i> after dinner under the eye of an +important social leader like Lady Maulevrier, whom she had only just +succeeded in enticing to stay in her country house. So, with the usual +semi-political chaff, the evening passed, and good-nights and good-bys +were said, and early next day John Derringham left for London.</p> + +<p>He would write—he decided—and all the way up in the train he buried +himself in the engrossing letters and papers he had received from his +Chief by the morning's post.</p> + +<p>And for the next six weeks he was in such a turmoil of hard work and +deep and serious questions about a foreign State that he very seldom had +time to go into society, and when at last he was a little more free, +Mrs. Cricklander, he found, had not returned from Paris, whither she +always went several times a year for her clothes.</p> + +<p>But they had written to one another once or twice.</p> + +<p>He had promised in the last letter that he would go down to Wendover +again for Whitsuntide, and this time he firmly determined nothing should +keep him from his obvious and delectable fate.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Cricklander had no haunting fears now. She could discover no reason +for John Derringham's change towards her. Arabella had been mute and had +put it down to the stress of his life. This tension with the foreign +State, it leaked out, had been known to the Ministers for a week before +it had been made public—that, of course, was the cause of his +preoccupation, and she would simply order some especially irresistible +garments in Paris, and bide her time.</p> + +<p>He wrote the most charming letters, though they were hardly long enough +to be called anything but notes; but there was always the insinuation in +them that she was the one person in the world who understood him, and +they were expressed with his usual cultivated taste.</p> + +<p>It was sheer force of will that kept John Derringham from ever thinking +of Halcyone. He resolutely crushed the thought of her every time it +presented itself, and systematically turned to his work and plunged into +it, if even a mental vision of her came to his mind's eye.</p> + +<p>He felt quite calm and safe when, two days before he was expected at +Wendover, the idea came to him to propose himself to the Professor, so +as not to have to go and see him and endure his cynical reflections +<i>after</i> he should be engaged to his hostess.</p> + +<p>Mr. Carlyon had wired back, "Come if you like," and on this evening in +early June John Derringham arrived at the orchard house.</p> + +<p>Cheiron made no allusion to the matter that had caused them to part with +some breezy words upon his old pupil's side. Mrs. Cricklander or +Wendover might not have existed; their talk was upon philosophy and +politics, and contained not the shadow of a woman—even Halcyone was not +mentioned at all.</p> + +<p>Whitsuntide fell late that year, at the end of the first week in June, +and the spring having been exceptionally mild, the foliage was all in +full beauty of the freshest green.</p> + +<p>It was astonishingly hot, and every divine scent of the night came to +John Derringham as he went out into the garden before going to bed. A +young setting half-moon still hung in the sky, and there were stars. One +of those nights when all the mystery of life seems to be revealing +itself in the one word—Love. The nightingale throbbed out its note in +the copse amidst a perfect stillness, and the ground was soft without a +drop of dew.</p> + +<p>John Derringham, hatless, and with his hands plunged in the pockets of +his dinner coat, wandered down the garden towards the apple tree, +picking an early red rosebud as he passed a bush—its scent intoxicated +him a little. Then he went to the gate, and, opening it, he strolled +into the park. Here was a vaster and more perfect view. It was all +clothed in the unknown of the half dark, and yet he could distinguish +the outline of the giant trees. He went on as if in some delicious +dream, which yet had some heart-break in it, and at last he came to the +tree where he and Halcyone had sat those seven years ago, when she had +told him of what consisted the true point of honor in a man. He +remembered it all vividly, her very words and the cloud of her soft hair +which had blown a little over his face. He sat down upon the fallen log +that had been made into a rude bench; and there he gazed in front of +him, unconscious now of any coherent thought.</p> + +<p>Suddenly he was startled by a laugh so near him and so soft that he +believed himself to be dreaming, but he looked round and quickly rose to +his feet, and there at the other side of the tree he saw standing the +ethereal figure of a girl, while her filmy gray garments seemed to melt +into the night.</p> + +<p>"Halcyone!" he gasped. "And from where?"</p> + +<p>"Ah!" she said as she came towards him. "You have invaded my kingdom. +Mortal, what right have you to the things of the night? They belong to +me—who know them and love them."</p> + +<p>"Then have compassion upon me, sweet dryad!" he pleaded, "who am but a +pilgrim who cannot see his way. Let me shelter under your protection and +be guided aright."</p> + +<p>She laughed again—a ripple of silver that he had not guessed her voice +possessed. Her whole bearing was changed from the reserved, demure and +rather timid creature whom he knew. She was a sprite now, or a nymph, or +even a goddess, for her brow was imperious and her mien one of assured +command.</p> + +<p>"This is my kingdom," she said, "and if you obey me, I will show you +things of which you have never dreamed—" and then she came towards the +tree and sat upon the high forked branch of the broken bough while she +pointed with shadowy finger to the part which was a bench. "Sit there, +Man of Day," she ordered, "for you cannot see beyond your hand. You +cannot know how the living things are creeping about, unafraid now of +your cruel power. You cannot discern the difference in the colors of the +fresh young bracken and the undergrowth; you cannot perceive the birds +asleep in the tree."</p> + +<p>"No, indeed, Lady of Night," he said, "I admit I am but a mole, but you +will let me perceive them with your eyes, will you not?"</p> + +<p>She slipped from her perch suddenly, before he could put out a +protesting hand to stop her, and glided out of his view into the dark of +the copse, and from there he heard the intoxicating silver laughter +which maddened his every sense.</p> + +<p>"Halcyone! Witch!" he called. "Come back to me—I am afraid, all alone!"</p> + +<p>So she came, appearing like a materializing wraith from the shadow, and +with an undulating movement of incredible grace she was again seated +upon her perch, the fallen forked branch of the tree.</p> + +<p>John Derringham was experiencing the strongest emotion he had ever felt +in his life.</p> + +<p>A maddening desire to seize the elusive joy—to come nearer—to assure +himself that she was real and not a spirit of night sent to torture and +elude him—overcame all other thought. The startling change from her +deportment of the day—the very way she glided about was as the movement +of some other being.</p> + +<p>And as those old worshipers of Dionysus had grown intoxicated with the +night and the desire of communion with the beyond, so he—John +Derringham—cool, calculating English statesman—felt himself being +drawn into a current of emotion and enthrallment whose end could only be +an ecstasy of which he did not yet dare to dream.</p> + +<p>It was all so abnormal—to see her here, a shadow, a tantalizing soft +shadow with a new personality—it was no wonder he rubbed his eyes and +asked himself if he were awake.</p> + +<p>"Come with me," she whispered, bending nearer to him, "and I will show +you how the wild roses grow at night."</p> + +<p>"I will follow you to Hades," he said, "but I warn you I cannot see a +yard beyond my nose. You must lead me with your hand, if so ethereal a +spirit possesses a hand."</p> + +<p>Again the silver laugh, and he saw her not, but presently she appeared +from behind the tree. She had let down her misty, mouse-colored hair, +and it floated around her like a cloud.</p> + +<p>Then she slipped a cool, soft set of fingers into his, and led him +onward, with sure and certain steps, while he blundered, not knowing +where to put his feet, and all the time she turned every few seconds and +looked at him, and he could just distinguish the soft mystery of her +eyes, while now and then, as she walked, a tendril of her floating hair +flew out and caressed his face, as once before, long ago.</p> + +<p>"There are fairy things all about us," she said. "Countless pink +campions and buttercups, with an elf in each. They will feel your giant +feet, but they will know you are a mortal and cannot help your ways, +because, you poor, blind bat, you cannot see!"</p> + +<p>"And you?" he asked. "Who gave you these eyes?"</p> + +<p>"My mother," she answered softly, "the Goddess of the Night."</p> + +<p>And then she drew him on rapidly and stealthily, and he saw at last, in +the open space where the stars and the sinking moon gave more light, +that they were approaching the broken gate, and were near the terraced +garden, which now was better kept.</p> + +<p>When they got to this barrier to their path, Halcyone paused and leaned +upon it.</p> + +<p>"Mortal," she said, "you are wandering in a maze. You have come thus far +because I have led you, but you would have fallen if you had walked so +fast alone. Now look, and I will show you the lily-of-the-valley +cups—there are only a few there under the shelter of the gray stone +arch. Come."</p> + +<p>And she opened the gate, letting go of his hand as she glided beyond.</p> + +<p>"I cannot and will not hazard a step if you leave me," he called, and +she came back and gave him again her soft fingers to hold. So at last +they reached the summer house at the end of the second terrace, where +the archway was where old William kept his tools.</p> + +<p>There were very few flowers out, but a mass of wild roses, and still +some May tulips bloomed, while from the meadow beneath them came that +indescribable freshness which young clover gives.</p> + +<p>John Derringham knew now that he was dreaming—or drunk with some nectar +which was not of earth. And still she led him on, and then pointed to +the old bench which he could just see.</p> + +<p>"We shall sit here," she said, "and Aphrodite shall tell us your +future—for see, she, too, loves the night and comes here with me."</p> + +<p>And to his intense astonishment, as he peered on to the table, he saw a +misty mass of folds of silk, and there lay the goddess's head, that +Halcyone had shown to him that day in the long gallery more than a month +ago.</p> + +<p>He was so petrified with surprise at the whole thing that he had ceased +to reason. Everything came now as a matter of course, like the +preposterous sequence of events in a dream. The Aphrodite lay, as a +woman caressed, half buried in her silken folds, but Halcyone lifted her +up and propped her against a stone vase which was near, letting the silk +fall so that the broken neck did not show, and it seemed as if a living +woman's face gazed down upon them.</p> + +<p>John Derringham's eyes were growing more accustomed to the darkness, or +Halcyone really had some magic power, for it seemed to him that he could +see the divine features quite clearly.</p> + +<p>"She is saying," the soft voice of his companion whispered in his ear, +"that all the things you will grasp with your hands are but dreams—and +the things that you now believe to be dreams are all real."</p> + +<p>"And are you a dream, you sweet?" asked John Derringham. "Or are you +tangible, and must I drink the poison cup, after all?"</p> + +<p>"I would give you no noxious wine," she answered. "If you were strong +and wise and true, only the fire which I have stolen from heaven could +come to you."</p> + +<p>"Long ago," he said, "you gave me an oak-leaf, dryad, and I have kept it +still. What now will you grant to me?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing, since you fear—" and she drew back.</p> + +<p>"I do not fear," he answered wildly. "Halcyone!—sweetheart! I want +you—here—next my heart. Give me—yourself!"</p> + +<p>Then he stretched out his arms and drew her to him, all soft and loving +and unresisting, and he pressed his lips to her pure and tender lips. +And it seemed as if the heavens opened, and the Night poured down all +that was divine of bliss.</p> + +<p>But before he could be sure that indeed he held her safely in his arms, +she started forward, releasing herself. Then, clasping Aphrodite and her +silken folds, with a bound she was far beyond him, and had disappeared +in the shadow of the archway, on whose curve the last rays of moonlight +played, so that he saw it outlined and clear.</p> + +<p>He strode forward to follow her, but to his amazement, when he reached +the place, she seemed to vanish absolutely in front of his eyes, and +although he lit a match and searched everywhere, not the slightest trace +of her could he find, and there was no opening or possible corner into +which she could have disappeared.</p> + +<p>Absolutely dumbfounded, he groped his way back to the bench, and sitting +down buried his head in his hands. Surely it was all a dream, then, and +he had been drunk—with the Professor's Falernian wine—and had wandered +here and slept. But, God of all the nights, what an exquisite dream!</p> + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br> +<a name="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a><h2>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> +<br> + +<p>The half-moon set, and the night became much darker before John +Derringham rose from his seat by the bench. A stupor had fallen upon +him. He had ceased to reason. Then he got up and made his way back to +the orchard house, under the myriads of pale stars, which shone with +diminished brilliancy from the luminous, summer night sky.</p> + +<p>Here he seemed to grow material again and to realize that he was indeed +awake. But what had happened to him? Whether he had been dreaming or no, +a spell had fallen upon him—he had drunk of the poison cup. And +Halcyone filled his mind. He thrilled and thrilled again as he +remembered the exquisite joy of their tender embrace—even though it had +been no real thing, but a dream, it was still the divinest good his life +had yet known.</p> + +<p>But what could it lead to if it were real? Nothing but sorrow and +parting and regret. For his career still mattered to him, he knew, now +that he was in his sane senses again, more than anything else in the +world. And he could not burden himself with a poor, uninfluential girl +as a wife, even though the joy of it took them both to heaven.</p> + +<p>The emotion he was experiencing was one quite new to him, and he almost +resented it, because it was upsetting some of his beliefs.</p> + +<p>The next day, at breakfast, the Professor remarked that he looked pale.</p> + +<p>"You rather overwork, John," he said. "To lie about the garden here and +not have to follow the caprices of fashionable ladies at Wendover, would +do you a power of good."</p> + +<p>There was no sight of Halcyone all the day. She was living in a +paradise, but hers contained no doubts or uncertainties. She knew that +indeed she had lived and breathed the night before, and found complete +happiness in John Derringham's arms.</p> + +<p>That, then, was what Aphrodite had always been telling her. She knew now +the meaning of the love in her eyes. This glorious and divine thing had +been given to her, too—out of the night.</p> + +<p>It was fully perceived at last, not only half glanced at almost with +fear. Love had come to her, and whatever might reck of sorrow, it meant +her whole life and soul.</p> + +<p>And this precious gift of the pure thing from God she had given in her +turn to John Derringham as his lips had pressed her lips.</p> + +<p>She spent the whole day in the garden, sitting in the summer house +surveying the world. The blue hills in the far distance were surely the +peaks of Olympus and she had been permitted to know what existence meant +there.</p> + +<p>Not a doubt of him entered her heart, or a fear. He certainly loved her +as she loved him; they had been created for each other since the +beginning of time. And it was only a question of arrangement when she +should go away with him and never part any more.</p> + +<p>Marriage, as a ceremony in church, meant nothing to her. Some such +thing, of course, must take place, because of the stupid conventions of +the world, but the sacrament, the real mating, was to be +together—alone.</p> + +<p>In her innocent and noble soul John Derringham now reigned as king. He +had never had a rival, and never would have while breath stayed in her +fair body.</p> + +<p>By the evening of that day he had reasoned himself into believing that +the whole thing was a dream—or, if not a dream, he had better consider +it as such; but at the same time, as the dusk grew, a wild longing +swelled in his heart for its recurrence, and when the night came he +could not any longer control himself, and as he had done before he +wandered to the tree.</p> + +<p>The moon, one day beyond its first quarter, was growing brighter, and a +strange and mysterious shimmer was over everything as though the heat of +the day were rising to give welcome and fuse itself in the night.</p> + +<p>He was alone with the bird who throbbed from the copse, and as he sat in +the sublime stillness he fancied he saw some does peep forth. They were +there, of course, with their new-born fawns.</p> + +<p>But where was she, the nymph of the night?</p> + +<p>His heart ached, the longing grew intense until it was a mighty force. +He felt he could stride across the luminous park which separated them, +and scale the wall to the casement window of the long gallery, to clasp +her once more in his arms. And, as it is with all those beings who have +scorned and denied his power, Love was punishing him now by a complete +annihilation of his will. At last he buried his face in his hands; it +was almost agony that he felt.</p> + +<p>When he uncovered his eyes again he saw, far in the distance, a filmy +shadow. It seemed to be now real, and now a wraith, as it flitted from +tree to tree, but at last he knew it was real—it was she—Halcyone! He +started to his feet, and there stood waiting for her.</p> + +<p>She came with the gliding movement he now knew belonged in her dual +personality to the night.</p> + +<p>Her hair was all unbound, and her garment was white.</p> + +<p>All reason, all resolution left him. He held out his arms.</p> + +<p>"My love!" he cried. "I have waited for you—ah, so long!"</p> + +<p>And Halcyone allowed herself to be clasped next his heart, and then +drawn to the bench, where they sat down, blissfully content.</p> + +<p>They had such a number of things to tell one another about love. He who +had always scoffed at its existence was now eloquent in his explanation +of the mystery. And Halcyone, who had never had any doubts, put her +beautiful thoughts into words. Love meant everything—it was just he, +John Derringham. She was no more herself, but had come to dwell in him.</p> + +<p>She was tender and absolutely pure in her broad loyalty, concealing +nothing of her fondness, letting him see that if she were Mistress of +the Night, he was Master of her Soul.</p> + +<p>And the complete subservience of herself, the sublime transparency +without subterfuge of her surrender, appealed to everything of chivalry +which his nature held.</p> + +<p>"Since the beginning," she whispered, in that soft, sweet voice of hers +which seemed to him to be of the angels, "ever since the beginning, +John, when I was a little ignorant girl, it has always been you. You +were Jason and Theseus and Perseus. You were Sir Bors and Sir Percival +and Sir Lancelot. And I knew it was just waiting—Fate."</p> + +<p>"My sweet, my sweet," he murmured, kissing her hair.</p> + +<p>"And the time you came, when I was so ugly," she went on, "and so +overgrown—I was sad then, because I knew you would not like me. But the +winds and the night were good to me. I have grown, you see, so that I am +now more as you would wish, but everything has been for you from that +first day in the tree—our tree."</p> + +<p>That between two lovers the thing could be a game never entered her +brain. The thought that it might be wiser to watch moods and play on +this one or that, and conceal her feelings and draw him on with mystery, +could meet with no faintest understanding in her fond heart.</p> + +<p>She just loved him, and belonged to him, and that was the whole meaning +of heaven and earth. Any trick of calculation would have been a thousand +miles beneath her feet. And while he was there with her, clasping her +slender willowy form to his heart, John Derringham felt exalted. The +importance of his career dwindled, the imperative necessity of +possessing Halcyone for his very own augmented, until at last he +whispered in her ear as her little head lay there upon his breast:</p> + +<p>"Darling child, you must marry me at once—immediately—next week. We +will go through whatever is necessary at the registry-office, and then +you must come away with me and be my very own."</p> + +<p>"Of course," was all she said.</p> + +<p>"It is absolutely impossible that we could let anyone know about it at +present—even Cheiron—" he went on, a little hurriedly. "The +circumstances are such that I cannot publicly own you as my wife, +although it would be my glory so to do. I should have to give up my +whole career, because I have no money to keep a splendid home, which +would be your due. But I dare say these things do not matter to you any +more than they do to me. Is it so, sweet, darling child?"</p> + +<p>"How could they matter?" Halcyone whispered from the shelter of his +clasped arms. "Of what good would they be to me? I want to be with you +when you have time; I want to caress you when you are tired, and comfort +you, and inspire you, and love you, and bring you peace. How could the +world—which I do not know—matter to me? Are you not foolish to ask me +such questions, John!"</p> + +<p>"Very foolish, my divine one," he said, and forgot what more he would +have spoken in the delirium of a worshiping kiss.</p> + +<p>But presently he brought himself back to facts again.</p> + +<p>"Darling," he said, "I will find out exactly how everything can be +managed, and then you will meet me here, under this tree, and we will go +away together and be married, and for a week at least I will make the +time to stay with you, as your lover, and you shall be absolutely and +truly my sweetest wife."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Halcyone, perfectly content.</p> + +<p>"And after that," he went on, "I will arrange that you stay somewhere +near me, so that every moment that I am free I can come back to the +loving glory of your arms."</p> + +<p>"I cannot think of any other heaven," the tender creature murmured. And +then she nestled closer, and her voice became dreamy.</p> + +<p>"This is what God means in everything," she whispered. "In the +Springtime, which is waiting for the Summer—in all the flowers and all +the trees. This is the secret the night has taught me from the very +beginning, when I first was able to spend the hours in her arms."</p> + +<p>Then this mystery of her knowledge of the night he had to probe; and she +told him, in old-world, romantic language, how she had discovered the +stairs and Aphrodite, and even of the iron-bound box which she had never +been able to move.</p> + +<p>"It contains some papers of that Sir Timothy, I expect," she said. "We +know by the date of the breastplate that it was when Cromwell sent his +Ironsides to search La Sarthe that he must have escaped through the door +and got to the coast; but he was drowned crossing to France, so no one +guessed or ever knew how he had got away—and I expect the secret of the +passage died with him, and I was the first one to find it."</p> + +<p>"Then what do you make of the goddess's head?" asked John Derringham. +"Was that his, too?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I suppose so," she answered. "He was a great, grand seigneur—we +know of that—and had traveled much in Italy when a young man, and +stayed at Florence especially. He married a relative of the Medici +belonging to some female branch, and he is even said to have been to +Greece; but in the court of the Grand Duke of Tuscany he would certainly +have learned to appreciate the divine beauty of Aphrodite. He must have +brought her from there as well as the Hebe and Artemis, which are not +nearly so good. They stand in the hall—but they say nothing to me."</p> + +<p>"It would be interesting to know what the papers are about," John +Derringham went on. "We must look at them together some day when you are +my wife."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Halcyone, and thrilled at the thought.</p> + +<p>"So it was through the solid masonry you disappeared last night? No +wonder, sprite, that I believed I was dreaming! Why did you fly from me? +Why?"</p> + +<p>"It was too great, too glorious to take all at once," she said, and with +a sudden shyness she buried her face in his coat.</p> + +<p>"My darling sweet one," he murmured, drawing her to him, passion flaming +once more. "I could have cried madly"—and he quoted in Greek: + +<p> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 1em;">"Wilt them fly me and deny me?</span><br> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 1em;">By thine own joy I vow,</span><br> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 1em;">By the grape upon the bough,</span><br> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">Thou shalt seek me in the midnight, thou shalt love me even now."</span> +</p> + +<p>Mr. Carlyon had not restricted Halcyone's reading: she knew it was from +the "Bacchæ" of Euripides, and answered:</p> + +<p>"Ah, yes, and, you see, I have sought you in the midnight, and I am +here, and I love you—even now!"</p> + +<p>After that, for a while they both seemed to fall into a dream of bliss. +They spoke not, they just sat close together, his arms encircling her, +her head upon his breast; and thus they watched the first precursors of +dawn streak the sky and, looking up, found the stars had faded.</p> + +<p>Halcyone started to her feet.</p> + +<p>"Ah! I must go, dear lover," she said, "though it will only be for some +few hours."</p> + +<p>But John Derringham held her two hands, detaining her.</p> + +<p>"I will make all the arrangements in these next few days," he said. "I +am going to Wendover for Whitsuntide. I will get away from there, +though, and come across the park and meet you, darling, here at our +tree, and we will settle exactly what to do and when to go."</p> + +<p>Then, after a last fond, sweet embrace, he let her leave him, and +watched her as she glided away among the giant trees, until she was out +of sight, a wild glory in his heart.</p> + +<p>For love, when he wins after stress, leaves no room but for gladness in +his worshiper's soul.</p> + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br> +<a name="CHAPTER_XIX"></a><h2>CHAPTER XIX</h2> +<br> + +<p>It was John Derringham who was taciturn next morning, not the Professor!</p> + +<p>The light of day has a most sobering effect, and while still exalted in +a measure by all the strong forces of love, he was enabled to review +worldly events with a clearer eye, and could realize very well that he +was going to take a step which would not have a forwarding impetus upon +his career, even if it proved to be not one of retrogression.</p> + +<p>He must give up the thought of using a rich wife as an advancement; but +then, on the other hand, he would gain a companion whose divine +sweetness would be an ennobling inspiration.</p> + +<p>How he could ever have deceived himself in regard to his feelings he +wondered now, for he saw quite plainly that he had been drifting into +loving her from the first moment he had seen her that Good Friday +morning, the foundations having been laid years before, on the day in +the tree.</p> + +<p>He felt rather uncomfortable about his old master, who he knew would not +approve of any secret union with Halcyone. Not that Cheiron would reck +much of conventionalities, or care in the least if it were a marriage at +a registry-office or not, but he would certainly resent any aspect of +the case which would seem to put a slight upon his much-loved protégée +or place her in a false position.</p> + +<p>He would tell him nothing about it until it was an accomplished fact and +Halcyone was his wife—then they would let him into the secret.</p> + +<p>All the details of what she would have to say to her aunts in her letter +of farewell on leaving them would have to be thought out, too, so that +no pursuit or inopportune prying into the truth would be the +consequence.</p> + +<p>Of any possibility of her stepfather's ultimate interference he did not +think, not knowing that she had even any further connection with him. To +satisfy in some way the ancient aunts was all that appeared a necessity. +And that was difficult enough. He had certainly undertaken no easy task, +but he did not regret his decision. The first and only strong passion he +had ever known was mastering him.</p> + +<p>But there was yet one more unpleasant aspect to face—that was the +situation regarding Mrs. Cricklander. He had assuredly not committed +himself or even acted very unfairly to her. She had been playing a game +as he had been. He did not flatter himself that she really loved +him—now that he knew what love meant—and her ambition could be +gratified elsewhere; but there remained the fact that he was engaged to +stay with her for Whitsuntide, and whether to do so, and plainly show +her that he had meant nothing and only intended to be a friend, or +whether to throw the visit over, and go to London, returning just to +fetch Halcyone about Wednesday, he could not quite decide.</p> + +<p>Which would be the best thing to do? It worried him—but not for long, +because indecision was not, as a rule, one of his characteristics, and +he soon made up his mind to the former course.</p> + +<p>He would go to Wendover on Saturday, as was arranged, take pains to +disabuse his hostess's mind of any illusion upon the subject of his +intentions, and, having run over to Bristol this afternoon to give +notice to the registrar and procure the license, he would leave with the +other guests on the Tuesday, after lunch, having sent his servant up to +London in the morning to be out of the way.</p> + +<p>Then he would sleep that night in Upminster, getting his servant to +leave what luggage he required there—it was the junction for the main +line to London, and so that would be easy. A motor could be hired, and +in it, on the Wednesday, he would come to the oak avenue gate, as that +was far at the other side of the park upon the western road; there he +would arrange that Halcyone should be waiting for him with some small +box, and they would go over to Bristol, be married, and then go on to a +romantic spot he knew of in Wales, and there spend a week of bliss!</p> + +<p>By the time he got thus far in his meditations he felt intoxicated +again, and Mr. Carlyon, who was watching him as he sat there in his +chair reading the <i>Times</i> opposite him, wondered what made him suddenly +clasp his hands and draw in his breath and smile in that idiotic way +while he gazed into space!</p> + +<p>Then there would be the afterwards. Of course, that would be blissful, +too. Oh! if he could only claim her before all the world how glorious it +would be—but for the present that was hopeless, and at all events her +life with him would not be more retired than the one of monotony which +she led at La Sarthe Chase, and would have his tenderest love to +brighten it. He would take a tiny house for her somewhere—one of those +very old-fashioned ones shut in with a garden still left in Chelsea, +near the Embankment—and there he would spend every moment of his spare +time, and try to make up to her for her isolation. Well arranged, the +world need not know of this—Halcyone would never be <i>exigeante</i>—or if +it did develop a suspicion, ministers before his day had been known to +have had—<i>chères amies</i>.</p> + +<p>But as this thought came he jumped from his chair. It was, when faced in +a concrete fashion, hideously unpalatable as touching his pure, fair +star.</p> + +<p>"You are rather restless to-day, John," the Professor said, as his old +pupil went hastily towards the open window and looked out.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said John Derringham. "It is going to rain, and I must go to +Bristol this afternoon. I have to see a man on business."</p> + +<p>Cheiron's left penthouse went up into his forehead.</p> + +<p>"Matters complicating?" was all he said.</p> + +<p>"Yes, the very devil," responded John Derringham.</p> + +<p>"Beginning to feel the noose already, poor lad?"</p> + +<p>"Er—no, not exactly," and he turned round. "But I don't quite know what +I ought to do about her—Mrs. Cricklander."</p> + +<p>"A question of honor?"</p> + +<p>"I suppose so."</p> + +<p>The Professor grunted, and then chuckled.</p> + +<p>"A man's honor towards a woman lasts as long as his love. When that +goes, it goes with it—to the other woman."</p> + +<p>"You cynic!" said John Derringham.</p> + +<p>"It is the truth, my son. A man's point of view of such things shifts +with his inclinations, and if other people are not likely to know, he +does not experience any qualms in thinking of the woman's feelings—it +is only of what the world will think of <i>him</i> if it finds him out. +Complete cowards, all of us!"</p> + +<p>John Derringham frowned. He hated to know this was true.</p> + +<p>"Well, I am not going to marry Mrs. Cricklander, Master," he announced +after a while.</p> + +<p>"I am very glad to hear it," Cheiron said heartily. "I never like to see +a fine ship going upon the rocks. All your vitality would have been +drawn out of you by those octopus arms."</p> + +<p>"I do not agree with you in the least about any of those points," John +Derringham said stiffly. "I have the highest respect for Mrs. +Cricklander—but I can't do it."</p> + +<p>"Well, you can thank whichever of your stars has brought you to this +conclusion," growled the Professor. "I suppose I'll pull through somehow +financially," the restless visitor went on, pacing the floor—"anyway, +for a few years; there may be something more to be squeezed out of +Derringham. I must see."</p> + +<p>"Well, if you are not marrying that need not distress you," Cheiron +consoled him with. "Those things only matter if a man has a son."</p> + +<p>John Derringham stopped abruptly in his walk and looked at his old +master.</p> + +<p>His words gave him a strange twinge, but he crushed it down, and went on +again:</p> + +<p>"It is a curse, this want of money," he said. "It makes a man do base +things that his soul revolts against." And then, in his restless moving, +he absently picked up a volume of Aristotle, and his eye caught this +sentence: "The courageous man therefore faces danger and performs acts +of courage for the sake of what is noble."</p> + +<p>And what did an honorable man do? But this question he would not go +further into.</p> + +<p>"You were out very late last night, John," Mr. Carlyon said presently. +"I left this window open for you on purpose. The garden does one good +sometimes. You were not lonely, I hope?"</p> + +<p>"No," said John Derringham; but he would not look at his old master, for +he knew very well he should see a whimsical sparkle in his eyes.</p> + +<p>Mr. Carlyon, of course, must be aware of Halcyone's night wandering +proclivities. And if there had been nothing to conceal John Derringham +would have liked to have sat down now and rhapsodized all about his +darling to his old friend, who adored her, too, and knew and appreciated +all her points. He felt bitterly that Fate had not been as kind to him +as she might have been. However, there was nothing for it, so he turned +the conversation and tried to make himself grow as interested in a +question of foreign policy as he would have been able to be, say, a year +ago. And then he went out for a walk.</p> + +<p>And Cheiron sat musing in his chair, as was his habit.</p> + +<p>"The magnet of her soul is drawing his," he said to himself. "Well, now +that this has begun to work, we must leave things to Fate."</p> + +<p>But he did not guess how passion on the one side and complete love and +trust upon the other were precipitously forcing Fate's hand.</p> + +<p>The possibility of John Derringham's sending a message to Halcyone was +very slender. The post was out of the question—she probably never got +any letters, and the arrival of one in a man's handwriting would no +doubt be the cause of endless comment in the household. The foolishness +had been not to make a definite appointment with her when they had +parted before dawn. But they had been too overcome with love to think of +anything practical in those last moments, and now the only thing would +be for him to go again to-night to the tree, and hope that she would +meet him there. But the sky was clouding over, and rain looked quite +ready to fall. As a last resource he could send Demetrius—his own valet +he would not have trusted a yard.</p> + +<p>The rain kept off for his journey to Bristol, and his business was got +through with rapidity. And if the registrar did connect the name of John +Derringham, barrister-at-law, of the Temple, London, with John +Derringham, the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, he was a +man of discretion and said nothing about it.</p> + +<p>It was quite late when Mr. Carlyon's guest returned to his +roof—cross-country trains were so tiresome—and it had just begun to +pour with rain, so there was no use expecting that Halcyone would be +there by the tree. And bed, with a rather feverish sensation of +disappointment, seemed John Derringham's portion.</p> + +<p>Halcyone had passed a day of happy tranquillity. She was of that godlike +calm which frets not, believing always that only good could come to her, +and that, as she heard nothing from her lover, it was because—which was +indeed the truth—he was arranging for their future. If it had been fine +she had meant to go to the tree, but as it rained she went quietly to +her room, and let her Priscilla brush her hair for an hour, while she +stared in the old dark glass, seeing not her own pale and exquisite +face, but all sorts of pictures of future happiness. That she must not +tell her old nurse, for the moment, of her good fortune was her one +crumpled rose-leaf, but she had arranged that when she went she would +post a letter at once to her, and Priscilla would, of course, join her +in London, or wherever it was John Derringham would decide that she +should live. The thought of leaving her aunts did not so much trouble +her. The ancient ladies had never made her their companion or encouraged +her to have a single interest in common with them. She was even doubtful +if they would really miss her, so little had they ever taken her into +their lives. For them she was still the child to be kept in her place, +however much she had tried to grow a little nearer. Then her thoughts +turned back to ways and means.</p> + +<p>She so often spent the whole day with Cheiron that her absence would not +be remarked upon until bedtime. But then she suddenly remembered, with a +feeling of consternation, that the Professor intended to leave on the +Tuesday in Whitsun week for his annual fortnight in London. If the +household knew of this, it might complicate matters, and was a pity. +However, there was no use speculating about any of these things, since +she did not yet know on which day she was to start—to start for +Paradise—as the wife of her Beloved!</p> + +<p>Next morning it was fine again, and she decided she would go towards +their tree, and if John were not there, she would even go on to the +orchard house, because she realized fully the difficulty he would find +in sending her a message.</p> + +<p>But he was there waiting for her, in the bright sunlight, and she +thought him the perfection of what a man should look in his well-cut +gray flannels.</p> + +<p>John Derringham knew how to dress himself, and had even in his oldest +clothes that nameless, indescribable distinction which seems often to be +the birthright of Englishmen of his class.</p> + +<p>The daylight made her timid again; she was no more the imperious goddess +of the night. It was a shy and tender little maiden who nestled into the +protecting strong arms of her lover.</p> + +<p>He told her all his plans: how he had given notice for the license, and +that it would be forthcoming. And he explained that he had chosen +Bristol rather than Upminster because in this latter place everyone +would know the name of La Sarthe—even the registrar's clerk and whoever +else they would secure as a witness—but in Bristol it might pass +unnoticed.</p> + +<p>They discussed what should be done about Cheiron and the old ladies, and +decided that when to apprise the former of their marriage must be left +to John's discretion; and as Halcyone would not be missed until the +evening, they would simply send two telegrams from Bristol in the late +afternoon, one to Miss La Sarthe and one to Priscilla, the former +briefly to announce that Halcyone was quite safe and was writing, and +the latter asking her old nurse not to let the old ladies feel worried, +and promising a letter to her, also.</p> + +<p>"Then," John Derringham said, "you will be my wife by that time, +sweetheart, and you will tell your aunts the truth, ask them to keep our +secret, and say that you will return to them often, so that they shall +not be lonely. We will write it between us, darling, and I do not think +they will give us away."</p> + +<p>"Never," returned Halcyone, while she looked rather wistfully towards +the house. "They are too proud."</p> + +<p>He dropped her hand for an instant; the unconscious inference of this +speech made him wince. She understood, then, that she was going to do +something which her old kinswomen would think was a hurt to their pride, +and so would be silent over it in consequence. And yet she did not +hesitate. She must indeed love him very much.</p> + +<p>A tremendous wave of emotion surged through him, and he looked at her +with reverence and worship. And for one second his own part of utter +selfishness flashed into his understanding, so that he asked, with +almost an anxious note in his deep, assured voice:</p> + +<p>"You are not afraid, sweetheart, to come away—for all the rest of your +life—alone with me?"</p> + +<p>And often in the after days of anguish there would come back to him the +memory of her eyes, to tear his heart with agony in the +night-watches—her pure, true eyes, with all her fresh, untarnished soul +looking out of them into his as they glistened with love and faith.</p> + +<p>"Afraid?" she said. "How should I be afraid—since you are my lord and I +am your love? Do we not belong to one another?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, my dear," he said, as he folded her to his heart in wild, +worshiping passion, "God keep you always safe, here in my arms."</p> + +<p>And if she had known it, for the first time in his life there were tears +in John Derringham's proud eyes. For he knew now he had found her—the +one woman with a soul.</p> + +<p>Then they parted, when every smallest detail was settled, for she had +promised to help Miss Roberta with a new design for her embroidery, and +he had promised to join Mrs. Cricklander's party for an early lunch. +They intended to make an excursion to see the ruins of Graseworth Tower +in the afternoon.</p> + +<p>"And indeed we can bear the separation now, my darling," he said, +"because we shall both know that we must go through only four more days +before we are together—for always!"</p> + +<p>But even so it seemed as if they could not tear themselves apart, and +when he did let her go he strode after her again and pleaded for one +more kiss.</p> + +<p>"There!" she whispered, smiling while her eyes half filled with mist. +"This tree is forever sacred to us. John, it is listening now when I +tell you once more that I love you."</p> + +<p>And then she fled.</p> + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br> +<a name="CHAPTER_XX"></a><h2>CHAPTER XX</h2> +<br> + +<p>When once John Derringham had definitely made up his mind to any course +in life, he continued in it with decision and skill, and carried off the +situation with a high-handed assurance. Thus he felt no qualms of +awkwardness in meeting Mrs. Cricklander and treating her with an +enchanting ease and friendliness which was completely disconcerting. She +had no <i>casus belli</i>; she could not find fault with his manner or his +words, and yet she was left with the blank conviction that her hopes in +regard to him were over. She despised men in her heart because, as a +rule, she was able to calculate with certainty every move in her games +with them. Feeling no slightest passion, her very mediocre intellect +proved often more than a match for the cleverest. But her supreme belief +in herself now received a heavy blow. She was never so near to loving +John Derringham as during this Whitsuntide when she felt she had lost +him. Cora Lutworth once said of her:</p> + +<p>"Cis is one of the happiest women in the world, because when she looks +in the glass in the morning she never sees anything but herself, and is +perfectly content. Most of us find shadows peeping over our shoulders of +what we would like to be."</p> + +<p>Arabella found her employer extremely trying during the Saturday and +Sunday, and was almost in tears when she wrote to her mother.</p> + +<blockquote> + Mr. Derringham has plainly determined not to be ensnared yet. If this + did not render M. E. so difficult to please, the situation would be + very instructive to watch. And I am not even now certain whether he + will escape eventually, because her whole pride in herself is roused + and she will stick at nothing. I have a shrewd suspicion as to what + has caused the change in his feelings and intentions towards M. E., + but I have not imparted my ideas to her, since doing so might do no + good, and would in some way certainly injure an innocent person. As + yet I believe she is unaware of this person's existence. We have done + everything we can for Mr. Derringham with the most erudite + conversation. I have been up half of the night ascertaining facts + upon all sorts of classical subjects, as that seems to be more than + ever the bent of his mind in these last two visits. (I am given to + understand from other sources that the person of whom I made mention + above is a highly-trained Greek scholar and of exceptional refinement + and cultivation, so that may be the reason.) The strain of preparing + M. E. for these talks and then my anxiety when, at meals or after + them, I hear her upon the brink of some fatal mistake, has caused me + to have most unpleasant headaches, and really, if it were not so + modern and silly a phrase, I should say the thing was getting on my + nerves. However, all the interesting guests are leaving on Tuesday + afternoon. Mr. Derringham, I understand from what he said to me, + intends to go over to his old master, Professor Carlyon's, and catch + a later train from there, but M. E. does not know this, and I have + not felt it my duty to inform her of it, because it might involve + some awkwardness connected with the person about whom I have already + given you a hint. I must close now, as I have some facts to look up + concerning the worship of Dionysus which M. E. is going to bring in + to-night. It was only yesterday I told her who he was, and I had the + greatest difficulty to get her to understand he was Bacchus as well, + as she had learned of him when younger under that name as the God of + Drunkards, and did not consider him a very nice person to mention. + But Mr. Derringham held forth upon the rude Thracian Dionysus last + night and the fundamental spirituality of his original cult, and so + she felt it might seem rather <i>bourgeois</i> to be shocked, and has + committed to memory as well as she can some facts to-day.</blockquote> + +<p>It will be seen from Miss Clinker's frank letter to her parent that Mrs. +Cricklander was leaving no stone unturned to gain her object, and such +praiseworthy toil deserves the highest commendation.</p> + +<p>John Derringham, meanwhile, having successfully smoothed matters to his +own satisfaction, felt at liberty to dream in his spare moments of his +love. He already began to wonder how he had ever felt any emotion +towards the fair Cecilia—she was perfectly charming, but left him as +cold as ice!</p> + +<p>And so at last the good-bys were said, and he got into the motor with +some of the other guests, ostensibly for the station, but in reality to +get out at the Lodge gates upon the pretense of going to see the +Professor. He intended, instead of this, to cross the haw-haw and +reconnoiter upon the hope of meeting his beloved, because there was no +necessity for him to spend a dull afternoon in Upminster when perhaps +some more agreeable hours could be snatched under the tree. He had +attended to every point, he believed, even having written a letter to +Cheiron which he had taken the precaution to give to his servant to post +from London on the following morning, so that there would be no Bristol +mark as a clew to their whereabouts. In this he merely stated that when +his old master would receive it Halcyone would be his wife, and that for +a time they had decided to keep the marriage secret, and he hoped his +old master would understand and sympathize.</p> + +<p>The only qualm of any sort he experienced during these three days was +when he was composing this letter, so he finished it quickly and did not +even read it over. And now, as he strode across the Wendover park, it +was safe in his servant's pocket and would be despatched duly next day. +He was unaware of the fact that Mr. Carlyon had left for London by a +morning train.</p> + +<p>As he came within view of the haw-haw, he saw in the far distance +Halcyone just flitting towards the beech avenue gate, and in his intense +haste to catch her up before she should get too near the house, he +removed the bricks very carelessly, not even remarking that one, and the +most important, was disposed of in such a manner that the spike left +beneath would not bear his weight.</p> + +<p>He had got thus far, his eyes fixed upon the slender white figure +rapidly disappearing from his view, when with a tremendous crash his +foothold gave way and he fell with fearful force into the ditch beneath, +his head striking one of the fallen bricks. And after that, all things +were blank and his soul wandered into shadowland and tasted of the pains +of death.</p> + +<br><hr style="width: 45%;"><br> + +<p>From the first break of day on that Tuesday when Halcyone awoke she was +conscious that some sorrow was near her. Every sense of hers, every +instinct, so highly trained by her years of communion with Nature seemed +always to warn her of coming events.</p> + +<p>She was restless—a state of being quite at variance with her usual +calm. The air was sultry and, though no rain fell, ominous clouds +gathered and faint thunder pealed afar off.</p> + +<p>"What is it? What is it, God?" she asked of the sky. But no answer came, +and at last she went out into the park and towards the tree. She had +made all her simple preparations—everything that she must take had been +put into a small bag and was safely waiting in the secret passage, ready +for her to fetch on the morrow.</p> + +<p>Cheiron, she knew, had gone to London. Had they not said good-by on the +evening before? And his last words had made her smile happily at the +time.</p> + +<p>"Things are changing, Halcyone," he had said, with the whimsical raising +of his left penthouse brow. "Perhaps you will not want to learn Greek +much longer with your crabbed old Cheiron in his cave."</p> + +<p>And she had flung her arms round his neck and buried her face in his +silver beard, and assured him she would always want to learn—all her +life. But now she felt a twinge of sadness—she would indeed miss him, +her dear old master, and he, too, would be lonely without her. Then she +fought with herself. Feelings of depression were never permitted to stay +for a moment, and she looked away into the trees for comfort—but only a +deathly stillness and a sullen roll of distant thunder answered, and +left her uncomforted.</p> + +<p>And then some force stronger than her will seemed to drive her back to +the house, and to the long gallery, and just at the very moment when she +had passed beyond her lover's sight it was as if something chased her, +so that she ran the last few yards, and paused not until she stood in +front of Aphrodite's shrine.</p> + +<p>It would be difficult to carry the marble head with the other few things +she proposed to take, but none the less was the necessity imperative. +She could not be married without the presence of her beloved mother to +bless her.</p> + +<p>As she lifted her goddess out, with her silken wrappings, the first +flash of the nearing storm lit up the dark room with lurid flame.</p> + +<p>Halcyone shivered. It was the one aspect of Nature with which she was +out of harmony. When thunder rolled and lightning quivered, her vitality +seemed to desert her and she experienced what in her came nearest to +fear.</p> + +<p>"Ah! someone has angered God greatly," she whispered aloud; and then she +carried the head to the secret door, knowing full well she would be +unwatched in her entry there—on such a day, with thunder pealing, not a +servant would have ventured into the long gallery.</p> + +<p>Another and louder rumble reached her with muffled sound, as she made +her way in the dark underground, and as she came to the place where +there was the contrived gleam of light and outer air, the lightning +turned the narrow space into a green dusk.</p> + +<p>Halcyone was trembling all over, and when she had put her precious +bundle safely into the bag with the rest of her simple preparations, she +laid it on the iron-bound box which had never been stirred, all ready +for her to lift up and take with her in the morning. Then she ran back, +cold and pale, and hastily sought Priscilla in her own room, and talked +long to her of old days, glad indeed to hear a human voice, until +presently the rain began to pour in torrents and the storm cried itself +out.</p> + +<p>But with each crash before this came her heart gave a bound, as if in +pain. And a wild longing grew in her for the morrow and safety in her +lover's arms.</p> + +<p>And he—alas! that hapless lover!—was lying there in the haw-haw, with +broken ankle and damaged head, half recovering consciousness in the +pouring rain, but unable to stir or climb from his low bed, or even to +cry aloud enough to make anyone hear him. And so at last the night came, +and the pure moonlight, and when her usual evening duties were over with +her aunts, Halcyone was free to go to bed.</p> + +<p>She opened her window wide, but she did not seek to wander in the wet +park. John would not be there, and she must rest, so as to be fair for +him when tomorrow they should start on life's sweet journey—together.</p> + +<p>But her heart was not quiet. All her prayers and pure thoughts seemed to +bring no peace, and even when, after a while, she fell into a sleep, it +was still troubled.</p> + +<p>And thus the day dawned that was to have seen her wedding!</p> + +<p>She told herself that the dull, sullen oppression she awoke with was the +result of the storm in the night, and with firm determination she +banished all she could of heaviness, and got through her usual +avocations until the moment came for her to start for the oak avenue +gate. She timed her arrival to be exactly at ten o'clock so that she +need not wait, as this of the three outlets was the one where there +might be a less remote chance of a passer-by. They had had to choose it +because it was on the road to Bristol.</p> + +<p>The sun was shining gorgeously again when she emerged from the secret +door, carrying her heavy bundle, and except in the renewed freshness of +all the green there seemed no trace of the storm. Yes—as she got near +the gate she saw that one huge tree beyond that old friend who had +played the part of the holder of the Golden Fleece was stricken and +cleft through by the lightning. It had fallen in helpless fashion, +blackened and yawning, its proud head in the dust.</p> + +<p>This grieved her deeply, and she paused to pass a tender hand over the +gaping wound. Then she went on to the gate, and there waited—waited +first in calm belief, then in expectancy, and at last in a numb agony.</p> + +<p>The sun seemed to scorch her, the light hurt her eyes, every sound made +her tremble and start forward, and at last she cried aloud:</p> + +<p>"O God, why do I feel so troubled? I who have always had peace in my +heart!"</p> + +<p>But no bird even answered her. There was a warm stillness, and just +there, under these trees, there were no rabbits which could have +comforted her with their living forms scuttling to and fro.</p> + +<p>She tried to reason calmly. Motors were uncertain things—this one might +have broken down, and that had delayed her lover. She must not stir, in +case he should come and think his lateness had frightened her and that +she had gone back to the house. Whatever befell, she must be brave and +true.</p> + +<p>But at last, when the afternoon shadows were lengthening, the agony +became intense. Only the baker had passed with his cart, and a farm +wagon or two, during the whole day. Gradually the conviction grew that +it could not only be an accident to the motor—if so, John would have +procured some other vehicle, or, indeed, he could have come to her on +foot by now. Something had befallen him. There must have occurred some +accident to himself; and in spite of all her calm fortitude, anguish +clutched her soul.</p> + +<p>She knew not what to do or which way to go. At last, as the sun began to +sink, faint and weary, she decided the orchard house would be the best +place. There, if there was any news of an accident, Sarah Porrit, the +Professor's one female servant, would have heard it.</p> + +<p>She started straight across the park, carrying her heavy bag, and +crossed the beech avenue, and so on to the trysting tree. A cold feeling +like some extra disquietude seemed to overcome her as she neared the +haw-haw and the copse. It was as if she feared and yet longed to get +there. But she resisted the temptation, and went straight on to the +little gate and so up the garden to the house.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Porrit received her with her usual kindly greeting. All was calm +and peaceful, and while Halcyone controlled herself to talk in an +ordinary voice, the postman's knock was heard. He passed the Professor's +door on the road to Applewood and left the evening mail, when there +chanced to be any.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Porrit received the letters—three of them—and then she adjusted +her spectacles, but took them off again.</p> + +<p>"After all, since you are here, miss, perhaps as you write better than I +you will be so good as to redirect them on to the master. You know his +address, as usual." And she named an old-fashioned hotel in Jermyn +Street.</p> + +<p>Halcyone took them in her cold, trembling fingers, and then nearly +dropped them on the floor, for the top envelope was addressed in the +handwriting of her beloved! She knew it well. Had she not, during the +past years, often seen such missives, from which the Professor had read +her scraps of news?</p> + +<p>She carried it to the light and scrutinized the postmark. It was +"London," and posted that very morning early!</p> + +<p>For a moment all was a blank, and she found herself grasping the back of +Cheiron's big chair to prevent herself from falling.</p> + +<p>John had been in London at the moment when she was waiting by the tree! +What mystery was here?</p> + +<p>At first the feeling was one of passionate relief. There had been no +accident, then; he had been obliged to go—there would be some +explanation forthcoming. Perhaps he had even written to her, too—and +she gave a bound forward, as though to run back to La Sarthe Chase. But +then she recollected the evening postman did not come to the house, and +they got no letters as Cheiron did, who was on the road. Hers could not +be there until the morning—she must wait patiently and see.</p> + +<p>With consummate self-control she made her voice sound natural as she +said, "Oh, I am so late, Mrs. Porrit. I must go," and, bidding the woman +a gracious good evening, walked rapidly to the house. A telegram might +have come for her, and she had been out all day. What if her aunts had +opened it!</p> + +<p>This thought made her quicken her pace so that at last she arrived at +the terrace breathless with running; and having deposited her bag in +safety, she came out again from the secret passage and got hastily to +the house.</p> + +<p>But there was no sign of a telegram in the hall, and she mounted to find +Priscilla in her room, which she discovered to be in great disorder, her +few clothes lying about on every available space.</p> + +<p>"Oh, my lamb, where have you been?" the elderly woman exclaimed. "At +four o'clock who should come in a fly from the Applewood station but +your step-father's wife! She was staying at Upminster, and says she +thought she would come over and see you—and now it's settled that we go +back with her to London to-morrow. Think of it, my lamb! You and me to +see the world!" Then she cried in fear: "My precious, what is it?"</p> + +<p>For Halcyone, overwrought and overcome, had staggered to a chair and, +falling into it, had buried her face in her hands.</p> + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXI"></a><h2>CHAPTER XXI</h2> +<br> + +<p>Mrs. James Anderton was seated in the Italian parlor with the two +ancient hostesses when Halcyone at last came into their midst. They had +evidently exhausted all possible topics of conversation and were +extremely glad of an interruption.</p> + +<p>Miss La Sarthe had been growing more and more annoyed at her +great-niece's lengthy absence, while Miss Roberta felt so nervous she +would like to have sniffed at her vinaigrette, but, alas! the stern eye +of her sister was upon her and she dared not.</p> + +<p>Mrs. James Anderton—good, worthy woman—had not passed an agreeable +afternoon either. She felt herself hopelessly out of tune with the two +old ladies, whose exquisitely reserved polished manners disconcerted +her.</p> + +<p>She had been made to feel—most delicately, it is true, but still +unmistakably—that she had committed a breach of taste in thus +descending upon La Sarthe Chase unannounced. And instead of the +sensation of complacent importance which she usually enjoyed when among +her own friends and acquaintances, she was experiencing a depressed +sense of being a very small personage indeed.</p> + +<p>Her highly colored comely face was very hot and flushed and she rather +restlessly played with her parasol handle. Miss La Sarthe's voice grew a +little acid as she said:</p> + +<p>"This is our great-niece, Halcyone La Sarthe, Mrs. Anderton"—and +then—"It is unfortunate that you should have been so long absent, +child."</p> + +<p>"I am very sorry," Halcyone returned gently, and she shook hands. She +made no excuse or explanation.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Anderton plunged into important matters at once.</p> + +<p>"Your father, Mr. Anderton"—how that word "father" jarred upon +Halcyone's sensitive ears!—"wished me to come and see you, dear, and +hopes you will return with me to-morrow to London, for a little visit to +us, that you may make the acquaintance of your brother and sisters."</p> + +<p>Halcyone had already made up her mind what to do, before she had left +her room. She would agree to anything they suggested in order to have no +obstacles put in her way—not admitting for a moment that these people +had any authority over her. Then, if in the morning she received a +letter from her Beloved, she would follow its instructions implicitly. +Always having at hand her certain mode of disappearance, she could slip +away, and if it seemed necessary, just leave them to think what they +pleased. Priscilla would be warned to allay at once the anxiety of her +aunts, and for the Andertons she was far too desperate to care what they +might feel.</p> + +<p>"Thank you; it is very good of you," she said as graciously as she +could. "My old nurse has told me of your kind invitation, and is already +beginning the preparations. I trust you left Mr. Anderton and my +stepbrother and sisters well?"</p> + +<p>"Hoity-toity!" thought Louisa Anderton. "Of the same sort as the old +spinsters. This won't please James, I fear!" But aloud she answered that +the family were all well, and that James Albert, who was thirteen now, +would soon be going to Eton.</p> + +<p>Over Halcyone, in spite of her numbness and the tension she was feeling, +though controlled by her firm will, there came the memory of the red, +crying baby, for whose life her own sweet mother had paid so dear a +price. And Mabel and Ethel—noisy, merry little girls!—she had thought +of them so seldom in these latter years—they seemed as far-off shadows +now. But James Anderton and her mother stood out sharp and clear.</p> + +<p>The strain and anguish of the day had left her very pale. Mrs. Anderton +thought her plain and most uncomfortably aloof; she really regretted +that she had put into her husband's head the idea of giving this +invitation. He would gladly have left Halcyone alone, but for her kindly +thought. Mabel was just seventeen, and such a handful that her father +had decided she should stay in the schoolroom with her sister for +another year, and Mrs. Anderton had felt it would be a good opportunity +for Halcyone to rejoin the family circle at a time when her presence, if +she proved good-looking, could not in any way interfere with her +stepsister's debut.</p> + +<p>And here, instead of being overcome with gratitude and excitement, this +cold, quiet girl was taking it all as quite an ordinary circumstance. No +wonder she, Louisa Anderton, felt aggrieved.</p> + +<p>They had hardly time for any more words, for Mrs. Anderton had already +put off her departure by the seven-twenty train from Applewood to +Upminster on purpose to wait for Halcyone, and now proposed to catch the +one at nine o'clock—her fly still waited in the courtyard—and they +made rapid arrangements. Halcyone, accompanied by Priscilla, was to meet +her the next day at the Upminster junction at eleven o'clock, and they +would journey to London together.</p> + +<p>And all the while Halcyone was agreeing to this she was thinking, if in +the improbable circumstance that she should get no letter in the +morning, it would be wiser to go to London. There was her Cheiron, who +would help her to get news. But of course she would hear, and all would +be well.</p> + +<p>Thus she was enabled to unfreeze a little to her stepfather's wife, who, +as they said good-by at the creaking fly's door, felt some of her soft +charm.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps she is shy," she said to herself as she rolled towards the +station. "Anyway, it is restful, after Mabel's laying down the law."</p> + +<p>That night Halcyone took her goddess to the little summer house upon the +second terrace.</p> + +<p>"If I start with John to-morrow, my sweet," she said, "you will come +with me as I have promised you. But if I must go to that great, restless +city, to find him, then you will wait for me here—safe in your secret +home." And then she looked out over the misty clover-grown pleasance to +the country beyond bathed in brilliant moonlight. And something in the +beauty of it stilled the wild ache in her heart. She would not admit +into her thoughts the least fear, but some unexplained, unconquerable +apprehension stayed in her innermost soul. She knew, only she refused to +face the fact, that all was not well.</p> + +<p>Of doubt as to John Derringham's intentions towards her, or his love, +she had none, but there were forces she knew which were strong and could +injure people, and with all her fearlessness of them, they might have +been capable of causing some trouble to her lover—her lover who was +ignorant of such things.</p> + +<p>She stayed some time looking at the beautiful moonlit country, and +saying her prayers to that God Who was her eternal friend, and then she +got up to steal noiselessly to bed.</p> + +<p>But as she was opening the secret door, to have one more look at the +sky, after she had replaced Aphrodite in the bag, it seemed as though +her lover's voice called her in anguish through the night: "Halcyone!" +and again, "Halcyone! My love!"</p> + +<p>She stopped, petrified with emotion, and then rushed back onto the +terrace. But all was silence; and, wild with some mad fear, she set off +hurriedly, never stopping until she came to their trysting tree. But +here there was silence also, only the nightingale throbbed from the +copse, while the faint rustle of soft zephyrs disturbed the leaves.</p> + +<p>And Jeb Hart and his comrade saw the tall white figure from their +hiding-place in the low overgrown brushwood, and Gubbs crossed himself +again, for whether she were living or some wraith they were never really +sure.</p> + +<p>At the moment when Halcyone opened the secret door, John Derringham was +just recovering consciousness in a luxurious bed at Wendover Park, +whither he had been carried when accidentally found by the keepers in +their rounds about eight o'clock. It was several days since they had +visited this part of the park, and they had lit upon him by a fortunate +chance. He had lain there in the haw-haw, unconscious all that day, +while his poor little lady-love waited for him at the oak gate, and was +now in a sorry plight indeed, as Arabella Clinker bent over him, +awaiting anxiously the verdict of the doctors who had been fetched by +motor from Upminster. Would he live or die?</p> + +<p>Her employer had had a bad attack of nerves upon hearing of the +accident, and was now reclining upon her boudoir sofa, quite prostrated +and in a high state of agitation until she should know the worst—or +best.</p> + +<p>Arabella listened intently. Surely the patient was whispering something? +Yes, she caught the words.</p> + +<p>"Halcyone!" he murmured, and again, "Halcyone—my love!" and then he +closed his eyes once more.</p> + +<p>He would live, the physicians said after some hours of doubt—with very +careful nursing. But the long exposure in the wet, twenty-four hours at +least, with that wound in the head and the broken ankle, was a very +serious matter, and absolute quiet and the most highly skilled attention +would be necessary.</p> + +<p>It was Arabella who made all the sensible, kind arrangements that night, +and herself sat up with the poor suffering patient until the nurses +could come. But it was Mrs. Cricklander who, dignified and composed, +received the doctors after the consultation with Sir Benjamin Grant next +day, before the celebrated surgeon left for London, and she made her +usual good impression upon the great man.</p> + +<p>That the local lights thought far more highly of Arabella did not +matter. Mrs. Cricklander was wise enough to know, it is upon the exalted +that a good effect must be produced.</p> + +<p>"And, you are sure, Sir Benjamin, that he will get quite well?" she said +tenderly, allowing her handsome eyes to melt upon the surgeon's face. +"It matters enormously to me, you know." Then she looked down.</p> + +<p>Thus appealed to, Sir Benjamin felt he must give her all the assurance +he could.</p> + +<p>"Perfectly, dear lady," he said, pressing her soft hand in sympathy. "He +is young and strong, and fortunately it has not touched his brain. But +it will take time and gentlest nursing, which you will see, of course, +that he gets."</p> + +<p>"Indeed, yes," the fair Cecilia said. And when they were all gone, she +summoned Arabella.</p> + +<p>"You will let me know, Arabella, every minute change in him," she +commanded, "especially when he seems conscious. And you will tell him +how I am watching over him and doing everything for him. I can't bear +sick people—they upset my nerves, and I just can't stand them. But the +moment he is all right enough to see me so that it won't bore me, I'll +come. You understand? Now I must really have a trional and get some +rest."</p> + +<p>And when she was alone she went deliberately to the glass and smiled +radiantly to herself as she whispered aloud:</p> + +<p>"So he isn't going to die or be an idiot. In a few years he can still be +Prime Minister. And I have got him now, as sure as fate!"</p> + +<p>Then she closed her mouth with that firm snap Arabella knew so well, +and, swallowing her sleeping draught, she composed herself for a +peaceful siesta.</p> + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXII"></a><h2>CHAPTER XXII</h2> +<br> + +<p>It required all Halcyone's fortitude to act the part of unconcern which +was necessary after the post had come in and no letter for herself had +arrived. The only possibility of getting through the time until she +should reach London, and be able to communicate with Cheiron would, be +resolutely to forbid her thoughts from turning in any speculative +direction. <i>She knew</i> nothing but good could come to her—was she not +protected from all harm by every strong force of the night winds, the +beautiful stars and the God Who owned them all? Therefore it followed +that this seeming disaster to her happiness must be only a temporary +thing, and if she bore it calmly it would soon pass. Or, even if it +delayed, there was the analogy of the winter which for more than four +months of the year numbed the earth, often with weeping rain and frost, +but, however severe it should be, there was always the tender springtime +following, and glorious summer, and then the fulfillment of autumn and +its fruits. So she <i>must not</i> be cast down—she must have faith and not +tremble.</p> + +<p>She made herself converse gently with her stepfather's wife, and won her +liking before they reached Paddington station. If she had not been so +highly strung and preoccupied, she would have been thrilled in all her +fine senses at the idea of leaving Upminster, further than which she had +never been for the twelve long years of her residence at La Sarthe +Chase; but now, except that all appeared a wild rush and a bewildering +noise, the journey to London made no impression upon her. It was +swallowed up in the one longing to get there—to be able somehow to +communicate with Cheiron, and have her anxiety laid to rest.</p> + +<p>The newsboys were selling the evening papers when they arrived, but her +eyes, so unaccustomed to all these new sights, did not warn her to scan +the headlines, though as they were reaching Grosvenor Gardens where Mr. +Anderton's town-house was situated, she did see the words: +"Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs." The sheet had fallen +forward and only this line was visible.</p> + +<p>They did not strike her very forcibly. She was quite unacquainted with +the custom of advertising sensational news in London. It might be the +usual political announcements—it surely was, since she saw another +sheet as they got to the door with "Crisis in the Cabinet" upon it. And +it comforted her greatly. John, of course, was concerned with this, and +had been summoned back suddenly, having had no possible time to let her +know. He who was so true an Englishman must think of his country first. +It seemed like an answer to her prayers, and enabled her to go in and +greet her stepfather with calm and quiet.</p> + +<p>James Anderton had come from the city in the best of tempers. The day +had been a good one. He had received his wife's telegram announcing that +Halcyone would accompany her on her return, and awaited her arrival with +a certain amount of uneasy curiosity and interest. Would the girl be +still so terribly like Elaine and the rest of the La Sarthe—especially +Timothy, that scapegrace, handsome Timothy, her father, on whose memory +and his own bargain with Timothy's widow he never cared much to dwell?</p> + +<p>Yes, she was, d----d like—after a while he decided; with just the same +set of head and careless grace, and that hateful stamp of breeding that +had so lamentably escaped his own children, half La Sarthe, too. It was +just Timothy of the gray eyes come back again—not Elaine so much now, +not at all, in fact, except in the line of the throat.</p> + +<p>His solid, coarse voice was a little husky, and those who knew him well +would have been aware that James Anderton was greatly moved as he bid +his stepdaughter welcome.</p> + +<p>And when she had gone off to her room, accompanied by the boisterous +Mabel and Ethel, he said to his wife:</p> + +<p>"Lu, you must get the girl some decent clothes. She looks confoundedly a +lady, but that rubbish isn't fair to her. Rig her out as good as the +rest—no expense spared. See to it to-morrow, my dear."</p> + +<p>And Mrs. Anderton promised. She adored shopping, and this would be a +labor of love. So she went off to dress for dinner, full of visions of +bright pinks and blues and laces and ribbons that would have made +Halcyone shrink if she had known.</p> + +<p>Mabel was magnificently patronizing and talked a jargon of fashionable +slang which Halcyone hardly understood. Some transient gleam of her +beloved mother kept suggesting itself to her when Mabel smiled. The +memory was not distinct enough for her to know what it was, but it hurt +her. The big, bouncing, overdeveloped girl had so little of the +personality which she had treasured all these years as of her +mother—treasured even more than remembered.</p> + +<p>Ethel had no faintest look of La Sarthe, and was a nice, jolly, ordinary +young person—dear to her father's heart.</p> + +<p>At last they left Halcyone alone with Priscilla, and presently the two +threw themselves into each other's arms—for the old nurse was crying +bitterly now, rocking herself to and fro.</p> + +<p>"Ah! how it all comes back to me, my lamb," she sobbed. "He's just the +same, only older. Hard and kind and generous and never understanding a +thing that mattered to your poor, beautiful mother. Oh! she was glad to +go at the end, but for leaving you. Dear lady!—all borne to pay your +father's debts, which Mr. Anderton had took up. I can't never forgive +him quite—I can't never."</p> + +<p>And Halcyone, overcome with her long strain of emotion, cried, too, for +a few minutes before she could resume her stern self-control.</p> + +<p>But at dinner she was calm again, and pale only for the shadows under +her wide eyes.</p> + +<p>She had written her letter to Cheiron—she knew not of such things as +messenger-boys or cabs, and had got Priscilla to post it for her, and +now with enforced quiet awaited his answer which she thought she could +receive on the morrow.</p> + +<p>"There has been a crisis in the Cabinet, has there not?" she said to her +stepfather, hoping to hear something, and James Anderton replied that +there had been some split—but for his part, the sooner this rotten lot +of sleepers had gone out the better he would be pleased; a good sound +Radical he was, like his friend Mr. Hanbury-Green.</p> + +<p>Halcyone abruptly turned the conversation. She could not, she felt, +discuss her beloved and his opinions, even casually, with this man of +another class.</p> + +<p>Oh! her poor mother—her poor, sweet mother! How terrible it must have +been to her to be married to such a person!—though her common sense +prompted her to add he was probably, under her influence, not nearly so +coarse and bluff in those days as now he appeared to be.</p> + +<p>Her little stepbrother, James Albert, had not returned from his private +school for the summer holidays, so she perhaps would not see him during +her visit.</p> + +<p>As the dinner went on everything struck her as glaring, from the +footmen's liveries to the bunches of red carnations; and the blazing +electric lights confused her brain. She, the little country mouse, +accustomed only to old William's gentle shufflings, and the two tall +silver candlesticks with their one wax taper in each!</p> + +<p>She could not eat the rich food, and if she had known it, she looked +like a being from some shadowy world among the hearty crew.</p> + +<p>Next morning Mr. Carlyon received her letter as he began his early +breakfast; and he tugged at his silver beard, while his penthouse brows +met.</p> + +<p>The matter required the most careful consideration. He enormously +disliked to have to play the rôle of arbiter of fate, but he loved +Halcyone more than anything else in the world, and felt bound to use +what force he possessed to secure her happiness—or, if that looked too +difficult, which he admitted it did, he must try and save her from +further unnecessary pain.</p> + +<p>He had the day before received John Derringham's letter written from +Wendover and which Mrs. Porrit had redirected, containing the news of +the intended wedding, and it had angered him greatly.</p> + +<p>He blazed with indignation! His peerless one to be made to take a +mistress's place when any man should be proud to make her his honored +wife! "The brutal selfishness of men," he said to himself, not blaming +John Derringham in particular. "He ought to have gone off and left her +alone when he felt he was beginning to care, if he had not pluck enough +to stand the racket. But we are all the same—we must have what we want, +and the women must pay—confound us!"</p> + +<p>He had never doubted but that, when he read the letter, Halcyone was +already his old pupil's wife—if indeed such a ceremony were legal, she +being under age. And this thought added to his wrath, and he intended to +look the matter up and see. But, before he could do so, he got an +evening paper and read a brief notice that John Derringham had met with +a severe accident—of what exact nature the press association had not +yet learned—and was lying in a critical condition at Wendover Park, the +country seat of the "beautiful American society leader, Mrs. Vincent +Cricklander," with whose name rumor had already connected the +Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in the most interesting +manner, the paragraph added.</p> + +<p>So Fate had stepped in and saved his pure night flower, after all! But +at what sort of price? And Cheiron stared into space with troubled eyes.</p> + +<p>He passed hours of anxious thought. He never did anything in a hurry, +and felt that now he must especially consider what would be his wisest +course.</p> + +<p>And then, this next morning, Halcyone's letter had come.</p> + +<p>It was very simple. It told of Mrs. Anderton's arrival at La Sarthe +Chase and of her own return to London with her—and then the real pith +of it had crept out. Had he heard any news of Mr. Derringham? Because +she had seen his writing upon a letter Mrs. Porrit was readdressing at +the orchard house and, observing it was from London, she presumed he was +there, and she hoped she should see him.</p> + +<p>The Professor stopped abruptly here.</p> + +<p>"What a woman it is, after all!" he exclaimed. He himself had never +noticed the postmark on John Derringham's envelope! Then he folded +Halcyone's pitiful little communication absently, and thought deeply.</p> + +<p>Two things were evident. Firstly, John Derringham had been disabled +before the hour when he should have met his bride; and secondly, she +was, when she wrote, unaware that he had had any accident at all. She +must thus be very unhappy and full of horrible anxiety—his dear little +girl!</p> + +<p>But what courage and fortitude she showed, he mused on, not to give the +situation away and lament even to him, her old friend. She plainly +intended to stand by the man she loved and never admit she had been +going to marry him until he himself gave her leave.</p> + +<p>"The one woman with a soul," Cheiron muttered, and rubbed the mist away +which had gathered in his eyes.</p> + +<p>He revolved the situation over and over. Halcyone must be made aware of +the accident, if she had not already read of it in the morning papers; +but she must not be allowed to do anything rash—and as he got thus far +in his meditations, a waiter knocked at the old-fashioned sitting-room +door, and Halcyone herself brushed past him into the room.</p> + +<p>She was deadly pale, and for a moment did not speak.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Anderton, it appeared, thinking she would be tired from her +unaccustomed journey, had suggested she should breakfast in bed, which +Halcyone, thankful to be alone, had gratefully agreed to; and when on +her breakfast tray which came up at eight o'clock she saw a daily paper, +she had eagerly opened it, and after searching the unfamiliar sheets for +the political news, her eye had caught the paragraph about John +Derringham's accident. In this particular journal the notice was merely +the brief one of the evening before, but it was enough to wring +Halcyone's heart.</p> + +<p>She bounded from bed and got Priscilla to dress her in the shortest +possible time, and the faithful nurse, seeing that her beloved lamb was +in some deep distress, forbore to question her.</p> + +<p>Nothing would have stopped Halcyone from going out, but she hoped to do +so unperceived.</p> + +<p>"Look if the way is clear to the door," she implored Priscilla, "while I +put on my hat. I must go to the Professor at once—something dreadful +has happened."</p> + +<p>So Priscilla went and contrived so that she got Halcyone out of the +front door while the servants were busy in the dining-room about the +breakfast. She hailed a passing hansom, and in this, to the poor child, +novel conveyance, she was whirled safely to Cheiron's little hotel in +Jermyn Street, and Priscilla returned to her room, to make believe that +her nursling was still sleeping.</p> + +<p>"Halcyone! My child!" the Professor exclaimed, to gain time, and then he +decided to help her out, so he went on: "I am glad to see you, but am +very distressed at the news in the paper this morning about John +Derringham—you may have seen it—and I am sure will sympathize with +me."</p> + +<p>Halcyone's piteous eyes thanked him.</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed," she said. "What does it mean? Ought not—we—you to go to +him?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Carlyon avoided looking at her.</p> + +<p>"I cannot very well do that in Mrs. Cricklander's house," he said, +tugging at his beard, to hide the emotion he felt. "But I will telegraph +this minute and ask for news, if you will give me the forms—they are +over there," and he pointed to his writing-table.</p> + +<p>She handed them immediately, and as he adjusted his spectacles she rang +the bell; no time must be lost, and the waiter could be there before the +words were completed.</p> + +<p>"When can you get the answer?" she asked a little breathlessly.</p> + +<p>"In two hours, I should think, or perhaps three," the Professor +returned. "But there is a telephone downstairs—it has just been put in. +We might telephone to his rooms, or to the Foreign Office, and find out +if they have heard any further news there. That would relieve my mind a +little."</p> + +<p>"Yes—do," responded Halcyone eagerly.</p> + +<p>The tone of repressed anguish in her soft voice stabbed Cheiron's heart, +but they understood each other too well for any unnecessary words to +pass between them. The kindest thing he could do for her was to show her +he did not mean to perceive her trouble.</p> + +<p>The result of the telephoning—a much longer process then than it is +now—was slightly more satisfactory. Sir Benjamin Grant's report, the +Foreign Office official informed them, was that Mr. Derringham's +condition was much more hopeful, but that the most complete quiet for +some time would be absolutely necessary.</p> + +<p>"John is so strong," Mr. Carlyon said, as he put down the receiver which +he had with difficulty manipulated—to Halcyone's trembling impatience. +"He will pull through. And all I can do is to wait. He will probably be +up at the end of my fortnight, when I get back home." And he looked +relieved.</p> + +<p>"They would not give him a letter from you, of course, I suppose?" said +Halcyone. "If his head has been hurt it will be a long time before he is +allowed to read."</p> + +<p>Cheiron nodded.</p> + +<p>"I am interested," she went on, looking down. "You will let me know, at +Grosvenor Gardens, directly you hear anything, will you not, +Master?—I—" and then her voice broke a little.</p> + +<p>And Cheiron stirred in his chair. It was all paining him horribly, but +until he could be sure what would be best for her he must not show his +sympathy.</p> + +<p>"I will send Demetrius with the answer when it comes, and I will +telegraph to Wendover morning and night, dear child," he said. "I knew +you would feel for me." And with this, the sad little comedy between +them ended, for Halcyone got up to leave.</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Cheiron," was all she said.</p> + +<p>Mr. Carlyon took her down to the door and put her in the waiting hansom +which she had forgotten to dismiss, and he paid the man and reluctantly +let her go back alone.</p> + +<p>She was too stunned and wretched to take in anything. The streets seemed +a howling pandemonium upon this June morning at the season's full +height, and all the gayly dressed people just beginning to be on their +way to the park for their morning stroll appeared a mockery as she +passed down Piccadilly.</p> + +<p>Whether she had been missed or no, she cared not, and getting out, rang +the bell with numbed unconcern, never, even noticing the surprised face +of the footman as she passed him and ran up the long flights of stairs +to her room, fortunately meeting no one on the way. Here Priscilla +awaited her, having successfully hidden her absence. It was half past +ten o'clock.</p> + +<p>Halcyone went to the window and looked out upon the trees in the +triangular piece of green. They were not her trees, but they were still +Nature, of a stunted kind, and they would understand and comfort her or, +at all events, enable her to regain some calm.</p> + +<p>She took in deep breaths, and gradually a peace fell upon her. Her +friend God would never desert her, she felt.</p> + +<p>And Priscilla said to herself:</p> + +<p>"She's prayin' to them Immortals, I expect. Well, whoever she prays to, +she is a precious saint."</p> + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a><h2>CHAPTER XXIII</h2> +<br> + +<p>Meanwhile, John Derringham lay betwixt life and death and was watched +over by the kind eye of Arabella Clinker. She had gathered quite a +number of facts in the night, while she had listened to his feverish +ravings—he was light-headed for several hours before the nurses +came—then the fever had decreased and though extremely weak he was +silent.</p> + +<p>Arabella knew now that he loved Halcyone—that wood nymph they had seen +during their Easter Sunday walk—and that he had been going to meet her +when the accident had happened. The rest was a jumble of incoherent +phrases all giving the impression of intense desire and anxiety for some +special event. It was:</p> + +<p>"Then we shall be happy, my sweet," or "Halcyone, you will not think me +a brute, then, will you, my darling," and there were more just detached +words about an oak tree, and a goddess and such like vaporings.</p> + +<p>But Arabella felt that, no doubt the moment he would be fully conscious, +he would wish to send some message—for during the two following days +whenever she went in to see him there was a hungering demand in his +haggard eyes.</p> + +<p>So Miss Clinker took it upon herself to stop at the Professor's house on +one of her walks, meaning to beard Cheiron in his den, and find out +how—should it be necessary—she could communicate with Halcyone. And +then she was informed by Mrs. Porrit that her master would be away for a +fortnight, and that Miss Halcyone La Sarthe had been taken off by her +stepmother—she did not know where—and that the two old ladies had +actually gone that day, with Hester and old William, to some place on +the Welsh coast they had known when they were children, for a change to +the sea! La Sarthe Chase was shut up. Arabella Clinker was not +sufficiently acquainted with the habits of its inmates to appreciate the +unparalleled upheaval this dislodgment meant, but she saw that her +informant was highly surprised and impressed.</p> + +<p>"I expect the poor old gentry felt too lonely to stop, once that dear +Miss Halcyone was gone," Mrs. Porrit said, "but there, when I heard it +you could have knocked me down with a feather!—them to go to the sea!"</p> + +<p>All this looked hopeless as far as communicating with Halcyone +went—unless through a letter to the Professor. Arabella returned to +Wendover rather cast down.</p> + +<p>She had been reasoning with herself severely over a point, and when her +letter went to her mother on the next Sunday, she was still undecided as +to what was her course of duty, and craved her parent's advice.</p> + +<p> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 1em;">The case is this [she wrote]. Being quite aware of M. E.'s</span><br> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 1em;">intentions, am I being disloyal to her, in helping to frustrate them</span><br> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 1em;">by aiding Mr. Derringham to establish communications with the person</span><br> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 1em;">whom I have already vaguely hinted to you I believe he is interested</span><br> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 1em;">in? I do not feel it is altogether honorable to take my salary from</span><br> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 1em;">M. E. and to go against what I know to be the strong desire of her</span><br> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 1em;">life at the present time. On the other hand, my feelings of humanity</span><br> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 1em;">are appealed to by Mr. Derringham's weakness, and by the very poor</span><br> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 1em;">chance he will have of escaping M. E. when she begins her attack</span><br> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 1em;">during his convalescence. I have felt more easy in conscience</span><br> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 1em;">hitherto because I have merely stood aside, not aided the adversary,</span><br> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 1em;">but now there is a parting of the ways and I am greatly disturbed. I</span><br> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 1em;">like Mr. Derringham very much, he has always treated me with</span><br> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 1em;">courteous consideration not invariably shown to me by M. E.'s guests;</span><br> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 1em;">and I cannot help being sorry for him, if—which I fear is almost a</span><br> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 1em;">certainty—she will secure him in the end.</span><br> +</p> + +<p>Then the letter ended.</p> + +<p>Arabella was much worried. However, she felt she might remain neutral so +far as this, that, when Mrs. Cricklander indulged in endless +speculations as to why John Derringham should have been trying to cross +that difficult and dangerous haw-haw, she gave no hint that his +destination could have been other than the Professor's little house. She +did swerve sufficiently to the other side to remark that to cross the +haw-haw would save at least a mile by the road if one were in a hurry. +And then her loyalty caused her to repeat, with extra care, to John +Derringham in a whisper the fib which Mrs. Cricklander wished—namely, +that she, the fair Cecilia, was there ready to come to him and sit up +with him, and do anything in the world for him, and was only prevented +by the doctor's strict orders, fearing the slightest excitement for the +patient—and that these orders caused her great grief.</p> + +<p>John Derringham's eyes looked grateful, but he did not speak.</p> + +<p>His head ached so terribly and his body was wracked with pain, while his +ankle, not having been set for twenty-four hours, had swollen so that it +rendered its proper setting a very difficult matter, and caused him +unspeakable suffering. Sir Benjamin Grant had to come down to Wendover +twice again before things looked in more hopeful state.</p> + +<p>And what agonizing thoughts coursed through his poor feverish +brain—until through sheer weakness there would be hours when he was +numb.</p> + +<p>What could Halcyone have thought waiting for him all that day! and now +she, of course, must have heard of his accident and there was no sign or +word.</p> + +<p>Or was there—and were those cruel doctors not giving him the message? +The day came—the Wednesday after Arabella had sent her letter to her +mother—when he was strong enough to speak. He waited for the moment +when Miss Clinker always arrived with Mrs. Cricklander's bunch of +flowers and morning greeting—and then, while the nurse went from the +room for a second, he whispered with dry lips:</p> + +<p>"Will you do me a kindness?" And Arabella's brown eyes gleamed softly +behind her glasses. "Let Miss Halcyone La Sarthe know how I am—she +would come and meet you any day at Mr. Carlyon's—" then he stopped, +disturbed by the blank look in Miss Clinker's face.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" he gasped, and Arabella saw that pale as he had been, with +his poor head all bandaged, he grew still more pale—and she realized +how terribly weak he must be, and how carefully she must calculate what +she could reply.</p> + +<p>"I understand that Mr. Carlyon is in London upon a visit, and that the +Misses La Sarthe have gone to the sea—" and then, as his eyes touched +her with their pitiful questioning surprise, she blurted out the truth.</p> + +<p>"Miss Halcyone La Sarthe was fetched away on last Thursday by her +stepmother—I did not hear the name—and no one knows where she has +gone. La Sarthe Chase is shut up."</p> + +<p>John Derringham closed his eyes—his powers of reasoning were not strong +enough yet to grasp the actual meaning of this—it seemed to him as +though Halcyone were dead, taken away from him by some fate and that all +things were at an end.</p> + +<p>Arabella grew very frightened.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Carlyon telegraphs from London every day," she ventured to +announce.</p> + +<p>But this appeared to bring no comfort, and the nurse returning, signed +to her to leave the room, for John Derringham lay still as one dead.</p> + +<p>And, when Arabella arrived at her own sanctum, she burst into tears. +What a fool she had been to tell him that, she felt.</p> + +<p>All these days, Halcyone passed in a repressed agony in spite of her +prayers and unshaken beliefs. She knew it was her winter time and she +must bear it until the spring should come, though it was none the less +hard to support. But she got through the hours with perfect surface +calm—and her stepsisters thought her stupid and dull, while Mrs. +Anderton decided there was something unnatural about a girl who took not +the slightest interest in shopping, and was perfectly indifferent about +all the attractive garments which were put upon her back. She always +expressed her thanks so gently, and was ever sweet and willing to be of +use, but the look of pain remained deep in those star-like, mysterious +eyes, and caused sensations of discomfort to grow in Mrs. Anderton's +kindly breast.</p> + +<p>Cheiron's laconic messages were delivered to Halcyone every day by +Demetrius.</p> + +<p>John Derringham was no worse.</p> + +<p>He was having every care.</p> + +<p>Sir Benjamin Grant had gone down again.</p> + +<p>His ankle was satisfactorily set.</p> + +<p>But never a word that he had asked for her, and yet she read in the +morning papers each day, as well as knew from her Professor's +information, that her lover was going on splendidly, and would soon be +embarked upon a convalescence. The paper appeared to regard the accident +as safely over, and the patient as returning to health.</p> + +<p>For Mrs. Cricklander, well-skilled in the manipulating of reporters in +her own country, knew exactly what impression she wished to give to the +press. And she had no intention of the idea getting abroad that her +injured visitor was in a very exhausted condition, because there were +those she knew who would suggest that she had bagged him while he was at +her mercy—when, later on, they heard the news of her engagement, which +she felt was each day growing more certain of becoming a fact. And in +Halcyone's brave heart not a doubt ever entered—she waited and believed +and endured, in silent pain.</p> + +<p>After Arabella's unfortunate announcement, for two or three days John +Derringham was too ill to know or care what occurred, and then other and +further tormenting thoughts began to trouble his weary brain.</p> + +<p>If Halcyone had a stepmother who had come and taken her away, there were +then more persons than her ancient aunts to reckon with. She could not +now slip off into a secret marriage with himself with small chance of +awkward questionings. That phase of the dream was over, he felt.</p> + +<p>No letters of any sort were given him by the doctor's strict orders, and +his private secretary had come down, an amiable and intelligent youth, +and was dealing with the necessary official correspondence—as best he +could—growing each day more infatuated with his fair hostess who felt +that no pawn on the chessboard which contained John Derringham as king +was worth neglecting. The Professor was not enjoying his fortnight in +London, and almost tugged his silver beard out while he smoked +innumerable pipes. He had come to some conclusions.</p> + +<p>John Derringham having been unable to keep the tryst with Halcyone was +plainly the working of the hand of Fate, which did not intend that his +sweet girl should occupy the invidious and humiliating position of +secret wife and apparent mistress to the ambitious young man. Therefore +he—Arnold Carlyon—had no right to assist her again into John +Derringham's arms. They must both suffer and work out their destinies +however cruel that might seem.</p> + +<p>"If John really feels she is a necessity, he will brave everything and +marry her openly as soon as he is well. If he does not—then I will not +assist her into a life of misery and disillusion."</p> + +<p>He remembered a talk they had had long ago, when his old pupil had given +his views about women and their place in the scheme of things. Not one +must expect a man to be faithful to her, were she wife or mistress, he +had said. So starting heavily handicapped in the rôle of his secret and +unacknowledged wife, Halcyone would stand a very poor chance of +happiness. Cheiron pictured things—John Derringham flattered and +courted by the world and surrounded by adoring woman, while Halcyone sat +at home in some quiet corner and received the scraps of his attentions +that were left.</p> + +<p>No! decidedly he would have no hand in aiding the sorry affair.</p> + +<p>So he used his influence and even a little cunning in preventing +Halcyone from writing to her lover. He was too ill yet to be troubled, +and she must wait until he should send some message to her.</p> + +<p>"You do not want Mrs. Cricklander to read your letter, child," he said, +when she timidly suggested one day that it would seem kinder if she +wrote to say she was concerned at the accident to her old friend.—The +sad comedy was still kept up between them.—And Halcyone had stiffened. +No, indeed! not that! She was woman enough in spite of the ennobling and +broadening effects of her knowledge of nature, to feel the stab of +jealous pain, though she had resolutely crushed from her thoughts the +insinuation she had read of in the first notice of the disaster—about +Mrs. Cricklander's interest in her lover. Her pride took fire. Certainly +until he could receive letters and read them himself, she must wait. +Cheiron would, of course, inform her when that time came. A doubt of +John Derringham's loyalty to her never even cast its shadow upon her +soul, nor a suspicion that he could doubt her either.</p> + +<p>All these things were the frosts and rains of their winter, but the +springtime would come and the glorious sun and flowers.</p> + +<p>She was growing accustomed to London and the life of continual bustle, +and was almost grateful for it all as it kept her from thinking.</p> + +<p>Her stepfather and his wife mixed in a rising half-set of society where +many people who were not fools came, and a number who were, but to +Halcyone they all seemed a weariness. No one appeared to see anything +straightly, and they seemed to be taken up with pursuits that could not +divert or interest a cat. She saw quite a number of young men at dinners +and was taken to the theater and suppers at the fashionable restaurants, +and these entertainments she loathed. She was too desperately unhappy +underneath to get even youth's exhilaration out of them, and when she +had been in London for nearly three weeks and Cheiron was preparing to +return to his cottage, having delayed his departure much beyond his +ordinary time, she felt she could endure the martyrdom no more.</p> + +<p>She had stilled every voice which had whispered to her that it was +indeed time that she heard some word from her lover. Because there were +now only occasional notices in the papers about his health, he was +supposed to be getting well.</p> + +<p>"I will implore Cheiron to let me go back with him," she decided firmly, +as she went downstairs to breakfast. "I will ask if I may not go out and +see him this morning," and, comforted with this thought, she entered the +dining-room with a brisker step than usual. No one but her stepfather +was down.</p> + +<p>He had grown accustomed, if not quite attached, to the quiet, gentle +girl, and he liked her noiseless, punctual way—they had often +breakfasted alone.</p> + +<p>He was reading his <i>Chronicle</i> propped up in front of him, and handed +her the <i>Morning Post</i> from the pile by his side. He silently went on +with his cutlet which an obsequious butler had placed for his +consumption. Halcyone turned rapidly to the column where she was +accustomed to look daily for news of her lover. And there she read that +Mrs. Cricklander had been entertaining a Saturday to Monday party, and +that Mr. John Derringham's recovery was now well advanced, even his +broken ankle was mending rapidly and he hoped soon to be well.</p> + +<p>A tight feeling grew round her heart, and her eyes dropped absently down +the columns of the engagement announcements in which she took no +interest, and then it seemed that her very soul was struck with agony as +she read:</p> + +<p>"A marriage has been arranged and will shortly take place between the +Right Honorable John Derringham of Derringham in the County of +Northampton, Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and Mrs. +Vincent Cricklander of New York, daughter of Orlando B. Muggs of +Pittsburgh, U.S.A."</p> + +<p>And it was here that the La Sarthe breeding stood Halcyone in good +stead, for she neither fainted nor dropped the paper—but, after a few +seconds of acute anguish, she rose and, making some little remark about +having forgotten something, quietly left the room.</p> + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a><h2>CHAPTER XXIV</h2> +<br> + +<p>It is possible that, if his revolver had been lying quite near, the +morning John Derringham awoke to the remembrance that he was more or +less an engaged man, he would have shot himself, so utterly wretched and +debased did he feel. But no such weapon was there, and he lay in his +splendid gilt bed and groaned aloud as he covered his eyes with his +hand.</p> + +<p>The light hurt him—he was giddy, and his head swam. Surely, among other +things in the half-indistinct nightmare of the preceding evening, he +must have had too much champagne.</p> + +<p>From the moment, now over a week ago, that he had been allowed to sit up +in bed, and more or less distinct thought had come back to him, he had +been a prey to hideous anxiety and grief. Halcyone was gone from +him—had been snatched away by Fate, who, with relentless +vindictiveness, had filled his cup. For the first letters that he +opened, marked from his lawyers so urgently that they had been given to +him before the bandages were off his head, contained the gravest news of +his financial position. The chief mortgagee intended to foreclose in the +course of the next three months, unless an arrangement could be come to +at once, which appeared impossible.</p> + +<p>He was actually at bay. Thus, although in his first moments of +consciousness, he had intended to go directly he was well and demand his +love openly and chance the rest, this news made that course now quite +out of the question. He could not condemn her to wretched poverty and +tie a millstone round both their necks. The doctors had absolutely +forbidden him to read or even know of any more letters—the official +ones the secretary could deal with—but he became so restless with +anxiety that Arabella Clinker was persuaded to bring them up and at +least let him glance at the addresses.</p> + +<p>There was one from Cheiron, which he insisted upon opening—a brief dry +line of commiseration for his accident, with no mention of Halcyone in +it. The complete ignoring of his letter to announce their marriage cut +him deeply. He realized Mr. Carlyon guessed that the accident had +happened before that event could take place, and his silence about it +showed what he thought. John Derringham quivered with discomfort, he +hated to feel the whip of his old master's contempt. And he could not +explain matters or justify himself—there was nothing to be said. The +Professor, of course, knew of Halcyone's whereabouts—but, after his +broad hint of his want of sympathy about their relations, John +Derringham felt he could not open the subject with him again. This +channel for the assuagement of his anxieties was closed. The immense +pile of the rest of his correspondence was at last sorted. He knew most +of the writings, and the few he was doubtful about he opened—but none +were from his love. So he gave them all back to Arabella, and turned his +face from the light physically exhausted and with a storm of pain in his +heart.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Cricklander had carefully gone through each post as it came, and +longed to destroy one or two suspicious-looking communications she saw +in the same female handwriting—from his old friend Lady Durend, if she +had known!—but she dared not, and indeed was not really much disturbed. +She had laid her own plans with too great a nicety and felt perfectly +sure of the ultimate result of their action. Arabella was each day sent +up with the subtlest messages to the poor invalid, which her honor made +her unwillingly repeat truthfully.</p> + +<p>Cecilia Cricklander was an angel of sweet, watchful care, it seemed, and +John Derringham really felt deeply grateful to her.</p> + +<p>Then the moment came when she decided she would see him.</p> + +<p>"I will go this afternoon at tea-time, Arabella, if you can assure me +there won't be any horrid smell of carbolic or nasty drugs about—I know +there always are when people have cuts to be dressed, and I really could +not stand it. It would give me one of my bad attacks of nerves."</p> + +<p>And Miss Clinker was reluctantly obliged to assure her employer that +those days were passed, and that Mr. Derringham now only looked a pale, +but very interesting invalid, as he lay there with a black silk +handkerchief tied round his head.</p> + +<p>"Then I'll go," said Mrs. Cricklander—and, instead of sending the +message with her daily flowers, she wrote a tiny note.</p> + +<p> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 1em;">I can't bear it any longer—I must come!</span><br> + +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 9.25em;">CECELIA.</span> +</p> + +<p>Arabella Clinker watched his face as he read this, and saw a flush grow +in his ivory-pale skin.</p> + +<p>"Oh! Poor Mr. Derringham!" she thought, "it isn't fair! How can he hold +out against her when he is so weak—what ought I to do? If I only knew +what is my loyal course!"</p> + +<p>Arabella was perfectly aware how the reports of his rapid recovery had +been circulated—and guessed the reason—and all her kind woman's heart +was touched as she watched him lying there in splints, as pitiful and +helpless as a baby. To pretend that he was making a quick return to +health was so very far from the truth. She, herself, saw little change +for the better from day to day; indeed, his large, proud eyes seemed to +grow more anxious and haggard as the time went on.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Cricklander donned her most suitably ravishing tea-gown, one of +subdued simplicity—and, like a beautiful summer flower, she swept into +the invalid's room when the lowered sun blinds made the light restful +and the June roses filled the air with scent. It was the end of the +month and glorious weather was over the land.</p> + +<p>Nothing could have been more exquisite than Cecilia's sympathy. Indeed, +she did feel a good deal moved, and was a superb actress at all times.</p> + +<p>She only stayed a very short while, not to tire him, and John +Derringham, left alone, was conscious that he had been soothed and +pleased, and she departed leaving the impression that her love for him +was only kept within bounds by fear for his health!</p> + +<p>She had suffered <i>so</i> during all the days! she told him, she could +hardly eat or sleep. And then to be debarred from nursing him!—the +cruelty of it! Why the doctors should have thought her presence would be +more disturbing than Arabella's, she could not think! And here she +looked down, and her white hand, with its perfectly kept nails, lying +upon the coverlet so near him, John Derringham lifted it in his feeble +grasp and touched it with his lips. He was so grateful for her +kindness—and affected by her beauty; he could not do less, he felt.</p> + +<p>And after that, with a deliciously girlish and confused gasp, Mrs. +Cricklander had hastily quitted the room.</p> + +<p>It was not until the second day that she came again—and he had begun to +wish for her.</p> + +<p>This time she was bright and amusing, and assumed airs of authority over +him, and was careful never to sit so that her hand might be in reach, +while she used every one of her many arts of tantalization and enjoyed +herself as only she knew how to do.</p> + +<p>It was perfectly divine to have him there to play upon like a violin and +to know it was only a question of time before she would secure him for +her own!</p> + +<p>After this, she had visitors in the house and did not come for three +days, and John Derringham felt a little peevish and aggrieved. It +rained, too, and his head ached still with the slightest exertion.</p> + +<p>He now began to put all thoughts of Halcyone away from him, as far as he +was able. It was too late to do anything—she must think him base, as +she had never sent him one word. This caused him restless anguish. What +was the meaning of it all? Could she have learned in the light of the +world that it was not a very great position he had offered her, and so +despised him in consequence? What aspect of it might they not have put +into her head—these people she was with—this step-mother of whom he +had never heard? In all cases Fate had parted them, and he must cut the +pain of it from his life or it would destroy him. It never occurred to +him to reflect upon the possible agony she might be suffering, his poor +little wood-nymph, all alone. The fact of his own unhappiness filled his +mind to the exclusion of any other thought for the time. In his dire +physical weakness Cecilia Cricklander's gracious beauty seemed to +augment, and Halcyone's sylph-like charm to grow of less potent force. +For Love had not done all that he would yet do with John Derringham's +soul.</p> + +<p>That underneath, if he could have chosen between the two women, he would +have hesitated for a second was not the case; only physical weakness, +and circumstance and propinquity were working for the one and against +the other—and so it would appear was Fate.</p> + +<p>Thus, the day the visitors left, Mr. Hanbury-Green among them, the +invalid was experiencing a sense of exasperating neglect. He felt +extremely miserable. Life, and all he held good in it, seemed to be over +for him, and his financial position was absolutely desperate—quite +beyond any question of marriage it threatened to swamp his actual +career. He felt impotent and beaten, lying there like a log unable to +move.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Cricklander sent him another little note in the afternoon. Arabella +had reported that the patient was restless, and this might mean one of +two things—either that he was becoming impatient to see her, or that he +was growing restive and bored with bed. In either case it was the moment +to strike—and to strike quickly.</p> + +<p>"The doctors have said you may have a taste of champagne to-night," she +wrote, which was quite untrue, but a small fib like this could not count +when such large issues were at stake. "And so I propose, if you will let +me and will have me for your guest, to come and dine with you to +celebrate the event. Say if I may. Cecilia."</p> + +<p>And he had eagerly scribbled in pencil, "Yes."</p> + +<p>So she came, and was all in white with just a red rose in her dress, and +she was solicitous about his comfort—had he enough pillows?—and she +spoke so graciously to the nurse who arranged things before she went to +her supper.</p> + +<p>She, Cecilia, would be his nurse, she whispered—just for to-night! and +then her own personal footman brought in an exquisite little dinner upon +a table which he set near the bed, all noiselessly—it had been arranged +outside—and she would select just the tenderest morsels for John +Derringham, or some turtle soup?—He was not hungry!—Well, never mind, +she would feed him!—and he must be good and let her pet him as she felt +inclined.</p> + +<p>She was looking quite extraordinarily beautiful, with all the light of +triumph in her sparkling eyes, and she sat down upon the bed and +actually pretended that if he were disobedient she would put pieces into +his mouth!</p> + +<p>John Derringham was a man—and, although he felt very ill and feeble, +after she had made him drink some champagne, the seduction of her began +to go to his head. Stimulant of any kind was the last thing he should +have had, and would have caused the nurse a shock of horror if she had +known. How it all came about he could not tell, what she said or he said +he could never remember, only the one thing which stood out was that as +the time for the nurse's return arrived, he knew that Cecilia +Cricklander was kissing him with apparent passion, which he felt in some +measure he was returning, and that she was murmuring: "And we shall be +married, darling John, as soon as you are well."</p> + +<p>He must have said something definite, he supposed.</p> + +<p>But, at that moment, the nurse was heard in the next room and his +<i>fiancée</i>—yes, his <i>fiancée</i>—got up and, when the woman came in in her +stiff nurse's dress, slightly apologetic that she had been so long, she +was greeted by this speech from the lady of the house:</p> + +<p>"Ah, Nurse Brome, you have been so good to Mr. Derringham, you must be +the first to wish us happiness and share our news. We are going to be +married as soon as ever you get him well—so you must hasten that, like +the clever woman you are!"</p> + +<p>And she had laughed, a soft laugh of triumph, which even in his +light-headed state had seemed to John Derringham as the mocking of some +fiend.</p> + +<p>Then she had left him quickly, while the footman carried the table from +the room—and after that he remembered nothing more, he had fallen into +a feverish sleep. But the next morning, when he awoke, he knew captivity +had indeed tumbled upon him, and that he was chained hand and foot.</p> + +<p>And all the day his temperature went up again, and he was not allowed to +see even Arabella of the kind heart, who would have come and condoled +with him, and even wept over him if she had dared, so moved did the good +creature feel at his fate.</p> + +<p>It was only upon the third day, when telegrams of congratulation began +to pour in upon him by the dozen, that he knew anything about the +announcement that had appeared in the <i>Morning Post</i>.</p> + +<p>Yes, he was caught and chained at last, and for the next week had moods +of gnashing his teeth, and feeling the most degraded of men, alternating +with hours of trying to persuade himself that it was the best thing +which could have happened to him.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Cricklander, now that she had gained her end, wisely left him for a +day or two in peace to the care of Arabella and the nurses, drawing the +net closer each hour by her public parade of her position as his +<i>fiancée</i>. She wrote the most exquisite and womanly letter to thank her +many friends for their kind congratulations—and lamented, now that the +truth being known would not matter, that John had had a slight relapse, +and was not quite so well.</p> + +<p>But, of course, she was taking every care of him, and so he soon would +be his old exuberant self!</p> + +<p>Thus the period of John Derringham's purgatory began.</p> + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXV"></a><h2>CHAPTER XXV</h2> +<br> + +<p>Grieving is such a satisfactory and dramatic thing when you can fling +yourself down upon the ground and cry aloud and tear your hair. But if +some great blow must be borne without a sign, then indeed it wrings the +heart and saps the forces of life.</p> + +<p>When Halcyone got to her room, the housemaids were there beginning to +make her bed—so it was no refuge for her—and she was obliged to go +down again. The big drawing-rooms would be untenanted at this moment, so +she turned the handle of the door and crept in there. The modern +brightly gilt Louis XVI furniture glared at her, but she sank into a big +chair thankful to find any support.</p> + +<p>What was this which had fallen upon her?—The winter, indeed—or, more +than that, not only the winter but the end of life, like the flash of +lightning which had struck the tree in the park the night before that +day which was to have seen her wedding?</p> + +<p>And as she sat there in dumb, silent, hideous agony which crushed for +the moment belief and hope, a canary from the aviary beyond set up a +trilling song. She listened for a second; it seemed to hurt her more. +The poor bird was in captivity, as was her soul. And then, while the +little songster went on, undismayed by its cage, a reaction set in. If +the soft-feathered creature could sing there beyond the bars, what right +had she to doubt God for one second? No—there should never be any +disbelief. It was only the winter, after all. She was too young to die +like the tree which had been there for some hundreds of years, She would +be as brave as the bird, and those forces of nature which she had loved +and trusted so long, would comfort her.</p> + +<p>She sat there for a quarter of an hour saying her prayers and stilling +the pain in her heart—and then she got up and deliberately went back to +the dining-room, where the family were all assembled now.</p> + +<p>They chaffed about everything, and were boisterous and jovial as usual, +and when she asked if she might go and see her old master, should Mrs. +Anderton not wish especially for her company that morning, her +stepfather offered to drive her there in his phaeton on his way to the +city.</p> + +<p>"She grows upon one, Lu," he said to his wife, when Halcyone had gone up +to put on her hat. "She is like some quiet, soothing book; she is a kind +of comfort—but she looks confoundedly pale to-day. Take her to the play +to-night, or ask some young fellows in to dinner, to cheer her up."</p> + +<p>The drive did Halcyone good, and, to the astonishment of Cheiron who had +also read the news, she walked into his sitting-room with perfect calm. +He himself was raging with indignation and disgust.</p> + +<p>But, when he looked into her deep eyes, his astonishment turned to pain, +for the expression in them as they burned from her lifeless face was so +pure, so pitiful and so tragic, that it left him without words for the +moment.</p> + +<p>At last he said—when she had greeted him:</p> + +<p>"I have been thinking, Halcyone, that I have not had a trip abroad for a +long time, but I am too old now to care about going alone. Do you think +that your aunts and these step-relations of yours would spare you to +accompany me, my dear?"</p> + +<p>And Halcyone had to turn away to the window to hide the tears which +suddenly welled up; he was so kind and understanding always—her dear +old master!</p> + +<p>"Yes, I am sure they would," she said in a very low voice. "How good of +you. And if we could start at once—that would be nice, would it not? I +suppose they would not let me go without Priscilla, though," she added; +"would that matter?"</p> + +<p>"Not at all," said the Professor.</p> + +<p>They neither of them mentioned John Derringham's engagement. They talked +long about the possibilities of their foreign journey, and Cheiron felt +himself repaid when he began to observe a look of returning life creep +into her white face.</p> + +<p>"I will call and see your stepfather in the city directly after lunch," +he said. "If you will write to your Aunts La Sarthe, I do not think +there can be any objection."</p> + +<p>"We could take Aphrodite, could we not?" Halcyone asked. "She is very +heavy, I know, but I would carry her, and I do not think I would like to +leave her there in the dark away from me for all that time."</p> + +<p>"We would certainly take her," said Cheiron.</p> + +<p>Halcyone knew enough about London now to know where Kensington Gardens +were. Whenever she went to see Mr. Carlyon, it was an understood thing +he would bring her safely back, so no one would be sent to fetch her. +Might they not go to Kensington Gardens this morning, she asked. She +remembered to have noticed, when she had driven past with Mr. Anderton, +that there seemed to be big trees there. She wanted to get into some +open space, London was stifling her.</p> + +<p>Mr. Carlyon put on his hat, and prepared to accompany her. They drove to +the first gate and got out, neither having spoken a word, as was their +habit when both were thinking.</p> + +<p>They wandered in among the trees and found two chairs and sat down.</p> + +<p>These were real trees, Halcyone felt. And, although she would have +preferred to be alone to-day without even Cheiron, the great trunks and +vast leafy canopy above them comforted her.</p> + +<p>She would not permit herself to think, the beauty of the summer day must +just saturate her, and soothe the cold, sick ache in her heart. And, +presently, when she was strengthened, she would face it all and see what +it could mean, and what would be best to do to bear the blow as a La +Sarthe should, and show nothing of the anguish.</p> + +<p>And, as she mused, her eyes absently wandered to a couple under a tree +some twenty yards beyond them. There was something familiar in the +girl's graceful back, and, as she turned her fresh face to look at her +companion, Halcyone saw that it was Cora Lutworth.</p> + +<p>Some magnetic spark seemed to connect them, for the pretty American girl +turned completely round in her chair, and catching sight of the two +jumped up and came towards them—with glad, laughing eyes and +out-stretched hands.</p> + +<p>"To see you!" she exclaimed. "That is so good! There is no Styx here, +and we must have some fun together!"</p> + +<p>She sat down upon a chair which Lord Freynault dragged up for her, and +he himself took another beyond the Professor—so the two girls could +talk together.</p> + +<p>"I am going to be married—you know!" Cora announced gayly. "Freynie and +I settled it at a ball last night, but we haven't told anyone yet! Isn't +it lovely? We just slipped out here for a little quiet talk."</p> + +<p>"I am so glad. I hope you will be very happy," Halcyone said, and tried +not to let the contrast of Cora's joyous prospect make her wince.</p> + +<p>"I am always happy," Cora returned, "and it's dear of you to wish me +nice things."</p> + +<p>Halcyone attracted her immensely, her quite remarkable personal +distinction was full of charm, and, now in fresh and pretty modern +clothes, to Cora's eyes she looked almost beautiful; but why so very +pale and quiet, she wondered; and then, with a flash, she remembered the +news she too had read in the paper that morning. Perhaps Halcyone minded +very much. She decided rapidly what to do. If she did not mention it at +all, she reasoned, this finely strung girl would know that she guessed +it would be painful to her—and that might hurt her pride. It was kinder +to plunge in and get it over.</p> + +<p>"Isn't it wonderful about Mr. Derringham and Cecilia Cricklander?" she +said, pretending to be busy untangling her parasol tassel. "She always +intended to marry him—and she is so rich I expect he felt that would be +a good thing. Freynie says he is very much harder up then anyone knows."</p> + +<p>Her kind, common sense told her that a man's doing even a low thing for +expediency would hurt a woman who loved him, less than that the motive +for his action should have been one of inclination.</p> + +<p>Halcyone came up to the scratch, although a fierce pain tightened her +heart afresh.</p> + +<p>"Yes," she said, "I suppose no one was surprised to read of the +engagement in the papers to-day. I can imagine that a man requires a +great deal of money to support the position in the government which Mr. +Derringham has, and no doubt Mrs. Cricklander is glad to give it to +him—he is so clever and great." And not a muscle of her face quivered +as she spoke.</p> + +<p>"If it does hurt—my goodness! she is game!" Cora thought, and aloud she +went on, "Cecilia isn't a bad sort—a shocking snob, as all of us are +who are not the real thing and want to be—like your own common pushers +over here. We used to laugh at her awfully when she first came from +Pittsburgh and tried to cut in before she married my cousin. Poor old +Vin! He was crazy about her." Then she went on reflectively, as Halcyone +did not answer. "We often think you English people are so odd—the way +you can't distinguish between us! You receive, with open arms, the most +impossible people if they are rich, that we at home would not touch with +a barge pole, and you say: 'Oh, they are just American,' as if we were +all the same! And then we are so awfully clever as a nation that in a +year or two these dreadful vulgarians, as we would call them in New +York, have picked up all <i>your</i> outside polish, and pass as <i>our</i> best! +It makes lots of the really nice old gentle-folk at home perfectly +mad—but I can't help admiring the spirit. That is why I have stuck to +Cis, though the rest of the family have given her the cold shoulder. It +is such magnificent audacity—don't you think so?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed," agreed Halcyone. "All people have a right to obtain what +they aspire to if they fit themselves for it."</p> + +<p>"That is one of Mr. Derringham's pet theories," Cora laughed. "He held +forth one night, when I was staying at Wendover at Easter, about it—and +it was such fun. Cis did not really understand a single thing of the +classical allusions he was making—but she got through. I watch her with +delight. Men are sweetly simple bats, though, aren't they? Any woman can +take them in—" and Cora laughed again joyously. "I have sat sometimes +in fits to hear Cis keeping a whole group of your best politicians +enthralled, and not one seeing she is just repeating parrot sentences. +You have only to be rich and beautiful and look into a man's eyes and +flatter him, and you can make him believe you are what you please. Now +Freynie thinks I am absolutely perfect when I am really being a horrid +little capricious minx—don't you, Freynie, dear!" and she leaned over +and looked at her betrothed with sweet and tender eyes—and Lord +Freynault got up and moved his chair round, so that the four were in a +circle.</p> + +<p>"What preposterous thing is Cora telling you?" he laughed, with an +adoring glance at her sparkling face. "But I am getting jealous, and +shall take her away because I want to talk to her all to myself!"</p> + +<p>And, when they had settled that the two girls should meet at tea the +following day in Cora's sitting-room at Claridge's, where she was +staying with a friend, the newly engaged pair went off together beaming +with joy and affection.</p> + +<p>And Halcyone gazed after them with a wistful look in her sad eyes, which +stabbed the old Professor's heart.</p> + +<p>She was remembering the morning under their tree, when she and her lover +had sat and made their plans, and he had asked her if she had any fear +at the thought of giving him her future.</p> + +<p>It was only three weeks ago. Surely everything was a dream. How much he +had seemed to love her. And then unconsciously she started to her feet, +and strode away among the trees, forgetful of her companion—and Cheiron +sat and watched her, knowing she would come back and it was better to +let her overcome alone the agony which was convulsing her.</p> + +<p>Yes, John Derringham had seemed to love her—not seemed—no—it was +real—he <i>had</i> loved her. And she would never believe but that he loved +her still. This was only a wicked turn of those bad forces which she +knew were abroad in the world. Had she not seen evil once in a man's +face crouching in the bracken, as he set a trap for some poor hare one +dark and starry night? And she had passed on, and then, when she thought +he would be gone, she had returned and loosened the spring before it +could do any harm. That poacher had evil forces round him. They were +there always for the unwary, and had fastened upon John. She would never +doubt his love, and she herself could never change, and she would pour +upon him all her tender thoughts, and call to the night winds to help +her to do her duty.</p> + +<p>So presently she remembered Cheiron, and turned round to see him far +away still, sitting quietly beneath a giant elm stroking his long, +silver beard.</p> + +<p>"My dear, kind master!" she exclaimed to herself, and went rapidly back +to him.</p> + +<p>"That is a charming girl—your young friend," he said to her, as he got +up to stroll to the gate; "full of life and common sense. There is +something wonderful in the vitality of her nation. They jar dreadfully +upon us old tired peoples in their worst aspects—but in their best we +must recognize a new spring of life and youth for the world. Yonder +young woman is not troubling about a soul, if she has one; she is a +fountain of living water. She has not taken on the shadows of our +crowded past. Halcyone, my dear, you and I are the inheritance of too +much culture. When I see her I want to cry with Epicurus: 'Above all, +steer clear of Culture!'" And then he branched from this subject and +plunged into a learned dissertation upon the worship of Dionysus, and +how it had cropped up again and again with wild fervor among the ancient +worlds whose senses and brains were wearied with the state religions, +and he concluded by analogy that this wild longing to return to youth's +follies and mad ecstasies, to get free from restraints, to seek +communion with the spiritual beyond in some exaltation of the +emotions—in short, to get back to nature—was an instinct in all human +beings and all nations, when their zeniths of art and cultivation had +come.</p> + +<p>And Halcyone, who had heard it all before and knew the subject to her +finger tips, wandered dreamily into a shadowland where she felt she was +of these people—those far back worshipers—and this was her winter when +Dionysus was dead, but would live again when the spring came and the +flowers.</p> + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a><h2>CHAPTER XXVI</h2> +<br> + +<p>Mrs. Cricklander felt it would be discreet and in perfect taste if she +announced her intention of going off to Carlsbad the week after her +engagement was settled—she was always most careful of decorum. And, if +the world of her friends thought John Derringham was well enough to be +making love to her in the seclusion of her own house, it would be much +wiser for her to show that she should always remain beyond the breath of +any gossip.</p> + +<p>In her heart she was bored to tears. For nearly the whole of June she +had been cooped up at Wendover—for more than half the time without even +parties of visitors to keep her company—and she loathed being alone. +She had no personal resources and invariably at such times smoked too +much and got agitated nerves in consequence.</p> + +<p>John Derringham—strong and handsome, with his prestige and his +brilliant faculties—was a conquest worth parading chained to her +chariot wheels. But John Derringham, feeble, unable to walk, his ankle +in splints and plaster of Paris, and still suffering from headaches +whenever the light was strong, was simply a weariness to her—nothing +more nor less.</p> + +<p>So that, until he should be restored to his usual captivating vigor, it +was much better for her pleasure to leave him to his complete recovery +alone, now that she had got him securely in her keeping.</p> + +<p>Arabella could ask her mother down and keep house and see that he had +everything in the world that he wanted—and there were the devoted +nurses. And, in short, her doctor had said she must have her usual cure, +and that was the end of the matter!</p> + +<p>She had only made him the most fleeting visits during the week. He had +really been ill after the fever caused by the champagne. And she had +been exquisitely gentle and not too demonstrative. She had calculated +the possibility of his backing out under the plea of his health, so she +determined not to give him a chance to have the slightest excuse by +overtiring him.</p> + +<p>No one could have better played the part of devoted, understanding +friend who by excess of love had been betrayed into one lapse of +passionate outburst, and now wished only to soothe and comfort.</p> + +<p>"She is a good sort," John Derringham thought, after her first visit. +"She will let me down easy in any case," and the ceasing of his anxiety +about his financial position comforted him greatly.</p> + +<p>The next time she came and sat by his bed, a vision of fresh summer +laces and chiffons, he determined to make the position clear to her.</p> + +<p>She always bent and kissed him with airy grace, then sat down at a +discreet distance. She felt he was not overanxious to caress her, and +preferred that the rendering of this impossible should come from her +side. Indeed, unless kisses were necessary to gain an end, she did not +care for them herself—stupid, contemptible things, she thought them!</p> + +<p>John Derringham would have touched the hearts of most women as he lay +there, but Cecilia Cricklander had not this tiresome appendage, only the +business brain and unemotional sensibilities of her grandfather the pork +butcher. She did realize that her <i>fiancé</i>, even there with the black +silk handkerchief wound round his head and his face and hands deadly +pale and fragile-looking, was still a most arrogant and +distinguished-looking creature, and that his eyes, with their pathetic +shadows dimming the proud glance in them, were wonderfully attractive. +But she was not touched especially by his weakness. She disliked +suffering and never wanted to be made aware of it.</p> + +<p>John Derringham went straight into the subject which was uppermost in +his thoughts. He asked her to listen to him patiently, and stated his +exact financial situation. She must then judge if she found it worth +while to marry him; he would not deceive her about one fraction of it.</p> + +<p>She laughed lightly when he had ended—and there was something which +galled him in her mirth.</p> + +<p>"It is all a ridiculous nothing," she said. "Why, I can pay off the +whole thing with only the surplus I invest every year from my income! +Your property is quite good security—if I want any. We shall probably +have to do it in a business-like way; your house will be mine, of +course, but I will make you very comfortable as my guest!" and she +smiled with suitable playfulness. "Let the lawyers talk over these +things, not you and me—you may be sure mine will look after me!"</p> + +<p>John Derringham felt the blood tingling in his ears. There was nothing +to take exception to in what she had said, but it hurt him awfully.</p> + +<p>"Very well," he answered wearily, and closed his eyes for a moment. "If +you are satisfied, that is all that need be said. As things go on, and I +reach where I mean to get, I dare say to spend money to do the thing +beautifully will please you as much as it will gratify me. I will give +you what I can of the honors and glories—so shall we consider our +bargain equal?"</p> + +<p>This was not lover-like, and Mrs. Cricklander knew it, but it was better +to have got it all over. She was well aware that the "honors and +glories" would compensate her for the outlay of her dollars, but her red +mouth shut with a snap as she registered a thought.</p> + +<p>"When I come back it may amuse me to make him really in love with me." +Then, watching carefully, she saw that some cloud of jar and disillusion +had settled upon her <i>fiancé's</i> face. So with her masterly skill she +tried to banish it, talking intelligently upon the political situation +and his prospects. It looked certain that the Government would not last +beyond the session—and then what would happen?</p> + +<p>Mr. Hanbury-Green had given her a very clear forecast of what the other +side meant to do, but this she did not impart to John Derringham.</p> + +<p>She made one really stupid mistake as she got up to leave the room.</p> + +<p>"If you want a few thousands now, John," she said, as she bent to +lightly salute his cheek, "do let me know and I will send them to your +bank. They may be useful for the wedding."</p> + +<p>A dull flush mounted to the roots of his hair, and then left him very +pale.</p> + +<p>He took her hand and kissed it with icy homage.</p> + +<p>"Thank you, no—" he said. "You are far too good. I will not take +anything from you until the bargain is completed."</p> + +<p>Then their eyes met and in his there was a flash of steel.</p> + +<p>And when she had gone from the room he lay and quivered, a sense of +hideous humiliation flooding his being.</p> + +<p>The following day she came in the morning. She looked girlish in her +short tennis frock and was rippling with smiles. She sat on the bed and +kissed him—and then slipped her hand into his.</p> + +<p>"John, darling," she said sweetly. "People will begin to talk if I stay +here at Wendover now that you are getting better—and you would hate +that as much as I—so I have settled to go to Carlsbad with Lady +Maulevrier—just for three weeks. By that time my splendid John will be +himself again and we can settle about our wedding—" then she bent and +kissed him once more before he could speak. "Arabella is going to get +her mother to come down," she went on, "and you will be safe here with +these devoted old ladies and your Brome who is plainly in love with you, +poor thing!" and she laughed gayly. "Say you think it is best, too, +John, dearest?"</p> + +<p>"Whatever you wish," he answered with some sudden quick sense of relief. +"I know I am an awful bore lying here, and I shall not be able to crawl +to a sofa even for another week, these doctors say."</p> + +<p>"You are not a bore—you are a darling," she murmured, patting his hand. +"And if only I were allowed to stay with you—night and day—and nurse +you like Brome, I should be perfectly happy. But these snatched +scraps—John, darling, I can't bear it!"</p> + +<p>He wondered if she were lying. He half thought so, but she looked so +beautiful, it enabled him to return her caresses with some tepid warmth.</p> + +<p>"It is too sweet of you, Cecilia," he said, as he kissed her. He had not +yet used one word of intimate endearment—she had never been his +darling, his sweet and his own, like Halcyone.</p> + +<p>After she had gone again, all details having been settled for her +departure upon the Monday, he almost felt that he hated her. For, when +she was in this apparently loving mood, it seemed as if her bonds +tightened round his throat and strangled him to death. "Octopus arms" he +remembered Cheiron had called them.</p> + +<p>When Mrs. Cricklander got back to her own favorite long seat out on the +terrace, she sat down, and settling the pillows under her head, she let +her thoughts ticket her advantages gained, in her usual concrete +fashion.</p> + +<p>"He is absolutely mine, body and soul. He does not love me—we shall +have the jolliest time seeing who will win presently—but I have got the +dollars, so there is no doubt of the result—and what fun it will be! It +does not matter what I do now, he cannot break away from me. He has let +me see plainly that my money has influenced him—and, although +Englishmen are fools, in his class they are ridiculously honorable. I've +got him!" and she laughed aloud. "It is all safe, he will not break the +bargain!"</p> + +<p>So she wrote an interesting note to Mr. Hanbury-Green with a pencil on +one of the blocks which she kept lying about for any sudden use—and +then strolled into the house for an envelope.</p> + +<p>And, as John Derringham lay in the darkened room upstairs, he presently +heard her joyous voice as she played tennis with his secretary, and the +reflection he made was:</p> + +<p>"Good Lord, how thankful I should be that at least I do not love her!"</p> + +<p>Then he clenched his hands, and his aching thoughts escaped the iron +control under which since his engagement he had tried always to keep +them, and they went back to Halcyone. He saw again with agonizing +clearness her little tender face, when her soft, true eyes had melted +into his as she whispered of love.</p> + +<p>"This is what God means in everything." Well, God had very little to do +with himself and Cecilia Cricklander!</p> + +<p>And then he suddenly seemed to see the brutishness of men. Here was +he—a refined, honorable gentleman—in a few weeks going to play false +to his every instinct, and take this woman whom he was growing to +despise—and perhaps dislike—into his arms and into his life, in that +most intimate relationship which, he realized now, should only be +undertaken when passionate calls of tenderest love imperatively forced +it. She would have the right to be with him day—and night. She might be +the mother of his children—and he would have to watch her instincts, +which he surely would have daily grown to loathe, coming out in them. +And all because money had failed him in his own resources and was +necessary to his ambitions, and this necessity, working with an appeal +to his senses when fired with wine, had brought about the situation.</p> + +<p>God Almighty! How low he felt!</p> + +<p>And he groaned aloud.</p> + +<p>Then from a small dispatch box, which he had got his servant to put by +his bed, he drew forth a little gold case, in which for all these years +he had kept an oak leaf. He had had it made in the enthusiasm of his +youth when he had returned to London after Halcyone, the wise-eyed +child, had given it to him, and it had gone about everywhere with him +since as a sort of fetish.</p> + +<p>It burnt his sight when he looked at it now. For had he been "good and +true"? Alas! No—nothing but a sensual, ambitious weakling.</p> + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a><h2>CHAPTER XXVII</h2> +<br> + +<p>The Professor and his protégée spent the whole of that July wandering in +Brittany—going from one old-world spot to another. There had not been +much opposition raised by Mr. and Mrs. Anderton to Halcyone's +accompanying her old master. They themselves were going to Scotland, and +there Mabel had decided she would no longer be kept in the schoolroom, +and intended to come forward as a grown-up girl assisting in the +hospitalities of her father's shooting lodge. And Mrs. Anderton, knowing +her temper, thought a rival of any sort might make difficulties. So, as +far as they were concerned, Halcyone might start at once. They always +left for the north in the middle of the month, and if the Professor +wanted to get away sooner, they did not wish to interfere with his +arrangements. Halcyone must come and pay them another visit later on.</p> + +<p>As for the Aunts La Sarthe—their heads appeared to be completely turned +by their sojourn at the seaside! They proposed to remain there all the +summer, and put forward no objection to their niece's excursion with Mr. +Carlyon. The once quiet spot of their youth had developed into a +fashionable Welsh watering place, and Miss Roberta was taking on a new +lease of health and activity from the pleasure of seeing the crowded +parade, while the Aunt Ginevra allowed that the exhilarating breezes and +cerulean waters were certainly most refreshing!</p> + +<p>Before the Professor could leave for a lengthy trip abroad, it was +necessary that he should return to the orchard house for a day, and +Halcyone accompanied him, leaving Priscilla in London. Her mission was +to secure the goddess's head—but, as there was no one at La Sarthe +Chase, she decided just to go there and get her treasure and sleep the +night at Cheiron's.</p> + +<p>It would be an excursion of much pain to her, to be so near to her still +loved lover and to feel the cruel gulf between them, but she must face +it if she desired Aphrodite to accompany them. The Professor suggested +she might take him through the secret passage and try with his help to +open the heavy box. No such opportunity had ever occurred before or was +likely to occur again, her aunts being absent and even old William +nowhere about. It made the chance one in a thousand. So she agreed, and +determined to force herself to endure the pain which going back would +cause her.</p> + +<p>She was perfectly silent all the way from London to Upminster—and Mr. +Carlyon watched her furtively. He knew very well what was passing in her +mind, and admired the will which suppressed the expression of it. She +grew very pale indeed in the station-fly when they passed the gates of +Wendover. It was about half past three in the afternoon—and the +Professor had promised to come to the archway opening of the secret +passage at five.</p> + +<p>So Halcyone left him and took her way down the garden and through the +little gate into the park. It seemed like revisiting some scene in a +former life, so deep was the chasm which separated the last time she +walked that way from this day. She passed the oak tree without stopping. +She would not give way to any weakness or the grief which threatened to +overwhelm her. She kept her mind steadily fixed upon the object she had +in view, with a power of concentration which only those who live in +solitude can ever attain to.</p> + +<p>Aphrodite was there still in the bag lying on top of the heavy +iron-bound box in the secret passage, and she carried her out into the +sunlight and once more took the wrappings from the perfect face.</p> + +<p>"You are coming with us, sweet friend," she whispered, and gazed long +into the goddess's eyes. What she saw there gave her comfort.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know," she went on gently. "I did say that, whatever came, I +would understand that it was life—And I do—and I know this evil pain +is only for the time—and so I will not admit its power. I will wait and +some day joy will return to me, like the swallow from the south. Mother, +I will grieve not."</p> + +<p>And all the softest summer zephyrs seemed to caress her in answer, and +there she sat silent and absorbed, looking out to the blue hills for +more than an hour.</p> + +<p>Then she saw Cheiron advancing up the beech avenue, and covering up +Aphrodite she went to meet him.</p> + +<p>They came back to the second terrace and started upon their quest.</p> + +<p>Mr. Carlyon had the greatest difficulty in keeping his old head bent to +get through the very low part of the dark arched place, and he held +Halcyone's hand. But at last they emerged into the one light spot and +there saw the breastplate and the box. But at first it seemed as if they +could not lift it; it had fallen with the lock downward. Cheiron, +although a most robust old man, had passed his seventieth year, and the +thing was of extreme heaviness. But at last they pushed and pulled and +got it upright, and finally, with tremendous exertions with a chisel Mr. +Carlyon had brought, managed to break open the ancient lock.</p> + +<p>It gave with a sudden snap, and in breathless excitement they raised the +lid.</p> + +<p>Inside was another case of wood. This also was locked, but at its side +lay an old key. The Professor, as well as his chisel, had prudently +brought a small bottle of oil, and eventually was able to make the key +turn in the lock, and they found that the box was in two compartments, +one entirely filled with gold pieces, and the other containing some +smaller heavy object enwound with silk.</p> + +<p>They lifted it out and carried it to the light, and then with great +excitement they unrolled the coverings. It proved to be a +gold-and-jeweled crucifix and beneath it lay a parchment with a seal.</p> + +<p>Leaving the pieces of gold in the box, they carried the crucifix and the +parchment out on to the terrace, and then the Professor adjusted his +strongest spectacles and prepared to read what he could, while Halcyone +examined the beautiful thing.</p> + +<p>The writing was still fairly dark and the words were in Latin. It +stated, so the Professor read, that the money and the crucifix were the +property of Timothy La Sarthe, Gentleman to Queen Henrietta Maria, and +that, should aught befall him in his flight to France upon secret +business for Her Majesty, the gold and the crucifix belonged to +whichever of his descendants should find it—or it should be handed to; +that all others were cursed who should touch it, and that it would bring +the owner fortune, as it was the work of one Benvenuto Cellini, an +artist of great renown in Florence before his day, and therefore of +great value. The quaintly phrased deed added that if it were taken to +one Reuben Zana, a Jew in the Jewry at the sign of the Golden Horn, he +would dispose of it for a large sum to the French king. The crucifix had +been brought from Florence in the dower of his wife Donna Vittoria +Tornabuoni, now dead. If his son Timothy should secure it, he was +advised not to keep it, as its possession brought trouble to the family.</p> + +<p>"Then it is legally ours and not treasure-trove," said Halcyone. "Oh, +how good! It will make the Aunts La Sarthe quite rich perhaps, and look +how beautiful it is, the jeweled thing."</p> + +<p>They examined it minutely. It was a masterpiece of that great craftsman +and artist and of untold value. Cheiron silently thrilled with the +delight of it—but Halcyone spoke.</p> + +<p>"I am glad Ancestor Timothy suggested selling it," she said. "I would +never keep a crucifix, the emblem of sorrow and pain. For me, Christ is +always glorified and happy in heaven. Now what must we do, Master? Must +we at once tell the aunts? But I will not consent to anyone knowing of +this staircase. That would destroy something which I could never +recover. We must pretend we have found it in the long gallery; there is +a recess in the paneling which no one knows of but I, and there we can +put it and find it again. It will be quite safe. Shall we leave it +there, Cheiron, until we come back from abroad? How much do you think it +is worth?"</p> + +<p>"Anything up to fifty thousand pounds perhaps to a collector," the +Professor said, "since it is an original and unique. Look at the +splendid rubies and emeralds and these two big diamonds at the top, and +there is so little of Benvenuto's work left that is authentic."</p> + +<p>"That is an unusual sum of money, is it not?" Halcyone asked. "That +would surely give them anything they want for their lives; perhaps we +ought not to keep them waiting."</p> + +<p>And so after much talk it was arranged that Halcyone should make several +journeys, taking the gold to the long gallery and then the crucifix; and +then the box could be lifted and repacked again there. And, when she had +it all stowed away carefully in the recess of the paneling, she and +Cheiron should go openly to the back door and let the caretaker know +they had arrived, and go into the house—and there ostensibly find the +treasure. Then they would write to the Misses La Sarthe about their +discovery, and take the box to Applewood and deposit it in the bank +until their return.</p> + +<p>All this took a long time but was duly carried out, and about eight +o'clock Halcyone and the Professor were able to go back, carrying the +crucifix with them, to keep it safe for the night and then to put it +back with the gold and the parchment, before they took the box to the +bank on the morrow.</p> + +<p>"It may be worth more still and there is a good deal of gold," the +Professor said, "and their coins would be worth more now. You will be +quite a little heiress some day, dear child."</p> + +<p>"I do not care the least about money, Cheiron," she said, "but I shall +be so glad for the aunts."</p> + +<p>And when eventually the old ladies received the news of their fortune +there was much rejoicing, and by following Cheiron's advice they were +not defrauded and might look forward to a most comfortable end to their +lives. Miss Roberta even dreamed of a villa at the seaside and a visit +to London Town!</p> + +<p>But meanwhile the Professor and Halcyone went back to London and on the +Saturday left for Dieppe.</p> + +<p>London, perhaps from her numbed state of misery, had said nothing to +Halcyone. It remained in her memory as a nightmare, the scene of the +confirmation of her winter of the soul. Its inhabitants were ghosts, the +young men—jolly, hearty, young fellows from the Stock Exchange, and +rising Radical politicians whom she had met—went from her record of +things as so many shadows.</p> + +<p>The vast buildings seemed as prisons, the rush and flurry as worrying +storms, and even the parks as only feeble reminders of her dear La +Sarthe Chase.</p> + +<p>Nothing had made the least real impression upon her except Kensington +Gardens, and they to the end of her life would probably be only a +reminder of pain.</p> + +<p>But her first view of the sea!</p> + +<p>That was something revivifying!</p> + +<p>Her memory of the one occasion when she had gone to Lowestoft with her +mother was too dim to be anything of a reality, and, when they got to +Newhaven, the Professor and Priscilla and she, with a brisk summer wind +blowing the green-blue water into crested wavelets, the first cry of +life and joy escaped her and gladdened Cheiron's heart.</p> + +<p>How wonderful the voyage was! She took in every smallest change in the +tones of the sky—she watched the waves from the forepart of the bridge, +and some new essence of life and the certainty that her night forces +would never desert her made themselves felt and cheered her.</p> + +<p>Of John Derringham she thought constantly. He was not buried in that +outer circle of oblivion from which the thoughts unconsciously shy—as +we bury our dead, their going so shrouded in pain that we long to blot +out the memory of them. John Derringham was always with her. She prayed +for his welfare with the fervor and purity of her sweet soul. He was her +spirit lover still. He could never really belong to any other woman, she +knew. And as the days went by a fresh beauty grew in her pale face. The +night sky itself seemed to be melted in her true eyes with the essence +of all its stars.</p> + +<p>Cheiron often wondered at her. There was never a word or allusion to the +past. She was extremely quiet, and sometimes the droop of her graceful +head and the sad curves of her tender lips would make the kind old +cynic's heart ache. But she was always cheerful, taking unfeigned +interest in the country and the people, delighting in the simple faith +of the peasants and the glory of some of the old cathedrals.</p> + +<p>And Aphrodite traveled everywhere with them. A special case had been +made for her—and Halcyone often took her out to keep them company in +the late evenings or when a rare rain storm kept them indoors.</p> + +<p>Mr. Carlyon had not written to John Derringham since his engagement had +been announced. He wished all connection with his former pupil to be +broken off. He had no mercy for his action, he could not even use his +customary lenient common sense towards the failings of mankind.</p> + +<p>John Derringham had made his peerless one suffer—and his name was +anathema. As far as Cheiron was concerned he was wiped off the list of +beings who count.</p> + +<p>Halcyone's delicate sense of obligation had been put at ease by her +stepfather. He had made over to her a few hundreds a year which he said +had belonged to her mother—the simple creature was too ignorant of all +business to be aware whether this was or was not the case. She had grown +to have a certain liking for James Anderton. There was a hard, +level-headed, shrewd honesty about him, keen to drive a bargain—even +the one about her mother to which Priscilla had alluded and to which +they had never made any further reference—but, when once he had gained +his point, he was generous and kind-hearted.</p> + +<p>He could not help it that he was not a gentleman, Halcyone thought, and +he did his best for everybody according to his lights.</p> + +<p>Her few hundreds a year seemed untold wealth to her who had never had +even a few sixpences for pocket money! But there was always some +instinctive dislike for the thing itself. It remained to her a rather +unpleasant medium for securing the necessities of life, though she was +glad she now possessed enough not to be a burden upon her aunts, and +could hand what was necessary for her trip over to the Professor.</p> + +<p>They wanted to get into Italy as soon as it should be cool enough. +August saw them in an out-of-the-way village in Switzerland.</p> + +<p>And the mountains caused Halcyone a yet deeper emotion than the sea had +done. Nature here talked to her in a voice of supreme grandeur, and bade +her never to be cast down but to go on bearing her winter with heroic +calm.</p> + +<p>She often stayed out the entire night and watched the stars fade and the +dawn come—Phoebus with his sun chariot! Somehow Switzerland, although +it was not at all the actual background, seemed to bring to her the +atmosphere of her "Heroes." The lower hill near their village could +certainly be Pelion, and one day she felt she had discovered Cheiron's +cave. This was a joy—and that night, when it rained and she and the +Professor sat before their wood fire in the little inn parlor, with +Aphrodite lying near them in her silken folds, she coaxed her old master +into telling her those moving tales of old.</p> + +<p>"You are indeed Cheiron, Master," she said—and then her eyes widened +and she looked into the glowing ashes. "And you have one pupil, who, +like Heracles in his fight with the Centaurs, has accidentally wounded +you. But I want you not to let the poison of the arrow grow in your +blood; the wound is not incurable as his was. Master, why do you never +speak to me now of Mr. Derringham?"</p> + +<p>Cheiron frowned. One of his eyebrows had grown in later years at least +an inch long and seemed to bristle ready for battle when he was angry.</p> + +<p>"I think he has behaved as no gentleman should," he growled, "and I +would rather not mention him."</p> + +<p>"You know of things perhaps with which I am not acquainted," said +Halcyone, "but from my point of view, there is nothing to judge him for. +Whatever he may have done in becoming engaged to marry this +lady—because she is rich—we do not know the forces that were +compelling him. It hurts me, Cheiron, that you take so stern a view—it +hurts me, Master."</p> + +<p>Mr. Carlyon put out his hand and stroked her soft hair as she sat there +on a low stool looking up at him.</p> + +<p>"Oh, my dear," he said, and could articulate no more because a lump grew +in his throat.</p> + +<p>"Everything is so simple when we know of it," she went on, "but everyone +has not had the fortune to learn nature and the forces which we must +encourage or guard against. And Mr. Derringham, who had to mix with the +world, ran many dangers which could not come to you and me at La Sarthe +Chase. Ah, Cheiron! Even you do not know of the ugly things which creep +away out of sight in the night—my night that I love! And they could +sting one if one did not know where to put one's feet. And so it must be +with him—he did not always see where just to put his feet, so we must +not judge him, must we?" she pleaded.</p> + +<p>"Not if you do not wish," Mr. Carlyon blurted out. And then he began to +puff wreaths of smoke from his long old pipe.</p> + +<p>"Indeed, I do not wish, Cheiron," she said. "Perhaps he is very unhappy +now—we do not know—so we should only send him good thoughts to cheer +him. I dream of him often," she went on in a far-off voice, as though +she had almost forgotten the Professor's presence, "and he cries to me +in pain. And I could not bear it that you should be thinking badly of +him, and so I had to speak because thoughts can help or injure +people—and now he wants all the gentle currents we can send him to take +him through this time."</p> + +<p>The Professor coughed violently; his spectacles had grown dim.</p> + +<p>Then Halcyone rubbed her soft cheek against his old withered hand.</p> + +<p>"You knew it, of course, Master," she said very softly. "I loved him +always and I love him still—and, if I have forgiven any hurt which he +brought me, surely it need not stand against him with you. To-night—oh, +he is suffering so! I cannot bear that there should be one shadow going +to him that I can take away. Cheiron, promise me you won't think hardly +ever any more—promise me, Cheiron, dear!"</p> + +<p>The Professor's voice was almost the growl of a bear—but Halcyone knew +he meant to acquiesce.</p> + +<p>"Cheiron," she whispered, while she caressed his stiff fingers, "the +winter of our souls is almost past. I feel and know the spring is near +at hand."</p> + +<p>"I hope to God it is," Mr. Carlyon said, very low.</p> + +<p>Next day they moved on into Italy, crossing the frontier and stopping +the night at Turin where they proposed to hire a motor. From thence they +intended to get down to Genoa to continue their pilgrimage. It was not +such an easy matter, in those few years ago, as it is now to hire a +motor, but one was promised to them at last—and off they started. +Halcyone took the greatest interest in everything in that quaint and +grand old town. Her keen judgment and that faculty she possessed of +always seeing everything from the simplest standpoint of truth made her +an ideal companion to wander with on this journey of cultured ease.</p> + +<p>"How strong a place this seems, Cheiron," she said, after two days of +their sight-seeing. "All the spirits at the zenith of Genoa's greatness +were strong—nothing weak or ascetic. They must have been filled with +gratitude to God for giving them this beautiful life, those old patrons +of decoration. There is nothing cheap or hurried; it is all an +appreciation of the magnificence due to their noble station and their +pride of race. For the <i>Guelphist</i> of them seems to have been an +aristocrat and an autocrat in his personal <i>ménage</i>. Is it not so, +Master?"</p> + +<p>"I dare say," agreed Cheiron. He was watching with deep interest for her +verdict upon things.</p> + +<p>"It gives me the impression of solid riches," she went on, "the +encouragement of looms of costly stuffs, the encouragement for workers +in marble, in bronze, in frescoes, all the material gorgeous, tangible +pleasures of sight and touch. It is not poetic; it inspires admiration +for great deeds, victorious navies, triumphs—banquets—I have no sense +of music here except the music of feasting. I have no sense of poetry +except of odes to famous admirals or party leaders, and yet it is a +great joy in its way and a noble monument to the proud manhood of the +past." And she looked down from the balcony of the Palazzo Reale, where +they were standing, into the town below.</p> + +<p>Her thoughts had gone as ever to the man she loved. He had this haughty +spirit—he could have lived in those days—and she saw him a Doria, a +Brignole-Sale or a Pallavicini, gorgeous, masterful and magnificent. +England in the present day was surely a <i>supplice</i> for such an arrogant +spirit as that of John Derringham.</p> + +<p>The prosperous mercantile part of Genoa said nothing to her—she wanted +always to wander where she could weave romances into the things round. +She had never seen any fine pictures before. The Anderton family were +not lovers of art and, while in London, Halcyone had been too unhappy to +care or even ask to be taken to galleries—and Cheiron had not suggested +doing so; he was a good deal occupied himself. But now it was a great +pleasure to him to watch and see what impression they would make upon a +perfectly fresh eye. The immense cultivation of her mind would guide her +taste probably—but it would be an interesting experiment.</p> + +<p>She stopped instantly in front of a Van Dyck, but she did not speak. In +fact she made no observations at all about the pictures until they were +back in their hotel. It was still very hot, although September had come, +and they had their dinner upon an open terrace.</p> + +<p>And then her thoughts came out.</p> + +<p>"I like the Guido Renis, Cheiron," she said; "his Magdalen in the Reale +Palazzo is exquisite—she is pure and good. But I do not like the saints +and martyrs in the throes of their agony, they say nothing to me, I have +no sympathy for them. I adore the Madonna and the Child; they touch +me—here," and she laid her hand upon her heart. "The Sassoferarto +Virgin in the Reale Palazzo is like Miss Lutworth, she is full of +kindness and youth. The early masters' works, which are badly drawn and +beautifully colored, I have to take apart—and it is unsatisfying. +Because, while I am trying not to see the wrong shape, I have only half +my faculties to appreciate the exquisite colors, and so a third +influence has to come in—the meaning of the artist who painted them and +perhaps put into them his soul. But that is altruistic—I could as well +admire something of very bad art for the same reason. For me a picture +should satisfy each of these points of view to be perfect and lift me +into heights. That is why perhaps I shall prefer sculpture on the whole, +when I shall have seen it, to painting."</p> + +<p>And Mr. Carlyon felt that, learned in art and old as he was, Halcyone +might give him a new point of view.</p> + +<p>Next day they left for Pisa.</p> + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a><h2>CHAPTER XXVIII</h2> +<br> + +<p>When Arabella Clinker and her mother were settled together at Wendover, +a strange peace seemed to fall upon the place. John Derringham was +conscious of it upstairs as he lay in his Louis XV bed. By the time he +was allowed to be carried to a sofa in the sitting-room which had been +arranged for him, July had well set in.</p> + +<p>He had parted from his Cecilia with suitable things said upon either +side. Even in his misery and abasement, John Derringham was too assured +a spirit and too much a man of the world to have any hesitation or +awkwardness. Mrs. Cricklander had been all that was sympathetic. She +looked superbly full of vigor and the joy of life as she came to say +farewell.</p> + +<p>"John, darling," she purred, "you will do everything you are told to by +the doctors while I am away, won't you?" and she caressed his forehead +with her soft hand. "So that I may not have to worry as dreadfully as I +have been doing, when I come back. It has made me quite ill—that is why +I must go to Carlsbad. You will be good now; so that I may find you as +strong and handsome as ever on my return." Then she bent and kissed him.</p> + +<p>He promised faithfully, and she never saw the whimsical gleam in his +eyes, because for the moment having gained her end her faculties had +resumed their normal condition, which was not one of superlative +sensitiveness. Like everything else in her utilitarian equipment, fine +perceptions were only assumed when the magnitude of the goal in view +demanded their presence. And even then they merely went as far as +sentinels to warn or encourage her in the progress of her aims, never +wasting themselves upon irrelevant objects.</p> + +<p>When her scented presence had left the room, John Derringham clasped his +hands behind his head, and, before he was aware of it, his lips had +murmured "Thank God!"</p> + +<p>And then Nemesis fell upon him—his schoolboy sensation of +recreation-time at hand left him, and a blank sense of failure and +hopeless bondage took its place.</p> + +<p>Surely he had bartered his soul for a very inadequate mess of pottage.</p> + +<p>And where would he sink to under this scorpion whip? Where would go all +his fine aspirations which, even in spite of all the juggling of +political life, still lived in his aims. Halcyone would have understood.</p> + +<p>"Oh! my love!" he cried. "My tender love!"</p> + +<p>Then that part of him which was strong reasserted itself. He would not +give way to this repining, the thing was done and he must make the best +of it. He asked for some volumes from the library. He would read, and he +sent the faithful and adoring Brome to request Miss Clinker to send him +up the third and fourth volume of "The Decline and Fall of the Roman +Empire." He often turned to Gibbon when he was at war with things. The +perfect balance of the English soothed him—and he felt he would read of +Julian, for whom in his heart he felt a sympathy.</p> + +<p>Arabella brought the volumes herself, and placed them on his table, and +then went to settle some roses in a vase before she left the room.</p> + +<p>A thin slip of paper fell out of one of the books as he opened it, and +he read it absently while he turned the pages.</p> + +<p>On the top was a date in pencil, and in a methodical fashion there was +written in red ink:</p> + +<p>"Notes for the instruction of M. E.," and then underneath, "Subjects to +be talked of at dinner to-night—Was there cause for Julian's apostasy? +What appealed most to Julian in the old religions—etc., etc."</p> + +<p>For a second the words conveyed no meaning to his brain, and for +something to say, he said aloud to Arabella: "This is your writing, I +think, Miss Clinker. I see you have a taste for our friend Gibbon, too," +and then, observing the troubled confusion of Arabella's honest face, a +sudden flash came over him of memory. He recollected distinctly that +upon the Sunday before his accident, they had talked at lunch of Julian +the Apostate, and Mrs. Cricklander had turned the conversation, and then +had referred to the subject again at dinner with an astonishing array of +facts, surprising him by her erudition.</p> + +<p>He looked down at the slip again—yes, the date was right, and the +red-ink heading was evidently a stereotyped one; probably Arabella kept +a supply of these papers ready, being a methodical creature. And the +questions!—were they for her own education? But no—Arabella was a +cultivated person and would not require such things, and, on that +particular Sunday, had never opened the door of her lips at either meal.</p> + +<p>"She prompts Cecilia," in a flash he thought, with a wild sense of +bitter mirth. "No wonder she can reel off statistics as she does. +'Subjects to be talked of at dinner'—forsooth!"</p> + +<p>And Arabella stood there, her kind plain face crimson, and her brown +eyes blinking pitifully behind her glasses.</p> + +<p>She was too fine to say anything, it would make the situation impossibly +difficult if she invented an explanation. So she just blinked—and +finally, after placing the fresh flowers by Mr. Derringham's bed, she +left the room by the door beyond.</p> + +<p>When she had gone it was as if a curtain were raised upon John +Derringham's understanding. Countless circumstances came back to him +when his <i>fiancée's</i> apparent learning had aroused his admiration, and +with a twinge he remembered Cheiron's maliciously amused eyes which had +met his during her visit to the orchard house, when she had become a +little at sea in some of her conversation. The whole thing then was a +colossal bluff—Arabella was the brain! Arabella was the erudite, +cultured person and his admirable Cecilia played the rôle of extremely +clever parrot! He laughed with bitter cynical merriment until he shook +in his bed.</p> + +<p>And he, poor fool, had been taken in by it all—he and a number of +others. He was in company at all events! Then he saw another aspect, and +almost admired the woman for her audacity. What nerve to play such a +game, and so successfully! The determination—the application it +required—and the force of character!</p> + +<p>But the gall of it when she should be his wife! He saw pictures of +himself trembling with apprehension at some important function in case +mistakes should occur. He would have to play the part of Arabella, and +write out the notes for the subjects to be "talked of at dinner!"</p> + +<p>He lay there, and groaned with rage and disgust.</p> + +<p>He could not—he would not go through with it!</p> + +<p>But next day the irony of fate fell upon him with heavy hand. He +received the news that Joseph Scroope, his maternal uncle, was dead, not +having produced an heir, so he knew that he would inherit a comfortable +fortune from him.</p> + +<p>The noose had, indeed, tightened round his neck,—he could not now +release himself from his engagement to Cecilia Cricklander. Some +instincts of a gentleman still remained with him in full measure. The +hideous, hideous mockery of it all. If he had waited, he would now have +been free to seek his darling, his pure star, Halcyone, in all honor. He +could have taken her dear, tender hand, and led her proudly to the seat +by his side—and crowned her with whatever laurels her sweet spirit +would have inspired him to gain. And it was all too late! too late!</p> + +<p>He reviewed the whole chain of events, and perceived how it had been his +own doing—what had happened in each step—and this knowledge added to +the bitterness of his pain. It was from now onward that his nights were +often agony. Every movement, every word of Halcyone came back to him, +from the old days of long ago when she had given him the oak leaf, to +the moment of her looking into his eyes, with all her soul in hers, as +she had answered his passionate question. "Afraid? How should I be +afraid—since you are my lord and I am your love? Do not we belong to +one another?"</p> + +<p>And in spite of the peace Mrs. Cricklander's absence caused in the +atmosphere, John Derringham grew more unutterably wretched as time went +on.</p> + +<p>His cup seemed to be filling from all sides. The Government was going +out in disaster, and, instead of being able to stand by his colleagues +and fight, and perhaps avert catastrophe by his brilliant speeches and +biting wit, he was chained like a log to a sofa and was completely +impotent.</p> + +<p>It was no wonder his convalescence was slow, and that Arabella grew +anxious about him. She felt that some of Mrs. Cricklander's wrath and +disgust because of this state of things would fall upon her head.</p> + +<p>His ankle was a great deal better now, it was five weeks since the +accident, and in a day or two he hoped to leave for London. Mrs. +Cricklander would be obliged to take an after-cure at the highly +situated castle of an Austrian Prince, an old friend of hers—where the +air was most bracing, she wrote. For her strict instructions to Arabella +before she left, after telling her she might have her mother to keep her +company, and so earning the good creature's deep gratitude, had been:</p> + +<p>"You must keep me informed of every slightest turn in Mr. +Derringham—because, until he is perfectly well and amusing again, I +simply can't come back to England. His tragic face bores me to death. +Really, men are too tiresome when there is the slightest thing the +matter with them."</p> + +<p>And Arabella had faithfully carried out her instructions.</p> + +<p>In common honesty she could not inform her employer that John Derringham +was perfectly well or amusing!</p> + +<p>Poor Miss Clinker's happy summer with her mother was being a good deal +dimmed by her unassuaged sympathy and commiseration.</p> + +<p>"Of course, he is grieving for that sweet and distinguished girl, Miss +Halcyone La Sarthe," she told herself—and with the old maid's hungering +for romance, which even the highest education cannot quite crush from +the female breast, she longed to know what had parted them.</p> + +<p>Mr. Carlyon had gone abroad, she had ascertained that, and La Sarthe +Chase was still closed.</p> + +<p>The night before John Derringham left for London, he hobbled down to +dinner on crutches. He was not to try and use his foot for some weeks +still, but the cut on his head was mended now. It was a glorious July +evening, the roses were not over on the terrace, and every aspect of +avert disaster, he must just stand aside in these last weeks of the +session and see the shipwreck. An unspeakable bitterness invaded his +spirit. The moon was rising when he got outside, one day beyond its +full. It seemed like a golden ball in the twilight of opal tints, before +it should rise in its silver majesty to supreme command of the night. +Nature was in one of her most sensuously divine moods. The summer and +fulfillment had come.</p> + +<p>John Derringham sat down in a comfortable chair and gazed in front of +him.</p> + +<p>There had been moonlight, too, when he had spent those exquisite hours +with his love, now six weeks ago—a young half moon. Could it be only +six weeks? A lifetime of anguish appeared to have rolled between. And +where was she? Then, for the first time, the crust of his +self-absorption seemed to crumble, and he thought with new stabs of pain +how she, too, must have suffered. He began to picture her waiting by the +gate—she would be brave and quiet. And then, as the day passed—what +had she done? He could not imagine, but she must have suffered +intolerably. When could she have heard of the accident, since the next +day she had been taken away? Why had she gone? That was unlike her, to +have given in to any force which could separate them. And if he had +known this step also was unconsciously caused by his own action in +having his letter to Cheiron posted from London, it would have tortured +him the more. Another thought came, and he started forward in his chair. +Was it possible that she had written to him, and that the letter had got +mislaid, among the prodigious quantity which accumulated in those first +days of his unconsciousness?</p> + +<p>Then he sank back again. Even if this were so, it was too late now. +Everything was too late—from that awful night when he had become +engaged to Cecilia Cricklander.</p> + +<p>She had put the announcement into the paper not quite three weeks after +the accident. What could Halcyone have thought of him and his +unspeakable baseness? Now she could have nothing but loathing and +contempt in her heart, wherever she was—and what right had he to have +broken the beliefs and shattered the happiness of that pure, young soul?</p> + +<p>He remembered his old master's words about a man's honor towards women. +It was true then that it was regulated, not by the woman's feelings or +anguish, but by the man's inclination and whether or no the world should +hold him responsible. And he realized that this latter reason was the +force which now prevented his breaking his engagement with Mrs. +Cricklander. He had behaved with supreme selfishness in the beginning, +and afterwards with a weakness which would always make him writhe when +he thought of it.</p> + +<p>His self-respect was receiving a crushing blow. He clasped his thin +hands and his head sank forward upon his breast in utter dejection; he +closed his eyes as if to shut out too painful pictures. And when he +opened them again it was darker, and the moon made misty shadows through +the trees, and out of them he seemed to see Halcyone's face quite close +to him. It was tender and pitiful and full of love. The hallucination +was so startlingly vivid that he almost fancied her lips moved, and she +whispered: "Courage, beloved." Then he knew that he was dreaming, and +that he was gazing into space—alone.</p> + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a><h2>CHAPTER XXIX</h2> +<br> + +<p>Mrs. Cricklander, at Carlsbad, was not altogether pleased to receive the +news of her <i>fiancé's</i> accession to fortune. She realized that John +Derringham was not the sort of man to give up his will to any woman +unless the woman had entirely the whip hand, as she would have had if he +had been dependent upon her for the financial aid wherewith to obtain +his ambitions. She would have practically no hold over him now, and, +when he was well, he was so attractive that she might even grow to care +too deeply for him for her own welfare. To allow herself to become in +love with a husband who was answerable to her for his very food and +lodging, and whom she could punish and keep in bondage when she pleased, +was quite a different matter to experiencing that emotion towards an +imperious, independent creature going his own way, and even, perhaps, +compelling her to conform to his.</p> + +<p>"How stupid of the old man, Mr. Scroope, to have married so late!" she +said to herself, as usual finding everyone wrong who in any way +interfered with her wishes.</p> + +<p>John Derringham's letters—only two a week she received from him—were +his usual masterpieces of style, and in them he employed his skill to +say everything—and nothing.</p> + +<p>She felt pleased as she read, and then resentful when she thought over +them. He had never once used a word of personal endearment, although the +letters were beautifully expressed. He seemed most happy and comfortable +with Arabella. After all, perhaps she would not go and stay with Prince +Brunemetz at Brudenstein. She might make John come out and join her and +go on to St. Moritz—that would do him good. She could wire for +Arabella. The <i>convenances</i> were so dear to her. The wedding should take +place in October, she decided.</p> + +<p>And two days after John Derringham had arrived in London at his old +rooms in Duke Street, she wrote and suggested this plan to him—and then +the first preliminary crossing of swords between them happened. He +answered that he would come and join her later, but until the session +was over he could not leave town, and he begged her to go and stay with +Prince Brunemetz, or do anything else which would amuse her. He was +still upon crutches, he said, and not fitted to be a cavalier to any +lady.</p> + +<p>She shut her mouth with a snap, and, sitting down, wrote a long letter +to Mr. Hanbury-Green, with whom she kept up a brisk correspondence. Very +well, then! she would go to Brudenstein; she would not martyrize herself +by being with a man on crutches! So half of her August passed in a most +agreeable manner, and towards the end of the month she summoned her +<i>fiancé</i> to Florence. He could walk with a stick now—and to meet her +there and go on to Venice and out to the Lido would be quite delightful, +and could not hurt him. She deserved some attention after this long +time!</p> + +<p>The end of the session had come, and still the Government hung on, but +it was obvious that they had been so much discredited that the end could +not be long postponed, and that, as soon as Parliament met again, a +hostile vote would be carried against them. But for the time there was +nothing to keep John Derringham in England, and with intense reluctance +he started for Italy, the ever-nearing date for his wedding looming in +front of him like some heavy cloud. He had plunged headlong into work +when he had returned from Wendover, for which he was still quite unfit. +His whole system had received a terrible shock, and it would be months +before he could hope to be his old robust self again; and an unutterable +depression was upon him. The total silence of Halcyone, her +disappearance from the face of the earth as far as he was concerned, +seemed like something incredible.</p> + +<p>There were no traces of her. Mrs. Porrit was out, and the orchard house +shut up, so, he obtained no information. He had stopped there to enquire +on his way to the station when he had left Wendover. La Sarthe Chase was +entirely closed, except for a woman and her husband from the village who +slept there. But what right had he to be interested now, in any case? He +had better shut the whole matter out of his mind, and keep his thoughts +upon his coming marriage with Cecilia Cricklander.</p> + +<p>And it was this frame of mind which caused him to plunge recklessly into +work as soon as he reached London, though he found that nothing really +assuaged his misery.</p> + +<p>It was a glorious day towards the end of August when he got onto the +boat at Dover, and there ran across Miss Cora Lutworth, bent upon +<i>trousseau</i> business in Paris. She was with her friend, the lady who +chaperoned her, and greeted him with her usual breezy charm.</p> + +<p>They sat down together in a comfortable corner on deck, while the lady +went to have a sleep. They talked of many things and mutual friends. He +was doing what was a comparatively rare thing in those days, taking over +a motor to tour down to Venice in, and Cora was duly interested. Freynie +adored motoring, too, she said, and that was how they intended to spend +their honeymoon. She was going to be married in a few weeks, and was +radiantly happy.</p> + +<p>This was the first time she had seen John Derringham since his +engagement and his accident, and the great change in him gave her an +unpleasant shock. There were quite a number of silver threads in his +dark hair above the temples, and he looked haggard and gaunt and +lifeless. Cora's kind heart was touched.</p> + +<p>"I am sure he does not care a rush for Cis," she thought to herself, +"and I am sure he did for that sweet Halcyone. He and Cis are not +married yet; there can be no harm in my mentioning her." So aloud she +said:</p> + +<p>"You remember our meeting that charming Miss Halcyone La Sarthe across +the haw-haw on Easter Sunday? Well, fancy, I came across her in London +at the end of June—in Kensington Gardens, sitting with the long-haired +old Professor. I was surprised; somehow one could not picture her out of +her own park." She watched John Derringham's face carefully, and saw +that this information moved him.</p> + +<p>"Did you?" he said, with an intense tone in his deep voice. "What was +she doing there, I wonder?"</p> + +<p>"She looked too sweet," Cora went on. "She was wearing becoming modern +clothes, and seemed to me to have grown so pretty. But she was very pale +and quiet. She came to tea with me the next day—I cannot say how she +fascinates me. I just love her—and then, on the Saturday she was to go +abroad with the Professor."</p> + +<p>"Really?" said John Derringham, while he could feel his heart begin to +beat very fast. "Where were they going, do you know? I would like to run +across, my old master."</p> + +<p>"I think to Brittany for July, and then Switzerland; but they intended +to get into Italy as soon as it was cool enough. They seemed to be going +to have a lovely trip and take a long time about it."</p> + +<p>"I had no idea Miss La Sarthe had any relations in London," he said. +"Who was she staying with there? Did she tell you?"</p> + +<p>"Her stepfather, I think," Cora said. "Her mother married twice, it +appears, and then died, and the man married again. This second wife, her +sort of stepmother, came and fetched her from La Sarthe Chase quite +suddenly one day."</p> + +<p>"I cannot think of her in London," said John Derringham. "Did she like +it, do you think? And was she changed?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, very changed," Cora answered, and made her voice casual. "She +looked as if the joy of life had fled forever, and as if she were just +getting through the time. Perhaps she hated being with her +step-family—people often do."</p> + +<p>Then she glanced at him stealthily as he stared out at the sea, while +she thought: "I am sure some awful tragedy is here underneath; it is not +only his broken ankle and his illness that has made him such a wreck. I +wish I could help them. I would not care a snap for Cis, who is a +rattlesnake if she wants something."</p> + +<p>"When was it, exactly, you saw her?" John Derringham asked. "But perhaps +you don't remember the date?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I do," Cora responded quickly. "It was the day your engagement was +announced in the papers, because we spoke about it."</p> + +<p>"Did you?" he said, and drew in his breath a little. "And what did you +say?"</p> + +<p>"Just the usual things—how fortunate you were. And Halcyone said you +were clever and great."</p> + +<p>John Derringham did not answer for a moment. This stunned him. Then he +replied, very low, "That was good of her," and Cora noticed that even +with the fresh wind blowing in his face he had grown very pale.</p> + +<p>"Cis writes you are going to be married at the beginning of October," +she said, to change the conversation. "I do hope you will be awfully +happy. It is so exquisite to be in love, isn't it? I adore being +engaged!"</p> + +<p>But John Derringham could not bear this—the two things were so widely +severed in his case. He did not answer, and Cora saw, although his face +remained unmoved, that pain grew deep in his eyes.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Derringham," she said, "I am going to say something indiscreet and +perhaps in frightful taste—but I am so happy I can't bear to think that +possibly others are not quite. I know Cis awfully well—her character, I +mean. Is there anything I can do for you?"</p> + +<p>John Derringham turned with a chillingly haughty glance intended to +wither, but when he saw her sweet face full of frank sympathy and +kindness, it touched him and his manner changed.</p> + +<p>"We have each of us to fulfill our fates," he said. "I suppose we each +deserve what we receive, and I am so glad yours seems to be such a very +happy one."</p> + +<p>Then he made some excuse to get up and leave her—he could bear no more.</p> + +<p>And Cora, left alone, smiled sadly to herself while she reflected what a +foolish thing pride was, and all the other shams which robbed life of +the only thing really worth having.</p> + +<p>"Well, I should not let any of that nonsense ever stand between Freynie +and me, thank goodness!" she concluded.</p> + +<p>But John Derringham limped off to the bows of the ship, quivering with +pain. So Halcyone had spoken of his engagement and said he was "clever +and great." What could it all mean? Did he no longer interest her +then—even at that period? This stung him deeply. There was no light +anywhere. When once he had grasped the full significance of his own +conduct he was much too fine an intelligence to deceive himself, or +persuade himself to see any other aspect but the hopeless one, that the +entire chain of events was the result of his own action. But surely +there must be some way out? If he wrote straight to Cecilia and told her +the truth? And then he almost laughed bitterly as he realized the +futility of this plan. What would the truth matter to Mrs. Cricklander? +She could very well retort that he had known all this truth from the +beginning, and had been willing to marry her while his financial +position made it an advantage to himself, but was now <i>recalcitrant</i> +only because fortune had otherwise poured gold into his lap.</p> + +<p>No, there was no hope. He must go through with it.</p> + +<p>So he crushed down his emotions and forced himself to return to Miss +Lutworth and talk brightly to her until they landed.</p> + +<p>And when they parted at the Gare du Nord, Cora was left with the +impression that, whatever might be the undercurrent, John Derringham was +strong enough to face his fate, and not give anyone the satisfaction of +knowing whether in it he found pleasure or pain.</p> + +<p>When he arrived about ten days later at the hotel in Florence, where +Mrs. Cricklander was staying, waiting for him to accompany her on to +Venice, he found her in a very bad temper. She felt that she had not +been treated with that deference and respect which was her due, to say +nothing of the ardor that a lover ought to have shown by hastening to +her side. Why had he motored, spending ten days on a journey that he +could have accomplished in two? And he made no excuses, and seemed quite +unimpressed by her mood one way or another. He was so changed, too! +Gaunt and haggard—he had certainly lost every one of his good looks, +except his distinction—that seemed more marked than ever. His arrogant +air that she had once admired so much now only caused her to feel a +great irritation. He had made the excuse of the waiter not having quite +closed the door, apparently, for only kissing her hand by way of +greeting, and then he said just the right thing about her beauty and his +pleasure in seeing her, and sat down by her side upon the sofa in far +too collected a manner for a lover to have shown after these weeks of +separation. Mrs. Cricklander grew very angry indeed. Cold and capricious +behavior should only be shown upon a woman's side, she felt!</p> + +<p>"Your Government made a colossal mess of things before the session was +over, did they not?" she said by way of something to start upon. "Mr. +Hanbury-Green tells me you will have to face a hostile vote when you +reassemble, and that the whole thing is a played-out game. How long +would the Radicals last if they do come in?—and it looks like a +certainty that they will."</p> + +<p>"Seven years, most likely," said John Derringham a little bitterly. "Or +perhaps to the end of time. Your friend Mr. Green could tell you more +accurately than I. Does the fact interest you very deeply?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," she said, and narrowed her eyes. "I am wildly interested in +everything that concerns you, of course—that is obvious."</p> + +<p>"You will help me to fight, then, for the Opposition. Your social +talents are so great, dear Cecilia, you will make a most brilliant Tory +hostess," and he took her hand—he felt he must do something.</p> + +<p>"I have always been on the winning side," she said, not more than half +playfully. "I do not know how I should like seven years of fighting an +uncertain fight. I might get extremely bored by it. I had no idea it +would last so long." And she laughed a little uncomfortably. "However, +we are perfectly modern, aren't we, John, and need not spend the entire +year fighting together—fortunately?"</p> + +<p>"No," he said. "I am sure we shall be an admirable pair of citizens of +the world. And now I suppose I must let you go and dress for dinner. How +is our estimable friend, Miss Clinker? She is with you, I suppose?—or +have you friends staying in the hotel? You did not tell me in your +letters."</p> + +<p>"I never waste sweetness upon the desert air," she said, smiling, with a +glitter in her eyes. "You did not appear over anxious to hear of my +doings. Our correspondence made me laugh sometimes. You never wrote as +though you had received any of my letters—yours were just masterpieces +of how little to say—and of how to say it beautifully!"</p> + +<p>John Derringham shrugged his shoulders slightly; he did not defend +himself, and her anger rose. So that she was leaving the room with her +head in the air and two bright spots of pink in her cheeks.</p> + +<p>Then he felt constrained to vindicate his position, so he put his arm +round her and drew her to him, intending to kiss her. But she looked up +into his face with an expression in her eyes which left him completely +repulsed. It was mocking and bitter and cunning, and she put out her +hand and pushed him from her.</p> + +<p>"I do not want any of your caresses to-night," she said. "When I do, +I'll pay for them." And she swept from the room, leaving him quivering +with debasement.</p> + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXX"></a><h2>CHAPTER XXX</h2> +<br> + +<p>There was fortunately a company assembled for dinner when John +Derringham descended to the restaurant and again joined his +<i>fiancée</i>—who never dined alone if she could help it, and reveled in +gay parties for every meal, with plenty of brilliant lights and the +chatter of other groups near at hand. Wherever she went, from Carlsbad +to Cairo, in the best restaurant you could always find her amidst her +many friends, feasting every night. And now the party consisted of some +of her compatriots, a Russian Prince, and an Italian Marchese. She +looked superbly beautiful; anger had lent a sparkle to her eyes and a +flush to her cheeks; no rouge was needed to-night, and she could +scintillate to her heart's content. She flashed words occasionally at +John Derringham, and he knew, and was horribly conscious all the time, +that once he would have found her most brilliant, but that now it was +exactly as when he had looked at the X-ray photograph of his own broken +ankle, where the sole thing which made a reality was the skeleton +substructure. He could only seem to see Cecilia Cricklander's vulgar +soul---the pink and white perfection of her body had melted into +nothingness.</p> + +<p>He found himself listening for some of her parrot-utterances, as a +detached spectator, and taking a sort of ugly pleasure in recognizing +which were the phrases of Arabella. The man upon her left hand was +intelligent, and was gazing at her with the rapt attention beauty always +commands, and she was uttering her finest platitudes.</p> + +<p>And once John Derringham leant back in his chair, when no one was +observing him, and laughed aloud. The supreme mockery of it all! And in +five weeks from this night this woman would be his wife!</p> + +<p><i>His wife!</i> Ye gods!</p> + +<p>They had no <i>tête-à-tête</i> words before the party broke up, and had +hardly exchanged a sentence when, as the last guest was saying farewell, +Arabella, too, retired from the sitting-room.</p> + +<p>So they were alone.</p> + +<p>"Cecilia," he said, coming up quite close to her, "we started rather +badly to-night—at least let us be friends." And he held out his hand. +"Believe me, I wish to do all that I can to please you, but I am afraid +I make a very indifferent sort of lover. Forgive me,"</p> + +<p>"Oh, you are well enough, I suppose," she said. "No man values what he +has won—it is only the winning of it that is any fun. I understand the +feeling myself. Don't let us talk heroics."</p> + +<p>John Derringham smiled.</p> + +<p>"Certainly not," he said.</p> + +<p>And then she put up her face and let him kiss her, which he did with +some sickening revolt in his heart. Even her physical beauty had no more +any effect upon him—he would as soon have kissed Arabella.</p> + +<p>So she sailed from the room again, with her mouth shut like a vice, and +her handsome eyes glancing at him over her shoulder.</p> + +<p>Next day, after having kept him waiting for an hour to take her out, she +decided they should spend what remained of the morning at the Bargello. +And, when they got there, she did her best to be a charming companion, +and pressed him to lean upon her instead of his stick. But to his +awakened understanding what was even probably true in her talk and +comprehension of the gems of art, seemed false and affected, and he was +only conscious of one continual jar as she spoke.</p> + +<p>A thousand little trifles, never remarked before, now appeared to loom +large in his vision. At last they came to the galleries above, to the +collection of the Della Robbias, and Mrs. Cricklander rhapsodized over +them, mixing them up with delightful unconcern. They were all just bits +of cheap-looking crockery to her eye, and it was impossibly difficult to +distinguish which was Luca's, Andrea's, or Giovanni's; and, security +having made her careless, she committed several blunders.</p> + +<p>John Derringham laid no pitfalls for her—indeed, he helped her out when +he could. To-day each new discovery no longer made him smile with bitter +cynicism, he was only filled with a sense of discomfort and regret.</p> + +<p>He stopped in front of Andrea's masterpiece, the tender young Madonna. +Something in the expression of the face made him think of Halcyone, +although the types of the two were entirely different; and Cecilia +Cricklander, watching, saw a look of deep pain grow in his eyes.</p> + +<p>"I wish to goodness he would get well and be human and masterful and +brilliant, as he used to be," she thought. "I am thoroughly tired out, +trying to cope with him. He is no more use now than a bump on a log. I +am sorry I made him come here!"</p> + +<p>"It is about time for lunch," said John Derringham, who could no longer +bear her prattle; and they returned to the hotel.</p> + +<p>Arabella and an American man made the <i>partie carrée</i>, and Miss Clinker +did her best to help to get through the repast, and afterwards wrote in +a letter to her mother:</p> + +<blockquote> +Mr. Derringham has arrived. He still looks dreadfully ill and +careworn, and I can see is feeling his position acutely. Since that +dreadful day when he found my notes in Gibbon, I have never dared to +look at him when in the company of M. E. I feel that distressing +sensation of hot and cold during the whole time. M. E., now that no +further great efforts are needed, chatters on with most disquieting +inconsequence. I can see she is very much upset at Mr. Derringham's +attitude. The impression that the Conservative Goverment cannot last +has had also a great effect upon her, and she has set me to find out +exactly the position and amount of prestige the wife of a rising +member of the Opposition would have. This morning she sent for me, +when she was dressing, to know if it were true, as Mr. Derringham had +told her, that, if the Radicals got in, they might last seven +years—because, if so, she would then be almost thirty-eight, and the +best days of her youth would be over. I do not dare to think what +these remarks may mean, but in connection with the fact that she +receives daily letters from Mr. Hanbury-Green—that unpleasant +Socialistic person who is coming so much to the front—I almost fear, +and yet hope, that there is some chance for Mr. Derringham's escape. +He is bearing his trouble as only an English gentleman could do, and +at lunch paid her every attention. +</blockquote> + +<p>And old Mrs. Clinker smiled when she got this letter.</p> + +<p>But by the end of the afternoon John Derringham's face wore no smiles; a +blank despair had settled upon him.</p> + +<p>They drove along the Arno and into the Gardens.</p> + +<p>It was warm and beautiful, but, so forceful is a hostile atmosphere +created between two people, they both found it impossible to make +conversation.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Cricklander was burning with rage and a sense of impotency. She +felt her words and all her arts of pleasing were being nullified, and +that she was up against an odious situation in which her strongest +weapons were powerless. It made her nervous and very cross. She +particularly resented not being able to ascertain the cause of the +change in him, and felt personally aggrieved at his still being a +wretched wreck hobbling with a stick. He ought to have got quite well by +now—it was perfectly ridiculous. What if, after all, he would not be +worth while? But the indomitable part of her character made her +tenacious. She felt it was a different matter, throwing away what she +had won, to having to relinquish something that she knew she had never +really gained. She would make one more determined effort, and then, if +he would not give her love, he should be made to feel his bondage, she +would extort from him to the last ounce, her pound of flesh.</p> + +<p>"John, darling," she said, slipping her hand into his, under the rug as +they drove, "this beautiful place makes me feel so romantic. I wish you +would make love to me. You sit there looking like Dante with a beard, as +cold as ice."</p> + +<p>"I am very sorry," he answered, startled from a reverie. "I know I am a +failure in such sort of ways. What do you want me to say?"</p> + +<p>This was not promising, and her annoyance increased.</p> + +<p>"I want you to tell me you love me—over and over again," she whispered, +controlling her voice.</p> + +<p>"Women always ask these questions," he said to gain time. "They never +take anything for granted as men do."</p> + +<p>"No!" she flashed. "Not when a man's actions point to the possibility of +several other interpretations of his sentiments—then they want words to +console them. But you give me neither."</p> + +<p>"I am not a demonstrative person," he responded. "I will do all I can to +make you happy, but do not ask me for impossibilities. You will have to +put up with me as I am."</p> + +<p>"I shall decide that!" And she snatched away her hand angrily, and then +controlled herself—the moment had not yet come. He should not have +freedom, which now she felt he craved; he should remain tied until he +had at all events paid the last price of humiliation. So for the rest of +that day and those that followed she behaved with maddening +capriciousness, keeping him waiting for every meal and every +appointment—changing her mind as to what she would do—lavishing +caresses upon him which made him wince, and then treating him with +mocking coldness; but all with such extreme cleverness that she never +once gave him the chance to bring things to an open rupture. She was +beginning really to enjoy herself in this new game—it required even +more skill to torture and hold than to attract and keep at arm's length. +But at last John Derringham could bear no more.</p> + +<p>They had continuous lunches and dinners with the gay party of Americans +who had been of the company on the first evening, and there was never a +moment's peace. A life in public was as the breath of Cecilia +Cricklander's nostrils, and she did not consider the wishes of her +betrothed. In fact, but for spoken sympathy over his shattered condition +and inability to walk much, she did not consider him at all, and exacted +his attendance on all occasions, whether too fatiguing for him or not.</p> + +<p>The very last shred of glamour about her had long fallen from John +Derringham's eyes, and indeed things seemed to him more bald than they +really were. His proud spirit chafed from morning to night—chafed +hopelessly against the knowledge that his own action had bound him as no +ordinary bond of an engagement could. His whole personality appeared to +be changing; he was taciturn or cynically caustic, casting jibes at all +manner of things he had once held sacred. But after a week of abject +misery, he refused to bear any more, and when Mrs. Cricklander grew +tired of Florence, and decided to move on to Venice, he announced his +intention of taking a few days' tour by himself. He wished to see the +country round, he said, and especially make an excursion to San +Gimignano—that gem of all Italy for its atmosphere of the past.</p> + +<p>"Oh! I am thoroughly tired of these moldy places," Mrs. Cricklander +announced. "The Maulevriers are in Venice, and we can have a delightful +time at the Lido; the new hotel is quite good—you had much better come +on with me now. Moping alone cannot benefit anyone. You really ought to +cheer up and get quite well, John."</p> + +<p>But he was firm, and after some bickerings she was obliged to decide to +go to Venice alone with Arabella, and let her <i>fiancé</i> depart in his +motor early the next morning.</p> + +<p>Their parting was characteristic.</p> + +<p>"Good night, Cecilia," John Derringham said. No matter how capricious +she could be, he always treated her with ceremonious politeness. "I am +leaving so very early to-morrow, we had better say good-by now. I hope +my going does not really inconvenience you at all. I want a little rest +from your friends, and, when I join you at Venice again, I hope you will +let me see more of yourself."</p> + +<p>She put up her face, and kissed him with all the girlish rippling smiles +she had used for his seduction in the beginning.</p> + +<p>"Why, certainly," she said. "We will be regular old Darbys-and-Joans; so +don't you forget while you are away that you belong to me, and I am not +going to give you up to anything or anybody—so long as I want you +myself!"</p> + +<p>And John Derringham had gone to his room feeling more chained than ever, +and more bitterly resentful against fate.</p> + +<p>As soon as he left her, she sat down at her writing-table and wrote out +a telegram to be sent off the first thing the next day. It contained +only three words, and was not signed.</p> + +<p>But the recipient of it, Mr. Hanbury-Green, read it with wild emotion +when he received it in his rooms in London—and immediately made +arrangements to set off to Florence at once.</p> + +<p>"I'll beat him yet!" he said to himself, and he romantically kissed the +pink paper. For, "You may come" was what he had read.</p> + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXXI"></a><h2>CHAPTER XXXI</h2> +<br> + +<p>An hour or so before sunset the next day John Derringham in his motor +was climbing the steep roads which lead to San Gimignano, the city of +beautiful towers, which still stands, a record of things mediæval, +untouched by the modernizing hand of men.</p> + +<p>A helpless sense of bitterness mastered him, and destroyed the +loveliness and peace of the view. Everything fine and great in his +thoughts and aims seemed tarnished. To what stage of degradation would +his utter disillusion finally bring him! Of course, when Cecilia +Cricklander should once be his wife, he would not permit her to lead +this life of continuous racket—or, if she insisted upon it, she should +indulge in it only when she went abroad alone. He would not endure it in +his home. And what sort of home would it be? He was even doubtful about +that now. Since she had so often carelessly thrown off her mask, he no +longer felt sure that she would even come up to the mark of what had +hitherto seemed her chief charm, her power of being a clever and +accomplished hostess. He could picture the scenes which would take place +between them when their wishes clashed! The contemplation of the future +was perfectly ghastly. He remembered, with a cynical laugh, how in the +beginning, before that fateful Good Friday when the Professor first +planted ruffling thoughts in his mind, and before the spell of Halcyone +had fallen upon him, he had thought that one of the compensations for +having to take a rich wife he had found in Cecilia. She would be his +intellectual companion during the rather rare moments he would be able +to spare for her from his work. He would be able to live with a woman +cultured in all branches which interested him, capable of discussing +with him any book or any thought, polished in brain and in methods. He +had imagined them, when alone together, spending their time in a +delightful and intellectual communion of ideas, which would make the tie +of marriage seem as almost a pleasure. And what was the reality?—An +absolute emptiness, and the knowledge that, unless Arabella Clinker +continued her ministrations, he himself would have to play her part! He +actually regretted his accession to fortune. But for it he could have +broken off the engagement with decency, but now his hands were tied. +Only Cecilia could release him, and she did not seem to have the +slightest intention of doing so.</p> + +<p>He savagely clenched his white teeth when he remembered the ridiculous +waiting lackey he had been made to turn into in the last week. Then he +looked up and tried to take interest in the quaint gateway through which +he was passing and on up to the unique town and the square where is the +ancient Podesta's palace, now the hotel. But he was in a mood of rasping +cynicism—even the exquisite evening sunlight seemed to mock at him.</p> + +<p>His highly trained eye took in the wonderful old-world beauty around him +with some sense of unconscious satisfaction, but the saintly calm of the +place made no impression upon him. Santa Fina and her flowers could not +soften or bring peace to his galled soul. The knowledge that the whole +situation was the result of his own doings kept his bitterness always at +white heat. The expression of his thin, haggard face was sardonic, and +the groups of simple children, accustomed to ask any stranger for stamps +for their collections—a queer habit of the place—turned away from him +when once they had looked into his eyes.</p> + +<p>He left his motor at the hotel and wandered into the square where the +remains of the palazzos of the two great Guelph and Ghibelline families, +the Ardinghelli and the Salvucci, frown at one another not fifty yards +apart—shorn of their splendors, but the Salvucci still with two towers +from which to hurl destruction at their enemies.</p> + +<p>John Derringham looked up at the balcony whence Dante had spoken, and +round to the Cathedral and the picturesque square. The few people who +passed seemed not in tune with his thoughts, so calm and saintly was the +type of their faces—all in keeping with a place where a house of the +sixteenth century is considered so aggressively modern as not to be of +any interest. It was too late for him now to go into the Cathedral; +nothing but the fortress battlements were possible, and he hobbled +there, desiring to see the sunset from its superb elevation.</p> + +<p>The gate-keeper, homely and simple, opened to him courteously, and he +went in to the first little courtyard, with its fig tree in the middle +and old grass-grown well surrounded by olives and lilac bushes; and then +he climbed the open stairs to the bastion, from whose battlements there +is to be obtained the most perfect view imaginable of the country, the +like of which Benozzo Gozzoli loved to paint.</p> + +<p>It has not changed in the least since those days, except that the tiles +of the roofs, which are now dark gray with age, were then red and +brilliant. But the cypress trees still surround the monasteries, and the +high hills are still crowned with castellos, while the fields make a +patchwork of different crops of olives and vines and grain.</p> + +<p>John Derringham mounted the stairs with his head down, musing bitterly, +so that, until he reached the top, he was not aware that a slender +girl's figure was seated upon the old stone bench which runs round the +wall. Her hat lay upon the seat beside her, while she gazed out over the +beautiful world. He paused with a wildly beating heart in which joy and +agony fought for mastery, but, as she turned to see who this stranger +could be, thus breaking in upon her solitude, his voice, hoarse with +emotion, said aloud her name:</p> + +<p>"Halcyone!"</p> + +<p>She started to her feet, and then sank back upon the bench again +unsteadily, and he came forward to her side. They both realized that +they were alone here in the sunset—alone upon this summit of the world.</p> + +<p>He sat down beside her and then he buried his face in his hands, letting +his cap fall; and all the pent-up misery and anguish of the past weeks +seemed to vibrate in his voice as he murmured:</p> + +<p>"Ah, God!—my love!"</p> + +<p>Her soft eyes melted upon him in deepest tenderness and sorrow. To see +him so pale and shattered, so changed from the splendid lover she had +known!</p> + +<p>But he was there—beside her—and what mattered anything else? She +longed to comfort him and tend him with fond care. Had he been the +veriest outcast he would ever have found boundless welcome and solace +waiting for him in her loving heart.</p> + +<p>"John!" she whispered, and put out gentle fingers and caressed his hair.</p> + +<p>He shivered and let his hands fall from his haggard face.</p> + +<p>"Darling," he said, "I am not worthy to touch the hem of your garment. +Why do you not turn from such a weakling and brute?"</p> + +<p>"Hush! Hush," she exclaimed, aghast. "You must not speak so of yourself. +I love you always, as you know, and I cannot hear him whom I love +abused."</p> + +<p>And now he looked into her eyes while he took her slender hand, and +there he saw the same wells of purity and devotion brimming with divine +faith and tenderness that he had last seen glistening with happy love.</p> + +<p>He folded her to his heart; the passionate emotion each was feeling was +too deep, too sacred for words; and then their eyes streamed with +scorching tears.</p> + +<p>They sat thus close for some seconds. The thirst and hunger of all these +days of rack and anguish must be assuaged before either could talk. But +at last she drew a little back and looked up into his face.</p> + +<p>"John," she said softly, "I read in an English paper a week ago that +your wedding was fixed for the seventh of October—my birthday. Is it +the truth?"</p> + +<p>He clasped his hands in agony.</p> + +<p>"It can never now be so," he said. "I cannot, I will not go through with +it. Oh, Halcyone, my darling one, you would pity me, although you would +despise me, if you knew—"</p> + +<p>"I could never despise you," she answered, nestling once more in his +arms. "John, for me nothing you could do would make any difference—you +would still be my love; and if you were weak I would make you strong, +and if cold and hungry, I would feed and comfort you, and if wicked, I +would only see you good."</p> + +<p>"Oh, my dear, my dear," he said, "you were always as an angel of +sweetness. Listen to the whole degrading story, and tell me then of that +which I must do."</p> + +<p>She took one of his hands and held it in both of hers; and it was as if +some stream of comfort flowed to him through their soft warm touch and +enabled him to begin his ugly task.</p> + +<p>He told her the whole thing from the beginning. Of his ambitions, and +how they held chief place in his life, and how he had meant to marry +Cecilia Cricklander as an aid to their advancement. He glossed over +nothing of his own baseness, but went on to show how, from the moment he +had seen her upon that Good Friday at the orchard house, his +determination about Cecilia Cricklander had begun to waver, until the +night under the tree when passion overcame every barrier and he knew he +must possess her—Halcyone—for his wife.</p> + +<p>He made no excuse for himself; he continued the plain tale of how, his +ambitions still holding him, he had selfishly tried to keep both joy and +them, by asking her—she who was so infinitely above him—to descend to +the invidious position of a secret wife.</p> + +<p>She knew the rest until it came to the cause of his accident, and, when +she heard it occurred because of his haste to get to her before she +should reach the house, she gave a little moan of anguish and leaned her +head against his breast.</p> + +<p>So the story went on—of his agonized thoughts and fever and fears—of +his comprehension that she had been taken from him, and of the utter +hopelessness of his financial position, and the whole outlook, until he +came to the night of his engagement; and here he paused.</p> + +<p>"Do not try to tell me any of this part, John, my dear lover," she said. +"I know the standard of honor in a man is that he must never give away +the absent woman, and I understand—you need not put anything into +words. I knew you were unhappy and coerced. I never for a moment have +doubted your love. You were surrounded with strong and cruel forces, and +all my tenderness could not reach you quite, to protect you as it should +have done, because I was so full of foolish anguish myself. Dearest, now +only tell me the end and the facts that I must know."</p> + +<p>He held her close to him in thankfulness, and then went on to speak of +the shame and degradation he had suffered for his weakness; the +drawn-out days of aching wonder at her silence, and finally the news of +his Uncle Joseph Scroope's death and the fortune that would come to him, +and how this fact had tied and bound his hands.</p> + +<p>"But it has grown to such a pass," he said, "that I had come to +breaking-point, and now I can never go back to her again. I have found +you, my one dear love, and I will never leave you more."</p> + +<p>Halcyone shook her head sadly, and asked him to listen to her side. And +when he knew that her leaving La Sarthe Chase had been brought about +because of his letter to Cheiron having been posted from London, so that +she hoped to find him there, it added to his pain to feel that, even in +this small turn of events, his action had been the motive force.</p> + +<p>But, as she went on, her pure and exquisite love and perfect faith +shining through it all seemed to draw his soul out of the mire in which +it had lain. And at last they knew each other's stories and were face to +face with the fateful moment of to-day, and he exclaimed gladly:</p> + +<p>"My darling, now nothing else matters—we will never, never part again."</p> + +<p>Then, as he looked into her eyes, he saw that not gladness but a solemn +depth of shadow grew there, and he clasped both her hands. A cold agony +chilled his whole being. What, O God, was she going to say?</p> + +<p>"John," she whispered, all the tenderness of the angels in her gentle +voice as she leaned and kissed the silver threads in his dark hair. +"John, do you remember, long ago when we spoke of Jason and Medea, and +you asked me the question then, Must he keep his word to her even if she +were a witch?—and I told you that was not the point at all: it was not +because she was or was not a witch, but because it was <i>his +word?</i>"—Here her voice broke, and he could hear the tears in it, and he +wildly kissed her hands. Then she went on:</p> + +<p>"Oh, my dear lover, it is the same question now. <i>You cannot break your +word.</i> Nothing but misfortune could follow. It is a hard law, but I know +it is true, and it is fate. We put in action the force which brings all +that we receive, and we who have courage pay the price without +flinching, and, above and beyond all momentary pleasure or pain, we must +be true to ourselves."</p> + +<p>"I cannot, I cannot!" he groaned in agony. "How can you condemn me to +such a fate?—tied to this woman whose every influence is degrading to +me; parted from you whom I adore—I would rather be dead. It is not +fair—not just, if you only knew!"</p> + +<p>Then he continued wildly. "Ah, God—and it is all because I forgot the +meaning of your dear and sacred, pledge with me that I must always be +good and true! If I could suffer alone—my darling, my soul!—then I +would go without a word back to hell, if you sent me. But you, +too—think, Halcyone! Can you bear your life? You who are so young, +separated for evermore from love and me. Oh! my own, my own—"</p> + +<p>Here he stopped his mad rush of words—her face was so white and +grave—and he let her draw herself from him, and put her hands upon his +shoulders, while her eyes, with tender stars of purity melting in their +depths, gazed into his.</p> + +<p>"John," she said, "do not try to weaken me. All Nature, who is my +friend, and the night-winds and their voices, and that dear God Who +never deserts me, tell me that for no present good must we lower +ourselves now. Nothing can ever hurt me. Go back and do that which being +a gentleman entails upon you to do—and leave the rest to God. This is +the winter of our souls, but it will not last forever. The spring is at +hand, if you will only trust, and believe with me that first we on our +side must be ready to pay the price."</p> + +<p>Then she bent forward and kissed him as an angel might have done, and, +without speaking more, rose and prepared to walk towards the stairway +which descended to the lower court.</p> + +<p>He followed her, and she turned before she began to descend the steps, +while she pointed to the beautiful country.</p> + +<p>"Look at the vines, all heavy with grapes," she said, "and the fields +shorn of their corn, and the olives shimmering in the sunset; and then, +dear lover, you will know that all things have their sequence, and our +time of joy will come. Ah! sweetheart, it is not farewell for ever; it +is only that we must wait for our spring."</p> + +<p>"Halcyone," he said, while his proud eyes again filled with tears, "you +have the absolute worship of my being. You have taught me, as ever, the +truth. Go, my darling, and I will do as you wish, and will try to make +myself more worthy of your noble soul. God keep you until we meet +again."</p> + +<p>She did not speak; she only looked at him with a divine look of love and +faith, and he watched her as she went down, it seemed, out of the very +heart of the setting sun and into the shadows beneath, and so +disappeared from his adoring eyes in a peaceful purple twilight.</p> + +<p>Then he returned to the old stone seat and leaning forward gazed out +over the exquisite scene.</p> + +<p>A great hush had fallen upon his torn heart. And thus he stayed +motionless until the night fell.</p> + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXXII"></a><h2>CHAPTER XXXII</h2> +<br> + +<p>Mrs. Cricklander awaited Mr. Hanbury-Green's coming quite impatiently. +She felt she wanted a little warmth and humanity after the chilling week +she had passed with her betrothed. What she meant to do with this latter +she had not yet made up her mind—the justice of an affair never +bothered her, and her complete unconsciousness of having committed any +wrong often averted her action's immediate consequence. That Mr. +Hanbury-Green should suffer, or that John Derringham should suffer, +mattered to her not one jot. She was really and truly under the +impression that only her personal comfort, pleasure and feelings were of +any importance in the world. Her brain always guarded these things, and, +when they were not in any jeopardy or fear of being inconvenienced, then +she was capable of numbers of kind and generous actions. And, if she had +ever been reproached about her colossal selfishness, she would have +looked up astonished, and replied:</p> + +<p>"Well, who is nearer to oneself than oneself?"</p> + +<p>Common sense like this is not to be controverted.</p> + +<p>It would only be when she was growing old that she would feel the +loneliness of knowing that, apart from the passion which she had +inspired because of her sex and her beauty, not a single human being had +ever loved her. For the present she was Venus Victrix, a glorious +creature, the desired of men—and that was enough.</p> + +<p>Mr. Hanbury-Green was a forceful person, unhampered by any of the +instincts of a gentleman, and therefore armed with a number of weapons +for winning his battles. He had determined to rise to the top upon the +wave of class hatred which he had been clever enough to create, and he +neither knew nor cared to what state of devastation he might bring the +country. He was a fitting mate in every way for Cecilia Cricklander, and +completely equipped to play with her at her own game.</p> + +<p>So, when they met in her sitting-room in the Florentine hotel, each +experienced a pleasurable emotion.</p> + +<p>His was tempered—or augmented—by a blunt and sufficiently brutal +passion, which only the ideal of circumspect outward conduct which +dominates the non-conformist lower middle classes, from which he had +sprung, kept him from demonstrating, by seizing his desired prize in his +arms.</p> + +<p>He was frankly in love, and meant to leave no stone unturned to oust +John Derringham from his position as <i>fiancé</i> of the lady—John +Derringham, whom he hated from the innermost core of his heart!</p> + +<p>Mrs. Cricklander fenced with him admirably. She did not need Arabella's +coachings in her dealings with him; he was quite uncultured, and +infinitely more appreciated what her old father had been used to call +her "horse sense" than he would have done her finest rhapsody upon +Nietzsche. Mrs. Cricklander had indeed with him that delightful sense of +rest and ceasing from toil that being herself gave. She felt she could +launch forth into as free a naturalness as if she had been selling +little pigs' feet in her grandfather's original shop. And all to a man +who was rising—rising in that great country of England, where some day +he might play a <i>rôle</i> no less than Tallien's, and she could be "Notre +dame de Thermidor."</p> + +<p>Arabella had once told her of this lady's story, and she felt that the +time in Bordeaux when the beautiful Thérèse wore the red cap of Liberty +and hung upon the arm of one who had swum in the blood of the +aristocrats, must have been an experience worth having in life. Her +study of Madame Tallien went no further; it was the lurid revolutionary +part in her career that she liked.</p> + +<p>Mr. Hanbury-Green was very careful at first. He was quite aware that he +was only received with <i>empressement</i> because he was successful; he knew +and appreciated the fact that Cecilia Cricklander only cared for members +of a winning side. He felt like that about people himself, and he +respected her for the way she fought to secure a footing among the hated +upper classes, and then trampled upon their necks. There were no shades +of her character which would have disgusted or dismayed him; even the +knowledge that her erudition was merely parrot-talk, would only have +appealed to his admiration as a further proof of her sagacity.</p> + +<p>They went on to Venice the day after he arrived, with Arabella to make a +chaperoning third, and for the first two days afterwards Cecilia kept +him at arm's length, but not waiting for his dinner! Some instinct told +her that in his home circle he would probably have been accustomed to +worthy, punctual women, and, while she enjoyed tantalizing him, she knew +that he had a nasty temper and could not be provoked too far. No bonds +of honor or chivalry would control his actions as they would those of +John Derringham. She was dealing with as lawless a being as herself, and +it was very refreshing. Mr. Hanbury-Green knew her one weak point—she +was intensely sensitive of the world's opinion, as are all people who +inwardly know they are shams. She would have hated to be the center of a +scandal, from the point of view that it would irreparably close doors to +her; and her resentment of barriers and barrier-makers was always +present.</p> + +<p>This he would remember as his strong card—the last to be played.—If +she continued being capricious until the moment of her <i>fiancé's</i> +expected return, he would use all his cunning—and it was no +inconsiderable quantity—and compromise her irrevocably, and so get her +to surrender upon his terms. For he had made up his mind, as he sped to +Florence, that Cecilia Cricklander should return to England as his wife.</p> + +<p>They had four days of the usual gay parties for every meal—there +happened to be a number of people passing through and staying at +Venice—and the early September weather was glorious and very hot.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Cricklander delighted in a gondola. There was something about it +which set off her stately beauty, she felt, and she reveled in the +admiration she provoked; and so did Mr. Hanbury-Green—he prized that +which the crowd applauded. But time was passing, and nothing the least +definite was settled yet, although he knew he had obtained a certain +mastery over her.</p> + +<p>On the Friday evening a telegram was received from John Derringham +saying he would return on the Saturday night, and Mr. Hanbury-Green felt +this was the moment to act. He had no intention of having any quarrel +with his rival, or of putting himself in the position of being called +upon to give an account of himself. The news of his dismissal must be +conveyed to John Derringham by the lady as that lady's free and +determined choice.</p> + +<p>So Mr. Green was very cautious all the Friday evening, and made himself +as irresistible as he could, using all his clever wits to flatter and +cajole Cecilia, and leaving not a trifle unconsidered which could +interfere with his plans.</p> + +<p>They were simple enough.</p> + +<p>He claimed to have discovered a quite new and quite charming spot on the +Lido, which he was most anxious to take Mrs. Cricklander to see +alone—he put a stress upon the word <i>alone</i>, and looked into her eyes. +They would go quite early and be back before tea, as John Derringham had +timed himself to arrive upon the mainland about seven o'clock, and would +be at the Daniellis, where they were all staying, for dinner.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Cricklander felt she must have one more delightful afternoon, and, +as this excursion might contain a spice of adventure, it thrilled her +blood. She had been exquisitely discreet—in public—forcing Arabella +always to talk to Mr. Hanbury-Green, and devoting herself to Lady +Maulevrier, or any other lady or old gentleman who happened to be +present. And then she felt free to spend long hours alone with Mr. +Hanbury-Green in her sitting-room, whose balcony hung over the beautiful +canal. No one could say a word—Arabella's discretion could always be +counted upon; and pleasure was secured.</p> + +<p>She looked, perhaps, more beautiful than she had ever done in her life +as they started. Mr. Hanbury-Green had hired a special gondola, not the +one they were accustomed to float about in,—and off they went. Where +was the harm, in broad daylight! and with Arabella to accompany them—as +far as the last steps, and then to be dropped? Cecilia felt like a +school-girl on a forbidden treat.</p> + +<p>When they were well out of sight of all observation, Mr. Hanbury-Green +began. He told her that he loved her, in all the most impressive +language he was master of; he felt that with her he might with safety +and success use the same flamboyant metaphors and exaggerations with +which he was accustomed to move his constituents. No restraint or +attention to accuracy was necessary here. And if his voice in his honest +excitement would have sounded a little cockney in Arabella's cultured +ears, Cecilia Cricklander did not notice it. On the contrary, she +thought the whole thing was the finest-sounding harangue she had ever +heard in her life.</p> + +<p>He went on to say that he could not live without her, and implored her +to throw over John Derringham and promise to be his wife.</p> + +<p>"He thinks you are madly in love with him, darling," he said, knowing +this would sting, "and will stand any of his airs. Let him see you are +not. Give him the snub he deserves for deserting you, and fling his +dismissal in his face."</p> + +<p>Cecilia Cricklander reddened and thrilled, too. Here, at all events, was +warmth. But she was not won yet. So she looked down, as if too full of +emotion to speak. She must gain time to consider what this would mean, +and, if worth while, how to lay her plans.</p> + +<p>Should the scheme contain certain elevation for herself and certain +humiliation for John Derringham, then there was something worthy of +consideration in it, for undoubtedly Percy Hanbury-Green suited her the +better of the two, as far as just the men themselves were concerned. She +knew she would get desperately tired of having to live up to John +Derringham's standard, and a divorce in England would not be so easily +obtained or so free from scandal, as her original one in America had +been. But she must think well, and weigh the matter before plunging in.</p> + +<p>Mr. Hanbury-Green saw her hesitation and instantly applied another +forceful note. He dwelt upon the political situation and grew eloquent +and magnetic, as when he was on the platform—for was he not playing for +stakes which, for the moment, he valued even more than some thousands of +votes?</p> + +<p>It was no wonder Cecilia Cricklander's imagination grew inflamed. He let +her see that as his wife she would, for seven years or more, ride on the +crest of the wave of an ever-rising tide to undreamed-of heights of +excitement and intrigue. "With you at my side, darling," Mr. Green said +passionately, "I could be stimulated into being Dictator myself. The +days of kings and constitutions are over. The people want a strong +despotic leader who has first brought about their downfall. And they +will get him—in ME!"</p> + +<p>This clinched the matter, and Cecilia, seeing visions of herself as +Madame Tallien, allowed herself to be drawn into his arms!</p> + +<br><hr style="width: 45%;"><br> + +<p>"Do you know, my beauty," the triumphant lover said as they floated back +to pick up Arabella upon the last steps, rather late in the afternoon, +"I had meant to get you somehow to-day. If you had refused to listen, I +intended to take you to the Lido and keep you there all night—the +gondolier and the people there are bribed—then you would have had no +choice but to marry me. Oh, you cannot balk me!"</p> + +<p>And all Cecilia Cricklander replied was, with a girlish giggle of +pleasure:</p> + +<p>"Oh, Percy, dear!"</p> + +<p>In the innermost recesses of their hearts there are a number of cold +women who adore a bold buccaneer!</p> + +<p>She had made one stipulation with him before they landed, and this was +one which in the future—little as she knew it then—would rob her of +all her triumph over John Derringham, and plant an everlasting and +bitter sting in her breast.</p> + +<p>She insisted that, as she did not wish to create a nine days' wonder, no +mention of his engagement to herself should be made public by Mr. +Hanbury-Green for at least a month after people were aware that she had +closed hers with John Derringham. All should be done with decency and in +order, so as not to militate in any way against her future position as +queen of the winning side.</p> + +<p>And, knowing that he had already telegraphed the announcement that the +marriage arranged between the Right Honorable John Derringham and Mrs. +Vincent Cricklander would not take place, so that it should appear in +the Monday morning papers—Mr. Hanbury-Green felt he could safely comply +with her caprice and bide his time. He had not the slightest intention +of ever permitting a whim of hers to interfere with his real wishes in +any way, and having a full command of her own weapons and methods, he +looked forward to a time of uninterrupted bliss when once she should be +his wife. To dissemble for a month or so would not hurt him, and might +even amuse him as a new game.</p> + +<p>So they entered Daniellis in subdued triumph, and said good night before +Arabella, with prim decorum, and then Cecilia mounted to make herself +look beautiful for the flinging of his <i>congé</i> in John Derringham's +face.</p> + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXXIII"></a><h2>CHAPTER XXXIII</h2> +<br> + +<p>When Halcyone left the Fortezza she was conscious of no feeling of +depression or grief. Rather a gladness and security filled her heart. +She had seen him with her mortal eyes—her dear lover—and he was in +truth greatly in need of all her care and tender thoughts. Her beliefs +were so intense in those forces of protection with which that God Whom +she worshiped so truly surrounded her, that she never for a moment +doubted but these invisible currents would be directed to the +disentangling of destiny's threads.</p> + +<p>She made no speculations as to how this would be—God would find the +way. Her attitude was never one of pious resignation to a divine +chastisement. She did not believe God ever meant to chastise anyone. For +good or ill each circumstance was brought about by the individual's own +action in setting the sequence of events in motion, as the planting of +seed in the early spring produced fair flowers in the summer—or the +bruising of a limb produced pain. And the motion must go on until the +price had been paid or the pleasure obtained. And, when long ago she had +heard Cheiron and John Derringham having abstruse arguments upon Chance, +she used silently to wonder how they could be so dull as not to +understand there was no such thing really as Chance—if people were only +enabled to see clearly enough. If they could only trace events in their +lives to their sources, they would find that they themselves had long +ago—even perhaps in some former existence—put in motion the currents +to draw the events to themselves. What could be called "chance" in the +matter was only another name for ignorance.</p> + +<p>And, if people knew about these wonderful forces of nature, they could +connect themselves with only the good ones, and protect themselves from +the bad. Misfortune came through—figuratively—not knowing just where +to put the feet, and through not looking ahead to see what would be the +result of actions.</p> + +<p>Only, above and beyond all these forces of nature and these currents of +cause and effect, there was still the great, eternal Source of all +things, who was able to dispel ignorance and to endow one individual +with the power to help another by his prayers and thoughts. This God +could hasten and bring Happiness, if only He were believed in with +absolute faith. But that He would ever stoop to punish was an unheard-of +blasphemy. He was only and entirely concerned with good. Punishments +came as the results of actions. It followed then that John Derringham, +having paid the price of much sorrow for all his mistakes, would now +come into peace—and her prayers, and exceptional advantages in having +been allowed for years to learn the forces of nature, would be permitted +to help him. That he would be obliged to marry Mrs. Cricklander would +seem to be an overexaction, and not just. But they were not the judges, +and must in all cases fulfill their part of honesty and truth, no matter +what might betide.</p> + +<p>These were her convictions, and so they caused her to feel only a +God-like calm—as she went away into the purple shadows of the old +streets.</p> + +<p>Cheiron and she had been at San Gimignano for half a week, and almost +every child in the place knew and loved her. She had always a gracious +word or a merry smile when they clustered round her, as is their +friendly way with all travelers, when she came from the Cathedral or the +strange old solitary chapel of St. Jacopo.</p> + +<p>The Professor was waiting for her on the hotel steps, and he saw by some +extra radiance in her face that something unusual had happened.</p> + +<p>"What is it, my child?" he asked, as they went in and up to their dinner +in the big <i>salle à manger</i> upon the first floor, which was then nearly +always empty of guests.</p> + +<p>"John Derringham is here, Master," she said—"and we have talked, and +now all shadows are gone—and we must only wait."</p> + +<p>"I am glad to hear it," replied Cheiron, and bristled his brows.</p> + +<p>This is all that was said between them on the subject, and, immediately +the meal was over, they retired to their rooms. But when alone in hers, +Halcyone took from the silken wrappings the Goddess Aphrodite, and in +the divine eyes read a glad blessing, and, as soon as her head touched +her pillow, she fell into a soft sweet sleep, while the warm night winds +flew in at the wide-opened windows and caressed her hair.</p> + +<p>And John Derringham, when the dark had fallen, came down from his high +watch tower, and walked slowly back to the hotel, leaning upon his +stick. He was still filled with the hush of his loved one's serene calm. +Surely, after all, there must be some truth in her beliefs, and he would +trust to them, too, and wait and hope—and above all keep his word, as +she had said, with that honor which is entailed upon a gentleman.</p> + +<p>He ordered his motor for dawn the next morning, so as to be away before +the chance of disturbing the two should occur.</p> + +<p>The rare and wonderful sight of a motor in those days caused a crowd to +collect whenever one should arrive or depart. It was an unheard-of thing +that two should visit the city at the same time—there had only been +three in the whole year—so Halcyone, when she heard the whizz next +morning, bounded from her bed and rushed to peep between the green +shutters. Some instinct told her that the noise indicated it was he—her +dear lover—about to start, and she had the happiness of gazing down +upon his upturned face unperceived, as his eyes searched the windows, +perhaps in some vague hope of being able to discern which was hers.</p> + +<p>And she showered upon him blessings of love and tenderness, and called +all the currents of good from the sky and the air, to comfort and +protect him and give him strength to go back and keep his word. And, +just as he was starting, a white pigeon flew down and circled round John +Derringham's head—and he was conscious that at the same moment the sun +must have risen above the horizon, for it suddenly gilded the highest +towers. And he passed out of the dark gate into its glory, and took the +Siena road, a mighty purpose of strength in his heart.</p> + +<p>After a few days of wandering, during which he strove not to let grief +or depression master him again, he sent a telegram to Venice to Cecilia +Cricklander. And on that Saturday evening, he walked into her +sitting-room with a pale and composed face.</p> + +<p>She was seated upon the sofa and arranged with every care, and was +looking triumphantly beautiful as she smoked a cigarette. Her fine eyes +had in them all the mocking of the fiend as she greeted him lazily.</p> + +<p>"How are you, John?" she said casually—and puffed rings of smoke, +curling up her red lips to do so in a manner that, John Derringham was +unpleasantly aware, he would once have found attractive, but that now +only filled him with disgust.</p> + +<p>"I am well," he said, "thank you,—better for the change and the sight +of some most interesting things."</p> + +<p>"And I, also," she responded with provoking glances from under her lids, +"am better—for the change! I have seen—a man, since which I seem to be +able the better to value your love!"</p> + +<p>And she leaned back and laughed with rasping mockery, which galled his +ears—although for some strange reason she could no longer gall his +soul. He felt calm and blandly indifferent to her, like someone acting +in a dream.</p> + +<p>"I am glad you were, and are, amused," he said. He had not made the +slightest attempt to kiss her in greeting—and she had not even held out +her hand.</p> + +<p>"You are quite rich now, John, aren't you?" after a short silence she +presently asked nonchalantly—"that is, as you English count riches—ten +or twelve thousand a year. I suppose it will keep you in comfort."</p> + +<p>He leaned back and smiled one of his old cynical smiles.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he said, "it is extremely rich for me; my personal wants are not +great."</p> + +<p>"That is splendid, then," she went on, "because I shall not feel I am +really depriving you of anything by doing what I intend to do in +throwing you over—otherwise I should have been glad to settle something +upon you for life!"</p> + +<p>As he listened, John Derringham's eyes flashed forth steel, but the pith +of her speech had in it such divine portent, as it fell upon his ears, +that the insult of its wording left him less roused than she hoped he +would have been.</p> + +<p>She saw that it was joy, not rage, which lay deep in his eyes, and the +fury of her whole nature blazed up, so that she forgot the years of +polish that she had acquired—forgot her elaborately prepared plan that +for an hour she would torture and play with him, as a cat plays with a +mouse, and, crimsoning with wrath, she hurled forth her displeasure, +cutting things short.</p> + +<p>"You are only a paltry fortune-hunter, John Derringham, for all your +fine talk," she said loudly, raising her voice, and allowing it to +regain its original broad accent, "and I have kept you on just to punish +you. But, if you thought I was ever going to marry you now that you are +no better than a cripple, and don't amount to thirty cents in the +opinion of the world—you or your Government either!—you made a great +mistake. I have something much more delightful on hand—so you can take +back your ring and your freedom—and go and find some meeker woman who +will put up with your airs."</p> + +<p>And she picked up from a table beside her his diamond gage, which she +had taken from her hand before his entrance, and threw it over to +him—and then leaned back as if exhausted with anger among the cushions.</p> + +<p>John Derringham had grown very pale as the insulting words fell from her +lips—and now he rose to his feet, and standing there looked at her with +pitying contempt.</p> + +<p>"Then I will say good-by, Cecilia," he said. "The manner of your release +of me cancels the pain it might otherwise have caused me. I can only +wish you all success with any new venture you may make—and assure you +always of my deep respect."</p> + +<p>And, calmly putting the ring in his pocket, he turned round and slowly +left the room—when, meeting Arabella upon the stairs, she was startled +to see him shaking with sardonic laughter.</p> + +<p>"Good-night, and good-by, dear Miss Clinker," he said; "I am glad to +have had this opportunity of thanking you again and again for your sweet +goodness to me when I was ill; it was something which I shall never +forget."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mr. Derringham!" said Arabella, "you haven't parted from Mrs. +Cricklander, have you?" But she saw from his laughing eyes that he had, +and, before she was aware of it, good, honest soul, she had blurted out: +"Oh, I'm so glad!"</p> + +<p>Then they shook hands heartily, to hide her dreadful confusion, and John +Derringham went on to his rooms at the Britannia, where he was staying, +with nothing but a mad, wild joy in his heart.</p> + +<p>What did Cecilia Cricklander's insults matter? What did anything on +earth matter? He was free to go and seek his beloved one—and have every +sorrow healed as he held her to his heart. The only necessary thing now +was to find her immediately, which would require some thinking out. It +was too late to get an answer to any telegrams to England—he must wait +until the morning. Mrs. Porrit would know where Cheiron's next address +would be. Yes, he could hope to come up with the wanderers perhaps not +later than the day after tomorrow.</p> + +<p>But when Arabella entered her employer's sitting-room after wishing him +good-by, she found Mrs. Cricklander in violent hysterics, and she had to +have the doctor and a sleeping draught before she could be calmed.</p> + +<p>The hatefulness, the impossible arrogance and insolence of the man, she +had thought! and the humiliation to herself of knowing full well that, +instead of making this dismissal a scene of subtle superlative +cleverness, so that through all his torture he would be obliged to +admire and respect her skill—she had let her temper get the better of +her, and had shown him a side of herself that, she was well aware, was +most unrefined, so that he had been able to leave her, not as a humbled, +beaten cur, as she had intended, but feeling what she knew to be +unfeigned contempt.</p> + +<p>No wonder she had hysterics! It was galling beyond compare, and not all +Mr. Hanbury-Green's devotion or flattery next day could heal the bitter +hurt.</p> + +<p>"Oh, how I will help you, Percy!" she said, "to pull them all down from +their pedestals, and drag them to the guillotine!"</p> + +<p>And Mr. Hanbury-Green had laughed, and said it gratified him greatly to +feel her sympathy and coöperation would be with him, but he feared they +would never have the humorous pleasure of getting as far as that!</p> + +<p>And, it being a Sunday, Arabella Clinker wrote to her mother to apprise +her of these events.</p> + +<blockquote> +The engagement is over [Mrs. Clinker was told]—the advent of Mr. +Hanbury-Green (a very unpleasant personality, afraid of being polite +to me in case I should fancy myself his equal) seemed to clinch +matters in M. E.'s mind. I suppose he was able to give her some +definite assurance of the future of the Government. In any case, I +could see, when they returned from their excursion in the gondola +yesterday, that things were upon a very familiar footing between +them. Mr. H.G. has none of Mr. Derringham's restraint or refinement, +and, after M. E. had seen Mr. Derringham and, I presume, returned him +his freedom, she had a terrible fit of hysterics, only calmed when +Mr. Hanbury-Green entered the room and suggested emptying the water +jug over her. It appears he has a sister who is subject to these +attacks, and this is the only method which has any effect upon her. I +suppose in his circle they would have a number of crude remedies +which we are unaccustomed to, but it seemed to be the right one for +M. E., who pulled herself together at once.<br> +<br> +They told me privately that they are engaged, but do not intend to +announce it yet, and I believe they are really suited to each other. +I had thought at one time that Mr. Derringham might be equally a mate +for her, because of his selfishness, but, after I grew to know him +when he was ill, I saw that he was infinitely above her, and not +really more selfish than other men—and, as you know, I have extended +to him my pity and commiseration ever since. Your liking of him +confirmed my good opinion. I am to stay on with M. E. as long as I +will, because Mr. Hanbury-Green, she says, is not cultivated either, +and I may be of use to them both, she thinks, in the future, although +she has not imparted this to him. I do not believe I shall like +having to render his speeches erudite, because my political +convictions are all upon the other side. But something else may turn +up, and it is a comfort to know things are settled for the present. +Mr. Derringham looked so joyous as he came from her sitting-room, +after his dismissal, that I am sure he will go off at once to that +person I have often given you a hint about,—and his restoration to +health may consequently be looked upon as a certainty. I fear the +influences we shall have to live under now will not encourage that +high tone which endeavoring to keep up with Mr. Derringham and his +party entailed, and it may grow more than I can bear. The inference +to be drawn from M. E.'s defection to the other side is not +felicitous, and gives me cause for the most gloomy foreboding as to +the future of the country, because she would never have done it if +she had not received from Mr. Hanbury-Green absolute guarantees that +with him she will occupy the highest position. Everything +Conservative is <i>vieux jeu</i> now, she says, and she must go with the +tide.</blockquote> + +<p>And from this the letter wandered on to personal matters.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile John Derringham had received Mrs. Porrit's answer and had +ascertained the Professor's probable address, and was joyously speeding +his way on to Rome.</p> + + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXXIV"></a><h2>CHAPTER XXXIV</h2> +<br> + +<p>The Palace of the Cæsars was lying in blazing heat when Halcyone and the +Professor decided to spend the afternoon there. People had warned them +not to get to Rome until October, but they were both lovers of the sun, +and paid no heed. It would be particularly delightful to have the +eternal city to themselves, and they had come straight down from San +Gimignano, meaning to pick up their motor again at Perugia on their way +back, as the roads to the south were so bad.</p> + +<p>They had only arrived the evening before, and felt the Palatine hill +should be their first pilgrimage. It was completely deserted in the heat +and they wandered in peace. They had gone all through the dark rooms +which overlook the Forum, and had reached the garden upon the top, with +its cypress and cool shade. Here Halcyone sat down on a bench, looking +over the wonderful scene. She wanted to re-read a letter from her Aunt +Roberta which had arrived as they were starting out.</p> + +<p>The old ladies were delighted with their accession to a modest fortune, +the matter was turning out well, and they hoped to have their ancient +brougham repainted and a quiet horse to draw it, before very long, so +that, even when it rained, they could have the pleasure of going to +church.</p> + +<p>William, the Aunt Roberta added, was really growing a little old for so +many duties, and would, under the new and more prosperous <i>régime</i>, +confine himself to being only butler. Halcyone would find several +changes on her return; among them the four gates had been mended!</p> + +<p>As she read this part of the letter, Halcyone almost sighed! The gates, +especially the one of the beech avenue, had always been such friends of +hers, she knew and loved each crack. And then her thoughts wandered, as +ever, to her lover. Where was he and how had it fared with him? Her +serene calm was not disturbed—she felt certainty in every breath of the +soft warm air—the certainty that the springtime of their souls had +come.</p> + +<p>Now, that same morning, John Derringham had arrived at the Grand Hotel, +and, after breakfasting, had made his way to the hotel to which Mrs. +Porrit had informed him the Professor's letters were to be addressed. +And Demetrius, whom he asked for, hearing Mr. Carlyon was out, was able +to give him information as to where his master had gone; so that he set +off at once.</p> + +<p>The Palace of the Cæsars was rather a labyrinth to expect to find +anybody in, but he would do his best. And so it happened, after about an +hour's search, that he came upon Cheiron alone, just as he reached +Livia's house.</p> + +<p>Mr. Carlyon held out his hand.</p> + +<p>"Well, John," he said, "and so we meet again."</p> + +<p>His old pupil shook it heartily, and Cheiron, seeing that joyous light +in his eyes, raised his left penthouse with a whimsical smile.</p> + +<p>"Got clear of the Octopus, I should imagine," he said laconically. +"Well, better late than never—Halcyone is over on the bench under the +cypress, gazing upon the Tarpeian rock; perhaps you may like to go to +her—" and he pointed in that direction.</p> + +<p>"It is what I have come at post-haste from Venice to do, Master," John +Derringham said. "Mrs. Cricklander was kind enough to release me on +Saturday evening—she has other views, it seems!"—and he laughed with +his old boyish gayety.</p> + +<p>"Well, I won't keep you," Cheiron answered. "Bring my little girl back +to the hotel when these gates shut. No doubt you will have enough to +talk about till then," and he smiled benignly.</p> + +<p>"You will give us your blessing, Master?" John Derringham asked. But the +Professor growled as he turned to go on.</p> + +<p>"She has my blessing always," he said, "and you will have it, too, if +you make her happy, but you don't deserve her, you know, John."</p> + +<p>John Derringham drew himself up and looked straight out in front of +him—his face was moved.</p> + +<p>"I know I do not," he said, "but I hope you believe me, Cheiron, when I +tell you that I mean to devote the rest of my life to attain that +object—and at least no man could worship her more."</p> + +<p>"Get on with your courting then, lad!" said the Professor, pointing with +his stick in Halcyone's direction, while his wise eyes smiled. "I +suppose she will think you perfect in any case—it is her incredible +conviction!" And with this he shook his old pupil's hand again, and the +two men went their separate ways; John Derringham forgetful of even his +lame ankle as he rapidly approached his beloved.</p> + +<p>She saw him coming—she had been thinking of him deeply in an exquisite +day-dream, and this seemed just the sequence of it, and quite natural +and yet divine.</p> + +<p>She rose and held out both hands to him, the radiance of heaven in her +tender eyes. For she knew that all was well and joy had come.</p> + +<p>And they spoke not a word as he folded her in his arms.</p> + +<br><hr style="width: 45%;"><br> + +<p>A week later they were married very quietly at the Embassy, and went +south to spend their honeymoon, leaving Mr. Carlyon to go back to +England alone. He was tired of wandering, he said, and sighed for the +comforts of the orchard house and his pipe and his Aristotle.</p> + +<p>And Aphrodite went with the bridal pair, no doubt content.</p> + +<p>The manner of Mrs. Cricklander's dismissal of John Derringham had left +him unhampered by any consideration for her feelings.</p> + +<p>And when she read the announcement in the <i>New York Herald</i> the day +after the wedding, she burned with furious rage.</p> + +<p>So this was the meaning of everything all along! It had not been Cora +Lutworth or his political preoccupations, or anything but simply the +odious fact that he had been in love with somebody else! This wretched +English girl had taken him from her—a creature of whose existence she +had never even heard!</p> + +<p>And the world would know of his marriage before her own news had been +made public! The gall of the whole thing was hardly to be borne!</p> + +<p>She felt that, had she been aware that John Derringham's affections were +really given elsewhere, nothing would have induced her to break off the +engagement! Mr. Hanbury-Green was all very well, and was being a most +exceptional lover, only this hateful humiliation and blow to her +self-love mattered more than any mere man!</p> + +<p>But of such things the married two recked not at all. Their springtime +of bliss had come.</p> + +<p>And, as they sat absolutely alone upon the inner steps of the Temple of +Poseidon at Paestum, looking out upon the sapphire sea and azure sky, +the noble columns in front of them all bathed in golden light, and a +solemn crow perched above as priest to bless them, Halcyone drew the +wrappings from the goddess's head.</p> + +<p>"See, John," she said, "Aphrodite is perfectly happy; she is smiling as +never before. She knows that we have found all her message." And she +laid her head against his shoulder as he encircled her with his arm.</p> + +<p>"Dear," she went on, with that misty look in her serene eyes as though +they could see into the beyond, "for me, however much beautiful things +exalt me and take me to God, I can never go there alone. It always seems +as if I must put out my hand and take your hand."</p> + +<p>"Sweetheart," he answered, holding her close, "and long ago I called +love a draught of the poison cup—what a poor blind fool was I!"</p> + +<p>"Yes," she said tenderly. "John, we are much wiser now—and, when we +return to the world out of this divine dream-country, you will teach me +of that life which you must live in the fierce arena where you will +fight for a principle against such odds; and I shall be always there to +comfort you and give you of my sympathy and tenderness. And, as you +instruct me in the day and its strenuous toils, I will teach you of the +soothing, peaceful currents of the night. And we shall know only joy, +because we have seen how it always comes if we go straight on and leave +the tangled threads to God."</p> + +<p>John Derringham bent and kissed her lips and he murmured:</p> + +<p>"My darling—my one woman with a soul."</p> + +<p>THE END</p> + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Halcyone, by Elinor Glyn + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HALCYONE *** + +***** This file should be named 13530-h.htm or 13530-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/5/3/13530/ + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Halcyone + +Author: Elinor Glyn + +Release Date: September 26, 2004 [EBook #13530] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HALCYONE *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + +HALCYONE + + + +BY ELINOR GLYN + +AUTHOR OF "THE REASON WHY," "HIS HOUR," "THREE WEEKS," ETC. + + +[Frontispiece] + + +1912 + + + +TO THE MEMORY +OF +MY KIND FRIEND + +LORD ST. HELIER + +WHOSE SYMPATHY WITH MY CLASSICAL STUDIES +SO GREATLY ENCOURAGED THEM + + +[Greek: DRASANTI PATHEIN] + + + +_"And now they are past the last blue headland and in the open sea; and +there is nothing round them but the waves and the sky and the wind. But +the waves are gentle and the sky is clear, and the breeze is tender and +low; for these are the days when Halcyone and Ceyx build their nest and +no storms ever ruffle the pleasant summer sea. And who were Halcyone and +Ceyx? Halcyone was a fairy maiden, the daughter of the beach and of the +wind. And she loved a sailor-boy and married him; and none on earth were +so happy as they. But at last Ceyx was wrecked; and before he could swim +to the shore, the billows swallowed him up. And Halcyone saw him +drowning and leapt into the sea to him; but in vain. Then the Immortals +took pity on them both, and changed them into two fair sea-birds, and +now they build a floating nest every year and sail up and down for ever +upon the pleasant seas of Greece."_ + +THE HEROES, _Kingsley._ + + + + + +HALCYONE + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +Outside one of the park gates there was a little house. In the +prosperous days of the La Sarthe it had been the land steward's--but +when there was no longer any land to steward it had gone with the rest, +and for several years had been uninhabited. + +One day in early spring Halcyone saw smoke coming out of the chimney. +This was too interesting a fact not to be investigated; she resented it, +too--because a hole in the park paling had often let her into the garden +and there was a particularly fine apple tree there whose fruit she had +yearly enjoyed. + +She crept nearer, a tall, slender shape, with mouse-colored hair waving +down her back, and a scarlet cap pulled jauntily over her brow--the +delightful feeling of adventure tingling in her veins. Yes, the gap was +there, it had not been mended yet--she would penetrate and see for +herself who this intruder could be. + +She climbed through and stole along the orchard and up to the house. +Signs of mending were around the windows, in the shape of a new board +here and there in the shutters; but nothing further. She peeped over the +low sill, and there her eyes met those of an old man seated in a shabby +armchair, amid piles and piles of books. He had evidently been reading +while he smoked a long, clay pipe. + +He was a fine old man with a splendid presence, his gray hair was longer +than is usual and a silvery beard flowed over his chest. + +Halcyone at once likened him to Cheiron in the picture of him in her +volume of Kingsley's "Heroes." + +They stared at one another and the old man rose and came to the window. + +Halcyone did not move. + +"Who are you, little girl?" he said. "And what do you want?" + +"I want to know who you are, and why you have come here?" she answered +fearlessly. "I am Halcyone, you know." + +The old man smiled. + +"That ought to tell me everything," he said, gravely, "but unfortunately +it does not! Who is Halcyone?" + +"I live at La Sarthe Chase with the Aunts La Sarthe," she said proudly, +as though La Sarthe Chase had been Windsor Castle--"and I have been +accustomed to play in this garden. I don't like your being here much." + +"I am sorry for that, because it suits me and I have bought it. But how +would it be if I said you might come into the garden still and play? +Would you forgive me then for being here?" + +"I might," said Halcyone. "What are all these books for?" + +"They are to read." + +"I knew that--" and she frowned, beetling her delicate dark brows, "but +why such a lot? You can never read them all." + +The old man smiled. + +"I have read most of them already," he said. "I have had plenty of time, +you see." + +"Yes, I dare say you are old," said Halcyone-- "and what are they about? +I would like to know that. My books so seldom interest me." + +He handed her one through the window, but it was written in Greek and +she could not read it. She frowned again as she turned over the pages. + +"Perhaps there is something nice in that," she said. + +"Possibly." + +"Well, won't you tell me what?" + +"That would take a long time--suppose you come in and have tea with me, +then we could talk comfortably." + +"That sounds a good plan," she said, gravely. "Shall I climb through the +window--I can quite easily--or would you like me to go round by the +door?" + +"The window will serve," said the old man. + +And with one bound as light as a young kid, Halcyone was in the room. + +There was a second armchair beyond the pile of books, and into that she +nestled, crossing her knees and clasping her hands round them. "Now we +can begin," she said. + +"Tea or talk?" asked the old man. + +"Why, talk, of course; there is no tea--" + +"But if you rang that bell some might come." + +Halcyone jumped up again and looked about for the bell. She was not +going to ask where it was--she disliked stupid people herself. The old +man watched her from under the penthouse of his eyebrows with a curious +smile. + +The bell was hidden in the carving of the mantelpiece, but she found it +at last and gave it a lusty pull. + +It seemed answered instantaneously by a strange-looking man,--a dark, +extremely thin person with black, dull eyes. + +The old man spoke to him in an unknown language and he retired silently. + +"Who was that?" asked Halcyone. + +"That is my servant,--he will bring tea." + +"He is not English?" + +"No--does that matter?" + +"Of course not--but what country does he come from?" + +"You must ask him someday." + +"I want to see countries," and she stretched out her slender arms, "I +want to fly away outside the park and see the world." + +"You have time," said the old man. + +"When I am big enough I shall run away--I get very tired of only the +Aunts La Sarthe. They never understand a word I say." "What do you say?" + +"I want to say all sorts of things, but if it isn't what they have heard +a hundred times before, they look shocked and pained." + +"You must come and say them to me then, perhaps I might understand, and +in any case I should not be shocked or pained." + +"They remind me of the Three Gray Sisters, although there are only two +of them--one eye and one tooth between them." + +"I see--there is something we can talk about at all events," said the +old man. "The Three Gray Sisters are friends of yours--are they?" + +"Not friends!" Haley one exclaimed emphatically. "I can't bear them, +silly old things nodding there, with their ridiculous answers to +Perseus, saying old things were better than new--and their day better +than his--I should have thrown their eye into the sea if I had been he. +Do all old people do that?--pretend their time was the best?--do you? I +don't mean to." + +"You are right. It is a bad habit." + +"But are they better, the old things?" + +The old man did not answer for a moment or two. He looked his visitor +through and through with his wise gray eyes--an investigation which +might have disconcerted some people, but Halcyone was unabashed. + +"I know what you are doing," she said. "You are seeing the other side of +my head--and I wish I could see the other side of yours, I can the +Aunts' La Sarthe and Priscilla's, in a minute, but yours is different." + +"I am glad of that--you might be disappointed, though, if you did see +what was there." + +"I always want to see," she said simply--"see everything; and sometimes +I find the other side not a bit what this is--even in the birds and +trees and the beetles. But you must have a huge big one." + +The old man laughed. + +"You and I are going to be good acquaintances," he said. "Tell me some +more of Perseus. What more do you know of him?" + +"I have only read 'The Heroes,'" Halcyone admitted, "but I know it by +heart--and I know it is all true though my governess says it is +fairy-tales and not for girls. I want to learn Greek, but they can't +teach me." + +"That is too bad." + +"When things are put vaguely I always want to know, them--I want to know +why Medusa turned into a gorgon? What was her sin?" + +The old man smiled. + +"I see," said Halcyone, "you won't tell me, but some day I shall know." + +"Yes, some day you shall know," he said. + +"They seem such great people, those Greeks; they knew everything--so the +preface of my 'Heroes' says, and I want to learn the things they +knew--mathematics and geometry, rather--and especially logic and +metaphysics, because I want to know the meaning of words and the art of +reasoning, and above everything I want to know about my own thoughts and +soul." "You strange little girl," said the old man. "Have you a soul?" + +"I don't know, I have something in there," and Halcyone pointed to her +head--"and it talks to me like another voice, and when I am alone up a +tree away from people, and all is beautiful, it seems to make it tight +round here,--and go from my head into my side," and she placed her lean +brown paw over her heart. + +"Yes--you perhaps have a soul," said the old man, and then he added, +half to himself--"What a pity." + +"Why a pity?" demanded Halcyone. + +"Because a woman with a soul suffers, and brings tribulation--but since +you have one we may as well teach you how to keep the thing in hand." + +At that moment, the dark servant brought tea, and the fine oriental +china pleased Halcyone whose perceptions took in the texture of every +single thing she came in contact with. + +The old man seemed to go into a reverie, he was quite silent while he +poured out the tea, forgetting to enquire her tastes as to cream and +sugar--he drank his black--and handed Halcyone a cup of the same. + +She looked at him, her inquiring eyes full of intelligence and +understanding, and she realized at once that these trifles were not in +his consideration for the moment. So she helped herself to what she +wanted and sat down again in her armchair. She did not even rattle her +teaspoon. Priscilla often made noises which irritated her when she was +thinking. The old man came back to a remembrance of her presence at +last. + +"Little girl," he said--"would you like to come here pretty often and +learn Greek, and about the Greeks?" + +Halcyone bounded from her chair with joy. + +"But of course I would!" she said. "And I am not stupid--not really +stupid Mademoiselle says, when I want to learn things." + +"No--I dare say you are not stupid," the old man said. "So it is a +bargain then; I shall teach you about my friends the Greeks, and you +shall teach me about the green trees, and your friends the rabbits and +the beetles." + +Then those instinctive good manners of Halcyone's came uppermost, +inherited, like her slender shape and balanced head, from that long line +of La Sarthe ancestors, and she thanked the old man with a quaint, +courtly, sweetly pedantic grace. Then she got up to go-- + +"I like being here--and may I come again to-morrow?" she said +afterwards. "I must go now or they will be disagreeable and perhaps make +difficulties." + +The old man watched her as she curtsied to him and vaulted through the +window again, and on down the path, and through the hole in the paling, +without once turning round. Then he muttered to himself: + +"A woman thing who refrains from looking back!--Yes, I fear she has a +soul." + +Then he returned to his pipe and his Aristotle. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +Halcyone struck straight across the park until she came to the beech +avenue, near the top, which ran south. The place had been nobly planned +by that grim old La Sarthe who raised it in the days of seventh Henry. +It stood very high with its terraced garden in the center of four +splendid avenues of oak, lime, beech and Spanish chestnut running east, +west, north and south. And four gates in different stages of +dilapidation gave entrance through a broken wall of stone to a circular +drive which connected all the avenues giving access to the house, a +battered, irregular erection of gray stone. + +To reach the splendid front door you entered from the oak avenue and +crossed the pleasance, now only an overgrown meadow where the one cow +grazed in the summer. + +Then you were obliged to mount three stately flights of stone steps +until you reached the first terrace, which was flagged near the house +and bordered with stiff flower-beds. Here you might turn and look back +due west upon a view of exquisite beauty--an undulating fertile country +beneath, and then in the far distance a line of dim blue hills. + +But if you chanced to wish to enter your carriage unwetted on a rainy +day, you were obliged to deny yourself the pleasure of passing through +the entrance hall in state, and to go out at the back by stone passages +into the courtyard where the circular avenue came up close to a +fortified door, under the arch of which you could drive. + +Everything spoke of past grandeur and present decay--only the +flower-beds of the highest terrace appeared even partly cultivated; the +two lower ones were a wild riot of weeds and straggling rose trees +unpruned and untrained, and if you looked up at the windows in the +southern wing of the house, you saw that several panes in them were +missing and that the holes had been stuffed with rags. + +At this time of the year the beech avenue presented an indescribably +lovely sight of just opening leaves of tender green. It was a +never-failing joy to Halcyone. She walked the few paces which separated +her from it and turning, stood leaning against the broken gate now, +drinking in every tone of the patches the lowered sun made of gold +between the green. For her it was full of wood nymphs and elves. It did +not contain gods and goddesses like the others. She told herself long +stories about them. + +The beech avenue was her favorite for the spring, the lime for the +summer, the chestnut for the autumn, and the oak for the winter. She +knew every tree in all four, as a huntsman knows his hounds. And when, +in the great equinoctial storm of the previous year, three giant oaks +lay shattered and broken, the sight had caused her deep grief, until she +wove a legend about them and turned them into monsters for Perseus to +subdue with Medusa's head. One, indeed, whose trunk was gnarled and +twisted, became the serpent of the brazen scales who sleepeth not, +guarding the Golden Fleece. + +"As the tree falls so shall it lie," seemed to be the motto of La Sarthe +Chase. For none were removed. + +Halcyone stretched out her arms and beckoned to her fairy friends. + +"Queen Mab," she called, "come and dance nearer to me--I can see your +wings and I want to talk to you to-day!" + +And as if in answer to this invitation, the rays of the lowered sun +shifted to an opening almost at her feet, and with a cry of joy the +child began to dance in the gorgeous light. + +"Come follow, follow me, ye fairy elves that be," she sang softly. + +And the sprites laughed with gladness, and gilded her mouse hair with +gold, and lit up her eyes, and wove scarves about her with gossamer +threads, and beneath her feet tall bluebells offered their heads as a +carpet. + +But Halcyone sprang over them, she would not have crushed the meanest +weed. + +"Queen Mab!" she said at last, as she sat down in the middle of the +sunlight, "I have found an old gentleman--and he is Cheiron, and if one +could see it in the right light, he may have a horse's body, and he is +going to teach me just what Jason learnt--and then I shall tell it to +you." + +The rays shifted again to a path beyond, and Halcyone bounded up and +went on her way. + +Old William was drawing the elder Miss La Sarthe in a dilapidated +basket-chair, up and down on the highest terrace. She held a minute +faded pink silk parasol over her head--it had an ivory handle which +folded up when she no longer needed the parasol as a shade. She wore +one-buttoned gloves, of slate-colored kid, and a wrist-band of black +velvet clasped with a buckle. An inverted cake-tin of weather-beaten +straw, trimmed with rusty velvet, shadowed her old, tired eyes; an +Indian shawl was crossed upon her thin bosom. + +"Halcyone!" she called querulously. "Where have you been, child? You +must have missed your tea." + +And Halcyone answered: + +"In the orchard." + +For of what use to inform Aunt Ginevra about that enchanting visit to +Cheiron! Aunt Ginevra who knew not of such beings! + +"The orchard's let," grunted old William--"they do say it's sold--" + +"I had rather not hear of it, William," said Miss La Sarthe frowning. +"It does not concern one what occurs beyond one's gates." + +Old William growled gently, and continued his laborious task--one of the +wheels squeaked as it turned on the flags. + +"Aunt Ginevra, you must have that oiled," said Halcyone, as she screwed +up her face. "How can you bear it? You can't see the lovely spring +things, with that noise." + +"One does not see with one's ears, Halcyone," quavered Miss La Sarthe. +"Take me in now, William." + +"And she can't even see them with her eyes--poor Aunt Ginevra!" Halcyone +said to herself, as she walked respectfully by the chair until it passed +the front door on its way to the side. Then she bounded up the steps and +through the paneled, desolate hall, taking joy in climbing the dog-gates +at the turn of the stairs, which she could easily have opened--and she +did not pause until she reached her own room in the battered south wing, +and was soon curled up in the broad window sill, her hands clasped round +her knees. + +For this was a wonderful thing which had come into her life.--She had +met someone who could see the other side of her head! Henceforth there +would be a human voice, not only a fairy's, to converse with her. +Indeed, the world was a very fair place! + +Here, Priscilla found her when it was growing dark, still with the rapt +expression of glad thought on her face. And the elderly woman shook her +head. "That child is not canny," she muttered, while aloud she chided +her for idleness and untidiness in having thrown her cap on the floor. + +But Halcyone flung her arms round Priscilla's neck and laughed in her +beard. + +"Oh, you dear old goosie! I have been with the Immortals on the blue +peaks of Olympus and there we did not wear caps!" + +"Them Immortals!" said Priscilla. "Better far you were attending to +things you can see. They'll be coming down and carrying you off, some of +these fine nights!" + +"The Immortals don't care so much about the nights, Priscilla--unless +Artemis is abroad--she does--but the others like the sunlight and great +white clouds and a still blue sky. I am quite safe--" and Halcyone +smiled. + +Priscilla began tidying up. + +"Ma'm'selle's wrote to the mistresses to say she won't come back, she +can't put up with the place any longer." + +This sounded too good to be true! Another governess going! Surely they +would see it was no use asking any more to come to La Sarthe +Chase--Halcyone had never had one who could appreciate its beauties. +Governesses to her were poor-spirited creatures afraid of rats, and the +dark passages--and one and all resentful of the rag-stuffed panes in the +long gallery. Surely with the new-found Cheiron to instruct her about +those divine Greeks a fresh governess was unnecessary. + +"I shall ask Aunt Ginevra to implore my stepfather not to send any more. +We don't want them, do we, Priscilla?" + +"That we don't, my lamb!" agreed Priscilla. "But you must learn +something more useful than gods and goddesses. Your poor, dear mother in +heaven would break her heart if she knew you were going to be brought up +ignorant." + +Halcyone raised her head haughtily. + +"I shan't be ignorant--don't be afraid. I would not remain ignorant even +if no other governess ever came near me. I can read by myself, and the +dear old gentleman I saw to-day will direct me." And then when she +perceived the look of astonishment on Priscilla's face: "Ah! That is a +secret! I had not meant to tell you--but I will. The orchard cottage is +inhabited and I've seen him, and he is Cheiron, and I am going to learn +Greek!" + +"Bless my heart!" said Priscilla. "Well, now, it is long past seven +o'clock and you must dress to go down to dessert." + +And all the time she was putting Halcyone into her too short white +frock, and brushing her mane of hair, the child kept up a brisk +conversation. Silent for hours at a time, when something suddenly +interested her she could be loquacious enough. + +One candle had to be lit before her toilet was completed, and then at +half past seven she stole down the stairs, full of shadows, and across +the hall to the great dining-room, where the Misses La Sarthe dined in +state at seven o'clock, off some thin soup and one other dish, so that +at half past seven the cloth had been cleared away by old William (in a +black evening coat now and rather a high stock), and the shining +mahogany table reflected the two candles in their superb old silver +candlesticks. + +At this stage, as Halcyone entered the room, it was customary for +William to place the dish of apples on the table in front of Miss La +Sarthe, and the dish of almonds and raisins in front of Miss Roberta. +The dessert did not vary much for months--from October to late June it +was the same; and only on Sundays was the almond and raisin dish allowed +to be partaken of, but an apple was divided into four quarters, after +being carefully peeled by Miss La Sarthe, each evening, and Miss Roberta +was given two quarters and Halcyone one, while the eldest lady nibbled +at the remaining piece herself. + +In her day, children had always come down to dessert, and had had to be +good and not greedy, or the fate of Miss Augusta Noble of that estimable +book, "The Fairchild Family," would certainly fall upon them. Halcyone, +from her earliest memory, had come down to dessert every night--except +at one or two pleasant moments when the measles or a bad cold had kept +her in bed. Half past seven o'clock, summer and winter, had meant for +her the quarter of an apple, two or three strawberries or a plum--and +almost always the same conversation. + +Miss La Sarthe sat at the head of the table, in a green silk dress cut +low upon the shoulders and trimmed with a bertha of blonde lace. Miss +Roberta--sad falling off from dignity--had her thin bones covered with a +habit shirt of tulle, because she was altogether a poorer creature than +her sister, and felt the cold badly. Both ladies wore ringlets at the +sides of their faces and little caps of ribbon and lace. + +Even within Halcyone's memory, the dining-room had lost some of its +adornments. The Chippendale chairs had gone, and had been replaced by +four stout kitchen ones. The bits of rare china were fewer--but the +portrait of the famous Timothy La Sarthe, by Holbein, still frowned from +his place of honor above the chimneypiece. All the La Sarthes had been +christened Timothy since that time. + +The affair of the governess seemed to be troubling Miss Roberta. At +intervals she had found comfort in these denizens of the outer world, +and, free from the stern eye of Sister Ginevra, had been wont to chat +with one and another. They never stayed long enough for her to know them +well, and now this lady--the fifth within two years--had refused to +return. Life seemed very dull. + +"Need I have any more governesses, Aunt Ginevra?" Halcyone said. "There +is an old gentleman who has bought the orchard house and he says he will +teach me Greek--and I already know a number of other tiresome things." + +Halcyone had not meant to tell her aunts anything about Cheiron--this +new-found joy--but she reasoned after she heard of Mademoiselle's +non-return that the knowledge that she would have some instructor might +have weight with those in charge of her. It was worth risking at all +events. + +Miss La Sarthe adjusted a gold pince-nez and looked at the little girl. + +"How old are you, Halcyone?" she asked. + +"I was twelve on the seventh of last October, Aunt Ginevra." + +"Twelve--a young gentlewoman's education is not complete at twelve years +old, child--although governesses in the house are not very pleasant, I +admit"--and Miss La Sarthe sighed. + +"Oh, I know it isn't!" said Halcyone, "but you see, I can speak French +and German quite decently, and the other things surely I might learn +myself in between the old gentleman's teaching." + +"But what do you know of this--this stranger?" demanded Miss La Sarthe. +"You allude to someone of whom neither your Aunt Roberta nor I have ever +heard." + +"I met him to-day. I went into the orchard as usual, and found the house +was inhabited, and I saw him and he asked me in to tea. He is a very old +gentleman with a long white beard, and very, very clever. His room is +full of Greek books and we had a long talk, and he was very kind and +said he would teach me to read them." + +This seemed to Halcyone to be sufficient in the way of credentials for +anyone. + +"I have heard from Hester," Miss Roberta interposed timidly, "that the +orchard house has been bought by an Oxford professor--it sounds most +respectable, does it not, sister?" + +Miss La Sarthe looked stern: + +"More than thirty-five years ago, Roberta, I told you I disapproved of +Hester's chattering. I cannot conceive personally, how you can converse +with servants as you do. Hester would not have dared to gossip to me!" + +Poor Miss Roberta looked crushed. She had often been chided on this +point before. + +Halcyone would like to have reminded her elder aunt that William, who +was equally a servant, had announced some such news to her that +afternoon; but she remained silent. She must gain her point if she +could, and to argue, she knew, was never a road to success. + +"I am sure if we could get a really nice English girl," hazarded Miss +Roberta, wishing to propitiate, "it might be company for us all, +Ginevra--but if Mrs. Anderton insists upon sending another foreign +person--" + +"And of course she will," interrupted the elder lady; "people of Mrs. +Anderton's class always think it is more genteel to have a smattering of +foreign languages than to know their own mother tongue. We may get +another German--and that I could hardly bear." + +"Then do write to my stepfather, please, please," cried Halcyone. "Say I +am going to be splendidly taught--lots of interesting things--and oh--I +will try so hard by myself to keep up what I already know. I will +practice--really, really, Aunt Ginevra--and do my German exercises and +dear Aunt Roberta can talk French to me and even teach me the Italian +songs that she sings so beautifully to her guitar!" + +This last won the day as far as Miss Roberta was concerned. Her faded +cheeks flushed pink. The trilling Italian love-songs, learnt some fifty +years ago during a two years' residence in Florence, had always been her +pride and joy. So she warmly seconded her niece's pleadings, and the +momentous decision was come to that James Anderton should be approached +upon the subject. If the child learned Greek--from a professor--and +could pick up a few of Roberta's songs as an accomplishment, she might +do well enough--and a governess in the house, in spite of the money paid +by Mr. Anderton to keep her, was a continual gall and worry to them. + +Halcyone knew very little about her stepfather. She was aware that he +had married her mother when she was a very poor and sorrowful young +widow, that she had had two stepsisters and a brother very close +together, and then that the pretty mother had died. There was evidently +something so sad connected with the whole story that Priscilla never +cared much to talk about it. It was always, "your poor sainted mother in +heaven," or, "your blessed pretty mother"--and with that instinctive +knowledge of the feelings of other people which characterized Halcyone's +point of view, she had avoided questioning her old nurse. Her +stepfather, James Anderton, was a very wealthy stockbroker--she knew +that, and also that a year or so after her mother's death he had married +again--"a person of his own class," Miss La Sarthe had said, "far more +suitable to him than poor Elaine." + +Halcyone had only been six years old at her mother's death, but she kept +a crisp memory of the horror of it. The crimson, crumpled-looking baby +brother, in his long clothes, whose coming somehow seemed responsible +for the loss of her tender angel, for a long time was viewed with +resentful hatred. It was a terrible, unspeakable grief. She remembered +perfectly the helpless sense of loss and loneliness. + +Her mother had loved her with passionate devotion. She was conscious +even then that Mabel and Ethel, the stepsisters, were as nothing in +comparison to herself in her mother's regard. She had a certainty that +her mother had loved her own father very much--the young, brilliant, +spendthrift, last La Sarthe. And her mother had been of the family, +too--a distant cousin. So she herself was La Sarthe to her finger +tips--slender and pale and distinguished-looking. She remembered the +last scene with her stepfather before her coming to La Sarthe Chase. It +was the culmination after a year of misery and unassuaged grieving for +her loss. He had come into the nursery where the three little girls were +playing--Halcyone and her two stepsisters--and he had made them all +stand up in his rough way, and see who could catch the pennies the best +that he threw from the door. His brother, "Uncle Ted," was with him. And +the two younger children, Mabel of five and Ethel of four, shouted +riotously with glee and snatched the coins from one another and greedily +quarreled over those which Halcyone caught with her superior skill and +handed to them. + +She remembered her stepfather's face--it grew heavy and sullen and he +walked to the window, where his brother followed him--and she remembered +their words and had pondered over them often since. + +"It's the damned breeding in the brat that fairly gets me raw, Ted," Mr. +Anderton had said. "Why the devil couldn't Elaine have given it to my +children, too. I can't stand it--a home must be found for her +elsewhere." + +And soon after that, Halcyone had come with her own Priscilla to La +Sarthe Chase to her great-aunts Ginevra and Roberta, in their +tumble-down mansion which her father had not lived to inherit. Under +family arrangements, it was the two old ladies' property for their +lives. + +And now the problem of what James Anderton--or rather the second Mrs. +James Anderton--would do was the question of the moment. Would there be +a fresh governess or would they all be left in peace without one? Mrs. +James Anderton, Miss Roberta had said once, was a person who "did her +duty," as people often did "in her class"--"a most worthy woman, if not +quite a lady"--and she had striven to do her best by James Anderton's +children--even his stepchild Halcyone. + +Miss La Sarthe promised to write that night before she went to bed--but +Halcyone knew it was a long process with her and that an answer could +not be expected for at least a week. Therefore there was no good +agitating herself too soon about the result. It was one of her +principles never to worry over unnecessary things. Life was full of +blessed certainties to enjoy without spoiling them by speculating over +possible unpleasantnesses. + +The old gentleman--Cheiron--and old William and the timid curate who +came to dine on Saturday nights once a month were about the only male +creatures Halcyone had ever spoken to within her recollection--their +rector was a confirmed invalid and lived abroad--but Priscilla had a +supreme contempt for them as a sex. + +"One and all set on themselves, my lamb," she said; "even your own +beautiful father had to be bowed down to and worshiped. We put up with +it in him, of course; but I never did see one that didn't think of +himself first. It is their selfishness that causes all the sorrow of the +world to women. We needn't have lost your angel mother but for Mr. +Anderton's selfishness--a kind, hard, rough man--but as selfish as a +gentleman." + +It seemed a more excusable defect to Priscilla in the upper class, but +had no redeeming touch in the status of Mr. Anderton. + +Halcyone, however, had a logical mind and reasoned with her nurse: + +"If they are _all_ selfish, Priscilla, it must be either women's fault +for letting them be, or God intended them to be so. A thing can't be +_all_ unless the big force makes it." + +This "big force"--this "God" was a real personality to Halcyone. She +could not bear it when in church she heard the meanest acts of revenge +and petty wounded vanity attributed to Him. She argued it was because +the curate did not know. Having come from a town, he could not be +speaking of the same wonderful God she knew in the woods and fields--the +God so loving and tender in the springtime to the budding flowers, so +gorgeous in the summer and autumn and so pure and cold in the winter. +With all that to attend to He could not possibly stoop to punish +ignorant people and harbor anger and wrath against them. He was the +sunlight and the moonlight and the starlight. He was the voice which +talked in the night and made her never lonely. + +And all the other things of nature and the universe were gods, +also--lesser ones obeying the supreme force and somehow fused with Him +in a whole, being part of a scheme which He had invented to complete the +felicity of the world He had created--not beings to be prayed to or +solicited for favors, but just gentle, glorious, sympathetic, invisible +friends. She was very much interested in Christ; He was certainly a part +of God, too--but she could not understand about His dying to save the +world, since the God she heard of in the church was still forever +punishing and torturing human beings, or only extending mercy after His +vanity had been flattered by offerings and sacrifices. + +"I expect," she said to herself, coming home one Sunday after one of Mr. +Miller's lengthy discourses upon God's vengeance, "when I am older and +able really to understand what is written in the Bible I shall find it +isn't that a bit, and it is either Mr. Miller can't see straight or he +has put the stops all in the wrong places and changed the sense. In any +case I shall not trouble now--the God who kept me from falling through +the hole in the loft yesterday by that ray of sunlight to show the +cracked board, is the one I am fond of." + +It was the simple and logical view of a case which always appealed to +her. + +"Halcyone" her parents had called her well--their bond of love--their +tangible proof of halcyon days. And always when Halcyone read her +"Heroes" she felt it was her beautiful father and mother who were the +real Halcyone and Ceyx, and she longed to see the blue summer sea and +the pleasant isles of Greece that she might find their floating nest and +see them sail away happily for ever over those gentle southern waves. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +Mr. Carlyon--for such was Cheiron's real name--knocked the ashes from +his long pipe next day at eleven o'clock in the morning, after his late +breakfast and began to arrange his books. His mind was away in a land of +classical lore; he had almost forgotten the sprite who had invaded his +solitude the previous afternoon, until he heard a tap at the window, and +saw her standing there--great, intelligent eyes aflame and rosy lips +apart. + +"May I come in, please?" her voice said. "I am afraid I am a little +early, but I had something so very interesting to tell you, I had to +come." + +He opened wide the window and let in the May sunshine. + +"The first of May and a May Queen," he told her presently, when they +were seated in their two chairs. "And now begin this interesting news." + +"Aunt Ginevra has promised to write to my step-father at once, and +suggest that no more governesses are sent to me. Won't it be perfectly +splendid if he agrees!" + +"I really don't know," said Cheiron. + +Halcyone's face fell. + +"You promised to teach me Greek," she said simply, "and I know from my +'Heroes' that is all that I need necessarily learn from anyone to +acquire the other things myself." + +This seemed to Mr. Carlyon a very conclusive answer--his bent of mind +found it logical. + +"Very well," he said. "When shall we begin?" + +"Perhaps to-morrow. To-day if you have time I would like to take you for +a walk in the park--and show you some of the trees. The beeches are +coming out very early this year; they have the most exquisite green just +showing, and the chestnuts in some places have quite large leaves. It is +damp under foot, though--do you mind that?" + +"Not a bit," said Cheiron. + +And so they went, creeping through the hole in the paling like two +brigands on a marauding expedition. + +"There used to be deer when I first came five years ago," Halcyone said. +"I remember them quite well, and their sweet little fawns; but the next +winter was that horribly cold one, and there was no hay to be put out to +them--my Aunts La Sarthe are very poor--and some of them died, and in +the summer the Long Man came and talked and talked, and Aunt Roberta had +red eyes all the afternoon, as she always does when he comes, and Aunt +Ginevra pretended hers were a cold in her head--and the week after a lot +of men arrived and drove all the tender, beautiful creatures into +corners, and took them away in carts with nets over them--the does--but +the bucks had pieces of wood because their horns would have torn the +nets." + +Her delicate lips quivered a moment, as though at a too painful +memory--then she smiled. + +"But one mother doe and her fawn got away--and I knew where they were +hiding, but I did not tell, of course--and now there are four of them, +or perhaps five. But they are very wild and keep in the copses, and fly +if they see anyone coming. They don't mind me, of course, but strangers. +The mother remembers that awful day, I expect." + +"No doubt," said Cheiron; "and who is the 'Long Man' you spoke of as +having instigated this outrage?" + +"He is the man of business, he was the bailiff once, but is a house +agent now in Applewood. And whenever he comes something has to go--we +all dread it. Last Michaelmas it was the Chippendale dining-room +chairs--" + +"I know him then--I bought my cottage from him. I suppose all this is +necessary, because he seemed an honest fellow." + +"Someone long ago made it necessary--it is not the Aunts' fault--" and +then Halcyone stopped abruptly and pointed to the beech avenue which +they were approaching now through the bracken, brown and crisp from last +year, with only here and there a green shoot showing. + +"Queen Mab and the elves live there in May and early June," she said. +"They dance every afternoon as the sun sets, and sometimes in the dawn, +too, and the early morning. You can see them if you keep quite still." + +"Naturally," said Cheiron. + +"Do you know, since last winter I have had a great pleasure," and +Halcyone's grave, intent eyes looked up into the old gentleman's face. +"There was a terrible storm in February--but can you really keep a +secret?"--and then, as he nodded his head seriously, she went on. "It +blew down a narrow piece of the paneling in the long gallery--it is next +to my room, you know--and I heard the noise in the night and lit a +candle and went to see. Some of the window panes are broken, so it is +very blustery there in storms. Well, there was a door behind it--a +secret door! I was so excited, but I could not keep the candle alight +and it was very cold. I saw nothing was broken--only the wind had +dislodged the spring. I was able to push it back and pull a little chest +against it, and wait till morning. And then what do you think I +found?--it led to a staircase in the thickness of the wall, which went +down and down until it came to a door right below the cellar--it took me +days of dodging Mademoiselle and Priscilla to carry down oil and things +to help me to open it--and then it came out in a hollow archway on the +second terrace, which has a stone bench in it, and is where old William +keeps his tools. It is so cleverly done you could never see it; it looks +just as if it was no door, but was only there for ornament. You may +fancy I never told anyone! It is my secret--and yours now--and it +enabled me to do what I have always longed to do--go out in the night!" + +"You go out in the night all alone!" exclaimed Cheiron, almost aghast. + +"But of course," said Halcyone. "You cannot think of the joy when there +is a moon and stars; and some of the night creatures are such +friends--they teach me wonderful things. Only the dreadful difficulty is +in avoiding Priscilla--she sleeps in the dressing-room next me. I love +her better than anyone else in the world, but she could never +understand--she would only worry about the wet feet and clothes being +spoilt. I always think it is so fortunate though, don't you, that +servants--even a dear like Priscilla--sleep so soundly. Aunt Ginevra +says they can't help it, every class has its peculiarity." + +Mr. Carlyon was extremely interested--he wanted to hear more of these +adventures. + +"How do you avoid Priscilla seeing your things in the morning then?" he +asked. + +"I have got a pair of big gutta-percha boots--they were my father's +waders once, and I found them, and have hidden them in one of the +chests, and I tuck everything into them--so there are no marks. It is +enchanting." + +"And do you often have these nocturnal outings, you odd little girl?" +Cheiron said, wonderingly. + +"Not very. I have to be so careful, you see--and I only choose moonlight +or starlight nights, and they are rare--but when the summer comes I hope +to enjoy many more of them." + +Then Mr. Carlyon's old eyes looked away into distance and seemed to +see a slender shape wrapped in a spotted fawn's skin, its head crowned +with leaves, joining the throng of those other early worshipers of +Dionysus as they beat their weird music among the dark crags of +Parnassus--searching for communion with the spiritual beyond in the only +way they knew of then to reach it, through a wild ecstasy of emotion. +Here was the same impulse, unconscious, instinctive. The probing of +nature to discover her secrets. Here was a female thing with a soul +unafraid in her pure innocence, alone in the night. + +Halcyone did not interrupt his meditations, and presently they came to +the broken gate close to the house. + +Cheiron paused and leaned on the top bar. + +"Is this the elves' home?" he asked. + +"Yes," she answered gravely. "But so late in the day you cannot see +them. You must wait again until the sun is setting; and I expect when it +is warm they come in the moonlight, too, but I have not been able to get +a fine enough night--as yet. This avenue is the most beautiful of all, +because a hundred years ago the La Sarthes had a quarrel with the +Wendovers, whose land just touches at the end of it, and they closed the +gate, and so the turf has covered the gravel. And look at the tree--you +can see the fairy ring where they dance, and I always fancy they sup +under the one with the very low branch at the side--but I don't believe +I should like 'marrow of mice,' should you?" + +"Not at all," said Cheiron. + +Then they wandered on. Halcyone led him to each of the favorite points +of view, and he became acquainted with the great serpent, and so vivid +was her picturing that he almost fancied he saw the Golden Fleece, +nailed to the tree beyond, and heard Orpheus' exquisite melodies +charming the reptile to sleep while Jason stepped over his slumbering +coils. + +"But I do not have Medea here," she said; "I play her part myself, and I +make her different. She was too cunning and had wicked thoughts in her +heart, and so the poor Heroes suffered. If she had been good and true +and had not killed Absyrtus, things might have had a different ending. I +never like to think of Absyrtus in any case--because, do you know, I +once hated my baby brother, and would have been glad if anyone had +killed him." + +Her eyes became black as night with this awful recollection. "It was +very long ago, you understand--when I was quite a little girl before I +knew the wonderful things the wind and the flowers and the stars tell +me." + +Cheiron did not ask the cause of this hate; he reserved the question for +a future time, and encouraged her to tell him of her discoveries in +wonderland. + +Some trees had strange personalities, she said. You could never guess +the other side of their heads, until you knew them very well. But all +had good in them, and it was wisest never even to see the bad. + +"I always find if you are afraid of things they become real and hurt +you, but if you are sure they are kind and true they turn gentle and +love you. I am hardly ever afraid of anything now--only I do not like a +thunderstorm. It seems as if God were really angry then, and were not +considering sufficiently just whom He meant to hit." + +Justice to her appeared to hold chief place among the virtues. + +"Do you stay here all the year round?" asked Cheiron, presently, "or do +you sometimes have a trip to the seaside?" + +"I have never been away since I first came--I would love to see the +sea," and her eyes became dreary. "I can just remember long ago with my +mother, we went once--she and I alone--" then she turned to her old +companion and looked up in his face. + +"Had you a mother? Of course you had, but I mean one that you knew?" + +The late Mrs. Carlyon had not meant anything much to her son in her +lifetime, and was now a far-off memory of forty years ago, so Cheiron +answered truthfully upon the subject, and Halcyone looked grave. + +"When we have been friends for a long time I will tell you of my +beautiful mother--and I could let you share my memory of her +perhaps--but not to-day," she said. + +And then she was silent for a while as they walked on. But when they +were turning back towards the orchard house she suddenly began to laugh, +glancing at the old gentleman with eyes full of merriment. + +"It is funny," she said, "I don't even know your name! I would like to +call you Cheiron--but you have a real name, of course." + +"It is Arnold Carlyon, and I come from Cornwall," the old gentleman +said, "but you are welcome to call me Cheiron, if you like." + +Halcyone thanked him prettily. + +"I wish you had his body--don't you? How we could gallop about, could we +not? But I can imagine you have, easily. I always can see things I +imagine, and sometimes they become realities then." + +"Heaven forbid!" exclaimed Cheiron. "What would my four legs and my +hoofs do in the little orchard house, and how should I sit in my +armchair?" + +Halcyone pealed with merry laughter; her laughs came so rarely and were +like golden bells. The comic side of the picture enchanted her. + +"Of course it would only do if we lived in a cave, as the real Cheiron +did," she admitted. "I was silly, was not I?" + +"Yes," said Mr. Carlyon, "but I don't think I mind your being so--it is +nice to laugh." + +She slipped her thin little hand into his for a moment, and caught hold +of one of his fingers. + +"I am so glad you understand that," she said. "How good it is to laugh! +That is what the birds sing to me, it is no use ever to be sad, because +it draws evil and fear to yourself, and even in the winter one must know +there is always the beautiful spring soon coming. Don't you think God is +full of love for this world?" + +"I am sure he is." + +"The Aunts' God isn't a very kind person," she went on. "But I expect, +since you know about the Greeks, yours and mine are the same." + +"Probably," said Cheiron. + +Then, being assured on this point, Halcyone felt she could almost +entrust him with her greatest secret. + +"Do you know," she said, in the gravest voice, "I will tell you +something. I have a goddess, too. I found her in the secret staircase. +She is broken, even her nose a little, but she is supremely beautiful. +It is just her head I have got, and I pretend she is my mother +sometimes, really come back to me again. We have long talks. Some day I +will show her to you. I have to keep her hidden, because Aunt Ginevra +cannot bear rubbish about, and as she is broken she would want to have +her thrown away." + +"I shall be delighted to make her acquaintance. What do you call her?" + +"That is just it," said Halcyone. "When I first found her it seemed to +me I must call her Pallas Athene, because of that noble lady in +Perseus--but as I looked and looked I knew she was not that; it seems +she cannot be anything else but just Love--her eyes are so tender, she +has many moods, and they are not often the same--but no matter how she +looks you feel all the time just love, love, love--so I have not named +her yet. You remember when Orpheus took his lyre and sang after Cheiron +had finished his song--it was of Chaos and the making of the world, and +how all things had sprung from Love--who could not live alone in the +Abyss. So I know that is she--just Love." + +"Aphrodite," said Cheiron. + +"It is a pretty name. If that is what it means, I would call her that." + +"It will do," said Cheiron. + +"Aphrodite--Aphrodite," she repeated it over and over. "It must mean +kind and tender, and soft and sweet, and beautiful and glorious, and +making you think of noble things, and making you feel perfectly happy +and warmed and comforted and blessed. Is it all that?" + +"It could be--and more," said Cheiron. + +"Then I will name her so." + +After this there was a long silence. Mr. Carlyon would not interrupt +what was evidently a serious moment to his little friend. He waited, and +then presently he turned the channel of her thoughts by asking her if +she thought he might call on her Aunts that afternoon. + +Halcyone hesitated a second. + +"We hardly ever have visitors. Aunt Ginevra has always said one must not +receive what one cannot return, and they have no carriage or horses now, +so they never see anyone. Aunt Roberta would, but Aunt Ginevra does not +let her, and she often says in the last ten years they have quite +dropped out of everything. I do not know what that means altogether, +because I do not know what there was to drop out of. I have scarcely +ever been beyond the park, and there do not seem to be any big houses +for miles--do there?--except Wendover, but it is shut up; it has been +for twenty years." + +"Then you think the Misses La Sarthe might not receive me?" + +"You could try, of course. You have not a carriage. If you just walked +it would make it even. Shall I tell them you are coming? I had better, +perhaps." + +"Yes, this afternoon." + +And if Halcyone had known it, she was receiving an unheard-of +compliment! The hermit Carlyon--the old Oxford Professor of Greek, who +had come to this out-of-the-way corner because he had been assured by +the agent there would be no sort of society around him--now intended to +put on a tall hat and frock coat, and make a formal call on two maiden +ladies--all for the sake of a child of twelve years, with serious gray +eyes--and a soul! + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +In her heart of hearts Miss Roberta felt fluttered as she walked across +the empty hall to the Italian parlor behind her sterner sister, to +receive their guest. He would come in the afternoon, Halcyone had said. +That meant about three o'clock, and it behooved ladies expecting a +gentleman to be at ease at some pretty fancy work when he should be +announced. + +The village was two miles beyond the lime lodge gates, and for the last +eight years rheumatism in the knee had made the walk there out of the +question for poor Miss Roberta--so even the sight of a man and a +stranger was an unusual thing! She had not attempted conversation with +anyone but Mr. Miller, the curate, for over eleven years. The isolation +in which the inhabitants of La Sarthe Chase lived could not be more +complete. + +The Italian parlor had its own slightly pathetic _cachet_. The walls and +ceiling had been painted by rather a bad artist from Florence at the +beginning of the nineteenth century, but the furniture was good of its +kind--a strange dark orange lacquer and gilt--and here most of the +treasures which had not yet been disposed of for daily bread, were +hoarded in cabinets and quaint glass-topped show tables. There were a +number of other priceless things about the house, the value of which the +Long Man's artistic education was as yet too unfinished to appreciate. +And the greatest treasure of all, as we have seen, was probably only +understood by Halcyone--but more of that in its place. + +At present it concerns us to know that Miss La Sarthe and her sister had +reached the Italian parlor, and were seated in their respective +chairs--Miss Roberta with a piece of delicate embroidery in her hands, +the stitches of which her eyes--without spectacles, to receive +company--were too weak adequately to perceive. + +Miss La Sarthe did not condescend to any such subterfuges. She sat quite +still doing nothing, looking very much as she had looked for the last +forty years. Her harp stood on one side of the fireplace, and Miss +Roberta's guitar hung by a faded blue ribbon from a nail at the other. + +Presently old William announced: + +"Mr. Carlyon." + +And Cheiron, in his Sunday best, walked into the room. + +Halcyone was not present. If children were wanted they were sent for. It +was not seemly for them to be idling in the drawing-rooms. + +But Miss Roberta felt so pleasantly nervous, that she said timidly, +after they had all shaken hands: + +"Ginevra, can we not tell William to ask Halcyone to come down, perhaps +Mr. Carlyon might like to see her again." + +And William, who had not got far from the door, was recalled and sent on +the errand. + +"What a very beautiful view you have from here," Mr. Carlyon said, by +way of a beginning. "It is an ideal spot." + +"We are glad you like it," Miss La Sarthe replied, graciously; "as my +sister and I live quite retired from the world it suits us. We had much +gayety here in our youth, but now we like tranquillity." + +"It is, however, delightful to have a neighbor," Miss Roberta +exclaimed--and then blushed at her temerity. + +The elder lady frowned; Roberta had always been so sadly effusive, she +felt. Men ought not to be flattered so. + +Mr. Carlyon bowed, and the platitudes were continued, each felt he or +she must approach the subject of Halcyone's lessons, but waited for the +other to begin. + +Halcyone, herself, put an end to all awkwardness after she very gently +entered the room. There was no bounding or vaulting in the presence of +the aunts. + +"Is it not kind of Mr. Carlyon to wish to teach me Greek?" she said, +including both her relatives. "I expect he has told you about it +though." + +The Misses La Sarthe were properly surprised and interested. Most kind +they thought it and expressed their appreciation in their separate ways. +They both hoped their great-niece would be diligent, and prove a worthy +pupil. It was most fortunate for Halcyone, because her stepfather, Mr. +James Anderton, might decide at their request not to send another +governess, and, "No doubt it will be most useful to her," Miss La Sarthe +continued. "In these modern days so much learning seems to be expected +of people. When we were young, a little French and Italian were all that +was necessary." + +Then Mr. Carlyon made friends of them for life, by a happy inspiration. + +"I see you are both musicians," he said, pointing to the antiquated +musical instruments. "A taste of that sort is a constant pleasure." + +"We used to play a good deal at one time," admitted Miss La Sarthe, +without a too great show of gratification, "and my sister was quite +celebrated for her Italian songs." + +"Oh!" gasped Miss Roberta, blushing again. + +"I hope I may have the pleasure of hearing you together some day," said +the Professor, gallantly. + +Both ladies smilingly acquiesced, as they depreciated their powers. + +And just before their visitor got up to leave, Miss La Sarthe said with +her grand air: + +"We hope you find your cottage comfortable. It used to be the land +steward's, before we disposed of the property we no longer required. It +always used to have a very pretty garden, but no doubt it has rather +fallen into decay." + +"I shall do my best to repair it," Mr. Carlyon said, "but it will take +some time. I and my servant have already begun to clear the weeds away, +and a new gardener is coming next week." + +"Oh, may I help?" exclaimed Halcyone. "I love gardening, and can dig +quite well. I often help William." + +"Our old butler does many useful things for us," Miss Roberta explained, +with a slightly conscious air. + +And then the adieus were said, Halcyon's first lesson having been +arranged to begin on the morrow. + +When the visitor had gone and the door was shut: + +"A very worthy, cultivated gentleman, Roberta," Miss La Sarthe announced +to her sister. "We must ask him to dinner the next time Mr. Miller is +coming. We must show him some attention for his kindness to our +great-niece; he will understand and not allow it to flatter him too +much. You remember, Roberta, our Mamma always said unmarried women--of +any age--cannot be too careful of _les convenances_, but we might ask +him to dinner under the circumstances--don't you think so?" + +"Oh, I am sure--yes, sister--but I wish you would not talk so of our +age," Miss Roberta said, rather fretfully for her. "You were only +seventy-two last November, and I shall not be sixty-nine until +March--and if you remember, Aunt Agatha lived to ninety-one, and Aunt +Mildred to ninety-four! So we are not so very old as yet." + +"The more reason for us to be careful then," retorted the elder lady, +and Miss Roberta subsided with a sigh as she took her guitar from the +wall and began in her gentle old quavering voice to trill out one of her +many love-songs. + +The guitar had not been tuned for several days, and had run down into a +pitiful flatness; Halcyone could hardly sit still, it hurt her so--but +it was only when Miss Roberta had begun a second warble that either she +or Miss La Sarthe noticed the jar. Then a helpless look grew in the +songstress's faded eyes. + +"Halcyone, dear--I think you might tune the instrument for me," she +said. "I almost think the top string is not quite true, and you do it so +quickly." + +And grateful for the chance, the child soon had it perfectly accorded, +and the concert continued. + +Meanwhile Mr. Carlyon had got back to the orchard house, and had rung +for some of his black tea. He was musing deeply upon events. And at last +he sat at his writing-table and wrote a letter to his friend and former +pupil, John Derringham, in which he described his arrival at his new +home, and his outlook, and made a casual reference to the two maiden +ladies in these terms: + +"The park and house is still owned by two antediluvian spinsters of the +name of La Sarthe--exquisite specimens of Early Victorian gentility. +They are very poor and proud and narrow-minded, and they have a +great-niece living with them, the most remarkable little female +intelligence I have ever come across. My old habit of instruction is not +to be allowed to rest, for I am going to teach the creature Greek, as a +diversion. She seems to be about twelve years old, and has the makings +of a wonderful character. In the summer you had better come down and pay +me a visit, if you are not too busy with your potent mistress, your +political ambitions." + +But John Derringham did not respond to this casual invitation for many a +long day. He had other potent interests beside his political +ambitions--and in any case, never did anything unless he felt inclined. + +Mr. Carlyon did not expect him--he knew him very well. + +Thus the days passed and by the end of June even, Halcyone had learned +more than the Greek alphabet; and had listened to many charming stories +of that wonderful people. And the night was her friend, and numerous +hours were passed in the shadow of his dark wings, as she flitted like +some pale ghost about the park and the deserted, dilapidated garden. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +The July of that year was very warm with peculiarly still days, and +Halcyone and her master, Cheiron, spent most of their time during their +hours of study, under the apple tree. They had got to a stage of +complete understanding, and seemed to have fitted into each other's +lives as though they had always been together. + +Mr. Carlyon watched his little pupil from under the shadow of his +penthouse brows with the deep speculative interest she had aroused in +him from the first. He had theories upon several subjects, which she +seemed to be going to show the result of in practice--and in his kindly +cynic's heart she was now enshrined in a special niche. + +For Halcyone he was "Cheiron," her master, who had the enchanting +quality of being able to see the other side of her head. Every idea of +her soul seemed to be developing under this touch of sympathy and +understanding. Her heterogeneous knowledge culled from the teachings of +her many changing governesses, seemed to regulate itself into distinct +branches with an upward shoot for each, and Mr. Carlyon watched and +encouraged them all. + +It was on one glorious Saturday morning when the fairies and nymphs and +gods and goddesses were presumably asleep in the sunlight, that she drew +up her knees as she sat on the grass by her Professor's chair, and +pushing away the Greek grammar, said, with grave eyes fixed upon his +face: + +"Cheiron, to-day something tells me I can show you Aphrodite. When it is +cooler, about five o'clock, will you come with me to the second terrace? +There I will leave you and go and fetch her, and as William and +Priscilla will be at tea, I can open the secret door, and you shall see +where she lives--all in the dark!" + +Mr. Carlyon felt duly honored--for they had never referred to this +subject since she had first mentioned it. The Professor felt it was one +of deep religious solemnity to his little friend, and had waited until +she herself should feel he was worthy of her complete confidence. + +"She speaks to me more than ever," Halcyone continued. "I took her out +in the moonlight on Thursday night, and she seemed to look more lovely +than before. It has pleased her that I call her Aphrodite--it was +certainly her name." + +"It is settled, then," said Cheiron, "at five o'clock I will be upon the +terrace." + +Halcyone returned to her grammar, and silence obtained between them. +Then presently Mr. Carlyon spoke. + +"I am going to have a visitor for a week or perhaps more," he announced. + +A startled pair of eyes looked up at him. + +"That seems odd," Halcyone said. "I hope whoever it is will not be much +in our way. I do not think I am glad--are you?" + +"Yes, I am glad. It is someone for whom I have a great regard," and Mr. +Carlyon knocked the ashes from his long pipe. "It is a young man who +used to be at Oxford and to whom also I taught Greek." + +"Then he will know a great deal more than I do, being older," returned +Halcyone, not at all mollified by this information. + +"Yes, he knows rather more than you do as yet," the Professor allowed. +"Perhaps you will not like him; he can be quite disagreeable when he +wishes--and he may not like you." + +Halcyone's dark brows met. + +"If he is someone for whom you have a regard he must be of those who +count. I shall be angry then, if he dislikes me--is he coming soon?" + +"On Monday, by the four o'clock train." + +"Our lesson will be over--that is something. You will not want me on +Tuesday, I expect?" and a note of regret grew in her voice. + +"I thought you might have a holiday for a while, all pupils have +holidays in the summer," the Professor returned. + +"Very well," was all she said, and then was quiet for a time, thinking +the matter over. She wished to hear more of this visitor who was going +to interrupt their pleasant intercourse. + +"Of what sort is he?" she asked presently. "A hunter like Meleager--or +cunning like Theseus--or noble like Perseus, whom I love best of all?" + +"He is not very Greek to look at, I am afraid, except perhaps in his +length of limb," and the Professor smiled. "He is just a thin, lanky, +rather distinguished young Englishman and was considered to be the most +brilliant of my pupils, taking a Double First under my auspices and +leaving Oxford with flying colors when I retired myself a year or two +ago. He has been very lucky since, he is full of ambitions in the +political line, and he has a fearless and rather caustic wit." + +"I must think of him as Pericles, then, if he is occupied with the +state," said Halcyone. "But how has he been lucky since? I would like to +know--tell me, please, and I will try not to mind his being here." + +"Yes--try--" said Mr. Carlyon. "After he took his degree he studied law +and history, you know, as well as the Greek philosophy which you may +come to some day--he went to London to the Temple to read for the bar. +He never intended to be a practicing barrister, but everything is a +means to his career. Then his luck came--he has lots of friends and +relations in the great world and at one of their country houses he met +the Prime Minister, who took a tremendous fancy to him, and the thing +going well, the great man finally asked him to be his assistant private +secretary, which post he accepted. The chief private secretary last year +being made governor of a colony, John has now stepped into his shoes, +and presently he will go into Parliament. He is a brilliant fellow and +cares for no man--following only his own star. I shall be very glad to +see him again." + +Halcyone's face fell into a brown study and the Professor watching her +mused to himself. + +"John Derringham will find her in the way. She is not woman enough yet +to attract his eye; he will only perceive she is a rather plain +child--and she will certainly see the other side of his head." + +As Halcyone walked back to La Sarthe Chase for her early dinner, she +mused also: + +"I must not feel this dislike towards Cheiron's other pupil. After all, +Jason could not have the master alone--and if I do feel it then he will +be able to harm me, should he dislike me, too--but if I try to like him, +then he will be powerless, and when he has gone he will not have left +any mark." + +Mr. Carlyon felt a perceptible glow of interest as he waited at five +o'clock that day upon the dilapidated stone bench in the archway where +old William kept his garden tools, and while the subdued light gave him +very little chance of studying minutely the walls, the general aspect +certainly presented no hint of any door. However, he had not to wait or +speculate long, for, with hardly a creak, two stones seemed to turn upon +a pivot, and Halcyone came forth from the aperture bending her head. + +"After all, I do not think you had better come in with me," she said. +"It is low like this for ten yards; it will make your back ache--so I +have brought her. If you will hold her, I will run out and see if all is +safe; and then we can carry her to the summer house and take off her +scarf." + +Cheiron held out his arms to receive the precious bundle; and he could +feel by its weight it was a marble head. It was enveloped in the +voluminous folds of the remains of an old blue silk curtain, a relic of +other days, when rich stuffs hung before the windows of La Sarthe Chase. + +"I took the covering from the Spanish Chest in the long gallery," +Halcyone announced. "I had played with it for years, and the color suits +her--it must be the same as are her real eyes." + +Then she darted out into the sunlight and returned again in a few +moments--with shining face. All was safe and the momentous hour had +come. + +She took her goddess from Mr. Carlyon's arms, and walking with the +dignity of a priestess of the Temple, she preceded her master along the +tangled path. + +A riot of things growing impeded each step. Roses which had degenerated +into little better than wild ones, showed late red and pink blooms, +honeysuckle and columbines flowered, and foxgloves raised their graceful +heads. + +At the end there was a broken bower at the corner of the terrace, with a +superb view over the park and far beyond to the high blue hills. + +This place was cleared, for Halcyone had done the necessary work +herself. It was one of her outlooks upon the world and she had even +carefully mended the cracked bench with a bit of board and a nail or +two. The table, which was of stone, still stood firmly and was quaint +and rather Greek in shape--for had not a later Timothy La Sarthe brought +it from Paris in the Empire days? + +Mr. Carlyon sat down and prepared himself for the solemn moment when the +Goddess should be unveiled. + +And when the reverent little priestess had removed the folds from the +face as it lay upon the table, he started and held his breath, for he +instantly realized that indeed this was the work of some glorious old +Greek sculptor; none other could have created that perfect head. + +And as he looked, the child slipped her hand into his and whispered +softly: + +"Watch her eyes; she is tender to-day and welcomes us. I was not quite +sure how she would receive you." + +And lo! it seemed to Mr. Carlyon as though the divine orbs softened into +a smile, such was the art of those old Greeks, who marred not the marble +with pupil or iris, who stooped to no trick of simulation, but left the +perfect modeling to speak for itself. + +The eyes of this Aphrodite conveyed volumes of love, with her nobly +planned brows and temples and her softly smooth cheeks. The slight break +of the nose even did not seem to spoil the perfect beauty of the whole. +Her mouth, tender and rather full, seemed to smile a welcome, and the +patine, unspoiled by any casts having ever been taken, gleamed as the +finest of skin. It was in a wonderful state of preservation and not +darkened to more than a soft cream color. + +So there she lay at last! Goddess of Love still for all time. The head +was broken off at the base of the slender, rounded throat. + +Halcyone perceived that Cheiron was appreciating her treasure in a +proper spirit and spoke not a word while he examined it minutely, +turning it in all lights. + +"What consummate genius!" he almost whispered at last. "You have truly a +goddess here, child, and you do well to guard her as such,--Aphrodite +you have named her well." + +"I am glad now that I have shown her to you--at first I was a little +afraid--but you understand. And now you can feel how I have my mother +always with me. She tells me to hope, and that all mean things are of no +importance, and that God intends us all to be as happy as is her +beautiful smile." + +Then Mr. Carlyon asked again for the story of the Goddess's discovery, +and heard all the details of how there was a ray of light in the dark +passage, coming from some cleverly contrived crack on the first terrace. +Here Halcyone's foot had struck against the marble upon her original +voyage of discovery, and by the other objects she encountered she +supposed someone long ago, being in flight, had gradually dropped things +which were heavy and of least value. There was a breastplate as well, +and an iron-bound box which she had never been able to move or open. + +"You might help me and we could look into it some day," she said. + +Mr. Carlyon took Aphrodite into his hands and raised her head, examining +every point with minute care, and now her expression appeared to change +and grow sad in the different effect of light. + +"I do not want her to be up upon a pillar like Artemis and Hebe, who are +still in the hall," Halcyone said. "She could not talk to me then, she +would be always the same. I like to hold her this way and that, and then +I can see her moods and the blue silks keeps her nice and warm." + +"It is a great possession," said Cheiron, "and I understand your joy in +it," and he handed the head back to the child with respect. + +Halcyone bent and caressed it with her soft little velvet cheek. + +"See," she said. "Once I was very foolish and cried about something and +the tears made this little mark," and she pointed to two small spots +which did not gleam quite so much as the rest of the surface. "Tears +always do silly things--I am never so foolish now." And then her young +voice became dreamy and her eyes widened with a look as though she saw +far beyond. + +"Cheiron--all the world is made for gladness if we only do not take the +ugly things with us everywhere. There is summer, as it is now, when we +rest and play and all the gods come down from Olympus and dance and sing +and bask in the light--and then the autumn when the colors are rich and +everything prepares for winter and sleeps. But even in the cold and dark +we must not be sad, because we know it is only for a time and to give us +change, so that we may shout for joy when the spring comes and each year +discover in it some new beauty." + +Cheiron did not speak for a while, he, too, was musing. + +"You are a little Epicurean," he said at last, "and presently we shall +read about Epicurus' great principles and his garden where he taught and +lived." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +John Derringham had been at the orchard house for three or four days +before there was any sign of Halcyone. She had kept away on purpose and +was doing her best to repress the sense of resentment the thought of the +presence of a stranger caused. Mr. Carlyon had given her some simple +books upon the Renaissance which she was devouring with joy. This period +seemed to give some echo of the Greek ideas she loved, and as was her +habit she was visualizing everything as she read, bringing the people +and the places up before her mental eyes, and regulating them into +friends or acquaintances. Cheiron did not confine himself to teaching +her Greek alone, but directed all her reading, taking a growing delight +in her intelligent mind. Thus they had many talks upon history and the +natural sciences and poetry and painting. But to hear of the famous +statues and learn from pictures to know the styles of the old sculptors +seemed to please her best of all. + +By the fifth day, a Friday, Mr. Carlyon began to feel a desire to see +his little pupil again and sent her a message by his dark, silent +servant. Would she not take tea with him that afternoon? So Halcyone +came. She was very quiet and subdued and crept through her gap in the +hedge without any leaps or bounds. + +John Derringham was stretched the whole length of his long, lean limbs +under the apple tree--her apple tree! This did not produce a favorable +note. + +Cheiron watched the meeting with inward amusement. + +"This is my little friend Halcyone La Sarthe," he said. "Halcyone, +yonder Tityus in these latter days is known by the name of John +Derringham--of Derringham in the County of Northampton. Make your bows +to one another." + +Halcyone inclined her head with dignity, but Mr. Derringham only raised +himself a little and said "Good afternoon." He did not care for +children, and was busy with his old master discussing other things. + +"You will pour out the tea, Halcyone, for us as usual," Cheiron said. +"Demetrius will bring it in a minute." And Halcyone sat down demurely +upon the basket chair near the table and crossed her hands. + +"I tell you I will not take their point of view," John Derringham said, +continuing the conversation he had been carrying on before Halcyone +arrived. "Everything in England is spoilt by this pandering to the +mediocrity. A man may not make a speech but he must choose his words so +that uneducated clods can grasp his meaning, he cannot advocate an idea +with success unless it can appeal to the lower middle classes. It is +this subservience to them which has brought us to where we are. No +ideals--no lofty ends--just a means to each one's own hand. I will never +pretend we are all equal, I will never appeal to anything but the +highest in an audience. So they can throw me out if they will!" And he +stretched out his long legs and clasped his hands under his head--so +that to Halcyone he seemed seven foot tall. + +"Tityus" she thought was a very apt name for him, and she wondered if he +would jump if the vulture suddenly gave a gnaw at his liver! + +"You are an idealist, John," said Mr. Carlyon. "All this might have been +of some use as a principle of propaganda before the franchise was so +low, but now the mediocrity is our master--so of what use? If you talked +so you would but preach to empty benches." + +"I will not do that--I will make them listen. My point is that everyone +can rise if he wishes, but until he has done so in fact, there is no use +in his pretending in words that he has. I would explain to them the +reason of things. I could have agreed with the greatest Athenian +democrats because their principle was one of sense. They had slaves to +do the lowest offices who had no voice in public affairs, but here we +let those who have no more education or comprehension than slaves have +the same power as men who have spent their lives in studying the matter. +It is all unjust, and no one has the courage to tell them to their faces +they are unfitted for the task." + +"It will be a grand stalking horse for your first essay in your +constituency," Cheiron said with his kindly twinkle of sarcasm. He loved +to encourage John Derringham to talk. + +But at that moment Demetrius brought the tea and Halcyone gravely began +her task. + +"Do you take it black like Mr. Carlyon?" she asked of the reclining +guest. + +He came back to the remembrance of her presence and glancing at her, +murmured: + +"Oh--ah, no--that is, yes--strong, only with cream and sugar. Thanks +awfully." + +But Halcyone did not rise to hand it to him, so he was obliged to get up +and take it from where she sat. She perceived then that though extremely +thin he was lithe and well-shaped. And in spite of her unconquered +prejudice, she was obliged to own she liked his steely gray hawk-like +eyes and his fine, rather ascetic, clean-shaven face. He did not look at +her specially. He may have taken in a small, pale visage and masses of +mouse-colored hair and slender legs--but nothing struck him particularly +except her feet. As his eyes dropped to the ground he caught sight of +them; they were singularly perfect feet. He admired points in man or +beast--and when he had returned to his old place stretched out under the +apple tree, he still glanced at them now and then; they satisfied his +eye. + +"What have you been doing in these days, Halcyone?" Mr. Carlyon asked. +"I have not seen you since Monday morning. Have you been getting into +any mischief?" + +Halcyone reluctantly admitted that she had not. There was, she +explained, very little chance of any of an agreeable kind coming her way +at La Sarthe Chase. She had been gardening with William--they had quite +tidied the top terrace--and she had been reading French with Aunt +Roberta, but the book was great nonsense. + +Then she added that she had brought an invitation from the Aunts La +Sarthe that Mr. Carlyon's guest should accompany him when he dined with +them on the Saturday. It had become the custom for him to partake of +this repast on the same occasions that Mr. Miller did--once a month. + +John Derringham frowned under his straw hat which he had pulled over his +eyes. He had not come into the country to be dragged out to bucolic +dinner parties. But upon some points he knew his old master was obdurate +and from his firm acceptance of the invitation this appeared to be one +of them. + +Then Halcyone asked politely if he would have a second cup of tea, but +he refused and again addressed Cheiron, ignoring her. Their conversation +now ran into philosophical questions, some of them out of her depth, but +much of the subject interested her deeply and she listened absorbed. + +At last there was a pause and her fresh young voice asked: + +"What, then, is the aim of philosophy--is it only words, or does it +bring any good?" + +And both men looked at her, staggered for a moment, and John Derringham +burst into a ringing laugh. + +"Upon my word, I don't know," he said. "It was invented so that the +Master here and I should pull each other's theories to pieces; that +evidently was its aim from the beginning of time. I do not know if it +has any other good." + +"Everything is so very simple," said Halcyone. "To have to argue about +it must be fatiguing." + +"You find things simple, do you?" asked John Derringham, now +complacently roused to look at her. "What are your rules of life then, +let us hear, oh, Oracle!--we listen with respect!" + +Halcyone reddened a little and a gleam grew in her wise eyes. She would +have refused to reply, but looking at her revered master, she saw that +he was awaiting her answer with an encouraging smile. So she thought a +second and then said calmly, measuring her words: "Things are what we +make them, they have no power in themselves; they are as inanimate as +this wood--" and she touched the table with her fine brown hand. "It is +we ourselves who give them activity. So it is our own faults if they are +bad--they could just as easily be good. Is not that simple enough?" + +"An example, please, Goddess," demanded John Derringham with a cynical +smile. + +"The dark is an example," she went on quietly. "People fill the dark +with their own frightening images and fear it because they themselves +have turned it into evil. The dark is as kind as the day." + +John Derringham laughed. He was amused at this precocious wisdom and he +suddenly remembered that his old master had mentioned some clever child +when writing to him first about the place, two months before. This was +the creature, then, who was learning Greek. She had picked up these +ideas, of course, out of some book and was showing off. Children should +be snubbed and kept in their places: + +"Then you don't cry when your nurse leaves you at night without a +candle. What a good little girl! But perhaps you take a doll to bed," he +added mockingly, "or suck your thumb." + +Halcyone did not answer, her eyes, benign as a goddess's, looked him +through and through--and Cheiron leaned back in his chair and puffed +volumes of smoke while he chuckled delightedly: + +"Take care, John--you will come off second best, for Halcyone can see +the other side of your head." + +For some unaccountable reason, John Derringham felt annoyed; but it was +too contemptible to be annoyed by a child, so he laughed as he answered +condescendingly: + +"There, I will not tease her. I expect she hates me already--" and he +pushed his hat back from his eyes. + +"No," said Halcyone. "One only hates a thing one fears; hate implies +fear. I hated my last but one governess for a while--because she told +lies and was mean and she had the power to keep me in. But once I +reasoned about it, I grew quite indifferent and she had no effect upon +me at all." + +"You have not had time to reason about me," returned John Derringham, +"but it is something that you don't hate me; I ought to feel pleased." + +"I do not know that there is occasion for that," Halcyone remarked, "it +is all a level thing which does not matter. You are Mr. Carlyon's guest +and I expect will be staying some time--" + +"So you will have to put up with me!" and John Derringham laughed, +furious now with himself for his increasing irritation. + +"I must be going," Halcyone then announced and got up from her +chair--"and I will tell my aunts that they may expect you to-morrow +night," she continued, addressing Mr. Carlyon. + +He rose and prepared to accompany her down the garden. She bowed to John +Derringham with quiet dignity as he still lay on the ground and walked +on by the side of her Professor without further words. + +"You don't like my old pupil, Halcyone?" Mr. Carlyon said when they got +to the gap in the hedge. "Tell me, what do you see at the other side of +his head?" + +"Himself," was all she answered as she bounded lightly away laughing, +and was soon lost to view in the copse beyond. + +And Cheiron, considerably amused, returned to his prostrate guest to +find him with a frown upon his face. + +"I hope to goodness, Master, you won't bore me with that brat while I am +here," he exclaimed, "chattering aphorisms like a parrot. I can't stand +children out of their place." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +"Since there will be three gentlemen, Ginevra," Miss Roberta said on +Saturday morning when they sat together in the Italian parlor after +breakfast, "do you not think we had better have Halcyone down to dinner +to-night? I know," she added timidly, "it is not in the proper order of +things, but we could make an exception." + +Miss La Sarthe frowned. Roberta so often was ready to upset regulations. +She was difficult to deal with. But this suggestion of hers had some +point. + +They would be two ladies to three of the other sex--and one of their +guests appeared to be quite a young man--perhaps it might be more +prudent to relax a rule, than to find themselves in an embarrassing +position. + +"I strongly deplore the fact of children ever being brought from their +seclusion except for dessert, but as you say, Roberta, three +gentlemen--and one a perfect stranger--might be too much for us. I +hardly think our Mamma would have approved of our giving such an +unchaperoned party, so for this once Halcyone had better come down. She +can have Mr. Miller for her partner, you will be conducted by the +Professor--and the new guest will take me in." + +Miss Roberta bridled--the Professor was now a hero in her eyes. + +"And Sister," she said, "I think we might bring six of the chairs from +Sir Timothy's bed- and dressing-room just for to-night, instead of those +Windsor ones. It would give the dining-room a better look, do you not +think so?" + +And to this also Miss La Sarthe agreed. So Miss Roberta joyfully found +Halcyone out upon the second terrace and imparted to her the good news. +They would arrange flowers in the epergne, she suggested--a few sweet +williams and mignonette and a foxglove or two. A pretty posy fixed in +sand, such as she remembered there always was in their gala days. +Halcyone was enchanted at the prospect. + +"Oh! dear Aunt Roberta, do let me do it all," she said. "You sit here on +the bench and I will run and fetch the epergne--and we can pick what we +think best. Or--don't you think just a big china bowl full of sweet peas +would be prettier? The sand might show and, and--the epergne is rather +stiff." + +But Miss Roberta looked aggrieved. The epergne with its gold and silver +fern leaves climbing up a thin stalk of glass to its top dish for fruit +had always come out for dinner parties and she liked not innovations. It +was indeed as much as Halcyone could do to get all the flowers of the +same kind, a nasturtium and a magenta stock had with care to be smuggled +away, leaving the sweet peas sole occupants of the sand. But the effect +was very festive and the two carried their work into the dining-room +well pleased. + +The best Sevres dinner-set was had out, which that traveler Timothy had +brought from Paris among other things, and the best cut glass and +rat-tailed silver. Old William, assisted by Hester and Priscilla, had +been busy polishing most of the day--while the cook and the "young +person from the village" were contriving wonders in the vast kitchen. +And punctually at seven in broad daylight, the three Misses La Sarthe, +the two elder in their finest mauve silk evening dresses, awaited their +guests in the Italian parlor. + +Miss Roberta's heart had not fluttered like this since a county ball +some forty years ago when a certain whiskered captain of a dashing +cavalry regiment stationed at Upminster had whispered in her ear. + +Priscilla had let down Halcyone's white muslin frock and as the tucks +were rather large, it was longer than she intended, so that the child +might easily have been taken for a girl of fifteen, and her perfect feet +were encased in a pair of old-fashioned bronze slippers with elastics +crossed up the legs of her white silk stockings. A fillet of blue silk +kept back the soft cloud of her mouse-colored hair. + +Mr. Miller was announced first--very nervous, as usual, and saying the +wrong thing in his flurry. Then up the terrace steps could be seen +advancing Mr. Carlyon and his guest. They had walked over from the +cottage--and Halcyone, observing from the window, was conscious that +against her will she was admiring John Derringham's arrogant, commanding +walk. + +"He could very well be as Theseus was after he grew proud," she said to +herself. + +And soon they were announced. + +Mr. Carlyon was now on the most friendly terms with both old ladies, and +as well as coming to the monthly dinner, sometimes dropped in to tea on +Sunday afternoons, but he knew this was a real party and must be treated +as such. + +How agreeable it felt to be once more in the world, Miss Roberta +thought, and her faded pale cheeks flushed a delicate pink. + +John Derringham had been sulky as a bear at the idea of coming, but +something in the quaintly pathetic refinement of the poor and splendid +old house pleased him, and the aroma of untouched early-Victorian +prudish grace which the ancient ladies threw around them appealed to his +imagination, as any complete bit of art or nature always did. He found +himself seated between Miss La Sarthe and Halcyone and quite enjoying +himself. Everything was of the time from the epergne to the way the +bread was cut. + +Halcyone conversed with Mr. Miller, who always felt he must make nursery +jokes with her and ask her the names of her dolls. + +"He can't help it," she told Cheiron one day. "If he had any more +intelligence God would have put him to work in some busier place." + +John Derringham did not address her; he devoted himself to Miss La +Sarthe. + +He had absolutely no diffidence. He had been spoilt from his cradle, and +by the time he had left Eton--Captain of the Oppidans--had ruled all +those near him with a rod of iron, imposing his interesting enthusiastic +personality upon all companies with unqualified success. Miss La Sarthe +fell at once. He said exactly the right things to her and flattered her +by his unfeigned interest in all she spoke of. He was studying her as he +studied any rare memento of historical value. + +"My great-niece reads every morning with Mr. Carlyon," she said +presently. "Girls are expected to be so very clever nowadays, we are +told. She already knows a little Greek. It would have been considered +quite unnecessary in our day." + +"And I am sure it is in this," said John Derringham. "Learned women are +an awful bore. As a sex they were meant to be feminine, dainty, +exquisite creatures as those I see to-night," and he bowed gallantly +while Miss La Sarthe thrilled. She thoroughly approved of his +appearance. + +"So very much of a gentleman, Roberta," she afterwards said. "None of +that thick, ill-cut look we are obliged to observe in so many of the +younger people we see when we go into Upminster each year." + +"And why should he look thick or ill-cut, Sister?" Miss Roberta replied. +"Mr. Carlyon told me the Derringhams have been seated at Derringham +since fabulous times." + +Thus this last of that race was appreciated fully in at least two +antiquated female hearts. + +But meanwhile the cloth was being removed, and the port wine and old +Madeira placed before the elder hostess. + +"Our father's cellar was famous for its port," she said, "and we have a +few bottles of the '47 left." + +But now she felt it was only manners to turn to Mr. Carlyon upon her +other hand, so John Derringham was left in silence, no obligation to +talk to Halcyone making itself felt. She turned and looked at him, he +interested her very much. Mr. Carlyon had quantities of books of +photographs of all the famous statues in Europe and especially in Italy +and Greece, but she could not find any likeness to him in any of her +recollection of them. Alas! his face was not at all Greek. His nose was +high and aquiline, his forehead high and broad, and there was something +noble and dominating in his fearless regard. His hair even did not grow +very prettily, though it was thick and dark--and there was not an ounce +of superfluous flesh upon his whole person. He never for a moment +suggested repose, he gave the impression of vivid, nervous force and +action, a young knight going out to fight any impossible dragon with his +good sword and shield--unabashed by the smoke from its flaming nostrils, +undaunted by any fear of death. + +Halcyone watched him, and her prejudice slept. + +The silence had lasted quite five minutes when he allowed his natural +good manners, which he was quite aware he had kept in abeyance in regard +to her, to come uppermost. + +"The Professor has been telling me how wonderfully you work with him," +he said; "we under him at Oxford were not half so diligent it seems. I +wonder what good it will be to you at all." + +"If a thing gives pleasure, it is good," she answered gravely. "I wanted +to learn Greek because I had a book when I was little which told me +about those splendid heroes, and I thought I could read more about them +when I am grown up if I knew it--than if I did not." + +"There is something in that. What was the book?" he asked. + +Her steady eyes looked straight into his as she replied: "It was +Kingsley's 'Heroes' and if only I were a boy I would be like Perseus and +go and kill the Gorgon and rescue Andromeda from the sea monster. Pallas +Athene said some fine things to him--do you remember?--when she asked +him the question of which sort of man he would be." + +"No, I don't remember," said John Derringham. "You must tell me now." + +Then Halcyone began in a soft dream voice while her eyes widened and +darkened with that strange look as though she saw into another and +vaster world. "'I am Pallas Athene and I know the thoughts of all men's +hearts, and discern their manhood or their baseness. And from the souls +of clay I turn away; and they are blest, but not by me. They fatten at +ease like sheep in the pasture and eat what they did not sow, like oxen +in the stall. They grow and spread like the gourd along the ground, but +like the gourd they give no shade to the traveler and when they are ripe +death gathers them, and they go down unloved into hell, and their name +vanishes out of the land.'" + +She paused a second and John Derringham was astonished at himself +because he was conscious of experiencing a thrill of deep interest. + +"Yes?" he said--and her voice went on: + +"'But to the souls of fire I give more fire and to those who are manful +I give a might more than man's. These are the heroes, the sons of the +Immortals who are blest but not like the souls of clay, for I drive them +forth by strange paths, Perseus, that they may fight the Titans and +monsters, the enemies of gods and men. Through doubt and need and danger +and battle I drive them, and some of them are slain in the flower of +youth, no man knows when or where, and some of them win noble names and +a fair and green old age--but what will be their latter end, I know not, +and none, save Zeus, the father of gods and men--Tell me, now, Perseus, +which of these two sorts of men seem to you more blest?'" + +It was as if she asked him a personal question and unconsciously he +answered: + +"I should reply as Perseus did. Tell me his words." + +"'Better to die in the flower of youth on the chance of winning a noble +name than to live at ease like the sheep and die unloved and +unrenowned.'" + +He bent nearer to her and answered softly: "They are indeed fine words," +and there was no mockery whatever in his eyes as he looked at her--and +took in every detail of her pure childish face. "You wonderful, strange +little girl--soon I too am going like Perseus to fight the Gorgons, and +I shall remember this night and what you have said." + +But at that moment Mr. Miller's high, cackling laugh was heard in an +explosion of mirth. Mr. Carlyon had made some delightfully obvious joke +for his delectation and amidst a smiling company Miss La Sarthe rose +with dignity to leave the gentlemen alone with their wine. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +Next morning, John Derringham sat at a late breakfast with his whilom +master of Greek and discussed things in general over his bacon and tea. + +It was three years since he had left Oxford, and life held out many +interesting aspects for him. He was standing for the southern division +of his county in the following spring when the present member was going +to retire, and he was vehement in his views and clear as to the course +he meant to take. He was so eloquent in his discourse and so full of +that divine spark of enthusiasm, that he was always listened to, no +matter how unpalatably Tory the basic principles of his utterances were. +He never posed as anything but an aristocrat, and while he whimsically +admitted that in the present day to be one was an enormous disadvantage +for a man who wished to get on, he endeavored to palliate the misfortune +by lucid explanation of what the duties of such a status were, and of +the logical advantages which an appreciation of the truths of cause and +effect might bring to mankind. Down in his own country he was considered +the coming man. He thundered at the people and had facts and figures at +his finger tips. His sublime belief in himself never wavered and like +any inspired view, right or wrong, it had its strong effect. + +Mr. Carlyon thought highly of him, for a number of reasons. + +"If women do not make a stumbling-block for you, John, you will go far," +he said as he buttered his toast. + +"Women!" quoth John Derringham, and he laughed incredulously. "They +matter no more to me than the flowers in the garden--enchanting in the +summer time, a mere pleasure for sight and touch, but to make or mar a +man's life!--not even to be considered as factors in the scheme of +things." + +"I am glad to hear you say so," said Mr. Carlyon dryly. "And I hope that +jade, Fate, won't play you any tricks." + +John Derringham smiled. + +"I admit that a woman with money may be useful to me by and by," he +said, "because, as you know, I am always hard up, and presently when I +want to occupy a larger sphere I shall require money for my ends, but +for the time being they serve to divert me as a relaxation; that is +all." + +"You are contracting no ties, dear lad?" asked the Professor with one +eyebrow raised, while he shook back his silvery hair. "I had heard +vaguely about your attention to Lady Durrend, but I understand she has +had many preliminary canters and knows the ropes." + +John Derringham smiled. "Vivienne Durrend is a most charming woman," he +said. "She has taught me a number of things in the last two years. I am +grateful to her. Next season she is bringing a daughter out--and she has +a wonderful sense of the fitness of things." Then he sipped his tea and +got up and strolled towards the windows. + +"Besides," he continued, "I do not admit there are any ties to be +contracted. The Greeks understood the place of women; all this nonsense +of vows of fidelity and exaltation of sentiment in the home cramps a +man's ambitions. It is perfectly natural that he should take a wife if +his position calls for it, because the society in which we move has made +a figurehead of that kind necessary. But that a woman should expect a +man to be faithful to her, be she wife or mistress, is contrary to all +nature." + +"We have put nature out of the running now for a couple of thousand +years," Mr. Carlyon announced sententiously; "we have set up a standard +of impossibilities and worship hypocrisy and can no longer see any +truth. You have got to reckon with things as they are, not with what +nature meant them to be." + +"Then you think women are a force now which one must consider?" + +"I think they are as deadly as the deep sea--" and Mr. Carlyon's voice +was tense. "When they have only bodies they are dangerous enough, but +when--as many of the modern ones have--they combine a modicum of mind as +well, with all the cunning Satan originally endowed them with--then +happy is the man who escapes, even partially whole, from their claws." + +"Whew--" whistled John Derringham, "and what if they have souls? Not +that I personally admit that such a case exists--what then?" + +"When you meet a woman with a soul you will have met your match, John," +the Professor said, and opening his _Times_, which Demetrius had brought +in with the second post, he closed the conversation. + +John Derringham strolled into the garden. The place had been greatly +improved since Halcyone's first discovery of its new occupant. The +shutters were all a spruce green and the paths weeded and tidy, while +the borders were full of bedded-out plants and flowers. A famous +gardener from Upminster renowned through all the West had come over and +given his personal attention to the matter, and next year wonderful +herbaceous borders would spring up on all sides. Mr. Johnson's visits +and his council, though at first resented, had at length grown a source +of pure delight to Halcyone; she reveled in the blooms of the delicate +begonias and salvias and other blossoms which she had never seen before. +Mr. Carlyon, although desiring solitude, appreciated a beautiful and +cultivated one, and the orchard house was now becoming a very +comfortable bachelor's home. + +The day was much cooler than it had been of late. There was a fresh +breeze though the sun shone. John Derringham wandered down to the apple +tree and thence to the gap, and through it and on into the park. His +walk was for pleasure, and aimless as to destination, and presently he +sat down under a low-spreading oak and looked at the house--La Sarthe +Chase. A beautiful view of it could be obtained from there, and it +interested him--and from that his thoughts came to Halcyone and her +strange, quaint little personality, and he stretched himself out and +putting his hands under his head he looked up into the dense foliage of +the tree above him--and there his eyes met two grave, quiet ones peering +down from a mass of green, and he saw slender brown legs drawn up on a +broad branch, and a scrap of blue cotton frock. + +"Good morning," Halcyone said quite composedly, "don't make a noise, +please, or rustle--the mother doe is just coming out of the copse with +her new fawn." + +"How on earth did you get up there?" he asked, surprised. + +"I swung myself from the lower branch on the other side; it is quite +easy--would you like to come up, too? There is plenty of room--and then +we could be sure the doe would not see you and she might peep out again. +I do not wish to frighten her." + +John Derringham rose leisurely and went to the further side of the oak, +where sure enough there was a drooping branch and he was soon up beside +her, dangling his long limbs as he sat in a fork. + +"What an enchanting bower you have found," he said. "Away from all the +world." + +"No indeed, that cannot be at this time of the year," she answered. +"See, there is a squirrel far up in the top and there are birds, and +look--down there at the roots there is a rabbit hole with such a family +in it. It is only in the winter you can be alone--and not even then, for +you know there are the moles even if you cannot see them." + +"Creatures are interesting to watch, aren't they?" he said. "I have an +old place which I loved when I was a boy. It is let now because I am too +poor to live in it, but I used to like to prowl about in the early +mornings long ago." + +"We are all very poor," said Halcyone simply, "but I am sorry for you +that you have to let strangers be in your house--that must be dreadful." + +John Derringham smiled, and his face lost the _insouciante_ arrogance +which irritated his enemies so. His smile, rare enough, was singularly +sweet. + +"I don't think about it," he said. "It is best not to when anything is +disagreeable." + +"Cheiron and I often tell one another things like that." + +"Cheiron--who is Cheiron?" he asked. + +This seemed a superfluous question to Halcyone. + +"The Professor, of course. He is just like the picture in my 'Heroes,'" +she answered, "and I often pretend we are in the cave on Pelion. I +thought you would perhaps be like one of the others since you were his +pupil, too, but I cannot find which. You are not Heracles--because you +have none of those great muscles--or AEneas or Peleus. Are--are you Jason +himself, perhaps--" and her voice sounded glad with discovery. "We do +not know, he may not have had a Greek face." + +John Derringham laughed. "Jason who led the Argonauts to find the Golden +Fleece--it is a good omen. Would you help me to find the Golden Fleece +if you could?" + +"Yes, I would, if you were good and true--but the end of the story was +sad because Jason was not." + +"How must I be good and true then? I thought Jason was a straight enough +sort of a fellow and that it was Medea who brought all the +trouble--Medea, the woman." + +Halcyone's grave eyes never left his face. She saw the whimsical twinkle +in his but heeded it not. + +"He should not have had anything to do with Medea--that is where he was +wrong," she said, "but having given her his word, he should have kept +it." + +"Even though she was a witch?" Mr. Derringham asked. + +"It was still his word--don't you see? Her being a witch did not alter +his word. He did not give it because she was or was not a witch--but +because he himself wanted to at the time, I suppose; therefore, it was +binding." + +"A man should always keep his word, even to a woman, then?" and John +Derringham smiled finely. + +"Why not to a woman as well as a man?" Halcyone asked surprised. "You do +not see the point at all it seems. It is not to whom it is you give your +word--it is to you it matters that you keep it, because to break it +degrades yourself." + +"You reason well, fair nymph," he said gallantly; he was frankly amused. +"What may your age be? A thousand years more or less will not make any +difference!" + +"You may laugh at me if you like," said Halcyone, and she smiled; his +gayety was infectious, "but I am not so very young. I shall be thirteen +in October, the seventh of October." + +John Derringham appeared to be duly impressed with this antiquity, and +went on gravely: + +"So you and the Master discuss these knotty points of honor and +expediency together, do you, as a recreation from the Greek syntax? I +should like to hear you." + +"The Professor does not believe in men much," Halcyone said. "He says +they are all honorable to one another until they are tempted--and that +they are never honorable to a woman when another woman comes upon the +scene. But I do not know at all about such things, or what it means. For +me there is nothing towards other people; it only is towards yourself. +You must be honorable to yourself." + +And suddenly it seemed to John Derringham as if all the paltry shams of +the world fell together like a pack of cards, and as if he saw truth +shining naked for the first time at the bottom of the well of the +child's pure eyes. + +An extraordinary wave of emotion came over him, finely strung as he was, +and susceptible to all grades of feeling. He did not speak for a minute; +it was as if he had quaffed some elixir. A flame of noble fire seemed to +run in his veins, and his voice was changed and full of homage when at +last he addressed her. + +"Little Goddess of Truth," he said, "I would like to be with you always +that you might never let me forget this point of view. And you believe +it would have won for Jason in the end--if he had been true to himself? +Tell me--I want greatly to know." + +"But how could there be any doubt of that?" she asked surprised. "Good +only can bring good, and evil, evil." + +At this moment, out from the copse the soft head of a doe appeared, and +at the thrilling sight Halcyone slipped her hand into her companion's, +and held his tight lest he should move or rustle a leaf. + +"See," she whispered right in his ear. "She will cross to the other side +by the stream--and oh! there is the fawn! Is he not the dearest baby +angel you have ever seen--!" + +And the doe, feeling herself safe, trotted by, followed by a minute son +in pale drab velvet hardly a month old. + +The pair in the tree watched them breathlessly until they had entered +the copse again beyond the bend, and then Halcyone said: + +"That makes six--and perhaps there are more. Oh! how I hope the Long Man +will not see them!" + +John Derringham did not let go her hand at once; there was something +soft and pleasant in the touch of the cool little fingers. + +"I want to hear about everything," he said. "Tell me of the Long +Man--and the fawns, and why there are only six. I am having the happiest +morning I have had for years." + +So Halcyone began. She glossed a good deal over the facts she had told +Mr. Carlyon upon the subject because she did not feel she knew this +stranger well enough to let him into her aunts' private affairs--so she +turned the interest to the deer themselves, and they chatted on about +all sorts of animals and their ways, and John Derringham was entranced +and felt quite aggrieved when she said it was getting late and she must +go back to the house for her early dinner. He swung himself down from +the tree by the high branch with ease and stood ready to catch her, but +with a nimbleness he did not expect, she crept round to the lower side +and was landed upon the soft turf before he could reach her. + +Then he walked back with her to the broken gate, telling her about his +own old home the while, and then they paused to say good-by. + +Halcyone carried a twig of freshly sprouting oak which she had brought +from the tree, having broken it off in her lightning descent. + +"Give me one leaf and you keep the other," he said. "And then, whenever +I see it, I will try to remember that I must always be good and true." + +With grave earnestness she did as he asked, and then opened the gate. + +"I want to tell you," she said--and she looked down for a second, and +then up into his eyes from beyond the bars. "I did not like the thought +of your coming--and at first I did not like you--but now I see something +quite different at the other side of your head--Good-by." + +And before he could answer, she was off as the young fawn would have +been--a flitting shape among the trees. And John Derringham walked +slowly back to the orchard house, musing as he went. + +But when he got there a telegram from his Chief had arrived, recalling +him instantly to London. + +And he did not see Halcyone again for several years. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +The seasons came and went with peaceful regularity, unbroken by a +jarring note from the outside world. Mr. Anderton, being well assured by +the Misses La Sarthe that his stepdaughter was receiving a splendid +education, was only too glad to leave her in peace, and Mrs. Anderton +felt her duty achieved when at the beginning of each summer and winter +she sent a supply of what she considered suitable clothes. It took +Priscilla and Hester hours to alter them to Halcyone's slender shape. + +Mr. Carlyon was seldom absent from his house during this period, only +twice a year, when he spent a fortnight in London in June, and another +week in November with his brother, a squire of some note in the Cornish +world. Halcyone made green his old age with the exquisite quality of her +opening mind. And deep down in her heart there always dwelt the image of +John Derringham, and whatever new hero she read about, he unconsciously +assumed some of his features or mien. She passed through enthusiasms for +all periods, and for quite six months was under the complete spell of +the "Morte d'Arthur" and the adventures of the knights contained +therein. She read voraciously and systematically, but her first love for +all things Greek regained its hold and undoubtedly colored her whole +view of life. + +Her education was exotic and might have ruined a brain of lesser fiber. +But for her it seemed to bring forth all that was clear and fine and +polish it with a diamond luster. Twice a week alternately the French and +German master from the Applewood Grammar School came to her, and she +also learned to read music from the organist at the church, and then +played to herself with no technique but much taste. + +And of all her masters, Nature and the fearless study of her night moods +molded her soul the most. + +For the first few months after John Derringham's visit Mr. Carlyon often +spoke of him and read aloud bits of his letters, and Halcyone listened +with rapt attention, but she never embarked upon the subject +herself--and then the Professor had an accident to his knee which kept +him a prisoner for months. And somehow the interest of this seemed to +dwarf less present things, and as time went on, John Derringham grew to +be mentioned only by fits and starts, when his rapidly rising political +career called forth cynical grunts of admiration from his old master. +There had been a dissolution of Parliament and a short term of office +for the other side, and then at the General Election John Derringham's +Chief had come in again stronger than ever, and he himself had been made +Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. It was a tremendous rise +for one so young. He was at that time not more than twenty-nine years +old--but two years before this happened, when Halcyone was about +fifteen, he came again to the orchard house for a short Saturday to +Monday visit. + +From the moment that she knew he was coming a strange stillness seemed +to fall upon the child. She had grown long-legged and was at the +fledgling stage when even a pretty girl sometimes looks plain, and she, +who had as yet no claim to beauty, was at her worst. She was quite aware +of it, with her intense soul-worship of all beautiful things. Some +unreasoned impulse made her keep away from her master during the first +day, but on the Sunday he summoned her, and, as once before, she came +and poured out the tea, but it was a cold and windy autumn afternoon, +and it was not laid out of doors. John Derringham had been for a walk, +and came in while she sat in a shadowy corner behind the table, teapot +in hand. + +He was greatly changed, she thought, in the three years. He had grown a +beard! and looked considerably older, with his thin commanding figure +and arrogant head. He was not handsome now, but peculiarly +distinguished-looking. He could very well be Pericles, she decided at +once. As for him, he had almost forgotten her. Life had been so full of +many things; but, seeing a pale, slender, overgrown girl with +mouse-colored clouds of hair now confined in a demure pigtail, it came +to his mind that this must be the Professor's pupil again. Had she not +been called Hebe or Psyche--or Halcyone--some Greek name? And gradually +his former recollection of her came back, and of their morning in the +tree. + +"Why, how do you do," he said politely, and Halcyone bowed without +speaking. She felt much as Hans Andersen's Ugly Duckling used to feel, +and when John Derringham had said a few ordinary things about her having +grown out of all likeness, he turned to the Professor again, and almost +forgot her presence. + +His talk was most wonderful to listen to, she thought, his language was +so polished, and there was a courtesy added to the former vehemence. +They spoke of nothing but politics, which she did not understand, and +Cheiron chaffed him a good deal in his kindly cynical way. He was still +fighting his chimeras, it seemed, and fighting them successfully. As he +spoke, Halcyone, behind the teapot, thrilled with a kind of worship. To +be strong and young and manful, and to combat modern dragons, appeared +to her to be a god-like task. + +In the midst of a heated argument she rose to slip away. Her comings and +goings were so natural to the Professor that he was unaware that she was +leaving the room until John Derringham broke off in the middle of a +sentence, to rise and open the door for her. + +"Good-by," she said. "Aunt Roberta is not very well to-day, so I must +not be late. Good night, Cheiron"--and she went out and closed the door. + +"But it is quite dark!" exclaimed John Derringham. "Is there a servant +waiting? She can't go all alone!" + +The Professor leaned back in his chair. + +"Don't disturb yourself," he said. "Halcyone is accustomed to the +twilight. It is a strange night-creature--leave it alone." + +John Derringham sat down again. + +"She is not nearly so attractive-looking as she used to be. If I +remember, she was rather a weirdly pretty child." + +"Just a chrysalis now," grunted the professor between [**TR Note: was +betwen in original; typesetter's error.] puffs of smoke. "But there is +more true philosophy and profound knowledge of truth in that little head +than either you or I have got in ours, John." + +"You always thought the world of her, Master--you, with your +ineradicable contempt for women!" + +"She is not a woman--yet. She is an intelligence and a brain--and a +soul." + +"Oh, she has a soul, then!" and John Derringham smiled. "I remember once +you said when I should meet a woman with a soul I should meet my match! +I do not feel very alarmed." + +One of the Professor's penthouse brows raised itself about half an inch, +but he did not speak. + +"In which school have you taught her?" John Derringham asked--"you who +are so much of a cynic, Master. Does she study the ethics of Aristotle +with you here in this Lyceum, or do you reconstruct Plato's Academy? She +is no sophist, apparently, since you say she can see the truth." + +Mr. Carlyon looked into the fire. + +"She is almost an Epicurean, John, in all but the disbelief in the +immortality of the soul. She has evolved a theory of her own about that. +It partakes of Buddhism. After I have discussed metaphysical +propositions with her over which she will argue clearly, she will +suddenly cut the whole knot with a lightning flash, and you see the +naked truth, and words become meaningless, and discussion a jest." + +"All this, at fifteen!" John Derringham laughed antagonistically, and +then he suddenly remembered her words to himself upon honor in the tree +that summer morning three years ago, and he mused. + +Perhaps some heaven-taught beings were allowed to come to earth after +all, now and then as the centuries rolled on. + +"She knows Greek pretty well?" he asked. + +"Fairly, for the time she has learnt. She can read me bits of Lucian. +She would stumble over the tragedies. I read them to her." Then he +continued, as though it were a subject he loved, "She has a concrete +view upon every question; her critical faculty is marvelous. She never +lays down the law, but if you ask her, you have your answer in a +nutshell, the simplest truth, which it always appears to her so strange +that you have not seen all the time." + +"What is her parentage? Heredity plays so large a part in these things," +Mr. Derringham asked. + +"The result of a passionate love-match between distant cousins of that +fine old race, I believe. Timothy La Sarthe was at Oxford before your +day, but not under me--a brilliant, enchanting fellow, drowned while +yachting when my little friend was only a few months old." + +"And the mother?" + +"Married again to pay his debts, to a worthy stockbroker, almost +immediately, I believe. She paid the debt with herself and died after +having three children for him in a few years." + +"So your protegee lives with those cameos of the Victorian era we dined +with, and never sees the outside world?" + +"Never--from one year's end to another." + +"What a fate!" and John Derringham stretched out his arms. "Ye gods, +what a fate!" + +And again Cheiron smiled, raising his bushy left brow. + +Halcyone, meanwhile, was walking with firm certain steps across the +park, where the dusk had fallen. The turbulent Boreas blew in her face, +and she stopped and took off her soft cap and unplaited her hair so that +it flew out in a cloud as the wind rushed through it. This sensation was +a great pleasure to her, and when she came to a rising ground, a kind of +knoll where the view of the country was vast and superb, she paused +again and took in great deep breaths. She was drawing all the forces of +the air into her being and quivered presently with the joy of it. + +She could see as only those who are accustomed to the dark can. She was +aware of all the outlines of golden bracken at her feet and the head of +a buck peeping from the copse near. The sky was a passionate, +tempestuous mass of angry clouds scudding over the deep blue, where an +evening star could be seen peeping out. + +"Bring me your force and strength, that I may grow noble and beautiful, +dear wind," she said aloud. "I want to be near him when he comes again," +and then she ran and jumped the uneven places, while she hummed a +strange song. + +And Jeb Hart and Joseph Gubbs, the poachers, saw her, as she passed +within a yard of where they lay setting their snares, and Gubbs, who was +a good Catholic from Upminster, crossed himself as he muttered in his +friend's ear: + +"We'll get no swag to-night, Jeb. When she passes, blest if she don't +warn the beasts." + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +When Halcyone was nearly nineteen and had grown into a rare and radiant +maiden, the like of whom it would be difficult to find, an event +happened which was of the greatest excitement and importance to the +neighborhood. Wendover, which had been shut up for twenty years, was +reported to have been taken for a term by a very rich widow--or +_divorcee_--from America it was believed, and it was going to be +sumptuously done up and would be filled with guests. Mr. Miller took +pains to find out every detail from the Long Man at Applewood, and so +was full of information at his monthly repast with the old ladies. Mrs. +Vincent Cricklander was the new tenant's name. The Long Man had himself +taken her over the place when she first came down to look at it, and his +report was that she was the most beautiful lady he had ever seen, and +with an eye to business that could not be beaten. He held her in vast +respect. + +Then Mr. Miller coughed; he had now come to the point of his discourse +which made him nervous. + +For he had learned beyond the possibility of any doubt that Mrs. +Cricklander was, alas! not a lonely widow but had been divorced--only a +year or two ago. She had divorced her husband--not he her--he hastened +to add, and then coughed again and got very red. + +"When we were young," Miss La Sarthe remarked severely, "our Mamma would +never have allowed us to know any divorced person--and, indeed, our good +Queen Victoria would never have received one at her Court. We cannot +possibly call, Roberta." + +Poor Miss Roberta's face fell. She had been secretly much elated by the +thoughts of a neighbor, and to have all her hopes thus nipped in the bud +was painful. She had heard (from Hester again, it is to be feared!) that +Mrs. Cricklander's maid, who was a cousin of the baker in Applewood, and +who had originally instigated her discovery of Wendover, had said that +her lady knew all the greatest people in England--lords and duchesses by +the dozen, and even an archbishop! Surely that was respectable enough. + +But Miss La Sarthe, while again deploring the source of her sister's +information, was firm. Ideas might have changed, but _they_ had not. +Since the last time they had curtsied to the beloved late Queen, in +about 1879, she believed new rules had been made, but the La Sarthe had +nothing to do with such things! + +Halcyone caught Miss Roberta's piteous, subdued eye, and smiled a +tender, kind smile. With years her understanding of her ancient aunts +had grown. They were no longer rather contemptible, narrow-minded elders +in her eyes, but filled her with a pitiful and gentle respect. Their +courage under adversity, their firm self-control, and the force which +made them live up to their idea of the fitness of things, appealed to +her strongly. She had John Derringham's quality of detached +consideration, and appreciated her old relatives as exquisite relics of +the past, as well as her own kith and kin. + +"In America, divorce is not considered the heinous crime it was once in +England," Mr. Carlyon said. "Perhaps this lady may have been greatly +sinned against and deserves all our pity and regard." + +But Miss La Sarthe remained obdurate. The point was not as to who was in +the right, she explained, but that certain conventions, laid down by one +whose memory was revered, had been outraged, and she could never permit +her sister or Halcyone to have any intercourse with the tenant of +Wendover Park! + +The preparations for the new arrival went on apace all the autumn and +winter. Armies of workpeople were reported to be in possession, and +whole train-loads of splendid French furniture were known to have +arrived at Applewood, to augment the antique and time-worn pieces which +were Wendover's own. + +Miss Le Sarthe sent for the Long Man. Things had been rather better of +late, and no more precious belongings had been forced to be parted with. +An investment which had been valueless for years now began to produce +some interest which was a great comfort, for Miss La Sarthe was now +seventy-nine and Miss Roberta seventy-six. + +The orders that the agent received were precise. The gate between +Wendover and La Sarthe Chase which had been closed for over a hundred +years was to be boarded up, and their side of the haw-haw which for +nearly a mile divided the two parks was to be deepened and cleared out, +and the spikes mended in any places where the ground might have seemed +to have fallen in sufficiently, or the irons to have become broken +enough to make the passage easy. + +This would be unnecessary, Mr. Martin (the Long Man) told her. The +haw-haw was still as perfect as ever and a wonder of concealed traps for +the unwary, but the gate should be seen to at once. + +Thus La Sarthe Chase was armed fully against Wendover, when, about +Easter, Mrs. Cricklander decided she would come down and bring a few +friends. It was with a sudden violent beating of the heart that Halcyone +learned casually from Mr. Carlyon that John Derringham would be of their +number. + +The aunts took in the _Morning Post_, but until she was eighteen they +had rigorously forbidden Halcyone's perusal of it. Newspapers, except +one or two periodicals, were not fit for young ladies' reading until +they were grown up, they felt. However, their niece, having now come to +years of discretion, sometimes had the pleasure of reading John +Derringham's speeches and thrilled with joy over his felicitous daring +and caustic wit. The Government could not last much longer, but he at +least, as far as he could, would keep it full of vigor until the end. +She knew, therefore, that the last sitting before the Easter recess had +been a storm of words sharp as sword-thrusts--it was before the days of +the language of Billingsgate and the behavior of roughs. There were +quite a number of gentlemen still in the House of Commons, who often +behaved as such. + +Those wonderful forces which Halcyone culled from all nature, and +especially the night, gave her a serenity over the most moving events, +and when the sudden beating of her heart was over, she waited calmly for +the moment when she should see John Derringham again. + +Mr. Carlyon took in the _Graphic_ as well as his _Quarterly Review_ and +the _Nineteenth Century_, and it was her only medium for guessing even +what the outside world looked like, but from it she was quite aware that +a beard was a most unusual thing for a young modern man of the world, +and that John Derringham for that reason must always be distinguished +from his fellows. Carpenters and hedgers and ditchers wore them, and +nondescript young fellows she remembered seeing when she went into +Upminster with her aunts; but these excursions had been discontinued now +for the past five years, so the villagers of Sarthe-under-Crum and the +denizens of the rather larger Applewood were the only human beings she +ever saw. + +The party at Wendover were to arrive on the Thursday before Good +Friday--Priscilla had told her that--and it was just possible that some +of them might be in church. + +The aunts now drove a low basket shay which had been their pride in the +sixties, but which for countless years, until the investment began to +pay, they had been unable to keep a pair of ponies for. Now, however, +the shay was unearthed from the moldy coach-house and for the past year +two very old and quiet specimens of Shetland had been found for them by +Mr. Martin and they were able to drive to church every Sunday in state, +William sitting up behind, holding the reins between his mistresses, +while Miss La Sarthe flourished a small whip whose delicate handle was +studded with minute turquoises. From it dangled a ring which she could +slip on her finger over her one-buttoned slate-colored glove, and so +feel certain of not dropping this treasure. Halcyone always walked. + +On Good Friday there was not a sight of the Wendover party in church, +and Halcyone went back by the orchard house to look in at Cheiron, who +had had a cold in the last few days. + +Stretched in the armchair she found John Derringham. + +The brisk walk in the fresh spring air had brought some faint color to +her pale cheeks, her soft hair was wound about her head with becoming +simplicity, and she wore an ordinary suit which could not disguise her +beautiful slender limbs, so long and thin, a veritable Artemis in her +chaste perfection of balance and proportion. + +Halcyone could pass in any crowd and perhaps no one would ever notice +her and her mouse-like coloring, but once your eye was arrested, then, +like looking at some rare bit of delicate enamel, you began to perceive +undreamed-of graces which soothed the sight until you were filled with +the consciousness of an exquisite beauty as intangible as her other +charm--distinction. An infinite serenity was in her atmosphere, a +promise of all pure and tender things in her great soft eyes. The +mystery and freshness of the night seemed always to hang about her. Her +ways were noiseless--the most creaking door appeared to forget its +irritating habit when under her touch. Thus it was that John Derringham, +smoking a cigar, never even glanced up until a voice of extreme +cultivation and softness said gently: + +"Good morning. And how are you?" + +Then he bounded from his chair, startled a little, and held out his +hand. + +"My old friend, Miss Halcyone, the Priestess of Truth!" he exclaimed, +"as I am alive!" + +She smiled serenely while they shook hands, and sat down demurely by the +Professor's side. + +"I thought you would have been translated to Olympus long ago," the +visitor said. "Have you honored this ordinary earth and our friend +Cheiron's cave, ever since?" + +"Ever since!" + +"There can be nothing left for you to learn. Master, it is you and I +whom she could teach," he laughed. + +"How do you know all this?" asked Halcyone quietly, while her eyes +smiled at his raillery. "Do I look such an old-fashioned blue-stocking, +then?" + +"You look perfectly sweet," and John Derringham's expressive eyes +confirmed what he said. + +"Enough, enough, John. Halcyone is quite unaccustomed to gallants from +the world like you," the Professor growled. "If you pay her compliments +she won't believe you can really make a speech." + +So Mr. Derringham laughed and continued his interrupted conversation. He +seemed in good humor with all the world. He was going to stay at +Wendover for the whole of Easter week. Mrs. Cricklander had an amusing +party of luminaries of both sides--she was the most perfect hostess and +had a remarkable talent for collecting the right people. + +"She is quite the best-read woman I have ever met, Master," John +Derringham said. "You must let me bring her over here one day to see +you--you would delight in her wit and beauty. She does not leave you a +dull moment." + +"Yes, bring her," the Professor returned between the puffs at his long +pipe. "I have never met any of these new hothouse roses grafted upon +briar roots. I should like to study how the system has worked." + +"Quite admirably, as you will see. I do not know any Englishwomen who +are to compare to such Americans in brilliancy and fascination." + +Over Halcyone, in spite of her serenity, there crept a feeling of cold. +She did not then analyze why, and, as was her habit when anything began +to distress her, she looked out of the window, whether it were night or +day. She always did this, and when her eyes saw Nature in any of her +moods, calm returned to her. + +"She will simply revel in La Sarthe Chase when she sees it," Mr. +Derringham went on, now addressing Halcyone. "She is a past-mistress in +knowledge of the dates of things. You are going to have the most +delicious neighbor, Miss Halcyone, and in learning, a foeman worthy of +your steel." + +Cheiron was heard to chuckle wickedly, and when his former Oxford pupil +asked him with mild humor the reason of his inappropriate mirth, he +answered dryly: + +"She is never likely to see the inside of the park even. Queen Victoria +did not receive divorced persons, and the Misses La Sarthe, in +consequence, cannot either. You will have to bring her here by the road, +John!" + +Halcyone winced a little. She disliked this conversation; it was not as +_fine_ as she liked to think were the methods of both the men who were +carrying it on. + +John Derringham reddened up to his temples, where there were a few +streaks of gray in his dark hair which added to the distinction of his +finely cut, rather ascetic face. The short, well-trimmed beard was very +becoming, Halcyone thought, and gave him a look of great masculinity and +strength. His hawk's eyes were shadowed, as though he sat up very late +at night; which indeed he did. For John Derringham, at this period of +his life, burnt the candle at both ends and in the middle, too, if it +could add to the pleasure or benefit of his calculated career, mapped +out for himself by himself. + +A sensation almost of wrath rose in his breast at his old master's +words. These ignorant country people, to dare to criticise his +glittering golden pheasant, whom he was very nearly making up his mind +to take for a wife! This aspect of the case, that even these unimportant +old ladies could question the position of his choice, galled him. He had +spent up to the last penny of his diminished income in his years of +man's estate, and Derringham was mortgaged to its furthest acre--and a +gentleman must live--and with his brilliant political future expanding +before him, lack of means must not be allowed to stand in his way. He +would give this woman in gratified ambition as much or more than she +would give him in wealth, so it would be an equal bargain and benefit +them both. And, above all, he was more than half in love with her, and +could get quite a large share of pleasure out of the affair as well. He +had been too busy to trouble much over women as a sex since he had left +the University--except in the way he had once described to his old +master, regarding them as flowers in a garden--mere pleasures for sight +and touch, and experiencing ephemeral passions which left no mark. But +women either feared or adored him; and this woman, the desired of a host +of his friends, had singled him out for her especial favors. It had +amused him the whole of the last season; he had defied her efforts to +chain him to her chariot wheels, and in the winter she had gone to +Egypt, and had only just returned. But the charm was growing, and he +felt he would allow himself to be caught in her net. + +"Mrs. Cricklander would be very much amused could she hear this verdict +of the county," he said with a certain tone in his voice which did not +escape Halcyone. "In London we do not occupy ourselves with such +unimportant things--but I dare say she will get over it. And now I +really must be going back. May I walk with you through the park, Miss +Halcyone, if you are going, too? I am sure there must be an opening +somewhere, as the two places touch." + +"Yes, there is just one," Halcyone said. "The haw-haw runs the whole +way, and it is impossible to pass, except in the one spot, and I believe +no one knows of it but myself. There are a few bricks loose, and I used +to take them out and put them back when I wanted to get into +Wendover--long ago." + +"Then it will be an adventure; come," he said, and Halcyone rose. + +"Only if you will not give away my secret. Promise you will not tell +anyone else," she bargained. + +"Oh! I promise," and John Derringham jumped up--his movements were +always quick and decided and full of nervous force. "I will bring my +hostess to see you on Monday or Tuesday, Master," he announced, as he +said good-by. "And prepare yourself to fall at her feet like all the +rest of us--Merlin and Vivien, you know. It will be a just punishment +for your scathing remarks." + +When they were outside in the garden Halcyone spoke not a word. The beds +were a glory of spring bulbs, and every bud on the trees was bursting +with its promise of coming leaf. Glad, chirruping bird-notes called to +one another, and a couple of partridges ran across the lawn. + +John Derringham took in the lines of Halcyone's graceful person as she +walked ahead. She had that same dignity of movement from the hips which +the Nike of Samothrace seems to be advancing with as you come up the +steps of the Louvre. + +How tall she had grown! She must be at least five feet nine or ten. But +why would she not speak? + +He overawed her here in the daylight, and she felt silent and oppressed. + +"Whereabouts is our tree that we sat in when I was young and you were +old?" he asked, after they had got through the gap in the hedge. A +little gate had been put in the last years to keep out the increasing +herd of deer. + +"It is over there by the copse," she said shyly. "The lower branch fell +last winter, and it makes a delightful seat. One is not obliged to climb +into the tree now. See: Demetrius helped me to drag it close, and we +nailed on these two arms," and she pointed to a giant oak not far from +them, which John Derringham pretended to recognize. + +He tried his best to get her to talk to him, but some cloud of timid +aloofness on her part seemed to hang between them, and very soon below +the copse they came to the one vulnerable part in all the haw-haw's +length. She showed him how to take the bricks out and where to place his +feet, and pointed out how secluded from any eye the place was. Then, as +he climbed down and then up again, and looked across at her from +Wendover lands, she said a sedate good-by, and turning, went on among +the thickly growing saplings of the copse and, never looking back, was +soon out of sight. + +John Derringham watched her disappear with a strange feeling of ruffled +disquietude in his heart. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +It was so warm and charming an April day that Mrs. Cricklander and some +of her friends were out of doors before luncheon, walking up and down +the broad terrace walk that flanked Wendover's southern side. + +It was a Georgian house, spacious and comfortable, but not especially +beautiful. Mrs. Cricklander was a woman of enormous ability--she had a +perfect talent for discovering just the right people to work for her +pleasure and benefit, while being without a single inspiration herself. +If she engaged a professional adviser to furnish her house, and decorate +it, you could be sure he was of the best and that his services had been +measured and balanced beforehand, and that he had been generously paid +whatever he had obtained by bargaining for it, and that the agreement +was signed and every penny of the cost entered in a little book. It was +so with everything that touched her life. She had a definite idea of +what she wanted, although she did not always want the same thing for +long; but while she did, she went about getting it in a sensible, +practical way, secured it, paid for it,--and then often threw it away. + +She had felt she wanted Vincent Cricklander because he belonged to one +of the old families in New York and played polo well, and, being a great +heiress though of no pretensions to birth, she wished to have an +undisputed entry into the inner circle of her own country. He fulfilled +her requirements for quite three years, and then she felt she was +"through" with America, and wanted fresh fields for her efforts. Paris +was too easy, Berlin doubtful, Vienna and Petersburg impossible to +conquer, but London would hold out everything that she could wish for. +Only, it must be the very best of London, not the part of its society +that anyone can struggle and push and pay to get into, but the real +thing. She was "quite finished" with Vincent Cricklander, too, at this +period; to see him play polo no longer gave her any thrill. So one +morning at their lunch, on a rare occasion when they chanced to be +alone, she told him so, and asked him practically how much he would take +to let her divorce him. + +But Vincent Cricklander was a gentleman, and, what is more, an American +gentleman, which means of a chivalry towards women unknown in other +countries. + +"I do not want any of your money, Cis," he said. "I will be quite glad +to go, if it will make you happier. We'll phone T.V. Ryan this afternoon +and let him think out a scheme so that it can be done without a scandal +of any sort. My mother has old-fashioned ideas, and I would hate to pain +the poor dear lady." + +It took nearly two years, but the divorce was completed at last, and +Cecilia Cricklander found herself perfectly free and with all the keen +scent of the hunter for the chase dilating her fine nostrils as she +stood upon the deck of the great ocean liner bound for Liverpool. + +She was a very beautiful woman and refined in every point, with +exquisite feet and hands, pure, brilliant, fair coloring and a superb +figure, and even a fairly sweet voice. Her education had been a good +deal neglected because she was too spoilt by a doting father to profit +by the instruction he provided for her. She felt this keenly directly +she began to go out into the world, and immediately commenced to remedy +the defect. For her, from the very beginning, life appeared in the light +of a game. Fate was an adversary from whom she meant to win all the +stakes, and it behooved a clever woman not to overlook a single card +that might be of use to her in her play. She was quite aware of her own +limitations, and her own forces and advantages. She knew she was +beautiful and charming; she knew she was kind and generous and extremely +"cute," as her old father said. She knew that literature and art did not +interest her one atom in themselves, that most music bored her, and that +she had a rather imperfect memory; but during her brief visits to +England, when she was making up her mind that this country would be the +field for her next exertions, she had decided that to be beautiful and +charming was not just enough; there were numbers of other Americans who +were both, and they were all one as successful and sought after as the +other. She must be something beyond this--a real Queen. To beauty and +wealth and charm she must add culture as well. She must be able to talk +to the prime minister upon his pet foibles, she must be able to quote +erudite passages from all the cleverest books of the day to the +brilliant politicians and diplomats and men of polished brain who made +up the society over which she wished to rule. And how was this to be +done? She thought it all out, and during her two years of living quietly +to obtain her divorce without a breath of scandal, she had hit upon and +put into practice an admirable plan. + +She searched for and found a poor, very plain and highly cultivated +English gentlewoman, one who had been governess in a foreign Royal +family and was now trying to support an aged mother by giving private +lessons. Arabella Clinker was this treasure's name--Miss Arabella +Clinker, aged forty-two, and as ugly as it is possible for a thoroughly +nice woman to be. + +Mrs. Cricklander made no mysteries about what she required Miss +Clinker's companionship for. She explained minutely that should any +special dinner-party or _rencontre_ with any great person be in view, +Miss Clinker must do a sort of preparatory cramming for her, as boys are +prepared for examinations. + +"You must make it your business, when I give you the names of the people +I am to meet, to post me up in what they are likely to talk about. You +must read all the papers in the morning with the political speeches in +them, and then give me a quick _resume_; if it should be any diplomat or +great artist or one of those delightful Englishmen who knows everything, +then you must suggest some suitable authors to speak of that they will +like, and I have quite enough sense myself to turn the conversation off +any that I should not know about. In this way you will soon learn what I +require of you, and I shall learn a great deal and gradually can launch +out into much more difficult things." + +Arabella Clinker had a sense of humor, and she adored her mother and +wished to give her a comfortable old age. Mrs. Cricklander's terms for +this unique position were according to her accustomed liberality. + +"I like to give splendid prices for things, and then I expect them to be +splendidly done," she said. + +Miss Clinker had promised to do her best, and their partnership had +lasted for nearly three years with the most satisfactory results to both +of them. Their only difficulty was Mrs. Cricklander's defective memory. +She _could not_ learn anything by heart, and if she were at all tired +had to keep herself tremendously in hand to make no mistakes. But the +three years of constant trying had enabled her to talk upon most +subjects in a shibboleth of the world which imposed upon everyone. Her +real talent which called for the greatest admiration was the way in +which she manipulated what she knew, and skimmed a fresh subject. She +would do so with such admirable skill and wording as to give the +impression that she was acquainted with its profoundest depths; and then +when she was safely over the chasm the first moment she was free she +would rush to Arabella for the salient points, doggedly repeat them over +and over, and on the next occasion come out with them to the same +person, convincing him more than ever of her thorough knowledge of the +subject. But her memory was her misfortune, for if Miss Clinker +instructed her, for instance, in all the different peculiarities of the +styles of Keats and Shelley, a week after she would have forgotten which +was which--because both bored her to distraction--and she would have to +be reminded again. One awful moment came when, rhapsodizing upon the +sensibility of Keats' character, she said to Sir Tedbury Delvine, the +finest litterateur of his time, that there must have come moments during +Keats' latter years when he must have felt as his own "Prometheus +Unbound"! But, seeing her mistake immediately by her listener's blank +face, she regained her ground with a skill and a flow of words which +made Sir Tedbury Delvine doubt whether his own ears had heard aright. + +"Arabella," Mrs. Cricklander said when next morning she lay smoking in +her old-rose silk bed, while she went through her usual lessons for the +day, "you must give me just a point each about those wretched old two, +so that I will remember them again. I must have a sort of keynote. +Shelley's would do with that horrible statue of him drowned, at Oxford, +that would connect his chain--but what for Keats?" + +So at last Miss Clinker invented a plan, almost Pythagorean in its way, +and it proved very helpful to her patroness. + +When she went on light, amusing excursions to Egypt and such places, she +allowed Arabella to remain with her mother, and these were months of +pure happiness to Miss Clinker. + +It had not taken Mrs. Cricklander long to conquer London with her money, +and her looks, and her triumphant belief in herself. At the end of two +years, when John Derringham was first presented to her, she had almost +reached the summit of her ambitions. To become his wife she had decided +would place her there. For was he not certain to climb to the top of the +tree, as well as being the most brilliant and most sought after young +man in all England. Of love--the love that recks not of place or gain +but just gives its being to the loved one--to such emotion she was +happily a complete stranger. John Derringham attracted her greatly, and +until now had successfully evaded all her snares and had remained beyond +the thrall of her will. To have got him to come for this whole week of +Easter was a triumph and exulted her accordingly. She particularly +affected politicians, and her house in Grosvenor Square was a +meeting-place for both parties, provided the members of each were of the +most distinguished type. And there were not more than two or three +people out of all her acquaintances, besides Arabella, who smiled a +little over her brilliant culture. + +By all this it can be seen that Mrs. Cricklander was a wonderful +character--tenacious, indomitable, full of nerve and deserving of the +greatest respect in consequence. + +The only thing the least vulgar about her was her soul--if she had +one--and it is not the business of society to look into such things. +Scrutiny of the sort is left for creatures like the Professor, Cheiron, +who have nothing else to do--but his impressions upon this subject must +come in their proper place. + +Meanwhile, John Derringham had joined the party on the terrace, and was +joyously acclaimed, and then minutely questioned as to the cause of his +lengthy absence. He had not been to church--that was certain. He had not +been out of the park, because the lodges were not in the direction from +which he had been seen advancing. Where had he been, then? All alone? He +would not give any account of himself, as was his way, and presently his +hostess drew him on ahead and down the terrace steps. She wanted to +point out to him some improvements which she contemplated. The garden +must be the most beautiful in the country--and he knew so much about +gardens, he could tell her exactly which style would suit the house +best. + +John Derringham was in a bad temper. That unaccountable sense of a +discordant note with himself still stayed with him. He unconsciously, +during his walk, had dwelt upon the Professor's information as to the +view of the old ladies of The Chase, and then Halcyone's silence and +stiffness. He felt excluded from the place which he recollected he had +held in the child's regard. His memory had jumped the brief glimpse of +her during her fledgling period, and had gone back with distinct +vividness to the summer morning in the tree, almost seven years ago. + +He answered with a carelessness which was not altogether pleasing to +Cecilia Cricklander. She saw instantly that her favorite guest was +ruffled by something. Although never fine, she was quick at observing +all the moods of her pawns, and had brought the faculty of watching for +signs from castles, knights and kings to a science. John Derringham must +be humored and cajoled by a proof of her great understanding of him--he +must be left in silence for a minute, and then she would pause and look +over the balustrade, so that he might see her handsome profile and take +in the exquisite simplicity of her perfect dress. She knew these things +pleased him. She would look a little sad, too, and far away. + +It had its effect. + +"What are you dreaming about, fair chatelaine?" he asked after a while. +"Your charming mouth has its corners drooped." + +"I was wondering--" and then she stopped. + +"Yes?" asked John Derringham. "You were wondering what?" + +"I was wondering if one could ever get you to really take an interest in +anything but your politics, and your England's advancement? How good it +would be if one could interest you for a moment in anything else." + +He leaned upon the balustrade beside her. + +"You are talking nonsense," he said. "You know very well that you +interest me every time I see you--and it is growing upon me. That was +not the only thing revolving in your clever mind." + +"Yes, indeed," and she looked down. + +"Well, then, I am interested in your garden. What do you think of doing? +Tell me." + +She explained an elaborate plan, and quoted the names of famous +gardeners and their styles, with her accustomed erudition. For had not +Arabella got them up for her only that morning, as she smoked her +seventh cigarette in bed? She inclined to French things, and she thought +that this particular part--a mere rough bit of the park--could very well +be laid out as a _Petit Trianon_. She could procure copies of the plans +of Mique, and even have a _Temple d'Amour_. + +"I love to create," she said. "The place would not have amused me if +everything had been complete, and if you will help me I shall be so +grateful." + +"Of course I will," he said. "The _Temple d'Amour_ would look quite well +up upon that rising ground, and you could have a small winding lake dug +to complete the illusion. Nothing is impossible, and I suppose you can +get permission from the old Wendover who lives in Rome to do what you +wish?" + +"I should like to have been able to take the park of the next place, La +Sarthe Chase, too--that impassable haw-haw and the boarded-up gate +irritate me. The boards have been put since I came to look over +everything last autumn. I did instruct the agent, Martin, in Applewood +to offer a large price for it, but he assured me it would be quite +useless; it belongs, it appears, to the most ridiculous old ladies, who +are almost starving, but would rather die than be sensible." + +Suddenly John Derringham was conscious that his sympathies had shifted +to the Misses La Sarthe, and he could not imagine why. + +"You told me, I think," she went on, "that you knew this neighborhood. +Do you happen to be aware of any bait I could hold out to them?" + +"No, I do not," he said. "That sort of pride is foolish, if you like; +but there it is--part of an inheritance of the spirit which in the past +has made England great. They are wonderful old ladies. I dined with them +once long ago." + +"I must really go over and see them one day. Perhaps I could persuade +them to my view." + +The flicker of a smile came into the eyes of John Derringham, and she +noticed it at once. It angered her, and deepened the pretty pink in her +fresh cheeks. + +"You think they would not be pleased to see me?" she flashed. + +"They are ridiculously old-fashioned," he said. "Not your type at all." + +"But I love curiosities," she returned, smiling now. "I am not +absolutely set upon any type. All human beings are a delightful study. +If you know them, you must bring them to see me then some day." + +But at this John Derringham laughed outright. + +"If you could picture them, you would laugh, too," he said. "There is +someone, though, whom I do want you to know, who lives close here--my +old Oxford professor of Greek, Arnold Carlyon. He is a study who will +repay you. The most whimsical cynic, as well as one of the greatest +scholars I have ever come across in my life. I promised him to-day that +I would persuade you to let me take you to see him." + +"How enchanting," she replied with enthusiasm. "And we must make him +come here. When shall we go? To-morrow?" + +"No, I said Monday or Tuesday--with your permission," and he bent over +her with caressing homage. + +"Of course--when you will. That, then, is where you were this morning. +But how did you get back through the park?" she asked. "There is no +opening at that side whatever. It is all blocked by the wicked La Sarthe +Chase." + +"I came round the edge," he said, and felt annoyed--he hated lying--"and +then turned upwards. I wanted to see the boundaries." + +"I hate boundaries," she laughed. "I always want to overstep them." + +"There is the chance of being caught in snares." + +"Which adds to the excitement," and she allowed her radiant eyes to seek +his with a challenge. + +He was not slow to take it up. + +"Enchantress," he whispered softly, "it is you whose charm lays snares +for men. You have no fear of falling into them yourself." + +She rippled a low laugh of satisfaction. And, having tamed her lion, she +now suggested it was time to go in to luncheon. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +Arabella Clinker took Sunday afternoons generally to write a long letter +to her mother, and Good Friday seemed almost a Sunday, so she went up to +her room from force of habit. But first she looked up some facts in the +countless books of reference she kept always by her. Mrs. Cricklander +had skated over some very thin ice at luncheon upon a classical subject, +when talking to the distinguished Mr. Derringham, and she must be warned +and primed up before dinner. Arabella had herself averted a catastrophe +and dexterously turned the conversation in the nick of time. Mrs. +Cricklander had a peculiarly unclassical brain, and found learning +statistics about ancient philosophies and the names of mythological +personages the most difficult of all. Fortunately in these days, even +among the most polished, this special branch of cultivation was rather +old-fashioned, Miss Clinker reflected, but still, as Mr. Derringham +seemed determined to wander along this line (Arabella had unconsciously +appropriated some apt Americanisms during her three years of bondage), +she must be loyal and not allow her employer to commit any blunders. So +she got her facts crystallized, or "tabloided," as Mrs. Cricklander +would mentally have characterized the process, and then she began her +letter to her parent. Mrs. Clinker, an Irishwoman and the widow of a +learned Dean, understood a number of things, and was clear-headed and +humorous, for all her seventy years, and these passages in her +daughter's letter amused her. + + We are entertaining a number of distinguished visitors, and among + them Mr. John Derringham, the Under Secretary of State for Foreign + Affairs. He is a most interesting personality, as perfectly sure of + what he wants in life as is M. E. (M. E. stood for "My + Employer"--names were invidious). They would be a perfect match, each + as selfish as the other, I should say. He is really very cultivated, + and believes her to be so, too. She has not made a single mistake as + yet, but frightened me at luncheon a little. I must try and get her + to keep him off classical subjects. She intends to marry him--and + then she will not require me, I suppose; or rather, I do not think he + would permit her to keep me. If it came to a measure of wills, he + would win, I think--at first, at least--but she could wear away a + stone in the end, as you know. The arranging of this place is still + amusing her, so she may decide to spend a good deal of time here. She + closed her mouth with that firm snap this morning that I have + described to you often, and said that it was going to be her delight + to make them put themselves out and come so far away from London for + her. "Them," for the moment, are Mr. Derringham and Mr. + Hanbury-Green, almost a Socialist person, who is on the other + side--very brilliantly clever but with a Cockney accent in one or two + words. M. E. does not notice this, of course. Mr. H-G. is in love + with her--Mr. D. is not, but she is determined that he shall be. I do + not know if he intends to marry her. He is making up his mind, I + think, therefore I must be doubly careful not to allow her to commit + any mistakes, because if she did it would certainly estrange him, and + as to keep her free is so much to our advantage, I feel I must be + extra careful in doing my duty. + +Arabella was a person of scrupulous honor. + +She then proceeded to describe the party, and concluded with, + + There is one American girl I like very much--perfectly natural and + bubbling with spirits, saying aloud everything she thinks, really + well educated and taking so much outdoor exercise that she has not + yet begun to have the nervous attacks that are such a distressing + feature of so many of her countrywomen. I am told it is their + climate. M. E. says it is because the men out there have always let + them have their own way. I should think so much smoking has something + to do with it. + +John Derringham meanwhile had gone with his hostess and some of the rest +of the party, Mr. Hanbury-Green among them, to inspect the small golf +links Mrs. Cricklander was having constructed in the park. Her +country-house must be complete with suitable amusements. She had taken +all the Wendover shooting, too, and what she could get of Lord +Graceworth's beyond. "You cannot drag people into the wilds and then +bore them to death," she said. What she most enjoyed was to scintillate +to a company of two or three, and fascinate them all into a desire for a +_tete-a-tete_, and then, when with difficulty one had secured this +privilege, to be elusive and tantalize him to death. To passion she was +a complete stranger, and won all her games because with her great beauty +she was as cold as ice. + +She was not feeling perfectly content this Good Friday afternoon. +Something had happened since the evening before which had altered John +Derringham's point of view towards her. She felt it distinctly with her +senses, trained like an animal's, to scent the most subtle things in +connection with herself. It was impossible to seize, she could not +analyze it, but there it was; certainly there seemed to be some change. +He was brilliant, and had been even _empresse_ before lunch, but it +was not spontaneous, and she was not perfectly sure that it was not +assumed. It was his cleverness which attracted her. She could not see the +other side of his head--not that she would have understood what that +meant, if she had heard the phrase. + +But her habit was not to sit down under an adverse circumstance, but to +probe its source and eradicate it, or, at least, counteract it. Thus, +while she chattered eloquently to Sir Tedbury Delvine, her keen brain +was weighing things. John Derringham had certainly had a look of aroused +passion in his eyes when he had pressed her hand in a lingered good +night; he had even said some words of a more advanced insinuation as to +his intentions towards her than he had ever done before. They were never +exact--always some fugitive hint to which afterwards she would try to +fix some meaning as she reviewed their meetings. She had not seen him at +breakfast because she never came down in the morning until eleven or +twelve, and he had already gone out, she heard, when she did descend. + +It followed then that either he had received some disturbing letter by +the post--only one on Good Friday--or something had occurred during his +visit to his old master. It would be her business to find out which of +these two things it was. Could the Professor be married, and might there +be some woman in the family? Or was it nothing to do with the Professor +or with a letter, or was there a more present reason? Had Cora Lutworth +attracted him with her youth and high spirits? They were walking ahead +now, and she could hear his laugh and see how they were enjoying +themselves. + +She had been a perfect fool to ask Cora. She did not fear a single +Englishwoman, the powers of most of whom in her heart she despised--but +Cora was of her own race, and well equipped to rival her in a question +of marriage. Cora was only twenty-one, and she herself was thirty--and +there was the divorce which, although she had found it no bar to her +entrance into the most exclusive English society, still might perhaps +rankle unconsciously in the mind of a man mounting the political ladder, +and determined to secure the highest honors. + +She felt she hated Cora, and would have destroyed her with a look if she +had been able. + +Miss Lutworth, meanwhile, brimful of the joy of life and _insouciance_, +was amusing herself vastly. And John Derringham was experiencing that +sense of relaxation and irresponsible pleasure he got sometimes when he +was overworked from going to an excruciatingly funny Paris farce. Miss +Lutworth did not appeal to his brain at all, although she was quite +capable of doing so; she just made him feel gay and frolicsome with her +deliciously _ruse_ view of the world and life in general. He forgot his +ruffled temper of the morning, and by the time they had returned for +tea, was his brilliant self again, and quite ready to sit in a low chair +at his hostess's side, while she leaned back among the cushions of her +sofa, in her own sitting-room, whither she had enticed him during that +nondescript hour before dinner, when each person could do what he +pleased. + +"Is not Cora sweet?" she said, smoothing the brocade beneath her hand. +Her sitting-room had been arranged by the artist who had done the house, +as a perfect bower of Italian Sixteenth Century art. Mr. Jephson, the +artist, had assured her that this period would make a perfect background +for her fresh and rather voluptuous coloring; it had not become so +_banal_ as any of the French Louis'. And so Arabella had been instructed +to drum into her head the names of the geniuses of that time, and their +works, and she could now babble sweetly all about Giorgione, Paolo +Veronese and Titian's later works without making a single mistake. And +while the pictures bored her unspeakably, she took a deep pleasure in +her own cleverness about them, and delighted in tracing the influence +Paolo Veronese must have had upon Boucher, a hint from Arabella which +she had announced as an inspiration of her own. + +She had tea-gowns made to suit this period, and adopted the stately +movements which were evidently the attribute of that time. + +John Derringham thought her superb. If he had been really in love with +her, he might have seen through her--and not cared--just as if she had +not attracted him at all, he would certainly have taken her measure and +enjoyed laying pitfalls for her. But as it was, his will was always +trying to augment his inclination. He was too busy to analyze the real +meaning of any woman, and until the Professor's words about the divorce +and the Misses La Sarthe's view of the affair, it had never even struck +him that there could be one single aspect of Mrs. Cricklander's case +which he might have to blink at. He had told himself he had better marry +a rich woman, since his old maternal uncle, Joseph Scroope, had just +taken unto himself a young wife and might any day have an heir. And this +was his only other possible source of fortune. + +Mrs. Cricklander seemed the most advantageous bargain looming upon the +horizon. She was of proved entertaining capabilities. She had passed her +examination in the power of being a perfect hostess. She had undoubted +and expanding social talents. Women did not dislike her; she was very +vivid, very handsome, very rich. What more could a man who in his +innermost being had a supreme contempt for women, and a supreme belief +in himself, desire? + +He had even balanced the advantages of marrying a rich American girl, +one like Miss Lutworth, for example. But such beings were unproven, and +might develop nerves and fads, which were of no consequence in the +delightful creatures with whom he passed occasional leisure hours of +recreation, but which in a wife would be a singular disadvantage. Since +he must marry--and soon--before the present Parliament broke up and his +Government went out, and there came some years of fighting from the +Opposition benches, when especially brilliant entertaining might be of +advantage to him--he knew he had better make up his mind speedily, and +take this ripe and luscious peach, which appeared more than willing to +drop into his mouth. + +So, this late afternoon, aided by the scents and colors and propinquity, +he did his very best to make gradual love to her, and for some +unaccountable hideously annoying reason felt every moment more aloof. It +almost seemed at last as if he were guarding something of fine and free +that was being assailed. His dual self was fighting within his soul. + +Mrs. Cricklander was experiencing all the exciting emotions which +presumably the knights of old enjoyed when engaged in a tournament. She +was not even disturbed when the dressing-gong rang and she had not yet +won. It was only a postponement of one of the most entrancing games she +had ever played in her successful life. And Mr. Hanbury-Green was going +to sit upon her left hand at dinner and would afford new flint for her +steel. He was a recent acquisition, and of undoubted coming value. His +views were in reality nearer her heart politically than those of John +Derringham. Deep down in her being was a strong class hatred--undreamed +of, and which would have been vigorously denied. She remembered the +burning rage and the vows of vengeance which had convulsed her as a +girl, because the refined and gently bred women of her own New York's +inner circle would have none of her, and how it had been her glory to +trample upon as many of them as she could, when Vincent Cricklander had +placed her as head of his fine mansion in Fifty-ninth Street, having +moved from the old family home in Washington Square. And there, +underneath, was the feeling still for those of any country who, instinct +told her, had inherited from evolution something which none of her +money, and none of her talent, and none of her indomitable will, could +buy. But of course Mr. Hanbury-Green was not to be considered, except as +a foil for her wit--a pawn in the game for the securing of John +Derringham. + +Thus it was that she was able to walk in her stately way with trailing +velvets down the broad stairs of her newly acquired home with a sense of +exaltation and complacency which was unimpaired. + +John Derringham, on the contrary, was rather abrupt with his valet and +spoilt two white ties, and swore at himself because his old Eton hand +had lost its cunning. But finally he too went down the shallow steps, +and, joining his hostess at the door, sailed in with her to the George I +saloon, his fine eyes shining and his bearing more arrogant than before. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + +After dinner there was a brisk passage of arms between the two men of +opposite party in the group by the fire, and Mrs. Cricklander incited +them to further exertions. It had arisen because Mr. Derringham had +launched forth the abominable and preposterous theory that the only +thing the Radicals would bring England to would be the necessity of +returning to barbarism and importing slaves--then their schemes applied +to the present inhabitants of the country might all work. The denizens +in the casual wards, having a vote and a competence provided by the +State, would have time to become of the leisured classes and apply +themselves to culture, and so every free citizen being equal, a company +of philosophers and an aristocracy of intellect would arise and all +would be well! + +Mrs. Cricklander glanced stealthily at his whimsical face, to be sure +whether he were joking or no--and decided he probably was. But Mr. +Hanbury-Green, so irritated by the delightful hostess's evident +_penchant_ for his rival, allowed his ill-humor to obscure his usually +keen judgment, and took the matter up in serious earnest. + +"Your side would not import, but reduce us all--we who are the defenders +of the people--to being slaves," he said with some asperity. "Your class +has had its innings long enough, it would be the best thing in the world +for you to have to come down to doing your own housework." + +"I should make a capital cook," said John Derringham, with smiling eyes, +"but I should certainly refuse to cook for anyone but myself; and you, +Mr. Green, who may be an indifferent artist in that respect, would have +perhaps a bad dinner." + +"I never understand," interrupted Mrs. Cricklander--"when everything is +socialistic, shall we not be able to live in these nice houses?" + +"Of course not," said Mr. Hanbury-Green gravely. "You will have to share +with less fortunate people." And then he drew himself up ready for +battle, and began. + +"Why, because a man or woman is born in the gutter, should not he or she +be given by the State the same chance as though born in a palace? We are +all exactly the same human beings, only until now luck and circumstance +have been different for us." + +"I am all for everyone having the same chance," agreed John Derringham, +allowing the smile to stay in his eyes, "although I do not admit we are +all the same human beings, any more than the Derby winner is the same +horse as the plow horse or the cob. They can all draw some kind of +vehicle, but they cannot all win races--they have to excel, each in his +different line. Give everyone a chance, by all means, and then make him +come up for examination, and if found fit passed on for higher things, +and if unfit, passed _out_! It is your tendency to pamper the unfit +which I deplore. You have only one idea on your Radical Socialist side +of the House, to pull down those who are in any inherited or agreeable +authority--not because they are doing their work badly, but because you +would prefer their place! The war-cry of boons for the people covers a +multitude of objects, and is the most attractive cry for the masses to +hear all over the world. The real boon for the people would be to give +them more practical sound education and ruthlessly to clear out the +unfit." Then his face lost its whimsical expression and became +interested. + +"Let us imagine a Utopian state of republic. Let every male citizen who +has reached twenty-five years, say, pass his examination in the right to +live freely, regardless of class, and if he cannot do so, let him go +into the ranks of the slaves, because, turn it how you will, we must +have some beings to do the lowest offices in life. Who would willingly +clean the drains, fill the dust-carts--and, indeed, do the hundred and +one things that are simply disgusting, but which must be done?" + +Mr. Hanbury-Green had not a sufficiently strong answer ready, so +remained loftily silent, while John Derringham went on: + +"We obscure every issue nowadays by a sickly sentiment and this craze +for words to prove black is white in order to please the mediocrity. If +we could only look facts in the face we should see that the idea of +equality of all men is perfectly ridiculous. No ancient republic ever +worked, even the most purely democratic, like the Athenian, of the fifth +and fourth centuries B.C., without an unconsidered and unrepresented +population of slaves. You know your Aristotle, Mr. Green," he went on +blandly, "and you will remember his admirable remark about some men +being born masters and others born to obey, and that, if only Nature had +made the difference in their mental capacities as apparent to the eye as +is the difference in their bodies, everyone would recognize this at +once." + +His voice grew intense: the subject interested him. + +"You may say," he went on, "that Aristotle, Plato and Socrates accepted +the fact of slavery without protest because it was an institution from +time immemorial, and so the idea did not appear to them so repugnant. +But do you mean to tell me that such consummate geniuses, such unbiased +glorious brains would have glossed over any idea, or under-considered +any point in their schemes for the advancement of man? They accepted +slavery because they saw that it was the only possible way to make a +republic work, where all citizens might aspire to be equal." + +"You would advocate slavery then? Oh! Mr. Derringham, how dreadful of +you!" exclaimed Mrs. Cricklander, half playfully. + +"Not in the least," he returned, still allowing some feeling to stay in +his voice. "I would only have it recognized that there must be some +class in my ideal republic who will do the duties of the slaves of old. +I would have it so arranged that they should occupy this class only when +they had shown they were unfit for anything higher, and I would also +arrange it that the moment they appeared capable of rising out of it +there should be no bar to their doing so. It is the cry of our all being +equal because we have two arms and two legs and a head in common, not +counting any mental endowment, which is utter trash and hypocrisy. But +when these agitators are shouting for the people's rights and inciting +poor ignorant wretches to revolt, they never suggest that the lowest of +them is not perfectly suited to the highest position! Those occupying +any station above the lowest have got there merely by superior luck and +favoritism, not merit--that is what they preach." + +Mr. Hanbury-Green was just going to answer with a biting attack when +Miss Cora Lutworth's rather high voice was heard interrupting from a +tall old chair in which she had perched herself. + +"Why, Mr. Derringham, we all want to be something very grand," she +laughed merrily. "I hate common people and love English dukes and +duchesses--don't you, Cis?" and she looked at Mrs. Cricklander, who was +standing in a position of much stately grace by the lofty mantelpiece. + +"You sweet girl!" exclaimed Lord Freynault, who was next to her. "I +cannot get any nearer to those favored folk than my uncle's being a +duke, but won't you let me in for some of your friendly feelings on that +account?" + +"I certainly will," she answered archly, "because I like the way you +look. I like how your hair is brushed, and how your clothes are cut, and +your being nice and clean and outdoor--and long and thin--" and then she +whispered--"ever so much better than Mr. Hanbury-Green's thick +appearance. He may be as clever as clever, but he is common and climbing +up, and I like best the people who are there!" + +John Derringham now addressed himself exclusively to his hostess. + +"I agree with the point of view of the old Greeks--they were so full of +common sense. Balance and harmony in everything was their aim. A +beautiful body, for instance, should be the correlative of a beautiful +soul. Therefore in general their athletics were not pursued, as are +ours, for mere pleasure and sport, and because we like to feel fit. They +did not systematically exercise just to wrest from some rival the prize +in the games, either. Their care of the body had a far higher and nobler +end: to bring it into harmony as a dwelling-place for a noble soul." + +"How divine!" said Mrs. Cricklander. + +John Derringham went on: + +"You remember Plato upon the subject--his reluctance to admit that a +physical defect must sometimes be overlooked. But nowadays everything is +distorted by ridiculous humanitarian nonsense. With our wonderful +inventions, our increasing knowledge of sanitation and science, and the +possibilities and limitations of the human body, what glorious people we +should become if we could choke this double-headed hydra of rotten +sentiment and exalt common sense!" + +But now Mrs. Cricklander saw that a storm was gathering upon Mr. +Hanbury-Green's brow and, admirable hostess that she was, she decided to +smooth the troubled waters, so she went across the room to the piano, +and began to play a seductive valse, while John Derringham followed her +and leaned upon the lid, and tried to feel as devoted as he looked. + +"Why cannot we go to-morrow and see your old master?" she asked, as her +white fingers, with their one or two superb rings, glided over the keys. +"I feel an unaccountable desire to become acquainted with him. I should +love to see what the person was like who molded you when you were a +boy." + +"Mr. Carlyon is a wonderful-looking old man," John Derringham returned. +"Someone--who knows him very well--described him long ago as 'Cheiron.' +You will see how apt it is when you meet." + +Mrs. Cricklander crashed some chords. She had never heard of this +Cheiron. She felt vaguely that Arabella had told her of some classical +or mythological personage of some such sounding name, a boatman of +sorts--but she dare not risk a statement, so she went on with the point +she wished to gain, which was to investigate at once Mr. Carlyon's +surroundings and discover, if possible, whether there was any influence +there that would be inimical to herself. + +"I dare say we can go to-morrow," John Derringham said. "You and I might +walk over--and perhaps Miss Lutworth and Freynault. We can't go a large +party, the house is so small." + +"Why cannot you and I go alone, then?" she asked. + +"Oh, I think he would like to see Miss Cora. She is such a charming +girl," and John Derringham looked over to where she sat, still dangling +a pair of blue satin feet from the high chair. And inwardly Mrs. +Cricklander burned. + +Cora was a second cousin of her divorced husband, and belonged by birth +to that inner cream of New York society which she hated in her heart. +Never, never again would she be so foolish as to chance crossing swords +with one of her own nation. But aloud she acquiesced blandly and +arranged that they should start at eleven o'clock. + +"Perhaps we could persuade him to return to lunch with us?" she +hazarded. "And that would be so nice." + +"You must do what you can with him," John Derringham said. "I have +prepared him to find you beautiful--as you are." + +"You say lovely things about me behind my back, then?" she laughed. "Now +he will be disappointed!" + +"Yes, I admit it was a _betise_--but, being my real thoughts, they +slipped out when I was there to-day. You will have to be extra charming +to substantiate them." + +Before Mrs. Cricklander went to bed, she called Arabella Clinker into +her room. + +"Arabella," she said, "who was Cheiron?" But she pronounced the "ei" as +an "a," so Miss Clinker replied without any hesitation: + +"He was a boatman who carried the souls of the dead over the River Styx, +and to whom they were obliged to pay an obolus--son of Erebus and Nox. +He is represented as an old man with a hideous face and long white beard +and piercing eyes." + +"Is there anything else I ought to know about him?" her employer asked, +and Arabella thought for a moment. + +"There is the story of Hercules not showing the golden bow. Er--it is a +little complicated and has to do with the superstitions of the +ancients--er--something Egyptian, I think, for the moment--I will look +it up to-morrow. I can't say offhand." + +"Thanks, Arabella. Good night." + +And it was not until after the party of four had started next morning +that Miss Clinker suddenly thought, with a start: "She may have been +alluding to quite the other Cheiron--the Centaur--and in that case I +have given her some wrong lights!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +Cora was being more than exasperating, Mrs. Cricklander thought, as they +went through the park. Not content with Lord Freynault, who was plainly +devoted to her, she kept every now and then looking back at John +Derringham with some lively sally, and although he was being +particularly agreeable to herself, he responded to Miss Lutworth's +piquant attacks with a too ready zeal. + +Mrs. Cricklander grew more and more certain that her hold over him had +lessened in these last two days, and every force in her indomitable +personality stiffened with determination to win him at all costs. + +The Professor received them graciously. He was seated in his library, +which now was a most comfortable room surrounded with bookcases in which +lived all his rare editions of loved books. Nothing could be more +fascinating than Mrs. Cricklander's manner to him--a mixture of +deference and friendly familiarity, as though he would appreciate the +fact of a tacit understanding between them that she too had a right in +John Derringham's friends. She had been so reassured by finding that Mr. +Carlyon was unmarried and lived alone, that a glow of real warmth +towards the Professor emanated from her, while the conviction grew that +it was nothing but the influence of Cora Lutworth which had even +momentarily cooled her whilom ardent friend. + +Mr. Carlyon's imperturbable countenance gave no hint of what he thought +of her, although John Derringham watched him furtively and anxiously. He +listened to their conversation when he could, and it jarred upon him +twice when the lady of his choice altogether missed the point of +Cheiron's subtle remarks. She whom he had always considered so +understanding! + +Of Halcyone there was no sign and no mention, and for some reason which +he could not explain John Derringham felt glad. + +It seemed an eternity before Mrs. Cricklander got up to go, having been +unable to persuade Mr. Carlyon to return with them to luncheon. He had a +slight cold, he said, and meant to remain in his warm library. + +"Mr. Derringham says you are called Cheiron," Mrs. Cricklander announced +laughingly. "How ridiculous to find in you any likeness to that old +ferryman of the piercing eye. I see no resemblance but in the beard." + +"So John relegates me to the post of ferryman to the dead already, does +he!" Mr. Carlyon responded. "I had hoped he still allowed me my horse's +hoofs and my cave--I have been deceiving myself all these years, +evidently." + +A blank look grew in Mrs. Cricklander's eye. What had caves and horse's +hoofs to do with the case? She had better turn the conversation at once, +or she might be out of her depth, she felt; and this she did with her +usual skill, but not before the Professor's left eyebrow had run up into +his forehead, and his wise old eyes beneath had met and then instantly +averted themselves from those of John Derringham. + +All the way back to the house Mrs. Cricklander had the satisfaction of +listening to a much more advanced admiration of herself than she had +hoped to obtain so soon, and arrived in the best of restored humors--for +John Derringham had clenched his teeth as he left the orchard house, and +had told himself that he would not be influenced or put off by any of +these trifling things, and that it was some vixenish turn of Fate to +have allowed these currents of disillusion about a woman who was so +eminently suitable to reach him through the medium of his old friend. + +A strange thing happened to Halcyone that morning. She had made up her +mind to keep away from her usual visit to Cheiron on the Monday and +Tuesday when John Derringham had announced he might bring over his +hostess to see the Professor. She did not wish to cause complications +with her aunts by making Mrs. Cricklander's acquaintance, and underneath +she had some strange reluctance herself. Her unerring instincts warned +her that this woman might in some way trouble her life, but she thought +Saturday would be perfectly safe and was preparing to start, when some +vague longing came over her to see her goddess. She had felt less serene +since the day before, and John Derringham and his words and looks +absorbed her thoughts. The home of Aphrodite was now in a chest in the +long gallery, of which she kept the key, and as this old room was always +empty--none of the servants, not even Priscilla, caring about visiting +it--haunted, it was, they said--she had plenty of time to spend what +hours she liked with her treasure without having to do so by stealth, as +in the beginning. For any place indoors she loved the long gallery +better than any other place. The broken window panes had been mended +when the turn for the better came for the whole house, and now she +herself kept it all dusted and tidy and used it as a sitting-room and +work-room as well; and, above all, it was the temple of the goddess +wherein was her shrine. + +This day when Aphrodite was uncovered from her blue silk wrappings, her +whole expression seemed to be one of appeal; however Halcyone would hold +her, in high or low light, the eyes appeared to be asking her something. + +"What is it, sweet mother and friend?" she said. "Do you not want me to +leave you to-day? If so, indeed I will not. What are you telling me with +those beautiful, sad eyes? That something is coming into my existence +that you promised me always, and that it will cause me sorrow, and I +must pause?"--and she shivered slightly and laid her cheek against the +marble cheek. "I am not afraid, and I want whatever it must be, since it +is life." Then she put the head back, and started upon her walk. But +first one thing and then another delayed her, until last of all she sat +down under the oak near the gap in the hedge and asked herself if all +these things could be chance. And here she took to dreaming and watching +the young rabbits come out of their holes, and to wondering what Fate +held in store for her in the immediate future. What was going to be her +life? That nothing but good could happen she always knew, because since +the very beginning God--the same personal kindly force that she had +always worshiped, unaltered by her deep learning, unweakened by any +theological dissertations--was there manifesting the whole year round +His wonderful love for the world. + +And so she sat until the clock of the church at Sarthe-under-Crum struck +one, and she started up, realizing that she was too late now to go on to +Cheiron's and would only just have time to return for lunch with her +aunts. She must go instead in the afternoon. So she walked briskly to +the house, with a strange feeling of relief and joy, which she was quite +unable to account for in any explicable way. + +Nothing delayed her on her second attempt to reach the orchard house, +and she found Cheiron placidly smoking while he read a volume of Lucian. +She was quite aware what that meant. When the Professor was in an amused +and cynical humor he always read Lucian, and although he knew every word +by heart, it still caused him complete satisfaction, plainly to be +discerned by the upward raising of the left penthouse brow. + +Halcyone sat down and smiled sympathetically while she tried to detect +which volume it was, that she might have some clew to the cause of her +Professor's mood. But he carefully closed the book, so that she could +not see--it was the Judgment of Paris in the dialogue of the gods--and +she was unable to have her curiosity gratified. + +"Something has entertained you, Cheiron?" she said. + +"I have had the visit of two goddesses," he answered, chuckling. "Our +friend John Derringham brought them. He wanted to show them off and get +my opinion, I think." + +"And did you give him one?" she asked. "I suppose not!" + +"He went away with his teeth shut--" and Mr. Carlyon's smile deepened as +he stroked his white beard. + +Halcyone laughed. She seldom asked questions herself. If the Professor +wished to tell her anything about the ladies he would do so--she was +dying to hear! Presently a set of disjointed sentences flowed from her +master's lips between his puffs of smoke. + +"Girl--worth something--showy--honest--sure of +herself--clever--pretty--on her own roots--not a graft." + +"Girl"--who was the girl? Halcyone wondered. But Cheiron continued his +laconic utterances. + +"Woman--beautiful--determined--thick--roots of the commonest--grafting +of the best--octopean, tenacious--dangerous--my poor devil of a John!" + +"And did you give the apple to either, Cheiron?" Halcyone asked with a +gleam of fine humor in her wise eyes. "Or, one of the trio being absent, +did you feel yourself excused?" + +Mr. Carlyon glanced at her sharply, and then broke into a smile. + +"Young woman, I do not think I have ever allowed you to read the +Judgment of Paris," he said. "Wherefore your question is ill-timed and +irrelevant." + +Then they laughed together. How well they knew one another!--not only +over things Greek. And presently they began their reading. They were in +the middle of Symonds' "Renaissance," and so forgot the outer world. + +But after Halcyone had gone in the dusk through the park, the Professor +sat in the firelight for a while, and did not ring for lights. He was +musing deeply, and his thoughts ran something in this line: + +"John must dree his weird. Nothing anyone could say has ever influenced +him. If he marries this woman she will eat his soul; having only a sham +one of her own, she will devour his. She'll do very well to adorn the +London house and feed his friends. He'll find her out in less than a +year--it will kill his inspirations. Well, Zeus and all the gods cannot +help a man in his folly. But my business is to see that he does not +ensnare the heart of my little girl. If he had waited he could have +found her--the one woman with a soul." + + * * * * * + +Miss Roberta had, unfortunately, a bad attack of rheumatism on Easter +Sunday, augmented by a cold, and Halcyone stayed at home to rub her poor +knee with hot oil, so she did not see the Wendover party, several of +whom came to church. Miss La Sarthe occupied the family pew alone, and +was the source of much amusement and delight to the smart inhabitants of +the outer world. + +"Isn't she just too sweet, Cis?" whispered Miss Lutworth into Mrs. +Cricklander's ear. "Can't we get Mr. Derringham to take us over there +this afternoon?" + +But when the subject was broached later at luncheon by his hostess, John +Derringham threw cold water upon the idea. He had stayed behind for a +few minutes to renew his acquaintance with the ancient lady, and had +given her his arm down the short church path, and placed her with +extreme deference in the Shetland pony shay, to the absolute enchantment +of Miss Lutworth, who, with Lord Freynault, stood upon the mound of an +old forgotten grave, the better to see. It was in the earlier days of +motor-cars, and Mrs. Cricklander's fine open Charron created the +greatest excitement as it waited by the lych-gate. The two Shetlands +cocked their ears and showed various signs of nervous interest, and +William had all he could do to hold the minute creatures. But Miss La +Sarthe behaved with unimpaired dignity, never once glancing in the +direction of the great green monster. She got in, assisted by the +respectful churchwarden, and allowed John Derringham to wrap the rug +round her knees, and then carefully adjusted the ring of her +turquoise-studded whip handle. + +"Good day, Goddard," she said with benign condescension to the +churchwarden. "And see that Betsy Hodges' child with the whooping-cough +gets some of Hester's syrup and is not brought to church again next +Sunday." And she nodded a gracious dismissal. Then, turning to John +Derringham, she gave him two fingers, while she said with some show of +haughty friendliness: "My sister and I will be very pleased to see you +if you are staying in this neighborhood, Mr. Derringham, and care to +take tea with us one day." + +"I shall be more than delighted," he replied, as he bowed with homage +and stood aside, because William's face betrayed his anxiety over the +fidgety ponies. + +Miss La Sarthe turned her head with its pork-pie hat and floating veil, +and said with superb tranquillity, "You may drive on now, William." And +they rolled off between a lane of respectful, curtseying rustics. + +Mrs. Cricklander and Lady Maulevrier had already entered the motor and +were surveying the scene with amused interest, while Miss Lutworth and +Lord Freynault, chaperoned by Arabella Clinker, were preparing to walk. +It was not more than a mile across the park, and it was a glorious day. +John Derringham joined them. + +"I think I will come with you, too," he said. "You take my place, Sir +Tedbury. It is only fair you should drive one way." + +And so it was arranged, not altogether to the satisfaction of the +hostess, who would have preferred to have walked also. However, there +was nothing to be done, and so they were whizzed off, while with the +tail of her eye Cecilia Cricklander perceived that Lord Freynault had +been displaced from Cora's side and was now stalking behind the other +pair, beside Arabella Clinker. + +"What an extraordinary sight that was," she said to Sir Tedbury Delvine +as they went along. "I thought no villagers curtsied any more now in +England. That very funny-looking old lady might have been a royalty!" + +"It is because she has never had a doubt but that she is--or something +higher--complete owner of all these souls," he returned, "that they have +not yet begun to doubt it either. They and their forebears have bobbed +to the La Sarthe for hundreds of years, and they will go on doing it if +this holder of the name lives to be ninety-nine. They would never do so +to any new-comer, though, I expect." + +"But I am told they have not a penny left, and have sold every acre of +the land except the park. Is it not wonderful, Kitty?" Mrs. Cricklander +went on, turning to Lady Maulevrier. "I am dying to know them. I hope +they will call." + +But Sir Tedbury had already chanced to have talked the matter over with +John Derringham, because he himself was most anxious to see La Sarthe +Chase, which was of deep historical interest, and had incidentally been +made aware by that gentleman of the old ladies' views, so he hastily +turned the conversation, rather awkwardly, to other things. And a wonder +grew in Mrs. Cricklander's mind. + +That anyone should not be enchanted to receive her beautiful and +sought-after self could not enter her brain, but there was evidently +some bar between the acquaintance of herself and her nearest neighbors, +and Arabella should be set to find out of what it consisted. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + +"Do let us go around by the boundary," Miss Lutworth said when they got +through the Wendover gates. "I long to see even the park of that +exquisite old lady; it must look quite different to anybody else's, and +I feel I want an adventure!" + +So they struck in towards the haw-haw--the four walking almost abreast. + +When they came to beyond the copse, after it touched the Professor's +garden, they paused and took in the view. It was unspeakably beautiful +from there, rolling away towards the splendid old house, which could +only just be distinguished through the giant trees, not yet in leaf. And +suddenly, hardly twenty yards from them across the gulf, coming from the +gap in Mr. Carlyon's hedge, they saw a tall and very slender +mouse-colored figure, as Halcyone emerged on her homeward way--she had +run down to see Cheiron when her duties with Miss Roberta were over, and +was now going back to lunch. + +"Good morning!" called John Derringham, and the four advanced to the +very edge of their side, and Halcyone turned and also bordered hers, +while she bowed serenely. + +"Isn't it a day of the gods!" he continued. "And may I from across this +Stygian lake (there was a little water collected in the haw-haw here +from the recent rains) introduce Miss Lutworth to you--and Miss Clinker +and Lord Freynault? Miss Halcyone La Sarthe." + +Everyone bowed, and Halcyone smiled her sweet, grave smile. + +"We would love to jump over--or you come to us," Cora Lutworth said with +her frank, friendly charm. "Isn't there any way?" + +"I am afraid not," responded Halcyone. "You are across in another +world--we live in the shades, this side." + +"Remember something about a fellow named Orpheus getting over to fetch +his girl"--"gail" Lord Freynault pronounced it--"since old John will use +Eton cribs in describing the horrid chasm. Can't we sop old Cerberus and +somehow manage to swim, if there is no ferryman about?" + +"You would certainly be drowned," said Halcyone. "In this place the lake +is quite ten inches deep!" + +Cora Lutworth was taking in every bit of her with her clever, kindly +eyes. + +"What a sweet, distinguished violet-under-the-mossy-bank pet of a girl!" +she was saying to herself. "No wonder Mr. Derringham goes to see his +Professor! How mad Cis would be! I shan't tell her." And aloud she said: + +"You cannot imagine how I am longing to get a nearer peep of your +beautiful old house. Do we get a chance further on?" + +"No," said Halcyone. "I am so sorry. You branch further off once you +have passed the closed gate. It was very stupid--the La Sarthe quarreled +with the Wendovers a hundred years ago, and it was all closed up then, +and these wicked spikes put." + +"It is too tantalizing. But won't you walk with us to where we have to +part?" Miss Lutworth said, while John Derringham had a sudden longing to +turn back and carefully remove certain bits of iron and brick he wot of, +and ask this nymph of the woods to take him on to their tree, and tell +him more stories about Jason and Medea in that exquisitely refined voice +of hers, as she had done once before, long ago. But even though he might +not have this joy, he got rather a fine pleasure out of the fact of +sharing the secret of the crossing with her, and he had the satisfaction +of meeting her soft eyes in one lightning comprehending glance. + +They chatted on about the view and the beauties of the neighborhood, and +they all laughed often at some sally of Cora's--no one could resist her +joyous, bubbling good-fellowship. She had all the sparkle of her clever +nation, and the truest, kindest heart. Halcyone had never spoken to +another young girl in her life, and felt like a yearling horse--a desire +to whinny to a fellow colt and race up and down with him beside the +dividing fence of their paddocks. A new light of youth and sweetness +came into her pale face. + +"I do wish I might ask you to come round by the road," she said, "and +see it near, but, as Mr. Derringham knows, my aunts are very old, and +one is almost an invalid now, so we never have any visitors at all." + +"Of course, we quite understand," said Cora, quickly, touched at once by +this simple speech. "But we should so love you to come over to us." + +"Alas!" said Halcyone, "it is indeed the Styx." + +And here they arrived at the boarded-up gate, where further view was +impossible, and from which onwards the lands ceased to join. + +"Good-by!" they called to one another, even Arabella Clinker joining in +the chorus, while Cora Lutworth ran back to say: + +"Some day we'll meet--outside the Styx. Let us get Mr. Derringham to +manage it!" + +And Halcyone cried a glad "Oh, yes!" + +"What a darling! What a perfect darling!" Miss Lutworth said +enthusiastically, taking Arabella's arm as they struck rapidly inward +and up a knoll. "Did you ever see anything look so like a lady in that +impossible old dress? Tell us about her, Mr. Derringham. Does she live +with those prehistoric ladies all alone in that haunted house? Could +anything be so mysterious and romantic? Please tell us all you know." + +"Yes, she does, I believe," John Derringham said. "My old master tells +me she never sees or speaks to anyone from one year's end to another. I +have only met her very rarely myself." + +"Does it not seem too awful?" returned Cora, aghast, thinking of her own +merry, enjoyable life, with every whim gratified. "To be so young and +attractive and actually buried alive! Don't you think she is a dream, +Arabella?" + +"I was greatly impressed with her distinction and charm," Miss Clinker +said. "I wish we could do something for her to make things brighter." + +"Let us ask Cis--" and then Miss Lutworth paused, returning to her first +thought--she knew her hostess well. No, it could not bring any pleasure +into the life of this slender, lithe English lady with the wonderful +Greek name, to be made acquainted with Cecilia Cricklander, who would +tear her to pieces without compunction the moment she understood in what +direction John Derringham's eyes would probably be cast. He saw Cora's +hesitation and understood, and was grateful. + +"I believe this girl is trumps. I don't think she will even mention our +meeting," he said to himself. + +Now for a few steps Miss Lutworth drew Arabella Clinker on ahead. + +"Arabella, you dear," she whispered, "I don't want to say a word against +Cis--who, of course, is all right--but I have a feeling we won't tell +her we've met this dryad of a Halcyone La Sarthe. Have you got that +instinct, too?" + +"Quite strongly," said Arabella, who never wasted words. "I was going to +mention to you the same idea myself." + +"Then that is understood!" and she laughed her happy laugh. "I'll see +that Freynie doesn't peach!" + +Thus it was that four demure and healthful-looking beings joined the +party on the terrace of Wendover, and described their pleasant walk, +without one word spoken of their _rencontre_ with the youngest Miss La +Sarthe. And once or twice Cora Lutworth's mischievous eyes met those of +John Derringham, and they both laughed. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + +John Derringham made a point of slipping away on the Easter Tuesday +afternoon; he determined to drink tea with the Misses La Sarthe. He went +to his room with important letters to write, and then sneaked down again +like a truant schoolboy, and when he got safely out of sight, struck +obliquely across the park to the one vulnerable spot in the haw-haw, and +after fumbling a good deal, from his side, managed to get the spikes out +and to climb down, and repeat the operation upon the other side. There +was no water here, it was on rather higher ground, and he was soon +striding up the beech avenue towards the house. + +"It would be an extremely awkward place to get over in the dark," he +thought, and then he was conscious that Halcyone was far in the distance +in front of him, almost entering the house. + +So she would be in, then--that was good. + +He had never permitted his mind to dwell upon her for an instant, after +the Sunday walk. He made himself tell himself that she was a charming +child whom he felt great pity for, on account of her lonely life. That +he himself took a special interest in her he would not have admitted for +a second to his innermost thought. He had now definitely made up his +mind to propose to Cecilia Cricklander, and was only awaiting a suitable +occasion to put this intention into effect. + +Numbers of moments had come--and passed--but he was always able to find +good and sufficient fault with them. And once or twice, when Fate itself +seemed to arrange things for him, he had a sudden sensation as of a +swimmer fighting with the tide, and he had battled to the shore again, +and was still free! + +But it must come, of course, and before he left for London at the end of +the week. Private news had reached him that the Government must soon go +out, and he felt this thing must be an accomplished fact before then, +for the hand he meant to play. + +But meanwhile it was only Tuesday, and he was nearing the battered and +nail-bestudded front door of La Sarthe Chase. William said the ladies +were at home, and he was shown into the Italian parlor forthwith. + +It had not changed in the slightest degree in the seven years since he +had seen it first, nor had the two ancient spinsters themselves. They +were most graciously glad to receive him, and gave him tea out of the +thinnest china cups, and at last Miss Roberta said: + +"Our great-niece Halcyone will be coming down in a moment, Mr. +Derringham. She has grown up into a very tall girl. You will hardly +recognize her, I expect." + +And at that instant Halcyone opened the door and said a quiet word of +welcome. And if her heart beat rather faster than usual under her simple +serge bodice, nothing of any emotion showed in her tranquil face. + +She took her tea and sat down in a chair rather in the shadows and +aloof. + +Miss La Sarthe monopolized the conversation. She had no intention of +relinquishing the pleasure of this rare guest, so while Miss Roberta got +in a few sentences, Halcyone hardly spoke a word, and if she had really +been a coquette, calculating her actions, she could not have piqued John +Derringham more. + +She looked so very sylph-like as she sat there, bending her graceful +head. Her eyes were all in shadow and seemed to gleam as things of +mystery from under her dark brows, while the pure lines of her temples +and the plaiting of her soft thick hair made him think of some virgin +goddess. + +But she never spoke. + +At last John Derringham began to grow exasperated, and plunged into +temptation, which he did not admit that he ought to have avoided. + +"I am so very much interested in this wonderful old house," he said, +addressing Miss La Sarthe. "That row of bay windows is in a long +gallery, I suppose? Would it be a great impertinence if I asked to see +it?" + +"We shall be pleased for you to do so," the old lady returned, without +much warmth. "It is very cold and draughty, my sister and I have not +entered it for many years, but Halcyone, I believe, goes there +sometimes; she will show it to you if you wish." + +Halcyone rose, ready at once to obey her aunts, and led the way towards +the door. + +"We had better go up the great staircase and along through Sir Timothy's +rooms. The staircase which leads directly to it from the hall is not +quite safe," she said. "Except for me," she added, when they were +outside the door. "Then, I know exactly where to put my feet!" + +"I would follow you blindly," said John Derringham, "but we will go +which way you will. Only, you are such a strange, silent little old +friend now--I am afraid of you!" + +Halcyone was rather ahead, leading the way, and she turned and paused +while he came up close beside her. + +Her eyes were quite startled. + +"You afraid of me!" she said. + +"Yes--you seem so nymph-like and elusive. I do not know if I am really +looking at an ordinary earth-maiden, or whether you will melt away." + +"I am quite real," and she smiled, "but now you must notice these two +rooms a little that we shall pass through. They are very ghostly I +think; they were the Sir Timothy's who went to fetch James I from +Scotland. I am glad they are not mine, but the long gallery I love; it +is my sitting-room--my very own--and in it I keep something which +matters to me more than anything else in the world." Then she went on, +with a divine shyness which thrilled her companion: "And--I do not know +why--but I think I will show it to you." + +"Yes, please do that," he responded eagerly, "and do not let us stop to +look at the ghostly apartments--where you sit interests me far more." + +So they went rapidly through Sir Timothy's rooms, with the great state +bed where had slept his royal master, so the tale ran, and on down some +uneven steps, and through a small door, and there found themselves in +the long, narrow room, with its bays along the southern side, and one +splendid mullioned casement at the end with coats-of-arms emblazoned +upon each division. And through this, which looked west, there poured +the lowered afternoon sun with a broad shaft of glorious light. + +The place was almost empty, but for a chest or two and a table near this +window with writing materials and books. And upon a rough set of shelves +close at hand many more volumes reposed. + +"So it is here you live and work, you wise, lonely, little Pallas +Athene," he said. + +"You must not call me that--I am not at all like her," Halcyone answered +softly. "She was very clever and very noble--but a little hard, I think. +Wait until I have shown you my own goddess. I would rather have her soul +than any other of the Olympian gods." + +John Derringham took a step nearer to her. + +"Do you remember the night at dinner here when you told me Pallas +Athene's words to Perseus?" he said. "I have thought of them often, and +they have helped me sometimes, I think." + +"I am so glad," said Halcyone simply, while she moved towards her +treasure chest. + +He watched her with satisfied eyes--every action of hers was full of +grace, and the interest he felt in her personally obscured any for the +moment in what she was going to show him, but at last he became aware +that she had unlocked a cupboard drawer, and was taking from it a bundle +of blue silk. + +His curiosity was aroused, and he went over as near as he could. + +"Come!" whispered Halcyone, and walked to the high window-sill of the +middle section, and then put down her burden upon the old faded velvet +seat. + +"See, I will take off her veil gradually," she said, "and you must tell +me of what she makes you think." + +John Derringham was growing interested by now, but had no idea in the +world of the marvel he was going to see. He started more perceptibly +than even Mr. Carlyon had done seven years before, when he had realized +the superlative beauty of the Greek head. + +Halcyone uncovered it reverently, and then took a step back, and waited +silently for him to speak. + +He looked long into the marvelous face, and then he said as though he +were dreaming: + +"Aphrodite herself!" + +"Ah! I felt you would know and recognize her at once--Yes, that is her +name. Oh, I am glad!" and Halcyone clapped her hands. "She is my mother, +and so, you see, I am never alone here, for she speaks always to me of +love." + +John Derringham looked at her sharply as she said this, and in her eyes +he saw two wells of purity, each with an evening star melted into its +depths. + +And he suddenly was conscious of something which his whole life had +missed--for he knew he did not know what real love meant, not even that +which his mother might have given him, if she had lived. + +He did not speak for a moment; he gazed into Halcyone's face. It seemed +as if a curtain had lifted for one instant and given him a momentary +glimpse into some heaven, and then dropped again, leaving a haunting +memory of sweetness, the more beautiful because indistinct. + +"Love--" he said, still dreamily. "Surely there is yet another and a +deeper kind of love." + +Halcyone raised her head, while a strange look grew in her wide eyes, +almost of fear. It was as though he had put into words some unspoken, +unadmitted thought. + +"Yes," she said very softly, "I feel there is--but that is not all +peace; that must be gloriously terrible, because it would mean life." + +He looked at her fully now; there was not an atom of coquetry or +challenge; her face was pale and exquisite in its simple intentness. He +turned to the goddess again, and almost chaunted: + +"Oh! Aphrodite of the divine lips and soulful eyes, what mystery do you +hold for us mortals? What do you promise us? What do you make us pay? Is +the good worth the anguish? Is the fulfillment a cup worth +draining--without counting the cost?" + +"What does she answer you?" whispered Halcyone. "Does she say that to +live and fulfill destiny as the beautiful year does is the only good? It +is wiser not to question and weigh the worth, for even though we would +not drink, perhaps we cannot escape--since there is Fate." + +John Derringham pulled himself together with an effort. He felt he was +drifting into wonderland, where the paths were too tenderly sweet and +flowered for him to dare to linger, for there he might find and quaff of +the poison cup. So he said in a voice which he strove to bring back to +earth: + +"Where did you get the beautiful thing? She is of untold value, of +course you know?" + +Halcyone took the marble into her hands lovingly. + +"She came to me out of the night," she said. "Some day I might tell you +how--but not to-day. I must put her back again. No one knows but Cheiron +and me--and now--you--that she is in existence, and no one else must +ever know." + +He did not speak; he watched her while she wrapped the head in its folds +of silk. + +"Aphrodite never had so true a priestess, nor one so pure," he thought, +and a strange feeling of sadness came over him, and he thanked her +rather abruptly for showing him her treasure, and they went silently +back through Sir Timothy's rooms, and down the stair; and in the Italian +parlor he said good-by at once, and left. + +The wind had got up and blew freshly in his face. There would be a gale +before morning. It suited his mood. He struck across the park, but +instead of making for the haw-haw, he turned into Cheiron's little gate. +He wanted understanding company, he wanted to talk cynical philosophy, +and he wanted the stimulus of his old master's biting wit. + +But when he got there, he found Cheiron very taciturn--contributing +little more than a growl now and then, while he smoked his long pipe and +played with his beard. So at last he got up to go. + +"I have made up my mind to marry Mrs. Cricklander, Master," he said. + +"I supposed so," the Professor replied dryly. "A man always has to +convince himself he is doing a fine thing when he gives himself up to be +hanged." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + +John Derringham reached Wendover--by the road and the lodge gates--in an +impossible temper. He had left the orchard house coming as near to a +quarrel with his old master as such a thing could be. He absolutely +refused to let himself dwell upon the anger he had felt; and if Fate had +given him a distinct and pointed chance to ask the fair Cecilia for her +lily hand, when he knocked at her sitting-room door before dinner, he +would no doubt have left the next day--summoned again to London by his +Chief--an engaged man. But this turn of events was not in the +calculations of Destiny for the moment, and he found no less a person +than Mr. Hanbury-Green already ensconced by his hostess's side. They +were both smoking and looked very comfortable and at ease. + +"I just came in to tell you I shall be obliged to tear myself away +to-morrow," John Derringham said, "and cannot have the pleasure of +staying to the end of the week in this delightful place." + +Mrs. Cricklander got up from her reclining position among the cushions. +This was a blow. She wished now she had not encouraged Mr. Hanbury-Green +to come and sit with her; it might be a lost opportunity which it would +be difficult to recapture again. But she had felt so very much annoyed +at Mr. Derringham's capriciousness, displayed the whole of the Monday, +and then at his absenting himself to-day, having gone to see the +Professor, of course--since he was out of the house at tea-time when she +had sent to his room to enquire--that she had determined to see what a +little jealousy would do for him. But if he were off on the morrow this +might not be a safe moment to try it. + +Mr. Hanbury-Green, however, had not the slightest intention of giving up +his place, in spite of several well-directed hints, and sat on like one +belonging to the spot. + +So they all had to go off to dress without any longed-for word having +been spoken. And Mrs. Cricklander was far too circumspect a hostess to +attempt to arrange a _tete-a-tete_ after dinner under the eye of an +important social leader like Lady Maulevrier, whom she had only just +succeeded in enticing to stay in her country house. So, with the usual +semi-political chaff, the evening passed, and good-nights and good-bys +were said, and early next day John Derringham left for London. + +He would write--he decided--and all the way up in the train he buried +himself in the engrossing letters and papers he had received from his +Chief by the morning's post. + +And for the next six weeks he was in such a turmoil of hard work and +deep and serious questions about a foreign State that he very seldom had +time to go into society, and when at last he was a little more free, +Mrs. Cricklander, he found, had not returned from Paris, whither she +always went several times a year for her clothes. + +But they had written to one another once or twice. + +He had promised in the last letter that he would go down to Wendover +again for Whitsuntide, and this time he firmly determined nothing should +keep him from his obvious and delectable fate. + +Mrs. Cricklander had no haunting fears now. She could discover no reason +for John Derringham's change towards her. Arabella had been mute and had +put it down to the stress of his life. This tension with the foreign +State, it leaked out, had been known to the Ministers for a week before +it had been made public--that, of course, was the cause of his +preoccupation, and she would simply order some especially irresistible +garments in Paris, and bide her time. + +He wrote the most charming letters, though they were hardly long enough +to be called anything but notes; but there was always the insinuation in +them that she was the one person in the world who understood him, and +they were expressed with his usual cultivated taste. + +It was sheer force of will that kept John Derringham from ever thinking +of Halcyone. He resolutely crushed the thought of her every time it +presented itself, and systematically turned to his work and plunged into +it, if even a mental vision of her came to his mind's eye. + +He felt quite calm and safe when, two days before he was expected at +Wendover, the idea came to him to propose himself to the Professor, so +as not to have to go and see him and endure his cynical reflections +_after_ he should be engaged to his hostess. + +Mr. Carlyon had wired back, "Come if you like," and on this evening in +early June John Derringham arrived at the orchard house. + +Cheiron made no allusion to the matter that had caused them to part with +some breezy words upon his old pupil's side. Mrs. Cricklander or +Wendover might not have existed; their talk was upon philosophy and +politics, and contained not the shadow of a woman--even Halcyone was not +mentioned at all. + +Whitsuntide fell late that year, at the end of the first week in June, +and the spring having been exceptionally mild, the foliage was all in +full beauty of the freshest green. + +It was astonishingly hot, and every divine scent of the night came to +John Derringham as he went out into the garden before going to bed. A +young setting half-moon still hung in the sky, and there were stars. One +of those nights when all the mystery of life seems to be revealing +itself in the one word--Love. The nightingale throbbed out its note in +the copse amidst a perfect stillness, and the ground was soft without a +drop of dew. + +John Derringham, hatless, and with his hands plunged in the pockets of +his dinner coat, wandered down the garden towards the apple tree, +picking an early red rosebud as he passed a bush--its scent intoxicated +him a little. Then he went to the gate, and, opening it, he strolled +into the park. Here was a vaster and more perfect view. It was all +clothed in the unknown of the half dark, and yet he could distinguish +the outline of the giant trees. He went on as if in some delicious +dream, which yet had some heart-break in it, and at last he came to the +tree where he and Halcyone had sat those seven years ago, when she had +told him of what consisted the true point of honor in a man. He +remembered it all vividly, her very words and the cloud of her soft hair +which had blown a little over his face. He sat down upon the fallen log +that had been made into a rude bench; and there he gazed in front of +him, unconscious now of any coherent thought. + +Suddenly he was startled by a laugh so near him and so soft that he +believed himself to be dreaming, but he looked round and quickly rose to +his feet, and there at the other side of the tree he saw standing the +ethereal figure of a girl, while her filmy gray garments seemed to melt +into the night. + +"Halcyone!" he gasped. "And from where?" + +"Ah!" she said as she came towards him. "You have invaded my kingdom. +Mortal, what right have you to the things of the night? They belong to +me--who know them and love them." + +"Then have compassion upon me, sweet dryad!" he pleaded, "who am but a +pilgrim who cannot see his way. Let me shelter under your protection and +be guided aright." + +She laughed again--a ripple of silver that he had not guessed her voice +possessed. Her whole bearing was changed from the reserved, demure and +rather timid creature whom he knew. She was a sprite now, or a nymph, or +even a goddess, for her brow was imperious and her mien one of assured +command. + +"This is my kingdom," she said, "and if you obey me, I will show you +things of which you have never dreamed--" and then she came towards the +tree and sat upon the high forked branch of the broken bough while she +pointed with shadowy finger to the part which was a bench. "Sit there, +Man of Day," she ordered, "for you cannot see beyond your hand. You +cannot know how the living things are creeping about, unafraid now of +your cruel power. You cannot discern the difference in the colors of the +fresh young bracken and the undergrowth; you cannot perceive the birds +asleep in the tree." + +"No, indeed, Lady of Night," he said, "I admit I am but a mole, but you +will let me perceive them with your eyes, will you not?" + +She slipped from her perch suddenly, before he could put out a +protesting hand to stop her, and glided out of his view into the dark of +the copse, and from there he heard the intoxicating silver laughter +which maddened his every sense. + +"Halcyone! Witch!" he called. "Come back to me--I am afraid, all alone!" + +So she came, appearing like a materializing wraith from the shadow, and +with an undulating movement of incredible grace she was again seated +upon her perch, the fallen forked branch of the tree. + +John Derringham was experiencing the strongest emotion he had ever felt +in his life. + +A maddening desire to seize the elusive joy--to come nearer--to assure +himself that she was real and not a spirit of night sent to torture and +elude him--overcame all other thought. The startling change from her +deportment of the day--the very way she glided about was as the movement +of some other being. + +And as those old worshipers of Dionysus had grown intoxicated with the +night and the desire of communion with the beyond, so he--John +Derringham--cool, calculating English statesman--felt himself being +drawn into a current of emotion and enthrallment whose end could only be +an ecstasy of which he did not yet dare to dream. + +It was all so abnormal--to see her here, a shadow, a tantalizing soft +shadow with a new personality--it was no wonder he rubbed his eyes and +asked himself if he were awake. + +"Come with me," she whispered, bending nearer to him, "and I will show +you how the wild roses grow at night." + +"I will follow you to Hades," he said, "but I warn you I cannot see a +yard beyond my nose. You must lead me with your hand, if so ethereal a +spirit possesses a hand." + +Again the silver laugh, and he saw her not, but presently she appeared +from behind the tree. She had let down her misty, mouse-colored hair, +and it floated around her like a cloud. + +Then she slipped a cool, soft set of fingers into his, and led him +onward, with sure and certain steps, while he blundered, not knowing +where to put his feet, and all the time she turned every few seconds and +looked at him, and he could just distinguish the soft mystery of her +eyes, while now and then, as she walked, a tendril of her floating hair +flew out and caressed his face, as once before, long ago. + +"There are fairy things all about us," she said. "Countless pink +campions and buttercups, with an elf in each. They will feel your giant +feet, but they will know you are a mortal and cannot help your ways, +because, you poor, blind bat, you cannot see!" + +"And you?" he asked. "Who gave you these eyes?" + +"My mother," she answered softly, "the Goddess of the Night." + +And then she drew him on rapidly and stealthily, and he saw at last, in +the open space where the stars and the sinking moon gave more light, +that they were approaching the broken gate, and were near the terraced +garden, which now was better kept. + +When they got to this barrier to their path, Halcyone paused and leaned +upon it. + +"Mortal," she said, "you are wandering in a maze. You have come thus far +because I have led you, but you would have fallen if you had walked so +fast alone. Now look, and I will show you the lily-of-the-valley +cups--there are only a few there under the shelter of the gray stone +arch. Come." + +And she opened the gate, letting go of his hand as she glided beyond. + +"I cannot and will not hazard a step if you leave me," he called, and +she came back and gave him again her soft fingers to hold. So at last +they reached the summer house at the end of the second terrace, where +the archway was where old William kept his tools. + +There were very few flowers out, but a mass of wild roses, and still +some May tulips bloomed, while from the meadow beneath them came that +indescribable freshness which young clover gives. + +John Derringham knew now that he was dreaming--or drunk with some nectar +which was not of earth. And still she led him on, and then pointed to +the old bench which he could just see. + +"We shall sit here," she said, "and Aphrodite shall tell us your +future--for see, she, too, loves the night and comes here with me." + +And to his intense astonishment, as he peered on to the table, he saw a +misty mass of folds of silk, and there lay the goddess's head, that +Halcyone had shown to him that day in the long gallery more than a month +ago. + +He was so petrified with surprise at the whole thing that he had ceased +to reason. Everything came now as a matter of course, like the +preposterous sequence of events in a dream. The Aphrodite lay, as a +woman caressed, half buried in her silken folds, but Halcyone lifted her +up and propped her against a stone vase which was near, letting the silk +fall so that the broken neck did not show, and it seemed as if a living +woman's face gazed down upon them. + +John Derringham's eyes were growing more accustomed to the darkness, or +Halcyone really had some magic power, for it seemed to him that he could +see the divine features quite clearly. + +"She is saying," the soft voice of his companion whispered in his ear, +"that all the things you will grasp with your hands are but dreams--and +the things that you now believe to be dreams are all real." + +"And are you a dream, you sweet?" asked John Derringham. "Or are you +tangible, and must I drink the poison cup, after all?" + +"I would give you no noxious wine," she answered. "If you were strong +and wise and true, only the fire which I have stolen from heaven could +come to you." + +"Long ago," he said, "you gave me an oak-leaf, dryad, and I have kept it +still. What now will you grant to me?" + +"Nothing, since you fear--" and she drew back. + +"I do not fear," he answered wildly. "Halcyone!--sweetheart! I want +you--here--next my heart. Give me--yourself!" + +Then he stretched out his arms and drew her to him, all soft and loving +and unresisting, and he pressed his lips to her pure and tender lips. +And it seemed as if the heavens opened, and the Night poured down all +that was divine of bliss. + +But before he could be sure that indeed he held her safely in his arms, +she started forward, releasing herself. Then, clasping Aphrodite and her +silken folds, with a bound she was far beyond him, and had disappeared +in the shadow of the archway, on whose curve the last rays of moonlight +played, so that he saw it outlined and clear. + +He strode forward to follow her, but to his amazement, when he reached +the place, she seemed to vanish absolutely in front of his eyes, and +although he lit a match and searched everywhere, not the slightest trace +of her could he find, and there was no opening or possible corner into +which she could have disappeared. + +Absolutely dumbfounded, he groped his way back to the bench, and sitting +down buried his head in his hands. Surely it was all a dream, then, and +he had been drunk--with the Professor's Falernian wine--and had wandered +here and slept. But, God of all the nights, what an exquisite dream! + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + +The half-moon set, and the night became much darker before John +Derringham rose from his seat by the bench. A stupor had fallen upon +him. He had ceased to reason. Then he got up and made his way back to +the orchard house, under the myriads of pale stars, which shone with +diminished brilliancy from the luminous, summer night sky. + +Here he seemed to grow material again and to realize that he was indeed +awake. But what had happened to him? Whether he had been dreaming or no, +a spell had fallen upon him--he had drunk of the poison cup. And +Halcyone filled his mind. He thrilled and thrilled again as he +remembered the exquisite joy of their tender embrace--even though it had +been no real thing, but a dream, it was still the divinest good his life +had yet known. + +But what could it lead to if it were real? Nothing but sorrow and +parting and regret. For his career still mattered to him, he knew, now +that he was in his sane senses again, more than anything else in the +world. And he could not burden himself with a poor, uninfluential girl +as a wife, even though the joy of it took them both to heaven. + +The emotion he was experiencing was one quite new to him, and he almost +resented it, because it was upsetting some of his beliefs. + +The next day, at breakfast, the Professor remarked that he looked pale. + +"You rather overwork, John," he said. "To lie about the garden here and +not have to follow the caprices of fashionable ladies at Wendover, would +do you a power of good." + +There was no sight of Halcyone all the day. She was living in a +paradise, but hers contained no doubts or uncertainties. She knew that +indeed she had lived and breathed the night before, and found complete +happiness in John Derringham's arms. + +That, then, was what Aphrodite had always been telling her. She knew now +the meaning of the love in her eyes. This glorious and divine thing had +been given to her, too--out of the night. + +It was fully perceived at last, not only half glanced at almost with +fear. Love had come to her, and whatever might reck of sorrow, it meant +her whole life and soul. + +And this precious gift of the pure thing from God she had given in her +turn to John Derringham as his lips had pressed her lips. + +She spent the whole day in the garden, sitting in the summer house +surveying the world. The blue hills in the far distance were surely the +peaks of Olympus and she had been permitted to know what existence meant +there. + +Not a doubt of him entered her heart, or a fear. He certainly loved her +as she loved him; they had been created for each other since the +beginning of time. And it was only a question of arrangement when she +should go away with him and never part any more. + +Marriage, as a ceremony in church, meant nothing to her. Some such +thing, of course, must take place, because of the stupid conventions of +the world, but the sacrament, the real mating, was to be +together--alone. + +In her innocent and noble soul John Derringham now reigned as king. He +had never had a rival, and never would have while breath stayed in her +fair body. + +By the evening of that day he had reasoned himself into believing that +the whole thing was a dream--or, if not a dream, he had better consider +it as such; but at the same time, as the dusk grew, a wild longing +swelled in his heart for its recurrence, and when the night came he +could not any longer control himself, and as he had done before he +wandered to the tree. + +The moon, one day beyond its first quarter, was growing brighter, and a +strange and mysterious shimmer was over everything as though the heat of +the day were rising to give welcome and fuse itself in the night. + +He was alone with the bird who throbbed from the copse, and as he sat in +the sublime stillness he fancied he saw some does peep forth. They were +there, of course, with their new-born fawns. + +But where was she, the nymph of the night? + +His heart ached, the longing grew intense until it was a mighty force. +He felt he could stride across the luminous park which separated them, +and scale the wall to the casement window of the long gallery, to clasp +her once more in his arms. And, as it is with all those beings who have +scorned and denied his power, Love was punishing him now by a complete +annihilation of his will. At last he buried his face in his hands; it +was almost agony that he felt. + +When he uncovered his eyes again he saw, far in the distance, a filmy +shadow. It seemed to be now real, and now a wraith, as it flitted from +tree to tree, but at last he knew it was real--it was she--Halcyone! He +started to his feet, and there stood waiting for her. + +She came with the gliding movement he now knew belonged in her dual +personality to the night. + +Her hair was all unbound, and her garment was white. + +All reason, all resolution left him. He held out his arms. + +"My love!" he cried. "I have waited for you--ah, so long!" + +And Halcyone allowed herself to be clasped next his heart, and then +drawn to the bench, where they sat down, blissfully content. + +They had such a number of things to tell one another about love. He who +had always scoffed at its existence was now eloquent in his explanation +of the mystery. And Halcyone, who had never had any doubts, put her +beautiful thoughts into words. Love meant everything--it was just he, +John Derringham. She was no more herself, but had come to dwell in him. + +She was tender and absolutely pure in her broad loyalty, concealing +nothing of her fondness, letting him see that if she were Mistress of +the Night, he was Master of her Soul. + +And the complete subservience of herself, the sublime transparency +without subterfuge of her surrender, appealed to everything of chivalry +which his nature held. + +"Since the beginning," she whispered, in that soft, sweet voice of hers +which seemed to him to be of the angels, "ever since the beginning, +John, when I was a little ignorant girl, it has always been you. You +were Jason and Theseus and Perseus. You were Sir Bors and Sir Percival +and Sir Lancelot. And I knew it was just waiting--Fate." + +"My sweet, my sweet," he murmured, kissing her hair. + +"And the time you came, when I was so ugly," she went on, "and so +overgrown--I was sad then, because I knew you would not like me. But the +winds and the night were good to me. I have grown, you see, so that I am +now more as you would wish, but everything has been for you from that +first day in the tree--our tree." + +That between two lovers the thing could be a game never entered her +brain. The thought that it might be wiser to watch moods and play on +this one or that, and conceal her feelings and draw him on with mystery, +could meet with no faintest understanding in her fond heart. + +She just loved him, and belonged to him, and that was the whole meaning +of heaven and earth. Any trick of calculation would have been a thousand +miles beneath her feet. And while he was there with her, clasping her +slender willowy form to his heart, John Derringham felt exalted. The +importance of his career dwindled, the imperative necessity of +possessing Halcyone for his very own augmented, until at last he +whispered in her ear as her little head lay there upon his breast: + +"Darling child, you must marry me at once--immediately--next week. We +will go through whatever is necessary at the registry-office, and then +you must come away with me and be my very own." + +"Of course," was all she said. + +"It is absolutely impossible that we could let anyone know about it at +present--even Cheiron--" he went on, a little hurriedly. "The +circumstances are such that I cannot publicly own you as my wife, +although it would be my glory so to do. I should have to give up my +whole career, because I have no money to keep a splendid home, which +would be your due. But I dare say these things do not matter to you any +more than they do to me. Is it so, sweet, darling child?" + +"How could they matter?" Halcyone whispered from the shelter of his +clasped arms. "Of what good would they be to me? I want to be with you +when you have time; I want to caress you when you are tired, and comfort +you, and inspire you, and love you, and bring you peace. How could the +world--which I do not know--matter to me? Are you not foolish to ask me +such questions, John!" + +"Very foolish, my divine one," he said, and forgot what more he would +have spoken in the delirium of a worshiping kiss. + +But presently he brought himself back to facts again. + +"Darling," he said, "I will find out exactly how everything can be +managed, and then you will meet me here, under this tree, and we will go +away together and be married, and for a week at least I will make the +time to stay with you, as your lover, and you shall be absolutely and +truly my sweetest wife." + +"Yes," said Halcyone, perfectly content. + +"And after that," he went on, "I will arrange that you stay somewhere +near me, so that every moment that I am free I can come back to the +loving glory of your arms." + +"I cannot think of any other heaven," the tender creature murmured. And +then she nestled closer, and her voice became dreamy. + +"This is what God means in everything," she whispered. "In the +Springtime, which is waiting for the Summer--in all the flowers and all +the trees. This is the secret the night has taught me from the very +beginning, when I first was able to spend the hours in her arms." + +Then this mystery of her knowledge of the night he had to probe; and she +told him, in old-world, romantic language, how she had discovered the +stairs and Aphrodite, and even of the iron-bound box which she had never +been able to move. + +"It contains some papers of that Sir Timothy, I expect," she said. "We +know by the date of the breastplate that it was when Cromwell sent his +Ironsides to search La Sarthe that he must have escaped through the door +and got to the coast; but he was drowned crossing to France, so no one +guessed or ever knew how he had got away--and I expect the secret of the +passage died with him, and I was the first one to find it." + +"Then what do you make of the goddess's head?" asked John Derringham. +"Was that his, too?" + +"Yes, I suppose so," she answered. "He was a great, grand seigneur--we +know of that--and had traveled much in Italy when a young man, and +stayed at Florence especially. He married a relative of the Medici +belonging to some female branch, and he is even said to have been to +Greece; but in the court of the Grand Duke of Tuscany he would certainly +have learned to appreciate the divine beauty of Aphrodite. He must have +brought her from there as well as the Hebe and Artemis, which are not +nearly so good. They stand in the hall--but they say nothing to me." + +"It would be interesting to know what the papers are about," John +Derringham went on. "We must look at them together some day when you are +my wife." + +"Yes," said Halcyone, and thrilled at the thought. + +"So it was through the solid masonry you disappeared last night? No +wonder, sprite, that I believed I was dreaming! Why did you fly from me? +Why?" + +"It was too great, too glorious to take all at once," she said, and with +a sudden shyness she buried her face in his coat. + +"My darling sweet one," he murmured, drawing her to him, passion flaming +once more. "I could have cried madly"--and he quoted in Greek: + +/$ + "Wilt them fly me and deny me? + By thine own joy I vow, + By the grape upon the bough, + Thou shalt seek me in the midnight, thou shalt love me even now." +$/ + +Mr. Carlyon had not restricted Halcyone's reading: she knew it was from +the "Bacchae" of Euripides, and answered: + +"Ah, yes, and, you see, I have sought you in the midnight, and I am +here, and I love you--even now!" + +After that, for a while they both seemed to fall into a dream of bliss. +They spoke not, they just sat close together, his arms encircling her, +her head upon his breast; and thus they watched the first precursors of +dawn streak the sky and, looking up, found the stars had faded. + +Halcyone started to her feet. + +"Ah! I must go, dear lover," she said, "though it will only be for some +few hours." + +But John Derringham held her two hands, detaining her. + +"I will make all the arrangements in these next few days," he said. "I +am going to Wendover for Whitsuntide. I will get away from there, +though, and come across the park and meet you, darling, here at our +tree, and we will settle exactly what to do and when to go." + +Then, after a last fond, sweet embrace, he let her leave him, and +watched her as she glided away among the giant trees, until she was out +of sight, a wild glory in his heart. + +For love, when he wins after stress, leaves no room but for gladness in +his worshiper's soul. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + + +It was John Derringham who was taciturn next morning, not the Professor! + +The light of day has a most sobering effect, and while still exalted in +a measure by all the strong forces of love, he was enabled to review +worldly events with a clearer eye, and could realize very well that he +was going to take a step which would not have a forwarding impetus upon +his career, even if it proved to be not one of retrogression. + +He must give up the thought of using a rich wife as an advancement; but +then, on the other hand, he would gain a companion whose divine +sweetness would be an ennobling inspiration. + +How he could ever have deceived himself in regard to his feelings he +wondered now, for he saw quite plainly that he had been drifting into +loving her from the first moment he had seen her that Good Friday +morning, the foundations having been laid years before, on the day in +the tree. + +He felt rather uncomfortable about his old master, who he knew would not +approve of any secret union with Halcyone. Not that Cheiron would reck +much of conventionalities, or care in the least if it were a marriage at +a registry-office or not, but he would certainly resent any aspect of +the case which would seem to put a slight upon his much-loved protegee +or place her in a false position. + +He would tell him nothing about it until it was an accomplished fact and +Halcyone was his wife--then they would let him into the secret. + +All the details of what she would have to say to her aunts in her letter +of farewell on leaving them would have to be thought out, too, so that +no pursuit or inopportune prying into the truth would be the +consequence. + +Of any possibility of her stepfather's ultimate interference he did not +think, not knowing that she had even any further connection with him. To +satisfy in some way the ancient aunts was all that appeared a necessity. +And that was difficult enough. He had certainly undertaken no easy task, +but he did not regret his decision. The first and only strong passion he +had ever known was mastering him. + +But there was yet one more unpleasant aspect to face--that was the +situation regarding Mrs. Cricklander. He had assuredly not committed +himself or even acted very unfairly to her. She had been playing a game +as he had been. He did not flatter himself that she really loved +him--now that he knew what love meant--and her ambition could be +gratified elsewhere; but there remained the fact that he was engaged to +stay with her for Whitsuntide, and whether to do so, and plainly show +her that he had meant nothing and only intended to be a friend, or +whether to throw the visit over, and go to London, returning just to +fetch Halcyone about Wednesday, he could not quite decide. + +Which would be the best thing to do? It worried him--but not for long, +because indecision was not, as a rule, one of his characteristics, and +he soon made up his mind to the former course. + +He would go to Wendover on Saturday, as was arranged, take pains to +disabuse his hostess's mind of any illusion upon the subject of his +intentions, and, having run over to Bristol this afternoon to give +notice to the registrar and procure the license, he would leave with the +other guests on the Tuesday, after lunch, having sent his servant up to +London in the morning to be out of the way. + +Then he would sleep that night in Upminster, getting his servant to +leave what luggage he required there--it was the junction for the main +line to London, and so that would be easy. A motor could be hired, and +in it, on the Wednesday, he would come to the oak avenue gate, as that +was far at the other side of the park upon the western road; there he +would arrange that Halcyone should be waiting for him with some small +box, and they would go over to Bristol, be married, and then go on to a +romantic spot he knew of in Wales, and there spend a week of bliss! + +By the time he got thus far in his meditations he felt intoxicated +again, and Mr. Carlyon, who was watching him as he sat there in his +chair reading the _Times_ opposite him, wondered what made him suddenly +clasp his hands and draw in his breath and smile in that idiotic way +while he gazed into space! + +Then there would be the afterwards. Of course, that would be blissful, +too. Oh! if he could only claim her before all the world how glorious it +would be--but for the present that was hopeless, and at all events her +life with him would not be more retired than the one of monotony which +she led at La Sarthe Chase, and would have his tenderest love to +brighten it. He would take a tiny house for her somewhere--one of those +very old-fashioned ones shut in with a garden still left in Chelsea, +near the Embankment--and there he would spend every moment of his spare +time, and try to make up to her for her isolation. Well arranged, the +world need not know of this--Halcyone would never be _exigeante_--or if +it did develop a suspicion, ministers before his day had been known to +have had--_cheres amies_. + +But as this thought came he jumped from his chair. It was, when faced in +a concrete fashion, hideously unpalatable as touching his pure, fair +star. + +"You are rather restless to-day, John," the Professor said, as his old +pupil went hastily towards the open window and looked out. + +"Yes," said John Derringham. "It is going to rain, and I must go to +Bristol this afternoon. I have to see a man on business." + +Cheiron's left penthouse went up into his forehead. + +"Matters complicating?" was all he said. + +"Yes, the very devil," responded John Derringham. + +"Beginning to feel the noose already, poor lad?" + +"Er--no, not exactly," and he turned round. "But I don't quite know what +I ought to do about her--Mrs. Cricklander." + +"A question of honor?" + +"I suppose so." + +The Professor grunted, and then chuckled. + +"A man's honor towards a woman lasts as long as his love. When that +goes, it goes with it--to the other woman." + +"You cynic!" said John Derringham. + +"It is the truth, my son. A man's point of view of such things shifts +with his inclinations, and if other people are not likely to know, he +does not experience any qualms in thinking of the woman's feelings--it +is only of what the world will think of _him_ if it finds him out. +Complete cowards, all of us!" + +John Derringham frowned. He hated to know this was true. + +"Well, I am not going to marry Mrs. Cricklander, Master," he announced +after a while. + +"I am very glad to hear it," Cheiron said heartily. "I never like to see +a fine ship going upon the rocks. All your vitality would have been +drawn out of you by those octopus arms." + +"I do not agree with you in the least about any of those points," John +Derringham said stiffly. "I have the highest respect for Mrs. +Cricklander--but I can't do it." + +"Well, you can thank whichever of your stars has brought you to this +conclusion," growled the Professor. "I suppose I'll pull through somehow +financially," the restless visitor went on, pacing the floor--"anyway, +for a few years; there may be something more to be squeezed out of +Derringham. I must see." + +"Well, if you are not marrying that need not distress you," Cheiron +consoled him with. "Those things only matter if a man has a son." + +John Derringham stopped abruptly in his walk and looked at his old +master. + +His words gave him a strange twinge, but he crushed it down, and went on +again: + +"It is a curse, this want of money," he said. "It makes a man do base +things that his soul revolts against." And then, in his restless moving, +he absently picked up a volume of Aristotle, and his eye caught this +sentence: "The courageous man therefore faces danger and performs acts +of courage for the sake of what is noble." + +And what did an honorable man do? But this question he would not go +further into. + +"You were out very late last night, John," Mr. Carlyon said presently. +"I left this window open for you on purpose. The garden does one good +sometimes. You were not lonely, I hope?" + +"No," said John Derringham; but he would not look at his old master, for +he knew very well he should see a whimsical sparkle in his eyes. + +Mr. Carlyon, of course, must be aware of Halcyone's night wandering +proclivities. And if there had been nothing to conceal John Derringham +would have liked to have sat down now and rhapsodized all about his +darling to his old friend, who adored her, too, and knew and appreciated +all her points. He felt bitterly that Fate had not been as kind to him +as she might have been. However, there was nothing for it, so he turned +the conversation and tried to make himself grow as interested in a +question of foreign policy as he would have been able to be, say, a year +ago. And then he went out for a walk. + +And Cheiron sat musing in his chair, as was his habit. + +"The magnet of her soul is drawing his," he said to himself. "Well, now +that this has begun to work, we must leave things to Fate." + +But he did not guess how passion on the one side and complete love and +trust upon the other were precipitously forcing Fate's hand. + +The possibility of John Derringham's sending a message to Halcyone was +very slender. The post was out of the question--she probably never got +any letters, and the arrival of one in a man's handwriting would no +doubt be the cause of endless comment in the household. The foolishness +had been not to make a definite appointment with her when they had +parted before dawn. But they had been too overcome with love to think of +anything practical in those last moments, and now the only thing would +be for him to go again to-night to the tree, and hope that she would +meet him there. But the sky was clouding over, and rain looked quite +ready to fall. As a last resource he could send Demetrius--his own valet +he would not have trusted a yard. + +The rain kept off for his journey to Bristol, and his business was got +through with rapidity. And if the registrar did connect the name of John +Derringham, barrister-at-law, of the Temple, London, with John +Derringham, the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, he was a +man of discretion and said nothing about it. + +It was quite late when Mr. Carlyon's guest returned to his +roof--cross-country trains were so tiresome--and it had just begun to +pour with rain, so there was no use expecting that Halcyone would be +there by the tree. And bed, with a rather feverish sensation of +disappointment, seemed John Derringham's portion. + +Halcyone had passed a day of happy tranquillity. She was of that godlike +calm which frets not, believing always that only good could come to her, +and that, as she heard nothing from her lover, it was because--which was +indeed the truth--he was arranging for their future. If it had been fine +she had meant to go to the tree, but as it rained she went quietly to +her room, and let her Priscilla brush her hair for an hour, while she +stared in the old dark glass, seeing not her own pale and exquisite +face, but all sorts of pictures of future happiness. That she must not +tell her old nurse, for the moment, of her good fortune was her one +crumpled rose-leaf, but she had arranged that when she went she would +post a letter at once to her, and Priscilla would, of course, join her +in London, or wherever it was John Derringham would decide that she +should live. The thought of leaving her aunts did not so much trouble +her. The ancient ladies had never made her their companion or encouraged +her to have a single interest in common with them. She was even doubtful +if they would really miss her, so little had they ever taken her into +their lives. For them she was still the child to be kept in her place, +however much she had tried to grow a little nearer. Then her thoughts +turned back to ways and means. + +She so often spent the whole day with Cheiron that her absence would not +be remarked upon until bedtime. But then she suddenly remembered, with a +feeling of consternation, that the Professor intended to leave on the +Tuesday in Whitsun week for his annual fortnight in London. If the +household knew of this, it might complicate matters, and was a pity. +However, there was no use speculating about any of these things, since +she did not yet know on which day she was to start--to start for +Paradise--as the wife of her Beloved! + +Next morning it was fine again, and she decided she would go towards +their tree, and if John were not there, she would even go on to the +orchard house, because she realized fully the difficulty he would find +in sending her a message. + +But he was there waiting for her, in the bright sunlight, and she +thought him the perfection of what a man should look in his well-cut +gray flannels. + +John Derringham knew how to dress himself, and had even in his oldest +clothes that nameless, indescribable distinction which seems often to be +the birthright of Englishmen of his class. + +The daylight made her timid again; she was no more the imperious goddess +of the night. It was a shy and tender little maiden who nestled into the +protecting strong arms of her lover. + +He told her all his plans: how he had given notice for the license, and +that it would be forthcoming. And he explained that he had chosen +Bristol rather than Upminster because in this latter place everyone +would know the name of La Sarthe--even the registrar's clerk and whoever +else they would secure as a witness--but in Bristol it might pass +unnoticed. + +They discussed what should be done about Cheiron and the old ladies, and +decided that when to apprise the former of their marriage must be left +to John's discretion; and as Halcyone would not be missed until the +evening, they would simply send two telegrams from Bristol in the late +afternoon, one to Miss La Sarthe and one to Priscilla, the former +briefly to announce that Halcyone was quite safe and was writing, and +the latter asking her old nurse not to let the old ladies feel worried, +and promising a letter to her, also. + +"Then," John Derringham said, "you will be my wife by that time, +sweetheart, and you will tell your aunts the truth, ask them to keep our +secret, and say that you will return to them often, so that they shall +not be lonely. We will write it between us, darling, and I do not think +they will give us away." + +"Never," returned Halcyone, while she looked rather wistfully towards +the house. "They are too proud." + +He dropped her hand for an instant; the unconscious inference of this +speech made him wince. She understood, then, that she was going to do +something which her old kinswomen would think was a hurt to their pride, +and so would be silent over it in consequence. And yet she did not +hesitate. She must indeed love him very much. + +A tremendous wave of emotion surged through him, and he looked at her +with reverence and worship. And for one second his own part of utter +selfishness flashed into his understanding, so that he asked, with +almost an anxious note in his deep, assured voice: + +"You are not afraid, sweetheart, to come away--for all the rest of your +life--alone with me?" + +And often in the after days of anguish there would come back to him the +memory of her eyes, to tear his heart with agony in the +night-watches--her pure, true eyes, with all her fresh, untarnished soul +looking out of them into his as they glistened with love and faith. + +"Afraid?" she said. "How should I be afraid--since you are my lord and I +am your love? Do we not belong to one another?" + +"Oh, my dear," he said, as he folded her to his heart in wild, +worshiping passion, "God keep you always safe, here in my arms." + +And if she had known it, for the first time in his life there were tears +in John Derringham's proud eyes. For he knew now he had found her--the +one woman with a soul. + +Then they parted, when every smallest detail was settled, for she had +promised to help Miss Roberta with a new design for her embroidery, and +he had promised to join Mrs. Cricklander's party for an early lunch. +They intended to make an excursion to see the ruins of Graseworth Tower +in the afternoon. + +"And indeed we can bear the separation now, my darling," he said, +"because we shall both know that we must go through only four more days +before we are together--for always!" + +But even so it seemed as if they could not tear themselves apart, and +when he did let her go he strode after her again and pleaded for one +more kiss. + +"There!" she whispered, smiling while her eyes half filled with mist. +"This tree is forever sacred to us. John, it is listening now when I +tell you once more that I love you." + +And then she fled. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + + +When once John Derringham had definitely made up his mind to any course +in life, he continued in it with decision and skill, and carried off the +situation with a high-handed assurance. Thus he felt no qualms of +awkwardness in meeting Mrs. Cricklander and treating her with an +enchanting ease and friendliness which was completely disconcerting. She +had no _casus belli_; she could not find fault with his manner or his +words, and yet she was left with the blank conviction that her hopes in +regard to him were over. She despised men in her heart because, as a +rule, she was able to calculate with certainty every move in her games +with them. Feeling no slightest passion, her very mediocre intellect +proved often more than a match for the cleverest. But her supreme belief +in herself now received a heavy blow. She was never so near to loving +John Derringham as during this Whitsuntide when she felt she had lost +him. Cora Lutworth once said of her: + +"Cis is one of the happiest women in the world, because when she looks +in the glass in the morning she never sees anything but herself, and is +perfectly content. Most of us find shadows peeping over our shoulders of +what we would like to be." + +Arabella found her employer extremely trying during the Saturday and +Sunday, and was almost in tears when she wrote to her mother. + + Mr. Derringham has plainly determined not to be ensnared yet. If this + did not render M. E. so difficult to please, the situation would be + very instructive to watch. And I am not even now certain whether he + will escape eventually, because her whole pride in herself is roused + and she will stick at nothing. I have a shrewd suspicion as to what + has caused the change in his feelings and intentions towards M. E., + but I have not imparted my ideas to her, since doing so might do no + good, and would in some way certainly injure an innocent person. As + yet I believe she is unaware of this person's existence. We have done + everything we can for Mr. Derringham with the most erudite + conversation. I have been up half of the night ascertaining facts + upon all sorts of classical subjects, as that seems to be more than + ever the bent of his mind in these last two visits. (I am given to + understand from other sources that the person of whom I made mention + above is a highly-trained Greek scholar and of exceptional refinement + and cultivation, so that may be the reason.) The strain of preparing + M. E. for these talks and then my anxiety when, at meals or after + them, I hear her upon the brink of some fatal mistake, has caused me + to have most unpleasant headaches, and really, if it were not so + modern and silly a phrase, I should say the thing was getting on my + nerves. However, all the interesting guests are leaving on Tuesday + afternoon. Mr. Derringham, I understand from what he said to me, + intends to go over to his old master, Professor Carlyon's, and catch + a later train from there, but M. E. does not know this, and I have + not felt it my duty to inform her of it, because it might involve + some awkwardness connected with the person about whom I have already + given you a hint. I must close now, as I have some facts to look up + concerning the worship of Dionysus which M. E. is going to bring in + to-night. It was only yesterday I told her who he was, and I had the + greatest difficulty to get her to understand he was Bacchus as well, + as she had learned of him when younger under that name as the God of + Drunkards, and did not consider him a very nice person to mention. + But Mr. Derringham held forth upon the rude Thracian Dionysus last + night and the fundamental spirituality of his original cult, and so + she felt it might seem rather _bourgeois_ to be shocked, and has + committed to memory as well as she can some facts to-day. + +It will be seen from Miss Clinker's frank letter to her parent that Mrs. +Cricklander was leaving no stone unturned to gain her object, and such +praiseworthy toil deserves the highest commendation. + +John Derringham, meanwhile, having successfully smoothed matters to his +own satisfaction, felt at liberty to dream in his spare moments of his +love. He already began to wonder how he had ever felt any emotion +towards the fair Cecilia--she was perfectly charming, but left him as +cold as ice! + +And so at last the good-bys were said, and he got into the motor with +some of the other guests, ostensibly for the station, but in reality to +get out at the Lodge gates upon the pretense of going to see the +Professor. He intended, instead of this, to cross the haw-haw and +reconnoiter upon the hope of meeting his beloved, because there was no +necessity for him to spend a dull afternoon in Upminster when perhaps +some more agreeable hours could be snatched under the tree. He had +attended to every point, he believed, even having written a letter to +Cheiron which he had taken the precaution to give to his servant to post +from London on the following morning, so that there would be no Bristol +mark as a clew to their whereabouts. In this he merely stated that when +his old master would receive it Halcyone would be his wife, and that for +a time they had decided to keep the marriage secret, and he hoped his +old master would understand and sympathize. + +The only qualm of any sort he experienced during these three days was +when he was composing this letter, so he finished it quickly and did not +even read it over. And now, as he strode across the Wendover park, it +was safe in his servant's pocket and would be despatched duly next day. +He was unaware of the fact that Mr. Carlyon had left for London by a +morning train. + +As he came within view of the haw-haw, he saw in the far distance +Halcyone just flitting towards the beech avenue gate, and in his intense +haste to catch her up before she should get too near the house, he +removed the bricks very carelessly, not even remarking that one, and the +most important, was disposed of in such a manner that the spike left +beneath would not bear his weight. + +He had got thus far, his eyes fixed upon the slender white figure +rapidly disappearing from his view, when with a tremendous crash his +foothold gave way and he fell with fearful force into the ditch beneath, +his head striking one of the fallen bricks. And after that, all things +were blank and his soul wandered into shadowland and tasted of the pains +of death. + + * * * * * + +From the first break of day on that Tuesday when Halcyone awoke she was +conscious that some sorrow was near her. Every sense of hers, every +instinct, so highly trained by her years of communion with Nature seemed +always to warn her of coming events. + +She was restless--a state of being quite at variance with her usual +calm. The air was sultry and, though no rain fell, ominous clouds +gathered and faint thunder pealed afar off. + +"What is it? What is it, God?" she asked of the sky. But no answer came, +and at last she went out into the park and towards the tree. She had +made all her simple preparations--everything that she must take had been +put into a small bag and was safely waiting in the secret passage, ready +for her to fetch on the morrow. + +Cheiron, she knew, had gone to London. Had they not said good-by on the +evening before? And his last words had made her smile happily at the +time. + +"Things are changing, Halcyone," he had said, with the whimsical raising +of his left penthouse brow. "Perhaps you will not want to learn Greek +much longer with your crabbed old Cheiron in his cave." + +And she had flung her arms round his neck and buried her face in his +silver beard, and assured him she would always want to learn--all her +life. But now she felt a twinge of sadness--she would indeed miss him, +her dear old master, and he, too, would be lonely without her. Then she +fought with herself. Feelings of depression were never permitted to stay +for a moment, and she looked away into the trees for comfort--but only a +deathly stillness and a sullen roll of distant thunder answered, and +left her uncomforted. + +And then some force stronger than her will seemed to drive her back to +the house, and to the long gallery, and just at the very moment when she +had passed beyond her lover's sight it was as if something chased her, +so that she ran the last few yards, and paused not until she stood in +front of Aphrodite's shrine. + +It would be difficult to carry the marble head with the other few things +she proposed to take, but none the less was the necessity imperative. +She could not be married without the presence of her beloved mother to +bless her. + +As she lifted her goddess out, with her silken wrappings, the first +flash of the nearing storm lit up the dark room with lurid flame. + +Halcyone shivered. It was the one aspect of Nature with which she was +out of harmony. When thunder rolled and lightning quivered, her vitality +seemed to desert her and she experienced what in her came nearest to +fear. + +"Ah! someone has angered God greatly," she whispered aloud; and then she +carried the head to the secret door, knowing full well she would be +unwatched in her entry there--on such a day, with thunder pealing, not a +servant would have ventured into the long gallery. + +Another and louder rumble reached her with muffled sound, as she made +her way in the dark underground, and as she came to the place where +there was the contrived gleam of light and outer air, the lightning +turned the narrow space into a green dusk. + +Halcyone was trembling all over, and when she had put her precious +bundle safely into the bag with the rest of her simple preparations, she +laid it on the iron-bound box which had never been stirred, all ready +for her to lift up and take with her in the morning. Then she ran back, +cold and pale, and hastily sought Priscilla in her own room, and talked +long to her of old days, glad indeed to hear a human voice, until +presently the rain began to pour in torrents and the storm cried itself +out. + +But with each crash before this came her heart gave a bound, as if in +pain. And a wild longing grew in her for the morrow and safety in her +lover's arms. + +And he--alas! that hapless lover!--was lying there in the haw-haw, with +broken ankle and damaged head, half recovering consciousness in the +pouring rain, but unable to stir or climb from his low bed, or even to +cry aloud enough to make anyone hear him. And so at last the night came, +and the pure moonlight, and when her usual evening duties were over with +her aunts, Halcyone was free to go to bed. + +She opened her window wide, but she did not seek to wander in the wet +park. John would not be there, and she must rest, so as to be fair for +him when tomorrow they should start on life's sweet journey--together. + +But her heart was not quiet. All her prayers and pure thoughts seemed to +bring no peace, and even when, after a while, she fell into a sleep, it +was still troubled. + +And thus the day dawned that was to have seen her wedding! + +She told herself that the dull, sullen oppression she awoke with was the +result of the storm in the night, and with firm determination she +banished all she could of heaviness, and got through her usual +avocations until the moment came for her to start for the oak avenue +gate. She timed her arrival to be exactly at ten o'clock so that she +need not wait, as this of the three outlets was the one where there +might be a less remote chance of a passer-by. They had had to choose it +because it was on the road to Bristol. + +The sun was shining gorgeously again when she emerged from the secret +door, carrying her heavy bundle, and except in the renewed freshness of +all the green there seemed no trace of the storm. Yes--as she got near +the gate she saw that one huge tree beyond that old friend who had +played the part of the holder of the Golden Fleece was stricken and +cleft through by the lightning. It had fallen in helpless fashion, +blackened and yawning, its proud head in the dust. + +This grieved her deeply, and she paused to pass a tender hand over the +gaping wound. Then she went on to the gate, and there waited--waited +first in calm belief, then in expectancy, and at last in a numb agony. + +The sun seemed to scorch her, the light hurt her eyes, every sound made +her tremble and start forward, and at last she cried aloud: + +"O God, why do I feel so troubled? I who have always had peace in my +heart!" + +But no bird even answered her. There was a warm stillness, and just +there, under these trees, there were no rabbits which could have +comforted her with their living forms scuttling to and fro. + +She tried to reason calmly. Motors were uncertain things--this one might +have broken down, and that had delayed her lover. She must not stir, in +case he should come and think his lateness had frightened her and that +she had gone back to the house. Whatever befell, she must be brave and +true. + +But at last, when the afternoon shadows were lengthening, the agony +became intense. Only the baker had passed with his cart, and a farm +wagon or two, during the whole day. Gradually the conviction grew that +it could not only be an accident to the motor--if so, John would have +procured some other vehicle, or, indeed, he could have come to her on +foot by now. Something had befallen him. There must have occurred some +accident to himself; and in spite of all her calm fortitude, anguish +clutched her soul. + +She knew not what to do or which way to go. At last, as the sun began to +sink, faint and weary, she decided the orchard house would be the best +place. There, if there was any news of an accident, Sarah Porrit, the +Professor's one female servant, would have heard it. + +She started straight across the park, carrying her heavy bag, and +crossed the beech avenue, and so on to the trysting tree. A cold feeling +like some extra disquietude seemed to overcome her as she neared the +haw-haw and the copse. It was as if she feared and yet longed to get +there. But she resisted the temptation, and went straight on to the +little gate and so up the garden to the house. + +Mrs. Porrit received her with her usual kindly greeting. All was calm +and peaceful, and while Halcyone controlled herself to talk in an +ordinary voice, the postman's knock was heard. He passed the Professor's +door on the road to Applewood and left the evening mail, when there +chanced to be any. + +Mrs. Porrit received the letters--three of them--and then she adjusted +her spectacles, but took them off again. + +"After all, since you are here, miss, perhaps as you write better than I +you will be so good as to redirect them on to the master. You know his +address, as usual." And she named an old-fashioned hotel in Jermyn +Street. + +Halcyone took them in her cold, trembling fingers, and then nearly +dropped them on the floor, for the top envelope was addressed in the +handwriting of her beloved! She knew it well. Had she not, during the +past years, often seen such missives, from which the Professor had read +her scraps of news? + +She carried it to the light and scrutinized the postmark. It was +"London," and posted that very morning early! + +For a moment all was a blank, and she found herself grasping the back of +Cheiron's big chair to prevent herself from falling. + +John had been in London at the moment when she was waiting by the tree! +What mystery was here? + +At first the feeling was one of passionate relief. There had been no +accident, then; he had been obliged to go--there would be some +explanation forthcoming. Perhaps he had even written to her, too--and +she gave a bound forward, as though to run back to La Sarthe Chase. But +then she recollected the evening postman did not come to the house, and +they got no letters as Cheiron did, who was on the road. Hers could not +be there until the morning--she must wait patiently and see. + +With consummate self-control she made her voice sound natural as she +said, "Oh, I am so late, Mrs. Porrit. I must go," and, bidding the woman +a gracious good evening, walked rapidly to the house. A telegram might +have come for her, and she had been out all day. What if her aunts had +opened it! + +This thought made her quicken her pace so that at last she arrived at +the terrace breathless with running; and having deposited her bag in +safety, she came out again from the secret passage and got hastily to +the house. + +But there was no sign of a telegram in the hall, and she mounted to find +Priscilla in her room, which she discovered to be in great disorder, her +few clothes lying about on every available space. + +"Oh, my lamb, where have you been?" the elderly woman exclaimed. "At +four o'clock who should come in a fly from the Applewood station but +your step-father's wife! She was staying at Upminster, and says she +thought she would come over and see you--and now it's settled that we go +back with her to London to-morrow. Think of it, my lamb! You and me to +see the world!" Then she cried in fear: "My precious, what is it?" + +For Halcyone, overwrought and overcome, had staggered to a chair and, +falling into it, had buried her face in her hands. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + + +Mrs. James Anderton was seated in the Italian parlor with the two +ancient hostesses when Halcyone at last came into their midst. They had +evidently exhausted all possible topics of conversation and were +extremely glad of an interruption. + +Miss La Sarthe had been growing more and more annoyed at her +great-niece's lengthy absence, while Miss Roberta felt so nervous she +would like to have sniffed at her vinaigrette, but, alas! the stern eye +of her sister was upon her and she dared not. + +Mrs. James Anderton--good, worthy woman--had not passed an agreeable +afternoon either. She felt herself hopelessly out of tune with the two +old ladies, whose exquisitely reserved polished manners disconcerted +her. + +She had been made to feel--most delicately, it is true, but still +unmistakably--that she had committed a breach of taste in thus +descending upon La Sarthe Chase unannounced. And instead of the +sensation of complacent importance which she usually enjoyed when among +her own friends and acquaintances, she was experiencing a depressed +sense of being a very small personage indeed. + +Her highly colored comely face was very hot and flushed and she rather +restlessly played with her parasol handle. Miss La Sarthe's voice grew a +little acid as she said: + +"This is our great-niece, Halcyone La Sarthe, Mrs. Anderton"--and +then--"It is unfortunate that you should have been so long absent, +child." + +"I am very sorry," Halcyone returned gently, and she shook hands. She +made no excuse or explanation. + +Mrs. Anderton plunged into important matters at once. + +"Your father, Mr. Anderton"--how that word "father" jarred upon +Halcyone's sensitive ears!--"wished me to come and see you, dear, and +hopes you will return with me to-morrow to London, for a little visit to +us, that you may make the acquaintance of your brother and sisters." + +Halcyone had already made up her mind what to do, before she had left +her room. She would agree to anything they suggested in order to have no +obstacles put in her way--not admitting for a moment that these people +had any authority over her. Then, if in the morning she received a +letter from her Beloved, she would follow its instructions implicitly. +Always having at hand her certain mode of disappearance, she could slip +away, and if it seemed necessary, just leave them to think what they +pleased. Priscilla would be warned to allay at once the anxiety of her +aunts, and for the Andertons she was far too desperate to care what they +might feel. + +"Thank you; it is very good of you," she said as graciously as she +could. "My old nurse has told me of your kind invitation, and is already +beginning the preparations. I trust you left Mr. Anderton and my +stepbrother and sisters well?" + +"Hoity-toity!" thought Louisa Anderton. "Of the same sort as the old +spinsters. This won't please James, I fear!" But aloud she answered that +the family were all well, and that James Albert, who was thirteen now, +would soon be going to Eton. + +Over Halcyone, in spite of her numbness and the tension she was feeling, +though controlled by her firm will, there came the memory of the red, +crying baby, for whose life her own sweet mother had paid so dear a +price. And Mabel and Ethel--noisy, merry little girls!--she had thought +of them so seldom in these latter years--they seemed as far-off shadows +now. But James Anderton and her mother stood out sharp and clear. + +The strain and anguish of the day had left her very pale. Mrs. Anderton +thought her plain and most uncomfortably aloof; she really regretted +that she had put into her husband's head the idea of giving this +invitation. He would gladly have left Halcyone alone, but for her kindly +thought. Mabel was just seventeen, and such a handful that her father +had decided she should stay in the schoolroom with her sister for +another year, and Mrs. Anderton had felt it would be a good opportunity +for Halcyone to rejoin the family circle at a time when her presence, if +she proved good-looking, could not in any way interfere with her +stepsister's debut. + +And here, instead of being overcome with gratitude and excitement, this +cold, quiet girl was taking it all as quite an ordinary circumstance. No +wonder she, Louisa Anderton, felt aggrieved. + +They had hardly time for any more words, for Mrs. Anderton had already +put off her departure by the seven-twenty train from Applewood to +Upminster on purpose to wait for Halcyone, and now proposed to catch the +one at nine o'clock--her fly still waited in the courtyard--and they +made rapid arrangements. Halcyone, accompanied by Priscilla, was to meet +her the next day at the Upminster junction at eleven o'clock, and they +would journey to London together. + +And all the while Halcyone was agreeing to this she was thinking, if in +the improbable circumstance that she should get no letter in the +morning, it would be wiser to go to London. There was her Cheiron, who +would help her to get news. But of course she would hear, and all would +be well. + +Thus she was enabled to unfreeze a little to her stepfather's wife, who, +as they said good-by at the creaking fly's door, felt some of her soft +charm. + +"Perhaps she is shy," she said to herself as she rolled towards the +station. "Anyway, it is restful, after Mabel's laying down the law." + +That night Halcyone took her goddess to the little summer house upon the +second terrace. + +"If I start with John to-morrow, my sweet," she said, "you will come +with me as I have promised you. But if I must go to that great, restless +city, to find him, then you will wait for me here--safe in your secret +home." And then she looked out over the misty clover-grown pleasance to +the country beyond bathed in brilliant moonlight. And something in the +beauty of it stilled the wild ache in her heart. She would not admit +into her thoughts the least fear, but some unexplained, unconquerable +apprehension stayed in her innermost soul. She knew, only she refused to +face the fact, that all was not well. + +Of doubt as to John Derringham's intentions towards her, or his love, +she had none, but there were forces she knew which were strong and could +injure people, and with all her fearlessness of them, they might have +been capable of causing some trouble to her lover--her lover who was +ignorant of such things. + +She stayed some time looking at the beautiful moonlit country, and +saying her prayers to that God Who was her eternal friend, and then she +got up to steal noiselessly to bed. + +But as she was opening the secret door, to have one more look at the +sky, after she had replaced Aphrodite in the bag, it seemed as though +her lover's voice called her in anguish through the night: "Halcyone!" +and again, "Halcyone! My love!" + +She stopped, petrified with emotion, and then rushed back onto the +terrace. But all was silence; and, wild with some mad fear, she set off +hurriedly, never stopping until she came to their trysting tree. But +here there was silence also, only the nightingale throbbed from the +copse, while the faint rustle of soft zephyrs disturbed the leaves. + +And Jeb Hart and his comrade saw the tall white figure from their +hiding-place in the low overgrown brushwood, and Gubbs crossed himself +again, for whether she were living or some wraith they were never really +sure. + +At the moment when Halcyone opened the secret door, John Derringham was +just recovering consciousness in a luxurious bed at Wendover Park, +whither he had been carried when accidentally found by the keepers in +their rounds about eight o'clock. It was several days since they had +visited this part of the park, and they had lit upon him by a fortunate +chance. He had lain there in the haw-haw, unconscious all that day, +while his poor little lady-love waited for him at the oak gate, and was +now in a sorry plight indeed, as Arabella Clinker bent over him, +awaiting anxiously the verdict of the doctors who had been fetched by +motor from Upminster. Would he live or die? + +Her employer had had a bad attack of nerves upon hearing of the +accident, and was now reclining upon her boudoir sofa, quite prostrated +and in a high state of agitation until she should know the worst--or +best. + +Arabella listened intently. Surely the patient was whispering something? +Yes, she caught the words. + +"Halcyone!" he murmured, and again, "Halcyone--my love!" and then he +closed his eyes once more. + +He would live, the physicians said after some hours of doubt--with very +careful nursing. But the long exposure in the wet, twenty-four hours at +least, with that wound in the head and the broken ankle, was a very +serious matter, and absolute quiet and the most highly skilled attention +would be necessary. + +It was Arabella who made all the sensible, kind arrangements that night, +and herself sat up with the poor suffering patient until the nurses +could come. But it was Mrs. Cricklander who, dignified and composed, +received the doctors after the consultation with Sir Benjamin Grant next +day, before the celebrated surgeon left for London, and she made her +usual good impression upon the great man. + +That the local lights thought far more highly of Arabella did not +matter. Mrs. Cricklander was wise enough to know, it is upon the exalted +that a good effect must be produced. + +"And, you are sure, Sir Benjamin, that he will get quite well?" she said +tenderly, allowing her handsome eyes to melt upon the surgeon's face. +"It matters enormously to me, you know." Then she looked down. + +Thus appealed to, Sir Benjamin felt he must give her all the assurance +he could. + +"Perfectly, dear lady," he said, pressing her soft hand in sympathy. "He +is young and strong, and fortunately it has not touched his brain. But +it will take time and gentlest nursing, which you will see, of course, +that he gets." + +"Indeed, yes," the fair Cecilia said. And when they were all gone, she +summoned Arabella. + +"You will let me know, Arabella, every minute change in him," she +commanded, "especially when he seems conscious. And you will tell him +how I am watching over him and doing everything for him. I can't bear +sick people--they upset my nerves, and I just can't stand them. But the +moment he is all right enough to see me so that it won't bore me, I'll +come. You understand? Now I must really have a trional and get some +rest." + +And when she was alone she went deliberately to the glass and smiled +radiantly to herself as she whispered aloud: + +"So he isn't going to die or be an idiot. In a few years he can still be +Prime Minister. And I have got him now, as sure as fate!" + +Then she closed her mouth with that firm snap Arabella knew so well, +and, swallowing her sleeping draught, she composed herself for a +peaceful siesta. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + + +It required all Halcyone's fortitude to act the part of unconcern which +was necessary after the post had come in and no letter for herself had +arrived. The only possibility of getting through the time until she +should reach London, and be able to communicate with Cheiron would, be +resolutely to forbid her thoughts from turning in any speculative +direction. _She knew_ nothing but good could come to her--was she not +protected from all harm by every strong force of the night winds, the +beautiful stars and the God Who owned them all? Therefore it followed +that this seeming disaster to her happiness must be only a temporary +thing, and if she bore it calmly it would soon pass. Or, even if it +delayed, there was the analogy of the winter which for more than four +months of the year numbed the earth, often with weeping rain and frost, +but, however severe it should be, there was always the tender springtime +following, and glorious summer, and then the fulfillment of autumn and +its fruits. So she _must not_ be cast down--she must have faith and not +tremble. + +She made herself converse gently with her stepfather's wife, and won her +liking before they reached Paddington station. If she had not been so +highly strung and preoccupied, she would have been thrilled in all her +fine senses at the idea of leaving Upminster, further than which she had +never been for the twelve long years of her residence at La Sarthe +Chase; but now, except that all appeared a wild rush and a bewildering +noise, the journey to London made no impression upon her. It was +swallowed up in the one longing to get there--to be able somehow to +communicate with Cheiron, and have her anxiety laid to rest. + +The newsboys were selling the evening papers when they arrived, but her +eyes, so unaccustomed to all these new sights, did not warn her to scan +the headlines, though as they were reaching Grosvenor Gardens where Mr. +Anderton's town-house was situated, she did see the words: +"Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs." The sheet had fallen +forward and only this line was visible. + +They did not strike her very forcibly. She was quite unacquainted with +the custom of advertising sensational news in London. It might be the +usual political announcements--it surely was, since she saw another +sheet as they got to the door with "Crisis in the Cabinet" upon it. And +it comforted her greatly. John, of course, was concerned with this, and +had been summoned back suddenly, having had no possible time to let her +know. He who was so true an Englishman must think of his country first. +It seemed like an answer to her prayers, and enabled her to go in and +greet her stepfather with calm and quiet. + +James Anderton had come from the city in the best of tempers. The day +had been a good one. He had received his wife's telegram announcing that +Halcyone would accompany her on her return, and awaited her arrival with +a certain amount of uneasy curiosity and interest. Would the girl be +still so terribly like Elaine and the rest of the La Sarthe--especially +Timothy, that scapegrace, handsome Timothy, her father, on whose memory +and his own bargain with Timothy's widow he never cared much to dwell? + +Yes, she was, d----d like--after a while he decided; with just the same +set of head and careless grace, and that hateful stamp of breeding that +had so lamentably escaped his own children, half La Sarthe, too. It was +just Timothy of the gray eyes come back again--not Elaine so much now, +not at all, in fact, except in the line of the throat. + +His solid, coarse voice was a little husky, and those who knew him well +would have been aware that James Anderton was greatly moved as he bid +his stepdaughter welcome. + +And when she had gone off to her room, accompanied by the boisterous +Mabel and Ethel, he said to his wife: + +"Lu, you must get the girl some decent clothes. She looks confoundedly a +lady, but that rubbish isn't fair to her. Rig her out as good as the +rest--no expense spared. See to it to-morrow, my dear." + +And Mrs. Anderton promised. She adored shopping, and this would be a +labor of love. So she went off to dress for dinner, full of visions of +bright pinks and blues and laces and ribbons that would have made +Halcyone shrink if she had known. + +Mabel was magnificently patronizing and talked a jargon of fashionable +slang which Halcyone hardly understood. Some transient gleam of her +beloved mother kept suggesting itself to her when Mabel smiled. The +memory was not distinct enough for her to know what it was, but it hurt +her. The big, bouncing, overdeveloped girl had so little of the +personality which she had treasured all these years as of her +mother--treasured even more than remembered. + +Ethel had no faintest look of La Sarthe, and was a nice, jolly, ordinary +young person--dear to her father's heart. + +At last they left Halcyone alone with Priscilla, and presently the two +threw themselves into each other's arms--for the old nurse was crying +bitterly now, rocking herself to and fro. + +"Ah! how it all comes back to me, my lamb," she sobbed. "He's just the +same, only older. Hard and kind and generous and never understanding a +thing that mattered to your poor, beautiful mother. Oh! she was glad to +go at the end, but for leaving you. Dear lady!--all borne to pay your +father's debts, which Mr. Anderton had took up. I can't never forgive +him quite--I can't never." + +And Halcyone, overcome with her long strain of emotion, cried, too, for +a few minutes before she could resume her stern self-control. + +But at dinner she was calm again, and pale only for the shadows under +her wide eyes. + +She had written her letter to Cheiron--she knew not of such things as +messenger-boys or cabs, and had got Priscilla to post it for her, and +now with enforced quiet awaited his answer which she thought she could +receive on the morrow. + +"There has been a crisis in the Cabinet, has there not?" she said to her +stepfather, hoping to hear something, and James Anderton replied that +there had been some split--but for his part, the sooner this rotten lot +of sleepers had gone out the better he would be pleased; a good sound +Radical he was, like his friend Mr. Hanbury-Green. + +Halcyone abruptly turned the conversation. She could not, she felt, +discuss her beloved and his opinions, even casually, with this man of +another class. + +Oh! her poor mother--her poor, sweet mother! How terrible it must have +been to her to be married to such a person!--though her common sense +prompted her to add he was probably, under her influence, not nearly so +coarse and bluff in those days as now he appeared to be. + +Her little stepbrother, James Albert, had not returned from his private +school for the summer holidays, so she perhaps would not see him during +her visit. + +As the dinner went on everything struck her as glaring, from the +footmen's liveries to the bunches of red carnations; and the blazing +electric lights confused her brain. She, the little country mouse, +accustomed only to old William's gentle shufflings, and the two tall +silver candlesticks with their one wax taper in each! + +She could not eat the rich food, and if she had known it, she looked +like a being from some shadowy world among the hearty crew. + +Next morning Mr. Carlyon received her letter as he began his early +breakfast; and he tugged at his silver beard, while his penthouse brows +met. + +The matter required the most careful consideration. He enormously +disliked to have to play the role of arbiter of fate, but he loved +Halcyone more than anything else in the world, and felt bound to use +what force he possessed to secure her happiness--or, if that looked too +difficult, which he admitted it did, he must try and save her from +further unnecessary pain. + +He had the day before received John Derringham's letter written from +Wendover and which Mrs. Porrit had redirected, containing the news of +the intended wedding, and it had angered him greatly. + +He blazed with indignation! His peerless one to be made to take a +mistress's place when any man should be proud to make her his honored +wife! "The brutal selfishness of men," he said to himself, not blaming +John Derringham in particular. "He ought to have gone off and left her +alone when he felt he was beginning to care, if he had not pluck enough +to stand the racket. But we are all the same--we must have what we want, +and the women must pay--confound us!" + +He had never doubted but that, when he read the letter, Halcyone was +already his old pupil's wife--if indeed such a ceremony were legal, she +being under age. And this thought added to his wrath, and he intended to +look the matter up and see. But, before he could do so, he got an +evening paper and read a brief notice that John Derringham had met with +a severe accident--of what exact nature the press association had not +yet learned--and was lying in a critical condition at Wendover Park, the +country seat of the "beautiful American society leader, Mrs. Vincent +Cricklander," with whose name rumor had already connected the +Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in the most interesting +manner, the paragraph added. + +So Fate had stepped in and saved his pure night flower, after all! But +at what sort of price? And Cheiron stared into space with troubled eyes. + +He passed hours of anxious thought. He never did anything in a hurry, +and felt that now he must especially consider what would be his wisest +course. + +And then, this next morning, Halcyone's letter had come. + +It was very simple. It told of Mrs. Anderton's arrival at La Sarthe +Chase and of her own return to London with her--and then the real pith +of it had crept out. Had he heard any news of Mr. Derringham? Because +she had seen his writing upon a letter Mrs. Porrit was readdressing at +the orchard house and, observing it was from London, she presumed he was +there, and she hoped she should see him. + +The Professor stopped abruptly here. + +"What a woman it is, after all!" he exclaimed. He himself had never +noticed the postmark on John Derringham's envelope! Then he folded +Halcyone's pitiful little communication absently, and thought deeply. + +Two things were evident. Firstly, John Derringham had been disabled +before the hour when he should have met his bride; and secondly, she +was, when she wrote, unaware that he had had any accident at all. She +must thus be very unhappy and full of horrible anxiety--his dear little +girl! + +But what courage and fortitude she showed, he mused on, not to give the +situation away and lament even to him, her old friend. She plainly +intended to stand by the man she loved and never admit she had been +going to marry him until he himself gave her leave. + +"The one woman with a soul," Cheiron muttered, and rubbed the mist away +which had gathered in his eyes. + +He revolved the situation over and over. Halcyone must be made aware of +the accident, if she had not already read of it in the morning papers; +but she must not be allowed to do anything rash--and as he got thus far +in his meditations, a waiter knocked at the old-fashioned sitting-room +door, and Halcyone herself brushed past him into the room. + +She was deadly pale, and for a moment did not speak. + +Mrs. Anderton, it appeared, thinking she would be tired from her +unaccustomed journey, had suggested she should breakfast in bed, which +Halcyone, thankful to be alone, had gratefully agreed to; and when on +her breakfast tray which came up at eight o'clock she saw a daily paper, +she had eagerly opened it, and after searching the unfamiliar sheets for +the political news, her eye had caught the paragraph about John +Derringham's accident. In this particular journal the notice was merely +the brief one of the evening before, but it was enough to wring +Halcyone's heart. + +She bounded from bed and got Priscilla to dress her in the shortest +possible time, and the faithful nurse, seeing that her beloved lamb was +in some deep distress, forbore to question her. + +Nothing would have stopped Halcyone from going out, but she hoped to do +so unperceived. + +"Look if the way is clear to the door," she implored Priscilla, "while I +put on my hat. I must go to the Professor at once--something dreadful +has happened." + +So Priscilla went and contrived so that she got Halcyone out of the +front door while the servants were busy in the dining-room about the +breakfast. She hailed a passing hansom, and in this, to the poor child, +novel conveyance, she was whirled safely to Cheiron's little hotel in +Jermyn Street, and Priscilla returned to her room, to make believe that +her nursling was still sleeping. + +"Halcyone! My child!" the Professor exclaimed, to gain time, and then he +decided to help her out, so he went on: "I am glad to see you, but am +very distressed at the news in the paper this morning about John +Derringham--you may have seen it--and I am sure will sympathize with +me." + +Halcyone's piteous eyes thanked him. + +"Yes, indeed," she said. "What does it mean? Ought not--we--you to go to +him?" + +Mr. Carlyon avoided looking at her. + +"I cannot very well do that in Mrs. Cricklander's house," he said, +tugging at his beard, to hide the emotion he felt. "But I will telegraph +this minute and ask for news, if you will give me the forms--they are +over there," and he pointed to his writing-table. + +She handed them immediately, and as he adjusted his spectacles she rang +the bell; no time must be lost, and the waiter could be there before the +words were completed. + +"When can you get the answer?" she asked a little breathlessly. + +"In two hours, I should think, or perhaps three," the Professor +returned. "But there is a telephone downstairs--it has just been put in. +We might telephone to his rooms, or to the Foreign Office, and find out +if they have heard any further news there. That would relieve my mind a +little." + +"Yes--do," responded Halcyone eagerly. + +The tone of repressed anguish in her soft voice stabbed Cheiron's heart, +but they understood each other too well for any unnecessary words to +pass between them. The kindest thing he could do for her was to show her +he did not mean to perceive her trouble. + +The result of the telephoning--a much longer process then than it is +now--was slightly more satisfactory. Sir Benjamin Grant's report, the +Foreign Office official informed them, was that Mr. Derringham's +condition was much more hopeful, but that the most complete quiet for +some time would be absolutely necessary. + +"John is so strong," Mr. Carlyon said, as he put down the receiver which +he had with difficulty manipulated--to Halcyone's trembling impatience. +"He will pull through. And all I can do is to wait. He will probably be +up at the end of my fortnight, when I get back home." And he looked +relieved. + +"They would not give him a letter from you, of course, I suppose?" said +Halcyone. "If his head has been hurt it will be a long time before he is +allowed to read." + +Cheiron nodded. + +"I am interested," she went on, looking down. "You will let me know, at +Grosvenor Gardens, directly you hear anything, will you not, +Master?--I--" and then her voice broke a little. + +And Cheiron stirred in his chair. It was all paining him horribly, but +until he could be sure what would be best for her he must not show his +sympathy. + +"I will send Demetrius with the answer when it comes, and I will +telegraph to Wendover morning and night, dear child," he said. "I knew +you would feel for me." And with this, the sad little comedy between +them ended, for Halcyone got up to leave. + +"Thank you, Cheiron," was all she said. + +Mr. Carlyon took her down to the door and put her in the waiting hansom +which she had forgotten to dismiss, and he paid the man and reluctantly +let her go back alone. + +She was too stunned and wretched to take in anything. The streets seemed +a howling pandemonium upon this June morning at the season's full +height, and all the gayly dressed people just beginning to be on their +way to the park for their morning stroll appeared a mockery as she +passed down Piccadilly. + +Whether she had been missed or no, she cared not, and getting out, rang +the bell with numbed unconcern, never, even noticing the surprised face +of the footman as she passed him and ran up the long flights of stairs +to her room, fortunately meeting no one on the way. Here Priscilla +awaited her, having successfully hidden her absence. It was half past +ten o'clock. + +Halcyone went to the window and looked out upon the trees in the +triangular piece of green. They were not her trees, but they were still +Nature, of a stunted kind, and they would understand and comfort her or, +at all events, enable her to regain some calm. + +She took in deep breaths, and gradually a peace fell upon her. Her +friend God would never desert her, she felt. + +And Priscilla said to herself: + +"She's prayin' to them Immortals, I expect. Well, whoever she prays to, +she is a precious saint." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + + +Meanwhile, John Derringham lay betwixt life and death and was watched +over by the kind eye of Arabella Clinker. She had gathered quite a +number of facts in the night, while she had listened to his feverish +ravings--he was light-headed for several hours before the nurses +came--then the fever had decreased and though extremely weak he was +silent. + +Arabella knew now that he loved Halcyone--that wood nymph they had seen +during their Easter Sunday walk--and that he had been going to meet her +when the accident had happened. The rest was a jumble of incoherent +phrases all giving the impression of intense desire and anxiety for some +special event. It was: + +"Then we shall be happy, my sweet," or "Halcyone, you will not think me +a brute, then, will you, my darling," and there were more just detached +words about an oak tree, and a goddess and such like vaporings. + +But Arabella felt that, no doubt the moment he would be fully conscious, +he would wish to send some message--for during the two following days +whenever she went in to see him there was a hungering demand in his +haggard eyes. + +So Miss Clinker took it upon herself to stop at the Professor's house on +one of her walks, meaning to beard Cheiron in his den, and find out +how--should it be necessary--she could communicate with Halcyone. And +then she was informed by Mrs. Porrit that her master would be away for a +fortnight, and that Miss Halcyone La Sarthe had been taken off by her +stepmother--she did not know where--and that the two old ladies had +actually gone that day, with Hester and old William, to some place on +the Welsh coast they had known when they were children, for a change to +the sea! La Sarthe Chase was shut up. Arabella Clinker was not +sufficiently acquainted with the habits of its inmates to appreciate the +unparalleled upheaval this dislodgment meant, but she saw that her +informant was highly surprised and impressed. + +"I expect the poor old gentry felt too lonely to stop, once that dear +Miss Halcyone was gone," Mrs. Porrit said, "but there, when I heard it +you could have knocked me down with a feather!--them to go to the sea!" + +All this looked hopeless as far as communicating with Halcyone +went--unless through a letter to the Professor. Arabella returned to +Wendover rather cast down. + +She had been reasoning with herself severely over a point, and when her +letter went to her mother on the next Sunday, she was still undecided as +to what was her course of duty, and craved her parent's advice. + + The case is this [she wrote]. Being quite aware of M. E.'s + intentions, am I being disloyal to her, in helping to frustrate them + by aiding Mr. Derringham to establish communications with the person + whom I have already vaguely hinted to you I believe he is interested + in? I do not feel it is altogether honorable to take my salary from + M. E. and to go against what I know to be the strong desire of her + life at the present time. On the other hand, my feelings of humanity + are appealed to by Mr. Derringham's weakness, and by the very poor + chance he will have of escaping M. E. when she begins her attack + during his convalescence. I have felt more easy in conscience + hitherto because I have merely stood aside, not aided the adversary, + but now there is a parting of the ways and I am greatly disturbed. I + like Mr. Derringham very much, he has always treated me with + courteous consideration not invariably shown to me by M. E.'s guests; + and I cannot help being sorry for him, if--which I fear is almost a + certainty--she will secure him in the end. + +Then the letter ended. + +Arabella was much worried. However, she felt she might remain neutral so +far as this, that, when Mrs. Cricklander indulged in endless +speculations as to why John Derringham should have been trying to cross +that difficult and dangerous haw-haw, she gave no hint that his +destination could have been other than the Professor's little house. She +did swerve sufficiently to the other side to remark that to cross the +haw-haw would save at least a mile by the road if one were in a hurry. +And then her loyalty caused her to repeat, with extra care, to John +Derringham in a whisper the fib which Mrs. Cricklander wished--namely, +that she, the fair Cecilia, was there ready to come to him and sit up +with him, and do anything in the world for him, and was only prevented +by the doctor's strict orders, fearing the slightest excitement for the +patient--and that these orders caused her great grief. + +John Derringham's eyes looked grateful, but he did not speak. + +His head ached so terribly and his body was wracked with pain, while his +ankle, not having been set for twenty-four hours, had swollen so that it +rendered its proper setting a very difficult matter, and caused him +unspeakable suffering. Sir Benjamin Grant had to come down to Wendover +twice again before things looked in more hopeful state. + +And what agonizing thoughts coursed through his poor feverish +brain--until through sheer weakness there would be hours when he was +numb. + +What could Halcyone have thought waiting for him all that day! and now +she, of course, must have heard of his accident and there was no sign or +word. + +Or was there--and were those cruel doctors not giving him the message? +The day came--the Wednesday after Arabella had sent her letter to her +mother--when he was strong enough to speak. He waited for the moment +when Miss Clinker always arrived with Mrs. Cricklander's bunch of +flowers and morning greeting--and then, while the nurse went from the +room for a second, he whispered with dry lips: + +"Will you do me a kindness?" And Arabella's brown eyes gleamed softly +behind her glasses. "Let Miss Halcyone La Sarthe know how I am--she +would come and meet you any day at Mr. Carlyon's--" then he stopped, +disturbed by the blank look in Miss Clinker's face. + +"What is it?" he gasped, and Arabella saw that pale as he had been, with +his poor head all bandaged, he grew still more pale--and she realized +how terribly weak he must be, and how carefully she must calculate what +she could reply. + +"I understand that Mr. Carlyon is in London upon a visit, and that the +Misses La Sarthe have gone to the sea--" and then, as his eyes touched +her with their pitiful questioning surprise, she blurted out the truth. + +"Miss Halcyone La Sarthe was fetched away on last Thursday by her +stepmother--I did not hear the name--and no one knows where she has +gone. La Sarthe Chase is shut up." + +John Derringham closed his eyes--his powers of reasoning were not strong +enough yet to grasp the actual meaning of this--it seemed to him as +though Halcyone were dead, taken away from him by some fate and that all +things were at an end. + +Arabella grew very frightened. + +"Mr. Carlyon telegraphs from London every day," she ventured to +announce. + +But this appeared to bring no comfort, and the nurse returning, signed +to her to leave the room, for John Derringham lay still as one dead. + +And, when Arabella arrived at her own sanctum, she burst into tears. +What a fool she had been to tell him that, she felt. + +All these days, Halcyone passed in a repressed agony in spite of her +prayers and unshaken beliefs. She knew it was her winter time and she +must bear it until the spring should come, though it was none the less +hard to support. But she got through the hours with perfect surface +calm--and her stepsisters thought her stupid and dull, while Mrs. +Anderton decided there was something unnatural about a girl who took not +the slightest interest in shopping, and was perfectly indifferent about +all the attractive garments which were put upon her back. She always +expressed her thanks so gently, and was ever sweet and willing to be of +use, but the look of pain remained deep in those star-like, mysterious +eyes, and caused sensations of discomfort to grow in Mrs. Anderton's +kindly breast. + +Cheiron's laconic messages were delivered to Halcyone every day by +Demetrius. + +John Derringham was no worse. + +He was having every care. + +Sir Benjamin Grant had gone down again. + +His ankle was satisfactorily set. + +But never a word that he had asked for her, and yet she read in the +morning papers each day, as well as knew from her Professor's +information, that her lover was going on splendidly, and would soon be +embarked upon a convalescence. The paper appeared to regard the accident +as safely over, and the patient as returning to health. + +For Mrs. Cricklander, well-skilled in the manipulating of reporters in +her own country, knew exactly what impression she wished to give to the +press. And she had no intention of the idea getting abroad that her +injured visitor was in a very exhausted condition, because there were +those she knew who would suggest that she had bagged him while he was at +her mercy--when, later on, they heard the news of her engagement, which +she felt was each day growing more certain of becoming a fact. And in +Halcyone's brave heart not a doubt ever entered--she waited and believed +and endured, in silent pain. + +After Arabella's unfortunate announcement, for two or three days John +Derringham was too ill to know or care what occurred, and then other and +further tormenting thoughts began to trouble his weary brain. + +If Halcyone had a stepmother who had come and taken her away, there were +then more persons than her ancient aunts to reckon with. She could not +now slip off into a secret marriage with himself with small chance of +awkward questionings. That phase of the dream was over, he felt. + +No letters of any sort were given him by the doctor's strict orders, and +his private secretary had come down, an amiable and intelligent youth, +and was dealing with the necessary official correspondence--as best he +could--growing each day more infatuated with his fair hostess who felt +that no pawn on the chessboard which contained John Derringham as king +was worth neglecting. The Professor was not enjoying his fortnight in +London, and almost tugged his silver beard out while he smoked +innumerable pipes. He had come to some conclusions. + +John Derringham having been unable to keep the tryst with Halcyone was +plainly the working of the hand of Fate, which did not intend that his +sweet girl should occupy the invidious and humiliating position of +secret wife and apparent mistress to the ambitious young man. Therefore +he--Arnold Carlyon--had no right to assist her again into John +Derringham's arms. They must both suffer and work out their destinies +however cruel that might seem. + +"If John really feels she is a necessity, he will brave everything and +marry her openly as soon as he is well. If he does not--then I will not +assist her into a life of misery and disillusion." + +He remembered a talk they had had long ago, when his old pupil had given +his views about women and their place in the scheme of things. Not one +must expect a man to be faithful to her, were she wife or mistress, he +had said. So starting heavily handicapped in the role of his secret and +unacknowledged wife, Halcyone would stand a very poor chance of +happiness. Cheiron pictured things--John Derringham flattered and +courted by the world and surrounded by adoring woman, while Halcyone sat +at home in some quiet corner and received the scraps of his attentions +that were left. + +No! decidedly he would have no hand in aiding the sorry affair. + +So he used his influence and even a little cunning in preventing +Halcyone from writing to her lover. He was too ill yet to be troubled, +and she must wait until he should send some message to her. + +"You do not want Mrs. Cricklander to read your letter, child," he said, +when she timidly suggested one day that it would seem kinder if she +wrote to say she was concerned at the accident to her old friend.--The +sad comedy was still kept up between them.--And Halcyone had stiffened. +No, indeed! not that! She was woman enough in spite of the ennobling and +broadening effects of her knowledge of nature, to feel the stab of +jealous pain, though she had resolutely crushed from her thoughts the +insinuation she had read of in the first notice of the disaster--about +Mrs. Cricklander's interest in her lover. Her pride took fire. Certainly +until he could receive letters and read them himself, she must wait. +Cheiron would, of course, inform her when that time came. A doubt of +John Derringham's loyalty to her never even cast its shadow upon her +soul, nor a suspicion that he could doubt her either. + +All these things were the frosts and rains of their winter, but the +springtime would come and the glorious sun and flowers. + +She was growing accustomed to London and the life of continual bustle, +and was almost grateful for it all as it kept her from thinking. + +Her stepfather and his wife mixed in a rising half-set of society where +many people who were not fools came, and a number who were, but to +Halcyone they all seemed a weariness. No one appeared to see anything +straightly, and they seemed to be taken up with pursuits that could not +divert or interest a cat. She saw quite a number of young men at dinners +and was taken to the theater and suppers at the fashionable restaurants, +and these entertainments she loathed. She was too desperately unhappy +underneath to get even youth's exhilaration out of them, and when she +had been in London for nearly three weeks and Cheiron was preparing to +return to his cottage, having delayed his departure much beyond his +ordinary time, she felt she could endure the martyrdom no more. + +She had stilled every voice which had whispered to her that it was +indeed time that she heard some word from her lover. Because there were +now only occasional notices in the papers about his health, he was +supposed to be getting well. + +"I will implore Cheiron to let me go back with him," she decided firmly, +as she went downstairs to breakfast. "I will ask if I may not go out and +see him this morning," and, comforted with this thought, she entered the +dining-room with a brisker step than usual. No one but her stepfather +was down. + +He had grown accustomed, if not quite attached, to the quiet, gentle +girl, and he liked her noiseless, punctual way--they had often +breakfasted alone. + +He was reading his _Chronicle_ propped up in front of him, and handed +her the _Morning Post_ from the pile by his side. He silently went on +with his cutlet which an obsequious butler had placed for his +consumption. Halcyone turned rapidly to the column where she was +accustomed to look daily for news of her lover. And there she read that +Mrs. Cricklander had been entertaining a Saturday to Monday party, and +that Mr. John Derringham's recovery was now well advanced, even his +broken ankle was mending rapidly and he hoped soon to be well. + +A tight feeling grew round her heart, and her eyes dropped absently down +the columns of the engagement announcements in which she took no +interest, and then it seemed that her very soul was struck with agony as +she read: + +"A marriage has been arranged and will shortly take place between the +Right Honorable John Derringham of Derringham in the County of +Northampton, Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and Mrs. +Vincent Cricklander of New York, daughter of Orlando B. Muggs of +Pittsburgh, U.S.A." + +And it was here that the La Sarthe breeding stood Halcyone in good +stead, for she neither fainted nor dropped the paper--but, after a few +seconds of acute anguish, she rose and, making some little remark about +having forgotten something, quietly left the room. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + + +It is possible that, if his revolver had been lying quite near, the +morning John Derringham awoke to the remembrance that he was more or +less an engaged man, he would have shot himself, so utterly wretched and +debased did he feel. But no such weapon was there, and he lay in his +splendid gilt bed and groaned aloud as he covered his eyes with his +hand. + +The light hurt him--he was giddy, and his head swam. Surely, among other +things in the half-indistinct nightmare of the preceding evening, he +must have had too much champagne. + +From the moment, now over a week ago, that he had been allowed to sit up +in bed, and more or less distinct thought had come back to him, he had +been a prey to hideous anxiety and grief. Halcyone was gone from +him--had been snatched away by Fate, who, with relentless +vindictiveness, had filled his cup. For the first letters that he +opened, marked from his lawyers so urgently that they had been given to +him before the bandages were off his head, contained the gravest news of +his financial position. The chief mortgagee intended to foreclose in the +course of the next three months, unless an arrangement could be come to +at once, which appeared impossible. + +He was actually at bay. Thus, although in his first moments of +consciousness, he had intended to go directly he was well and demand his +love openly and chance the rest, this news made that course now quite +out of the question. He could not condemn her to wretched poverty and +tie a millstone round both their necks. The doctors had absolutely +forbidden him to read or even know of any more letters--the official +ones the secretary could deal with--but he became so restless with +anxiety that Arabella Clinker was persuaded to bring them up and at +least let him glance at the addresses. + +There was one from Cheiron, which he insisted upon opening--a brief dry +line of commiseration for his accident, with no mention of Halcyone in +it. The complete ignoring of his letter to announce their marriage cut +him deeply. He realized Mr. Carlyon guessed that the accident had +happened before that event could take place, and his silence about it +showed what he thought. John Derringham quivered with discomfort, he +hated to feel the whip of his old master's contempt. And he could not +explain matters or justify himself--there was nothing to be said. The +Professor, of course, knew of Halcyone's whereabouts--but, after his +broad hint of his want of sympathy about their relations, John +Derringham felt he could not open the subject with him again. This +channel for the assuagement of his anxieties was closed. The immense +pile of the rest of his correspondence was at last sorted. He knew most +of the writings, and the few he was doubtful about he opened--but none +were from his love. So he gave them all back to Arabella, and turned his +face from the light physically exhausted and with a storm of pain in his +heart. + +Mrs. Cricklander had carefully gone through each post as it came, and +longed to destroy one or two suspicious-looking communications she saw +in the same female handwriting--from his old friend Lady Durend, if she +had known!--but she dared not, and indeed was not really much disturbed. +She had laid her own plans with too great a nicety and felt perfectly +sure of the ultimate result of their action. Arabella was each day sent +up with the subtlest messages to the poor invalid, which her honor made +her unwillingly repeat truthfully. + +Cecilia Cricklander was an angel of sweet, watchful care, it seemed, and +John Derringham really felt deeply grateful to her. + +Then the moment came when she decided she would see him. + +"I will go this afternoon at tea-time, Arabella, if you can assure me +there won't be any horrid smell of carbolic or nasty drugs about--I know +there always are when people have cuts to be dressed, and I really could +not stand it. It would give me one of my bad attacks of nerves." + +And Miss Clinker was reluctantly obliged to assure her employer that +those days were passed, and that Mr. Derringham now only looked a pale, +but very interesting invalid, as he lay there with a black silk +handkerchief tied round his head. + +"Then I'll go," said Mrs. Cricklander--and, instead of sending the +message with her daily flowers, she wrote a tiny note. + + I can't bear it any longer--I must come! + CECELIA. + +Arabella Clinker watched his face as he read this, and saw a flush grow +in his ivory-pale skin. + +"Oh! Poor Mr. Derringham!" she thought, "it isn't fair! How can he hold +out against her when he is so weak--what ought I to do? If I only knew +what is my loyal course!" + +Arabella was perfectly aware how the reports of his rapid recovery had +been circulated--and guessed the reason--and all her kind woman's heart +was touched as she watched him lying there in splints, as pitiful and +helpless as a baby. To pretend that he was making a quick return to +health was so very far from the truth. She, herself, saw little change +for the better from day to day; indeed, his large, proud eyes seemed to +grow more anxious and haggard as the time went on. + +Mrs. Cricklander donned her most suitably ravishing tea-gown, one of +subdued simplicity--and, like a beautiful summer flower, she swept into +the invalid's room when the lowered sun blinds made the light restful +and the June roses filled the air with scent. It was the end of the +month and glorious weather was over the land. + +Nothing could have been more exquisite than Cecilia's sympathy. Indeed, +she did feel a good deal moved, and was a superb actress at all times. + +She only stayed a very short while, not to tire him, and John +Derringham, left alone, was conscious that he had been soothed and +pleased, and she departed leaving the impression that her love for him +was only kept within bounds by fear for his health! + +She had suffered _so_ during all the days! she told him, she could +hardly eat or sleep. And then to be debarred from nursing him!--the +cruelty of it! Why the doctors should have thought her presence would be +more disturbing than Arabella's, she could not think! And here she +looked down, and her white hand, with its perfectly kept nails, lying +upon the coverlet so near him, John Derringham lifted it in his feeble +grasp and touched it with his lips. He was so grateful for her +kindness--and affected by her beauty; he could not do less, he felt. + +And after that, with a deliciously girlish and confused gasp, Mrs. +Cricklander had hastily quitted the room. + +It was not until the second day that she came again--and he had begun to +wish for her. + +This time she was bright and amusing, and assumed airs of authority over +him, and was careful never to sit so that her hand might be in reach, +while she used every one of her many arts of tantalization and enjoyed +herself as only she knew how to do. + +It was perfectly divine to have him there to play upon like a violin and +to know it was only a question of time before she would secure him for +her own! + +After this, she had visitors in the house and did not come for three +days, and John Derringham felt a little peevish and aggrieved. It +rained, too, and his head ached still with the slightest exertion. + +He now began to put all thoughts of Halcyone away from him, as far as he +was able. It was too late to do anything--she must think him base, as +she had never sent him one word. This caused him restless anguish. What +was the meaning of it all? Could she have learned in the light of the +world that it was not a very great position he had offered her, and so +despised him in consequence? What aspect of it might they not have put +into her head--these people she was with--this step-mother of whom he +had never heard? In all cases Fate had parted them, and he must cut the +pain of it from his life or it would destroy him. It never occurred to +him to reflect upon the possible agony she might be suffering, his poor +little wood-nymph, all alone. The fact of his own unhappiness filled his +mind to the exclusion of any other thought for the time. In his dire +physical weakness Cecilia Cricklander's gracious beauty seemed to +augment, and Halcyone's sylph-like charm to grow of less potent force. +For Love had not done all that he would yet do with John Derringham's +soul. + +That underneath, if he could have chosen between the two women, he would +have hesitated for a second was not the case; only physical weakness, +and circumstance and propinquity were working for the one and against +the other--and so it would appear was Fate. + +Thus, the day the visitors left, Mr. Hanbury-Green among them, the +invalid was experiencing a sense of exasperating neglect. He felt +extremely miserable. Life, and all he held good in it, seemed to be over +for him, and his financial position was absolutely desperate--quite +beyond any question of marriage it threatened to swamp his actual +career. He felt impotent and beaten, lying there like a log unable to +move. + +Mrs. Cricklander sent him another little note in the afternoon. Arabella +had reported that the patient was restless, and this might mean one of +two things--either that he was becoming impatient to see her, or that he +was growing restive and bored with bed. In either case it was the moment +to strike--and to strike quickly. + +"The doctors have said you may have a taste of champagne to-night," she +wrote, which was quite untrue, but a small fib like this could not count +when such large issues were at stake. "And so I propose, if you will let +me and will have me for your guest, to come and dine with you to +celebrate the event. Say if I may. Cecilia." + +And he had eagerly scribbled in pencil, "Yes." + +So she came, and was all in white with just a red rose in her dress, and +she was solicitous about his comfort--had he enough pillows?--and she +spoke so graciously to the nurse who arranged things before she went to +her supper. + +She, Cecilia, would be his nurse, she whispered--just for to-night! and +then her own personal footman brought in an exquisite little dinner upon +a table which he set near the bed, all noiselessly--it had been arranged +outside--and she would select just the tenderest morsels for John +Derringham, or some turtle soup?--He was not hungry!--Well, never mind, +she would feed him!--and he must be good and let her pet him as she felt +inclined. + +She was looking quite extraordinarily beautiful, with all the light of +triumph in her sparkling eyes, and she sat down upon the bed and +actually pretended that if he were disobedient she would put pieces into +his mouth! + +John Derringham was a man--and, although he felt very ill and feeble, +after she had made him drink some champagne, the seduction of her began +to go to his head. Stimulant of any kind was the last thing he should +have had, and would have caused the nurse a shock of horror if she had +known. How it all came about he could not tell, what she said or he said +he could never remember, only the one thing which stood out was that as +the time for the nurse's return arrived, he knew that Cecilia +Cricklander was kissing him with apparent passion, which he felt in some +measure he was returning, and that she was murmuring: "And we shall be +married, darling John, as soon as you are well." + +He must have said something definite, he supposed. + +But, at that moment, the nurse was heard in the next room and his +_fiancee_--yes, his _fiancee_--got up and, when the woman came in in her +stiff nurse's dress, slightly apologetic that she had been so long, she +was greeted by this speech from the lady of the house: + +"Ah, Nurse Brome, you have been so good to Mr. Derringham, you must be +the first to wish us happiness and share our news. We are going to be +married as soon as ever you get him well--so you must hasten that, like +the clever woman you are!" + +And she had laughed, a soft laugh of triumph, which even in his +light-headed state had seemed to John Derringham as the mocking of some +fiend. + +Then she had left him quickly, while the footman carried the table from +the room--and after that he remembered nothing more, he had fallen into +a feverish sleep. But the next morning, when he awoke, he knew captivity +had indeed tumbled upon him, and that he was chained hand and foot. + +And all the day his temperature went up again, and he was not allowed to +see even Arabella of the kind heart, who would have come and condoled +with him, and even wept over him if she had dared, so moved did the good +creature feel at his fate. + +It was only upon the third day, when telegrams of congratulation began +to pour in upon him by the dozen, that he knew anything about the +announcement that had appeared in the _Morning Post_. + +Yes, he was caught and chained at last, and for the next week had moods +of gnashing his teeth, and feeling the most degraded of men, alternating +with hours of trying to persuade himself that it was the best thing +which could have happened to him. + +Mrs. Cricklander, now that she had gained her end, wisely left him for a +day or two in peace to the care of Arabella and the nurses, drawing the +net closer each hour by her public parade of her position as his +_fiancee_. She wrote the most exquisite and womanly letter to thank her +many friends for their kind congratulations--and lamented, now that the +truth being known would not matter, that John had had a slight relapse, +and was not quite so well. + +But, of course, she was taking every care of him, and so he soon would +be his old exuberant self! + +Thus the period of John Derringham's purgatory began. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + + +Grieving is such a satisfactory and dramatic thing when you can fling +yourself down upon the ground and cry aloud and tear your hair. But if +some great blow must be borne without a sign, then indeed it wrings the +heart and saps the forces of life. + +When Halcyone got to her room, the housemaids were there beginning to +make her bed--so it was no refuge for her--and she was obliged to go +down again. The big drawing-rooms would be untenanted at this moment, so +she turned the handle of the door and crept in there. The modern +brightly gilt Louis XVI furniture glared at her, but she sank into a big +chair thankful to find any support. + +What was this which had fallen upon her?--The winter, indeed--or, more +than that, not only the winter but the end of life, like the flash of +lightning which had struck the tree in the park the night before that +day which was to have seen her wedding? + +And as she sat there in dumb, silent, hideous agony which crushed for +the moment belief and hope, a canary from the aviary beyond set up a +trilling song. She listened for a second; it seemed to hurt her more. +The poor bird was in captivity, as was her soul. And then, while the +little songster went on, undismayed by its cage, a reaction set in. If +the soft-feathered creature could sing there beyond the bars, what right +had she to doubt God for one second? No--there should never be any +disbelief. It was only the winter, after all. She was too young to die +like the tree which had been there for some hundreds of years, She would +be as brave as the bird, and those forces of nature which she had loved +and trusted so long, would comfort her. + +She sat there for a quarter of an hour saying her prayers and stilling +the pain in her heart--and then she got up and deliberately went back to +the dining-room, where the family were all assembled now. + +They chaffed about everything, and were boisterous and jovial as usual, +and when she asked if she might go and see her old master, should Mrs. +Anderton not wish especially for her company that morning, her +stepfather offered to drive her there in his phaeton on his way to the +city. + +"She grows upon one, Lu," he said to his wife, when Halcyone had gone up +to put on her hat. "She is like some quiet, soothing book; she is a kind +of comfort--but she looks confoundedly pale to-day. Take her to the play +to-night, or ask some young fellows in to dinner, to cheer her up." + +The drive did Halcyone good, and, to the astonishment of Cheiron who had +also read the news, she walked into his sitting-room with perfect calm. +He himself was raging with indignation and disgust. + +But, when he looked into her deep eyes, his astonishment turned to pain, +for the expression in them as they burned from her lifeless face was so +pure, so pitiful and so tragic, that it left him without words for the +moment. + +At last he said--when she had greeted him: + +"I have been thinking, Halcyone, that I have not had a trip abroad for a +long time, but I am too old now to care about going alone. Do you think +that your aunts and these step-relations of yours would spare you to +accompany me, my dear?" + +And Halcyone had to turn away to the window to hide the tears which +suddenly welled up; he was so kind and understanding always--her dear +old master! + +"Yes, I am sure they would," she said in a very low voice. "How good of +you. And if we could start at once--that would be nice, would it not? I +suppose they would not let me go without Priscilla, though," she added; +"would that matter?" + +"Not at all," said the Professor. + +They neither of them mentioned John Derringham's engagement. They talked +long about the possibilities of their foreign journey, and Cheiron felt +himself repaid when he began to observe a look of returning life creep +into her white face. + +"I will call and see your stepfather in the city directly after lunch," +he said. "If you will write to your Aunts La Sarthe, I do not think +there can be any objection." + +"We could take Aphrodite, could we not?" Halcyone asked. "She is very +heavy, I know, but I would carry her, and I do not think I would like to +leave her there in the dark away from me for all that time." + +"We would certainly take her," said Cheiron. + +Halcyone knew enough about London now to know where Kensington Gardens +were. Whenever she went to see Mr. Carlyon, it was an understood thing +he would bring her safely back, so no one would be sent to fetch her. +Might they not go to Kensington Gardens this morning, she asked. She +remembered to have noticed, when she had driven past with Mr. Anderton, +that there seemed to be big trees there. She wanted to get into some +open space, London was stifling her. + +Mr. Carlyon put on his hat, and prepared to accompany her. They drove to +the first gate and got out, neither having spoken a word, as was their +habit when both were thinking. + +They wandered in among the trees and found two chairs and sat down. + +These were real trees, Halcyone felt. And, although she would have +preferred to be alone to-day without even Cheiron, the great trunks and +vast leafy canopy above them comforted her. + +She would not permit herself to think, the beauty of the summer day must +just saturate her, and soothe the cold, sick ache in her heart. And, +presently, when she was strengthened, she would face it all and see what +it could mean, and what would be best to do to bear the blow as a La +Sarthe should, and show nothing of the anguish. + +And, as she mused, her eyes absently wandered to a couple under a tree +some twenty yards beyond them. There was something familiar in the +girl's graceful back, and, as she turned her fresh face to look at her +companion, Halcyone saw that it was Cora Lutworth. + +Some magnetic spark seemed to connect them, for the pretty American girl +turned completely round in her chair, and catching sight of the two +jumped up and came towards them--with glad, laughing eyes and +out-stretched hands. + +"To see you!" she exclaimed. "That is so good! There is no Styx here, +and we must have some fun together!" + +She sat down upon a chair which Lord Freynault dragged up for her, and +he himself took another beyond the Professor--so the two girls could +talk together. + +"I am going to be married--you know!" Cora announced gayly. "Freynie and +I settled it at a ball last night, but we haven't told anyone yet! Isn't +it lovely? We just slipped out here for a little quiet talk." + +"I am so glad. I hope you will be very happy," Halcyone said, and tried +not to let the contrast of Cora's joyous prospect make her wince. + +"I am always happy," Cora returned, "and it's dear of you to wish me +nice things." + +Halcyone attracted her immensely, her quite remarkable personal +distinction was full of charm, and, now in fresh and pretty modern +clothes, to Cora's eyes she looked almost beautiful; but why so very +pale and quiet, she wondered; and then, with a flash, she remembered the +news she too had read in the paper that morning. Perhaps Halcyone minded +very much. She decided rapidly what to do. If she did not mention it at +all, she reasoned, this finely strung girl would know that she guessed +it would be painful to her--and that might hurt her pride. It was kinder +to plunge in and get it over. + +"Isn't it wonderful about Mr. Derringham and Cecilia Cricklander?" she +said, pretending to be busy untangling her parasol tassel. "She always +intended to marry him--and she is so rich I expect he felt that would be +a good thing. Freynie says he is very much harder up then anyone knows." + +Her kind, common sense told her that a man's doing even a low thing for +expediency would hurt a woman who loved him, less than that the motive +for his action should have been one of inclination. + +Halcyone came up to the scratch, although a fierce pain tightened her +heart afresh. + +"Yes," she said, "I suppose no one was surprised to read of the +engagement in the papers to-day. I can imagine that a man requires a +great deal of money to support the position in the government which Mr. +Derringham has, and no doubt Mrs. Cricklander is glad to give it to +him--he is so clever and great." And not a muscle of her face quivered +as she spoke. + +"If it does hurt--my goodness! she is game!" Cora thought, and aloud she +went on, "Cecilia isn't a bad sort--a shocking snob, as all of us are +who are not the real thing and want to be--like your own common pushers +over here. We used to laugh at her awfully when she first came from +Pittsburgh and tried to cut in before she married my cousin. Poor old +Vin! He was crazy about her." Then she went on reflectively, as Halcyone +did not answer. "We often think you English people are so odd--the way +you can't distinguish between us! You receive, with open arms, the most +impossible people if they are rich, that we at home would not touch with +a barge pole, and you say: 'Oh, they are just American,' as if we were +all the same! And then we are so awfully clever as a nation that in a +year or two these dreadful vulgarians, as we would call them in New +York, have picked up all _your_ outside polish, and pass as _our_ best! +It makes lots of the really nice old gentle-folk at home perfectly +mad--but I can't help admiring the spirit. That is why I have stuck to +Cis, though the rest of the family have given her the cold shoulder. It +is such magnificent audacity--don't you think so?" + +"Yes, indeed," agreed Halcyone. "All people have a right to obtain what +they aspire to if they fit themselves for it." + +"That is one of Mr. Derringham's pet theories," Cora laughed. "He held +forth one night, when I was staying at Wendover at Easter, about it--and +it was such fun. Cis did not really understand a single thing of the +classical allusions he was making--but she got through. I watch her with +delight. Men are sweetly simple bats, though, aren't they? Any woman can +take them in--" and Cora laughed again joyously. "I have sat sometimes +in fits to hear Cis keeping a whole group of your best politicians +enthralled, and not one seeing she is just repeating parrot sentences. +You have only to be rich and beautiful and look into a man's eyes and +flatter him, and you can make him believe you are what you please. Now +Freynie thinks I am absolutely perfect when I am really being a horrid +little capricious minx--don't you, Freynie, dear!" and she leaned over +and looked at her betrothed with sweet and tender eyes--and Lord +Freynault got up and moved his chair round, so that the four were in a +circle. + +"What preposterous thing is Cora telling you?" he laughed, with an +adoring glance at her sparkling face. "But I am getting jealous, and +shall take her away because I want to talk to her all to myself!" + +And, when they had settled that the two girls should meet at tea the +following day in Cora's sitting-room at Claridge's, where she was +staying with a friend, the newly engaged pair went off together beaming +with joy and affection. + +And Halcyone gazed after them with a wistful look in her sad eyes, which +stabbed the old Professor's heart. + +She was remembering the morning under their tree, when she and her lover +had sat and made their plans, and he had asked her if she had any fear +at the thought of giving him her future. + +It was only three weeks ago. Surely everything was a dream. How much he +had seemed to love her. And then unconsciously she started to her feet, +and strode away among the trees, forgetful of her companion--and Cheiron +sat and watched her, knowing she would come back and it was better to +let her overcome alone the agony which was convulsing her. + +Yes, John Derringham had seemed to love her--not seemed--no--it was +real--he _had_ loved her. And she would never believe but that he loved +her still. This was only a wicked turn of those bad forces which she +knew were abroad in the world. Had she not seen evil once in a man's +face crouching in the bracken, as he set a trap for some poor hare one +dark and starry night? And she had passed on, and then, when she thought +he would be gone, she had returned and loosened the spring before it +could do any harm. That poacher had evil forces round him. They were +there always for the unwary, and had fastened upon John. She would never +doubt his love, and she herself could never change, and she would pour +upon him all her tender thoughts, and call to the night winds to help +her to do her duty. + +So presently she remembered Cheiron, and turned round to see him far +away still, sitting quietly beneath a giant elm stroking his long, +silver beard. + +"My dear, kind master!" she exclaimed to herself, and went rapidly back +to him. + +"That is a charming girl--your young friend," he said to her, as he got +up to stroll to the gate; "full of life and common sense. There is +something wonderful in the vitality of her nation. They jar dreadfully +upon us old tired peoples in their worst aspects--but in their best we +must recognize a new spring of life and youth for the world. Yonder +young woman is not troubling about a soul, if she has one; she is a +fountain of living water. She has not taken on the shadows of our +crowded past. Halcyone, my dear, you and I are the inheritance of too +much culture. When I see her I want to cry with Epicurus: 'Above all, +steer clear of Culture!'" And then he branched from this subject and +plunged into a learned dissertation upon the worship of Dionysus, and +how it had cropped up again and again with wild fervor among the ancient +worlds whose senses and brains were wearied with the state religions, +and he concluded by analogy that this wild longing to return to youth's +follies and mad ecstasies, to get free from restraints, to seek +communion with the spiritual beyond in some exaltation of the +emotions--in short, to get back to nature--was an instinct in all human +beings and all nations, when their zeniths of art and cultivation had +come. + +And Halcyone, who had heard it all before and knew the subject to her +finger tips, wandered dreamily into a shadowland where she felt she was +of these people--those far back worshipers--and this was her winter when +Dionysus was dead, but would live again when the spring came and the +flowers. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + + +Mrs. Cricklander felt it would be discreet and in perfect taste if she +announced her intention of going off to Carlsbad the week after her +engagement was settled--she was always most careful of decorum. And, if +the world of her friends thought John Derringham was well enough to be +making love to her in the seclusion of her own house, it would be much +wiser for her to show that she should always remain beyond the breath of +any gossip. + +In her heart she was bored to tears. For nearly the whole of June she +had been cooped up at Wendover--for more than half the time without even +parties of visitors to keep her company--and she loathed being alone. +She had no personal resources and invariably at such times smoked too +much and got agitated nerves in consequence. + +John Derringham--strong and handsome, with his prestige and his +brilliant faculties--was a conquest worth parading chained to her +chariot wheels. But John Derringham, feeble, unable to walk, his ankle +in splints and plaster of Paris, and still suffering from headaches +whenever the light was strong, was simply a weariness to her--nothing +more nor less. + +So that, until he should be restored to his usual captivating vigor, it +was much better for her pleasure to leave him to his complete recovery +alone, now that she had got him securely in her keeping. + +Arabella could ask her mother down and keep house and see that he had +everything in the world that he wanted--and there were the devoted +nurses. And, in short, her doctor had said she must have her usual cure, +and that was the end of the matter! + +She had only made him the most fleeting visits during the week. He had +really been ill after the fever caused by the champagne. And she had +been exquisitely gentle and not too demonstrative. She had calculated +the possibility of his backing out under the plea of his health, so she +determined not to give him a chance to have the slightest excuse by +overtiring him. + +No one could have better played the part of devoted, understanding +friend who by excess of love had been betrayed into one lapse of +passionate outburst, and now wished only to soothe and comfort. + +"She is a good sort," John Derringham thought, after her first visit. +"She will let me down easy in any case," and the ceasing of his anxiety +about his financial position comforted him greatly. + +The next time she came and sat by his bed, a vision of fresh summer +laces and chiffons, he determined to make the position clear to her. + +She always bent and kissed him with airy grace, then sat down at a +discreet distance. She felt he was not overanxious to caress her, and +preferred that the rendering of this impossible should come from her +side. Indeed, unless kisses were necessary to gain an end, she did not +care for them herself--stupid, contemptible things, she thought them! + +John Derringham would have touched the hearts of most women as he lay +there, but Cecilia Cricklander had not this tiresome appendage, only the +business brain and unemotional sensibilities of her grandfather the pork +butcher. She did realize that her _fiance_, even there with the black +silk handkerchief wound round his head and his face and hands deadly +pale and fragile-looking, was still a most arrogant and +distinguished-looking creature, and that his eyes, with their pathetic +shadows dimming the proud glance in them, were wonderfully attractive. +But she was not touched especially by his weakness. She disliked +suffering and never wanted to be made aware of it. + +John Derringham went straight into the subject which was uppermost in +his thoughts. He asked her to listen to him patiently, and stated his +exact financial situation. She must then judge if she found it worth +while to marry him; he would not deceive her about one fraction of it. + +She laughed lightly when he had ended--and there was something which +galled him in her mirth. + +"It is all a ridiculous nothing," she said. "Why, I can pay off the +whole thing with only the surplus I invest every year from my income! +Your property is quite good security--if I want any. We shall probably +have to do it in a business-like way; your house will be mine, of +course, but I will make you very comfortable as my guest!" and she +smiled with suitable playfulness. "Let the lawyers talk over these +things, not you and me--you may be sure mine will look after me!" + +John Derringham felt the blood tingling in his ears. There was nothing +to take exception to in what she had said, but it hurt him awfully. + +"Very well," he answered wearily, and closed his eyes for a moment. "If +you are satisfied, that is all that need be said. As things go on, and I +reach where I mean to get, I dare say to spend money to do the thing +beautifully will please you as much as it will gratify me. I will give +you what I can of the honors and glories--so shall we consider our +bargain equal?" + +This was not lover-like, and Mrs. Cricklander knew it, but it was better +to have got it all over. She was well aware that the "honors and +glories" would compensate her for the outlay of her dollars, but her red +mouth shut with a snap as she registered a thought. + +"When I come back it may amuse me to make him really in love with me." +Then, watching carefully, she saw that some cloud of jar and disillusion +had settled upon her _fiance's_ face. So with her masterly skill she +tried to banish it, talking intelligently upon the political situation +and his prospects. It looked certain that the Government would not last +beyond the session--and then what would happen? + +Mr. Hanbury-Green had given her a very clear forecast of what the other +side meant to do, but this she did not impart to John Derringham. + +She made one really stupid mistake as she got up to leave the room. + +"If you want a few thousands now, John," she said, as she bent to +lightly salute his cheek, "do let me know and I will send them to your +bank. They may be useful for the wedding." + +A dull flush mounted to the roots of his hair, and then left him very +pale. + +He took her hand and kissed it with icy homage. + +"Thank you, no--" he said. "You are far too good. I will not take +anything from you until the bargain is completed." + +Then their eyes met and in his there was a flash of steel. + +And when she had gone from the room he lay and quivered, a sense of +hideous humiliation flooding his being. + +The following day she came in the morning. She looked girlish in her +short tennis frock and was rippling with smiles. She sat on the bed and +kissed him--and then slipped her hand into his. + +"John, darling," she said sweetly. "People will begin to talk if I stay +here at Wendover now that you are getting better--and you would hate +that as much as I--so I have settled to go to Carlsbad with Lady +Maulevrier--just for three weeks. By that time my splendid John will be +himself again and we can settle about our wedding--" then she bent and +kissed him once more before he could speak. "Arabella is going to get +her mother to come down," she went on, "and you will be safe here with +these devoted old ladies and your Brome who is plainly in love with you, +poor thing!" and she laughed gayly. "Say you think it is best, too, +John, dearest?" + +"Whatever you wish," he answered with some sudden quick sense of relief. +"I know I am an awful bore lying here, and I shall not be able to crawl +to a sofa even for another week, these doctors say." + +"You are not a bore--you are a darling," she murmured, patting his hand. +"And if only I were allowed to stay with you--night and day--and nurse +you like Brome, I should be perfectly happy. But these snatched +scraps--John, darling, I can't bear it!" + +He wondered if she were lying. He half thought so, but she looked so +beautiful, it enabled him to return her caresses with some tepid warmth. + +"It is too sweet of you, Cecilia," he said, as he kissed her. He had not +yet used one word of intimate endearment--she had never been his +darling, his sweet and his own, like Halcyone. + +After she had gone again, all details having been settled for her +departure upon the Monday, he almost felt that he hated her. For, when +she was in this apparently loving mood, it seemed as if her bonds +tightened round his throat and strangled him to death. "Octopus arms" he +remembered Cheiron had called them. + +When Mrs. Cricklander got back to her own favorite long seat out on the +terrace, she sat down, and settling the pillows under her head, she let +her thoughts ticket her advantages gained, in her usual concrete +fashion. + +"He is absolutely mine, body and soul. He does not love me--we shall +have the jolliest time seeing who will win presently--but I have got the +dollars, so there is no doubt of the result--and what fun it will be! It +does not matter what I do now, he cannot break away from me. He has let +me see plainly that my money has influenced him--and, although +Englishmen are fools, in his class they are ridiculously honorable. I've +got him!" and she laughed aloud. "It is all safe, he will not break the +bargain!" + +So she wrote an interesting note to Mr. Hanbury-Green with a pencil on +one of the blocks which she kept lying about for any sudden use--and +then strolled into the house for an envelope. + +And, as John Derringham lay in the darkened room upstairs, he presently +heard her joyous voice as she played tennis with his secretary, and the +reflection he made was: + +"Good Lord, how thankful I should be that at least I do not love her!" + +Then he clenched his hands, and his aching thoughts escaped the iron +control under which since his engagement he had tried always to keep +them, and they went back to Halcyone. He saw again with agonizing +clearness her little tender face, when her soft, true eyes had melted +into his as she whispered of love. + +"This is what God means in everything." Well, God had very little to do +with himself and Cecilia Cricklander! + +And then he suddenly seemed to see the brutishness of men. Here was +he--a refined, honorable gentleman--in a few weeks going to play false +to his every instinct, and take this woman whom he was growing to +despise--and perhaps dislike--into his arms and into his life, in that +most intimate relationship which, he realized now, should only be +undertaken when passionate calls of tenderest love imperatively forced +it. She would have the right to be with him day--and night. She might be +the mother of his children--and he would have to watch her instincts, +which he surely would have daily grown to loathe, coming out in them. +And all because money had failed him in his own resources and was +necessary to his ambitions, and this necessity, working with an appeal +to his senses when fired with wine, had brought about the situation. + +God Almighty! How low he felt! + +And he groaned aloud. + +Then from a small dispatch box, which he had got his servant to put by +his bed, he drew forth a little gold case, in which for all these years +he had kept an oak leaf. He had had it made in the enthusiasm of his +youth when he had returned to London after Halcyone, the wise-eyed +child, had given it to him, and it had gone about everywhere with him +since as a sort of fetish. + +It burnt his sight when he looked at it now. For had he been "good and +true"? Alas! No--nothing but a sensual, ambitious weakling. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + + +The Professor and his protegee spent the whole of that July wandering in +Brittany--going from one old-world spot to another. There had not been +much opposition raised by Mr. and Mrs. Anderton to Halcyone's +accompanying her old master. They themselves were going to Scotland, and +there Mabel had decided she would no longer be kept in the schoolroom, +and intended to come forward as a grown-up girl assisting in the +hospitalities of her father's shooting lodge. And Mrs. Anderton, knowing +her temper, thought a rival of any sort might make difficulties. So, as +far as they were concerned, Halcyone might start at once. They always +left for the north in the middle of the month, and if the Professor +wanted to get away sooner, they did not wish to interfere with his +arrangements. Halcyone must come and pay them another visit later on. + +As for the Aunts La Sarthe--their heads appeared to be completely turned +by their sojourn at the seaside! They proposed to remain there all the +summer, and put forward no objection to their niece's excursion with Mr. +Carlyon. The once quiet spot of their youth had developed into a +fashionable Welsh watering place, and Miss Roberta was taking on a new +lease of health and activity from the pleasure of seeing the crowded +parade, while the Aunt Ginevra allowed that the exhilarating breezes and +cerulean waters were certainly most refreshing! + +Before the Professor could leave for a lengthy trip abroad, it was +necessary that he should return to the orchard house for a day, and +Halcyone accompanied him, leaving Priscilla in London. Her mission was +to secure the goddess's head--but, as there was no one at La Sarthe +Chase, she decided just to go there and get her treasure and sleep the +night at Cheiron's. + +It would be an excursion of much pain to her, to be so near to her still +loved lover and to feel the cruel gulf between them, but she must face +it if she desired Aphrodite to accompany them. The Professor suggested +she might take him through the secret passage and try with his help to +open the heavy box. No such opportunity had ever occurred before or was +likely to occur again, her aunts being absent and even old William +nowhere about. It made the chance one in a thousand. So she agreed, and +determined to force herself to endure the pain which going back would +cause her. + +She was perfectly silent all the way from London to Upminster--and Mr. +Carlyon watched her furtively. He knew very well what was passing in her +mind, and admired the will which suppressed the expression of it. She +grew very pale indeed in the station-fly when they passed the gates of +Wendover. It was about half past three in the afternoon--and the +Professor had promised to come to the archway opening of the secret +passage at five. + +So Halcyone left him and took her way down the garden and through the +little gate into the park. It seemed like revisiting some scene in a +former life, so deep was the chasm which separated the last time she +walked that way from this day. She passed the oak tree without stopping. +She would not give way to any weakness or the grief which threatened to +overwhelm her. She kept her mind steadily fixed upon the object she had +in view, with a power of concentration which only those who live in +solitude can ever attain to. + +Aphrodite was there still in the bag lying on top of the heavy +iron-bound box in the secret passage, and she carried her out into the +sunlight and once more took the wrappings from the perfect face. + +"You are coming with us, sweet friend," she whispered, and gazed long +into the goddess's eyes. What she saw there gave her comfort. + +"Yes, I know," she went on gently. "I did say that, whatever came, I +would understand that it was life--And I do--and I know this evil pain +is only for the time--and so I will not admit its power. I will wait and +some day joy will return to me, like the swallow from the south. Mother, +I will grieve not." + +And all the softest summer zephyrs seemed to caress her in answer, and +there she sat silent and absorbed, looking out to the blue hills for +more than an hour. + +Then she saw Cheiron advancing up the beech avenue, and covering up +Aphrodite she went to meet him. + +They came back to the second terrace and started upon their quest. + +Mr. Carlyon had the greatest difficulty in keeping his old head bent to +get through the very low part of the dark arched place, and he held +Halcyone's hand. But at last they emerged into the one light spot and +there saw the breastplate and the box. But at first it seemed as if they +could not lift it; it had fallen with the lock downward. Cheiron, +although a most robust old man, had passed his seventieth year, and the +thing was of extreme heaviness. But at last they pushed and pulled and +got it upright, and finally, with tremendous exertions with a chisel Mr. +Carlyon had brought, managed to break open the ancient lock. + +It gave with a sudden snap, and in breathless excitement they raised the +lid. + +Inside was another case of wood. This also was locked, but at its side +lay an old key. The Professor, as well as his chisel, had prudently +brought a small bottle of oil, and eventually was able to make the key +turn in the lock, and they found that the box was in two compartments, +one entirely filled with gold pieces, and the other containing some +smaller heavy object enwound with silk. + +They lifted it out and carried it to the light, and then with great +excitement they unrolled the coverings. It proved to be a +gold-and-jeweled crucifix and beneath it lay a parchment with a seal. + +Leaving the pieces of gold in the box, they carried the crucifix and the +parchment out on to the terrace, and then the Professor adjusted his +strongest spectacles and prepared to read what he could, while Halcyone +examined the beautiful thing. + +The writing was still fairly dark and the words were in Latin. It +stated, so the Professor read, that the money and the crucifix were the +property of Timothy La Sarthe, Gentleman to Queen Henrietta Maria, and +that, should aught befall him in his flight to France upon secret +business for Her Majesty, the gold and the crucifix belonged to +whichever of his descendants should find it--or it should be handed to; +that all others were cursed who should touch it, and that it would bring +the owner fortune, as it was the work of one Benvenuto Cellini, an +artist of great renown in Florence before his day, and therefore of +great value. The quaintly phrased deed added that if it were taken to +one Reuben Zana, a Jew in the Jewry at the sign of the Golden Horn, he +would dispose of it for a large sum to the French king. The crucifix had +been brought from Florence in the dower of his wife Donna Vittoria +Tornabuoni, now dead. If his son Timothy should secure it, he was +advised not to keep it, as its possession brought trouble to the family. + +"Then it is legally ours and not treasure-trove," said Halcyone. "Oh, +how good! It will make the Aunts La Sarthe quite rich perhaps, and look +how beautiful it is, the jeweled thing." + +They examined it minutely. It was a masterpiece of that great craftsman +and artist and of untold value. Cheiron silently thrilled with the +delight of it--but Halcyone spoke. + +"I am glad Ancestor Timothy suggested selling it," she said. "I would +never keep a crucifix, the emblem of sorrow and pain. For me, Christ is +always glorified and happy in heaven. Now what must we do, Master? Must +we at once tell the aunts? But I will not consent to anyone knowing of +this staircase. That would destroy something which I could never +recover. We must pretend we have found it in the long gallery; there is +a recess in the paneling which no one knows of but I, and there we can +put it and find it again. It will be quite safe. Shall we leave it +there, Cheiron, until we come back from abroad? How much do you think it +is worth?" + +"Anything up to fifty thousand pounds perhaps to a collector," the +Professor said, "since it is an original and unique. Look at the +splendid rubies and emeralds and these two big diamonds at the top, and +there is so little of Benvenuto's work left that is authentic." + +"That is an unusual sum of money, is it not?" Halcyone asked. "That +would surely give them anything they want for their lives; perhaps we +ought not to keep them waiting." + +And so after much talk it was arranged that Halcyone should make several +journeys, taking the gold to the long gallery and then the crucifix; and +then the box could be lifted and repacked again there. And, when she had +it all stowed away carefully in the recess of the paneling, she and +Cheiron should go openly to the back door and let the caretaker know +they had arrived, and go into the house--and there ostensibly find the +treasure. Then they would write to the Misses La Sarthe about their +discovery, and take the box to Applewood and deposit it in the bank +until their return. + +All this took a long time but was duly carried out, and about eight +o'clock Halcyone and the Professor were able to go back, carrying the +crucifix with them, to keep it safe for the night and then to put it +back with the gold and the parchment, before they took the box to the +bank on the morrow. + +"It may be worth more still and there is a good deal of gold," the +Professor said, "and their coins would be worth more now. You will be +quite a little heiress some day, dear child." + +"I do not care the least about money, Cheiron," she said, "but I shall +be so glad for the aunts." + +And when eventually the old ladies received the news of their fortune +there was much rejoicing, and by following Cheiron's advice they were +not defrauded and might look forward to a most comfortable end to their +lives. Miss Roberta even dreamed of a villa at the seaside and a visit +to London Town! + +But meanwhile the Professor and Halcyone went back to London and on the +Saturday left for Dieppe. + +London, perhaps from her numbed state of misery, had said nothing to +Halcyone. It remained in her memory as a nightmare, the scene of the +confirmation of her winter of the soul. Its inhabitants were ghosts, the +young men--jolly, hearty, young fellows from the Stock Exchange, and +rising Radical politicians whom she had met--went from her record of +things as so many shadows. + +The vast buildings seemed as prisons, the rush and flurry as worrying +storms, and even the parks as only feeble reminders of her dear La +Sarthe Chase. + +Nothing had made the least real impression upon her except Kensington +Gardens, and they to the end of her life would probably be only a +reminder of pain. + +But her first view of the sea! + +That was something revivifying! + +Her memory of the one occasion when she had gone to Lowestoft with her +mother was too dim to be anything of a reality, and, when they got to +Newhaven, the Professor and Priscilla and she, with a brisk summer wind +blowing the green-blue water into crested wavelets, the first cry of +life and joy escaped her and gladdened Cheiron's heart. + +How wonderful the voyage was! She took in every smallest change in the +tones of the sky--she watched the waves from the forepart of the bridge, +and some new essence of life and the certainty that her night forces +would never desert her made themselves felt and cheered her. + +Of John Derringham she thought constantly. He was not buried in that +outer circle of oblivion from which the thoughts unconsciously shy--as +we bury our dead, their going so shrouded in pain that we long to blot +out the memory of them. John Derringham was always with her. She prayed +for his welfare with the fervor and purity of her sweet soul. He was her +spirit lover still. He could never really belong to any other woman, she +knew. And as the days went by a fresh beauty grew in her pale face. The +night sky itself seemed to be melted in her true eyes with the essence +of all its stars. + +Cheiron often wondered at her. There was never a word or allusion to the +past. She was extremely quiet, and sometimes the droop of her graceful +head and the sad curves of her tender lips would make the kind old +cynic's heart ache. But she was always cheerful, taking unfeigned +interest in the country and the people, delighting in the simple faith +of the peasants and the glory of some of the old cathedrals. + +And Aphrodite traveled everywhere with them. A special case had been +made for her--and Halcyone often took her out to keep them company in +the late evenings or when a rare rain storm kept them indoors. + +Mr. Carlyon had not written to John Derringham since his engagement had +been announced. He wished all connection with his former pupil to be +broken off. He had no mercy for his action, he could not even use his +customary lenient common sense towards the failings of mankind. + +John Derringham had made his peerless one suffer--and his name was +anathema. As far as Cheiron was concerned he was wiped off the list of +beings who count. + +Halcyone's delicate sense of obligation had been put at ease by her +stepfather. He had made over to her a few hundreds a year which he said +had belonged to her mother--the simple creature was too ignorant of all +business to be aware whether this was or was not the case. She had grown +to have a certain liking for James Anderton. There was a hard, +level-headed, shrewd honesty about him, keen to drive a bargain--even +the one about her mother to which Priscilla had alluded and to which +they had never made any further reference--but, when once he had gained +his point, he was generous and kind-hearted. + +He could not help it that he was not a gentleman, Halcyone thought, and +he did his best for everybody according to his lights. + +Her few hundreds a year seemed untold wealth to her who had never had +even a few sixpences for pocket money! But there was always some +instinctive dislike for the thing itself. It remained to her a rather +unpleasant medium for securing the necessities of life, though she was +glad she now possessed enough not to be a burden upon her aunts, and +could hand what was necessary for her trip over to the Professor. + +They wanted to get into Italy as soon as it should be cool enough. +August saw them in an out-of-the-way village in Switzerland. + +And the mountains caused Halcyone a yet deeper emotion than the sea had +done. Nature here talked to her in a voice of supreme grandeur, and bade +her never to be cast down but to go on bearing her winter with heroic +calm. + +She often stayed out the entire night and watched the stars fade and the +dawn come--Phoebus with his sun chariot! Somehow Switzerland, although +it was not at all the actual background, seemed to bring to her the +atmosphere of her "Heroes." The lower hill near their village could +certainly be Pelion, and one day she felt she had discovered Cheiron's +cave. This was a joy--and that night, when it rained and she and the +Professor sat before their wood fire in the little inn parlor, with +Aphrodite lying near them in her silken folds, she coaxed her old master +into telling her those moving tales of old. + +"You are indeed Cheiron, Master," she said--and then her eyes widened +and she looked into the glowing ashes. "And you have one pupil, who, +like Heracles in his fight with the Centaurs, has accidentally wounded +you. But I want you not to let the poison of the arrow grow in your +blood; the wound is not incurable as his was. Master, why do you never +speak to me now of Mr. Derringham?" + +Cheiron frowned. One of his eyebrows had grown in later years at least +an inch long and seemed to bristle ready for battle when he was angry. + +"I think he has behaved as no gentleman should," he growled, "and I +would rather not mention him." + +"You know of things perhaps with which I am not acquainted," said +Halcyone, "but from my point of view, there is nothing to judge him for. +Whatever he may have done in becoming engaged to marry this +lady--because she is rich--we do not know the forces that were +compelling him. It hurts me, Cheiron, that you take so stern a view--it +hurts me, Master." + +Mr. Carlyon put out his hand and stroked her soft hair as she sat there +on a low stool looking up at him. + +"Oh, my dear," he said, and could articulate no more because a lump grew +in his throat. + +"Everything is so simple when we know of it," she went on, "but everyone +has not had the fortune to learn nature and the forces which we must +encourage or guard against. And Mr. Derringham, who had to mix with the +world, ran many dangers which could not come to you and me at La Sarthe +Chase. Ah, Cheiron! Even you do not know of the ugly things which creep +away out of sight in the night--my night that I love! And they could +sting one if one did not know where to put one's feet. And so it must be +with him--he did not always see where just to put his feet, so we must +not judge him, must we?" she pleaded. + +"Not if you do not wish," Mr. Carlyon blurted out. And then he began to +puff wreaths of smoke from his long old pipe. + +"Indeed, I do not wish, Cheiron," she said. "Perhaps he is very unhappy +now--we do not know--so we should only send him good thoughts to cheer +him. I dream of him often," she went on in a far-off voice, as though +she had almost forgotten the Professor's presence, "and he cries to me +in pain. And I could not bear it that you should be thinking badly of +him, and so I had to speak because thoughts can help or injure +people--and now he wants all the gentle currents we can send him to take +him through this time." + +The Professor coughed violently; his spectacles had grown dim. + +Then Halcyone rubbed her soft cheek against his old withered hand. + +"You knew it, of course, Master," she said very softly. "I loved him +always and I love him still--and, if I have forgiven any hurt which he +brought me, surely it need not stand against him with you. To-night--oh, +he is suffering so! I cannot bear that there should be one shadow going +to him that I can take away. Cheiron, promise me you won't think hardly +ever any more--promise me, Cheiron, dear!" + +The Professor's voice was almost the growl of a bear--but Halcyone knew +he meant to acquiesce. + +"Cheiron," she whispered, while she caressed his stiff fingers, "the +winter of our souls is almost past. I feel and know the spring is near +at hand." + +"I hope to God it is," Mr. Carlyon said, very low. + +Next day they moved on into Italy, crossing the frontier and stopping +the night at Turin where they proposed to hire a motor. From thence they +intended to get down to Genoa to continue their pilgrimage. It was not +such an easy matter, in those few years ago, as it is now to hire a +motor, but one was promised to them at last--and off they started. +Halcyone took the greatest interest in everything in that quaint and +grand old town. Her keen judgment and that faculty she possessed of +always seeing everything from the simplest standpoint of truth made her +an ideal companion to wander with on this journey of cultured ease. + +"How strong a place this seems, Cheiron," she said, after two days of +their sight-seeing. "All the spirits at the zenith of Genoa's greatness +were strong--nothing weak or ascetic. They must have been filled with +gratitude to God for giving them this beautiful life, those old patrons +of decoration. There is nothing cheap or hurried; it is all an +appreciation of the magnificence due to their noble station and their +pride of race. For the _Guelphist_ of them seems to have been an +aristocrat and an autocrat in his personal _menage_. Is it not so, +Master?" + +"I dare say," agreed Cheiron. He was watching with deep interest for her +verdict upon things. + +"It gives me the impression of solid riches," she went on, "the +encouragement of looms of costly stuffs, the encouragement for workers +in marble, in bronze, in frescoes, all the material gorgeous, tangible +pleasures of sight and touch. It is not poetic; it inspires admiration +for great deeds, victorious navies, triumphs--banquets--I have no sense +of music here except the music of feasting. I have no sense of poetry +except of odes to famous admirals or party leaders, and yet it is a +great joy in its way and a noble monument to the proud manhood of the +past." And she looked down from the balcony of the Palazzo Reale, where +they were standing, into the town below. + +Her thoughts had gone as ever to the man she loved. He had this haughty +spirit--he could have lived in those days--and she saw him a Doria, a +Brignole-Sale or a Pallavicini, gorgeous, masterful and magnificent. +England in the present day was surely a _supplice_ for such an arrogant +spirit as that of John Derringham. + +The prosperous mercantile part of Genoa said nothing to her--she wanted +always to wander where she could weave romances into the things round. +She had never seen any fine pictures before. The Anderton family were +not lovers of art and, while in London, Halcyone had been too unhappy to +care or even ask to be taken to galleries--and Cheiron had not suggested +doing so; he was a good deal occupied himself. But now it was a great +pleasure to him to watch and see what impression they would make upon a +perfectly fresh eye. The immense cultivation of her mind would guide her +taste probably--but it would be an interesting experiment. + +She stopped instantly in front of a Van Dyck, but she did not speak. In +fact she made no observations at all about the pictures until they were +back in their hotel. It was still very hot, although September had come, +and they had their dinner upon an open terrace. + +And then her thoughts came out. + +"I like the Guido Renis, Cheiron," she said; "his Magdalen in the Reale +Palazzo is exquisite--she is pure and good. But I do not like the saints +and martyrs in the throes of their agony, they say nothing to me, I have +no sympathy for them. I adore the Madonna and the Child; they touch +me--here," and she laid her hand upon her heart. "The Sassoferarto +Virgin in the Reale Palazzo is like Miss Lutworth, she is full of +kindness and youth. The early masters' works, which are badly drawn and +beautifully colored, I have to take apart--and it is unsatisfying. +Because, while I am trying not to see the wrong shape, I have only half +my faculties to appreciate the exquisite colors, and so a third +influence has to come in--the meaning of the artist who painted them and +perhaps put into them his soul. But that is altruistic--I could as well +admire something of very bad art for the same reason. For me a picture +should satisfy each of these points of view to be perfect and lift me +into heights. That is why perhaps I shall prefer sculpture on the whole, +when I shall have seen it, to painting." + +And Mr. Carlyon felt that, learned in art and old as he was, Halcyone +might give him a new point of view. + +Next day they left for Pisa. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + + +When Arabella Clinker and her mother were settled together at Wendover, +a strange peace seemed to fall upon the place. John Derringham was +conscious of it upstairs as he lay in his Louis XV bed. By the time he +was allowed to be carried to a sofa in the sitting-room which had been +arranged for him, July had well set in. + +He had parted from his Cecilia with suitable things said upon either +side. Even in his misery and abasement, John Derringham was too assured +a spirit and too much a man of the world to have any hesitation or +awkwardness. Mrs. Cricklander had been all that was sympathetic. She +looked superbly full of vigor and the joy of life as she came to say +farewell. + +"John, darling," she purred, "you will do everything you are told to by +the doctors while I am away, won't you?" and she caressed his forehead +with her soft hand. "So that I may not have to worry as dreadfully as I +have been doing, when I come back. It has made me quite ill--that is why +I must go to Carlsbad. You will be good now; so that I may find you as +strong and handsome as ever on my return." Then she bent and kissed him. + +He promised faithfully, and she never saw the whimsical gleam in his +eyes, because for the moment having gained her end her faculties had +resumed their normal condition, which was not one of superlative +sensitiveness. Like everything else in her utilitarian equipment, fine +perceptions were only assumed when the magnitude of the goal in view +demanded their presence. And even then they merely went as far as +sentinels to warn or encourage her in the progress of her aims, never +wasting themselves upon irrelevant objects. + +When her scented presence had left the room, John Derringham clasped his +hands behind his head, and, before he was aware of it, his lips had +murmured "Thank God!" + +And then Nemesis fell upon him--his schoolboy sensation of +recreation-time at hand left him, and a blank sense of failure and +hopeless bondage took its place. + +Surely he had bartered his soul for a very inadequate mess of pottage. + +And where would he sink to under this scorpion whip? Where would go all +his fine aspirations which, even in spite of all the juggling of +political life, still lived in his aims. Halcyone would have understood. + +"Oh! my love!" he cried. "My tender love!" + +Then that part of him which was strong reasserted itself. He would not +give way to this repining, the thing was done and he must make the best +of it. He asked for some volumes from the library. He would read, and he +sent the faithful and adoring Brome to request Miss Clinker to send him +up the third and fourth volume of "The Decline and Fall of the Roman +Empire." He often turned to Gibbon when he was at war with things. The +perfect balance of the English soothed him--and he felt he would read of +Julian, for whom in his heart he felt a sympathy. + +Arabella brought the volumes herself, and placed them on his table, and +then went to settle some roses in a vase before she left the room. + +A thin slip of paper fell out of one of the books as he opened it, and +he read it absently while he turned the pages. + +On the top was a date in pencil, and in a methodical fashion there was +written in red ink: + +"Notes for the instruction of M. E.," and then underneath, "Subjects to +be talked of at dinner to-night--Was there cause for Julian's apostasy? +What appealed most to Julian in the old religions--etc., etc." + +For a second the words conveyed no meaning to his brain, and for +something to say, he said aloud to Arabella: "This is your writing, I +think, Miss Clinker. I see you have a taste for our friend Gibbon, too," +and then, observing the troubled confusion of Arabella's honest face, a +sudden flash came over him of memory. He recollected distinctly that +upon the Sunday before his accident, they had talked at lunch of Julian +the Apostate, and Mrs. Cricklander had turned the conversation, and then +had referred to the subject again at dinner with an astonishing array of +facts, surprising him by her erudition. + +He looked down at the slip again--yes, the date was right, and the +red-ink heading was evidently a stereotyped one; probably Arabella kept +a supply of these papers ready, being a methodical creature. And the +questions!--were they for her own education? But no--Arabella was a +cultivated person and would not require such things, and, on that +particular Sunday, had never opened the door of her lips at either meal. + +"She prompts Cecilia," in a flash he thought, with a wild sense of +bitter mirth. "No wonder she can reel off statistics as she does. +'Subjects to be talked of at dinner'--forsooth!" + +And Arabella stood there, her kind plain face crimson, and her brown +eyes blinking pitifully behind her glasses. + +She was too fine to say anything, it would make the situation impossibly +difficult if she invented an explanation. So she just blinked--and +finally, after placing the fresh flowers by Mr. Derringham's bed, she +left the room by the door beyond. + +When she had gone it was as if a curtain were raised upon John +Derringham's understanding. Countless circumstances came back to him +when his _fiancee's_ apparent learning had aroused his admiration, and +with a twinge he remembered Cheiron's maliciously amused eyes which had +met his during her visit to the orchard house, when she had become a +little at sea in some of her conversation. The whole thing then was a +colossal bluff--Arabella was the brain! Arabella was the erudite, +cultured person and his admirable Cecilia played the role of extremely +clever parrot! He laughed with bitter cynical merriment until he shook +in his bed. + +And he, poor fool, had been taken in by it all--he and a number of +others. He was in company at all events! Then he saw another aspect, and +almost admired the woman for her audacity. What nerve to play such a +game, and so successfully! The determination--the application it +required--and the force of character! + +But the gall of it when she should be his wife! He saw pictures of +himself trembling with apprehension at some important function in case +mistakes should occur. He would have to play the part of Arabella, and +write out the notes for the subjects to be "talked of at dinner!" + +He lay there, and groaned with rage and disgust. + +He could not--he would not go through with it! + +But next day the irony of fate fell upon him with heavy hand. He +received the news that Joseph Scroope, his maternal uncle, was dead, not +having produced an heir, so he knew that he would inherit a comfortable +fortune from him. + +The noose had, indeed, tightened round his neck,--he could not now +release himself from his engagement to Cecilia Cricklander. Some +instincts of a gentleman still remained with him in full measure. The +hideous, hideous mockery of it all. If he had waited, he would now have +been free to seek his darling, his pure star, Halcyone, in all honor. He +could have taken her dear, tender hand, and led her proudly to the seat +by his side--and crowned her with whatever laurels her sweet spirit +would have inspired him to gain. And it was all too late! too late! + +He reviewed the whole chain of events, and perceived how it had been his +own doing--what had happened in each step--and this knowledge added to +the bitterness of his pain. It was from now onward that his nights were +often agony. Every movement, every word of Halcyone came back to him, +from the old days of long ago when she had given him the oak leaf, to +the moment of her looking into his eyes, with all her soul in hers, as +she had answered his passionate question. "Afraid? How should I be +afraid--since you are my lord and I am your love? Do not we belong to +one another?" + +And in spite of the peace Mrs. Cricklander's absence caused in the +atmosphere, John Derringham grew more unutterably wretched as time went +on. + +His cup seemed to be filling from all sides. The Government was going +out in disaster, and, instead of being able to stand by his colleagues +and fight, and perhaps avert catastrophe by his brilliant speeches and +biting wit, he was chained like a log to a sofa and was completely +impotent. + +It was no wonder his convalescence was slow, and that Arabella grew +anxious about him. She felt that some of Mrs. Cricklander's wrath and +disgust because of this state of things would fall upon her head. + +His ankle was a great deal better now, it was five weeks since the +accident, and in a day or two he hoped to leave for London. Mrs. +Cricklander would be obliged to take an after-cure at the highly +situated castle of an Austrian Prince, an old friend of hers--where the +air was most bracing, she wrote. For her strict instructions to Arabella +before she left, after telling her she might have her mother to keep her +company, and so earning the good creature's deep gratitude, had been: + +"You must keep me informed of every slightest turn in Mr. +Derringham--because, until he is perfectly well and amusing again, I +simply can't come back to England. His tragic face bores me to death. +Really, men are too tiresome when there is the slightest thing the +matter with them." + +And Arabella had faithfully carried out her instructions. + +In common honesty she could not inform her employer that John Derringham +was perfectly well or amusing! + +Poor Miss Clinker's happy summer with her mother was being a good deal +dimmed by her unassuaged sympathy and commiseration. + +"Of course, he is grieving for that sweet and distinguished girl, Miss +Halcyone La Sarthe," she told herself--and with the old maid's hungering +for romance, which even the highest education cannot quite crush from +the female breast, she longed to know what had parted them. + +Mr. Carlyon had gone abroad, she had ascertained that, and La Sarthe +Chase was still closed. + +The night before John Derringham left for London, he hobbled down to +dinner on crutches. He was not to try and use his foot for some weeks +still, but the cut on his head was mended now. It was a glorious July +evening, the roses were not over on the terrace, and every aspect of +nature was gorgeously beautiful and peaceful. + +They did not delay long over their repast, and there was still twilight +when Mrs. and Miss Clinker left their invalid alone with his wine. A +letter was in his pocket, arrived by the evening post from Mrs. +Cricklander, which he had not yet opened. It would contain her +reflections upon his changed conditions of fortune, of which he had, +when he learned of its full magnitude, duly informed her. + +He was alternately raging with misery now, or perfectly numb and, as he +sat there a shattered wreck of his former _insouciant_ self, gaunt and +haggard and pitifully thin, some of his friends would hardly have +recognized him. + +He felt it was his duty to read the missive presently, but he told +himself the lights were too dim, and taking a cigar he hobbled out upon +the terrace. His return to public life would now be too late to help to +avert disaster, he must just stand aside in these last weeks of the +session and see the shipwreck. An unspeakable bitterness invaded his +spirit. The moon was rising when he got outside, one day beyond its +full. It seemed like a golden ball in the twilight of opal tints, before +it should rise in its silver majesty to supreme command of the night. +Nature was in one of her most sensuously divine moods. The summer and +fulfillment had come. + +John Derringham sat down in a comfortable chair and gazed in front of +him. + +There had been moonlight, too, when he had spent those exquisite hours +with his love, now six weeks ago--a young half moon. Could it be only +six weeks? A lifetime of anguish appeared to have rolled between. And +where was she? Then, for the first time, the crust of his +self-absorption seemed to crumble, and he thought with new stabs of pain +how she, too, must have suffered. He began to picture her waiting by the +gate--she would be brave and quiet. And then, as the day passed--what +had she done? He could not imagine, but she must have suffered +intolerably. When could she have heard of the accident, since the next +day she had been taken away? Why had she gone? That was unlike her, to +have given in to any force which could separate them. And if he had +known this step also was unconsciously caused by his own action in +having his letter to Cheiron posted from London, it would have tortured +him the more. Another thought came, and he started forward in his chair. +Was it possible that she had written to him, and that the letter had got +mislaid, among the prodigious quantity which accumulated in those first +days of his unconsciousness? + +Then he sank back again. Even if this were so, it was too late now. +Everything was too late--from that awful night when he had become +engaged to Cecilia Cricklander. + +She had put the announcement into the paper not quite three weeks after +the accident. What could Halcyone have thought of him and his +unspeakable baseness? Now she could have nothing but loathing and +contempt in her heart, wherever she was--and what right had he to have +broken the beliefs and shattered the happiness of that pure, young soul? + +He remembered his old master's words about a man's honor towards women. +It was true then that it was regulated, not by the woman's feelings or +anguish, but by the man's inclination and whether or no the world should +hold him responsible. And he realized that this latter reason was the +force which now prevented his breaking his engagement with Mrs. +Cricklander. He had behaved with supreme selfishness in the beginning, +and afterwards with a weakness which would always make him writhe when +he thought of it. + +His self-respect was receiving a crushing blow. He clasped his thin +hands and his head sank forward upon his breast in utter dejection; he +closed his eyes as if to shut out too painful pictures. And when he +opened them again it was darker, and the moon made misty shadows through +the trees, and out of them he seemed to see Halcyone's face quite close +to him. It was tender and pitiful and full of love. The hallucination +was so startlingly vivid that he almost fancied her lips moved, and she +whispered: "Courage, beloved." Then he knew that he was dreaming, and +that he was gazing into space--alone. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + + +Mrs. Cricklander, at Carlsbad, was not altogether pleased to receive the +news of her _fiance's_ accession to fortune. She realized that John +Derringham was not the sort of man to give up his will to any woman +unless the woman had entirely the whip hand, as she would have had if he +had been dependent upon her for the financial aid wherewith to obtain +his ambitions. She would have practically no hold over him now, and, +when he was well, he was so attractive that she might even grow to care +too deeply for him for her own welfare. To allow herself to become in +love with a husband who was answerable to her for his very food and +lodging, and whom she could punish and keep in bondage when she pleased, +was quite a different matter to experiencing that emotion towards an +imperious, independent creature going his own way, and even, perhaps, +compelling her to conform to his. + +"How stupid of the old man, Mr. Scroope, to have married so late!" she +said to herself, as usual finding everyone wrong who in any way +interfered with her wishes. + +John Derringham's letters--only two a week she received from him--were +his usual masterpieces of style, and in them he employed his skill to +say everything--and nothing. + +She felt pleased as she read, and then resentful when she thought over +them. He had never once used a word of personal endearment, although the +letters were beautifully expressed. He seemed most happy and comfortable +with Arabella. After all, perhaps she would not go and stay with Prince +Brunemetz at Brudenstein. She might make John come out and join her and +go on to St. Moritz--that would do him good. She could wire for +Arabella. The _convenances_ were so dear to her. The wedding should take +place in October, she decided. + +And two days after John Derringham had arrived in London at his old +rooms in Duke Street, she wrote and suggested this plan to him--and then +the first preliminary crossing of swords between them happened. He +answered that he would come and join her later, but until the session +was over he could not leave town, and he begged her to go and stay with +Prince Brunemetz, or do anything else which would amuse her. He was +still upon crutches, he said, and not fitted to be a cavalier to any +lady. + +She shut her mouth with a snap, and, sitting down, wrote a long letter +to Mr. Hanbury-Green, with whom she kept up a brisk correspondence. Very +well, then! she would go to Brudenstein; she would not martyrize herself +by being with a man on crutches! So half of her August passed in a most +agreeable manner, and towards the end of the month she summoned her +_fiance_ to Florence. He could walk with a stick now--and to meet her +there and go on to Venice and out to the Lido would be quite delightful, +and could not hurt him. She deserved some attention after this long +time! + +The end of the session had come, and still the Government hung on, but +it was obvious that they had been so much discredited that the end could +not be long postponed, and that, as soon as Parliament met again, a +hostile vote would be carried against them. But for the time there was +nothing to keep John Derringham in England, and with intense reluctance +he started for Italy, the ever-nearing date for his wedding looming in +front of him like some heavy cloud. He had plunged headlong into work +when he had returned from Wendover, for which he was still quite unfit. +His whole system had received a terrible shock, and it would be months +before he could hope to be his old robust self again; and an unutterable +depression was upon him. The total silence of Halcyone, her +disappearance from the face of the earth as far as he was concerned, +seemed like something incredible. + +There were no traces of her. Mrs. Porrit was out, and the orchard house +shut up, so, he obtained no information. He had stopped there to enquire +on his way to the station when he had left Wendover. La Sarthe Chase was +entirely closed, except for a woman and her husband from the village who +slept there. But what right had he to be interested now, in any case? He +had better shut the whole matter out of his mind, and keep his thoughts +upon his coming marriage with Cecilia Cricklander. + +And it was this frame of mind which caused him to plunge recklessly into +work as soon as he reached London, though he found that nothing really +assuaged his misery. + +It was a glorious day towards the end of August when he got onto the +boat at Dover, and there ran across Miss Cora Lutworth, bent upon +_trousseau_ business in Paris. She was with her friend, the lady who +chaperoned her, and greeted him with her usual breezy charm. + +They sat down together in a comfortable corner on deck, while the lady +went to have a sleep. They talked of many things and mutual friends. He +was doing what was a comparatively rare thing in those days, taking over +a motor to tour down to Venice in, and Cora was duly interested. Freynie +adored motoring, too, she said, and that was how they intended to spend +their honeymoon. She was going to be married in a few weeks, and was +radiantly happy. + +This was the first time she had seen John Derringham since his +engagement and his accident, and the great change in him gave her an +unpleasant shock. There were quite a number of silver threads in his +dark hair above the temples, and he looked haggard and gaunt and +lifeless. Cora's kind heart was touched. + +"I am sure he does not care a rush for Cis," she thought to herself, +"and I am sure he did for that sweet Halcyone. He and Cis are not +married yet; there can be no harm in my mentioning her." So aloud she +said: + +"You remember our meeting that charming Miss Halcyone La Sarthe across +the haw-haw on Easter Sunday? Well, fancy, I came across her in London +at the end of June--in Kensington Gardens, sitting with the long-haired +old Professor. I was surprised; somehow one could not picture her out of +her own park." She watched John Derringham's face carefully, and saw +that this information moved him. + +"Did you?" he said, with an intense tone in his deep voice. "What was +she doing there, I wonder?" + +"She looked too sweet," Cora went on. "She was wearing becoming modern +clothes, and seemed to me to have grown so pretty. But she was very pale +and quiet. She came to tea with me the next day--I cannot say how she +fascinates me. I just love her--and then, on the Saturday she was to go +abroad with the Professor." + +"Really?" said John Derringham, while he could feel his heart begin to +beat very fast. "Where were they going, do you know? I would like to run +across, my old master." + +"I think to Brittany for July, and then Switzerland; but they intended +to get into Italy as soon as it was cool enough. They seemed to be going +to have a lovely trip and take a long time about it." + +"I had no idea Miss La Sarthe had any relations in London," he said. +"Who was she staying with there? Did she tell you?" + +"Her stepfather, I think," Cora said. "Her mother married twice, it +appears, and then died, and the man married again. This second wife, her +sort of stepmother, came and fetched her from La Sarthe Chase quite +suddenly one day." + +"I cannot think of her in London," said John Derringham. "Did she like +it, do you think? And was she changed?" + +"Yes, very changed," Cora answered, and made her voice casual. "She +looked as if the joy of life had fled forever, and as if she were just +getting through the time. Perhaps she hated being with her +step-family--people often do." + +Then she glanced at him stealthily as he stared out at the sea, while +she thought: "I am sure some awful tragedy is here underneath; it is not +only his broken ankle and his illness that has made him such a wreck. I +wish I could help them. I would not care a snap for Cis, who is a +rattlesnake if she wants something." + +"When was it, exactly, you saw her?" John Derringham asked. "But perhaps +you don't remember the date?" + +"Yes, I do," Cora responded quickly. "It was the day your engagement was +announced in the papers, because we spoke about it." + +"Did you?" he said, and drew in his breath a little. "And what did you +say?" + +"Just the usual things--how fortunate you were. And Halcyone said you +were clever and great." + +John Derringham did not answer for a moment. This stunned him. Then he +replied, very low, "That was good of her," and Cora noticed that even +with the fresh wind blowing in his face he had grown very pale. + +"Cis writes you are going to be married at the beginning of October," +she said, to change the conversation. "I do hope you will be awfully +happy. It is so exquisite to be in love, isn't it? I adore being +engaged!" + +But John Derringham could not bear this--the two things were so widely +severed in his case. He did not answer, and Cora saw, although his face +remained unmoved, that pain grew deep in his eyes. + +"Mr. Derringham," she said, "I am going to say something indiscreet and +perhaps in frightful taste--but I am so happy I can't bear to think that +possibly others are not quite. I know Cis awfully well--her character, I +mean. Is there anything I can do for you?" + +John Derringham turned with a chillingly haughty glance intended to +wither, but when he saw her sweet face full of frank sympathy and +kindness, it touched him and his manner changed. + +"We have each of us to fulfill our fates," he said. "I suppose we each +deserve what we receive, and I am so glad yours seems to be such a very +happy one." + +Then he made some excuse to get up and leave her--he could bear no more. + +And Cora, left alone, smiled sadly to herself while she reflected what a +foolish thing pride was, and all the other shams which robbed life of +the only thing really worth having. + +"Well, I should not let any of that nonsense ever stand between Freynie +and me, thank goodness!" she concluded. + +But John Derringham limped off to the bows of the ship, quivering with +pain. So Halcyone had spoken of his engagement and said he was "clever +and great." What could it all mean? Did he no longer interest her +then--even at that period? This stung him deeply. There was no light +anywhere. When once he had grasped the full significance of his own +conduct he was much too fine an intelligence to deceive himself, or +persuade himself to see any other aspect but the hopeless one, that the +entire chain of events was the result of his own action. But surely +there must be some way out? If he wrote straight to Cecilia and told her +the truth? And then he almost laughed bitterly as he realized the +futility of this plan. What would the truth matter to Mrs. Cricklander? +She could very well retort that he had known all this truth from the +beginning, and had been willing to marry her while his financial +position made it an advantage to himself, but was now _recalcitrant_ +only because fortune had otherwise poured gold into his lap. + +No, there was no hope. He must go through with it. + +So he crushed down his emotions and forced himself to return to Miss +Lutworth and talk brightly to her until they landed. + +And when they parted at the Gare du Nord, Cora was left with the +impression that, whatever might be the undercurrent, John Derringham was +strong enough to face his fate, and not give anyone the satisfaction of +knowing whether in it he found pleasure or pain. + +When he arrived about ten days later at the hotel in Florence, where +Mrs. Cricklander was staying, waiting for him to accompany her on to +Venice, he found her in a very bad temper. She felt that she had not +been treated with that deference and respect which was her due, to say +nothing of the ardor that a lover ought to have shown by hastening to +her side. Why had he motored, spending ten days on a journey that he +could have accomplished in two? And he made no excuses, and seemed quite +unimpressed by her mood one way or another. He was so changed, too! +Gaunt and haggard--he had certainly lost every one of his good looks, +except his distinction--that seemed more marked than ever. His arrogant +air that she had once admired so much now only caused her to feel a +great irritation. He had made the excuse of the waiter not having quite +closed the door, apparently, for only kissing her hand by way of +greeting, and then he said just the right thing about her beauty and his +pleasure in seeing her, and sat down by her side upon the sofa in far +too collected a manner for a lover to have shown after these weeks of +separation. Mrs. Cricklander grew very angry indeed. Cold and capricious +behavior should only be shown upon a woman's side, she felt! + +"Your Government made a colossal mess of things before the session was +over, did they not?" she said by way of something to start upon. "Mr. +Hanbury-Green tells me you will have to face a hostile vote when you +reassemble, and that the whole thing is a played-out game. How long +would the Radicals last if they do come in?--and it looks like a +certainty that they will." + +"Seven years, most likely," said John Derringham a little bitterly. "Or +perhaps to the end of time. Your friend Mr. Green could tell you more +accurately than I. Does the fact interest you very deeply?" + +"Yes," she said, and narrowed her eyes. "I am wildly interested in +everything that concerns you, of course--that is obvious." + +"You will help me to fight, then, for the Opposition. Your social +talents are so great, dear Cecilia, you will make a most brilliant Tory +hostess," and he took her hand--he felt he must do something. + +"I have always been on the winning side," she said, not more than half +playfully. "I do not know how I should like seven years of fighting an +uncertain fight. I might get extremely bored by it. I had no idea it +would last so long." And she laughed a little uncomfortably. "However, +we are perfectly modern, aren't we, John, and need not spend the entire +year fighting together--fortunately?" + +"No," he said. "I am sure we shall be an admirable pair of citizens of +the world. And now I suppose I must let you go and dress for dinner. How +is our estimable friend, Miss Clinker? She is with you, I suppose?--or +have you friends staying in the hotel? You did not tell me in your +letters." + +"I never waste sweetness upon the desert air," she said, smiling, with a +glitter in her eyes. "You did not appear over anxious to hear of my +doings. Our correspondence made me laugh sometimes. You never wrote as +though you had received any of my letters--yours were just masterpieces +of how little to say--and of how to say it beautifully!" + +John Derringham shrugged his shoulders slightly; he did not defend +himself, and her anger rose. So that she was leaving the room with her +head in the air and two bright spots of pink in her cheeks. + +Then he felt constrained to vindicate his position, so he put his arm +round her and drew her to him, intending to kiss her. But she looked up +into his face with an expression in her eyes which left him completely +repulsed. It was mocking and bitter and cunning, and she put out her +hand and pushed him from her. + +"I do not want any of your caresses to-night," she said. "When I do, +I'll pay for them." And she swept from the room, leaving him quivering +with debasement. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + + +There was fortunately a company assembled for dinner when John +Derringham descended to the restaurant and again joined his +_fiancee_--who never dined alone if she could help it, and reveled in +gay parties for every meal, with plenty of brilliant lights and the +chatter of other groups near at hand. Wherever she went, from Carlsbad +to Cairo, in the best restaurant you could always find her amidst her +many friends, feasting every night. And now the party consisted of some +of her compatriots, a Russian Prince, and an Italian Marchese. She +looked superbly beautiful; anger had lent a sparkle to her eyes and a +flush to her cheeks; no rouge was needed to-night, and she could +scintillate to her heart's content. She flashed words occasionally at +John Derringham, and he knew, and was horribly conscious all the time, +that once he would have found her most brilliant, but that now it was +exactly as when he had looked at the X-ray photograph of his own broken +ankle, where the sole thing which made a reality was the skeleton +substructure. He could only seem to see Cecilia Cricklander's vulgar +soul---the pink and white perfection of her body had melted into +nothingness. + +He found himself listening for some of her parrot-utterances, as a +detached spectator, and taking a sort of ugly pleasure in recognizing +which were the phrases of Arabella. The man upon her left hand was +intelligent, and was gazing at her with the rapt attention beauty always +commands, and she was uttering her finest platitudes. + +And once John Derringham leant back in his chair, when no one was +observing him, and laughed aloud. The supreme mockery of it all! And in +five weeks from this night this woman would be his wife! + +_His wife!_ Ye gods! + +They had no _tete-a-tete_ words before the party broke up, and had +hardly exchanged a sentence when, as the last guest was saying farewell, +Arabella, too, retired from the sitting-room. + +So they were alone. + +"Cecilia," he said, coming up quite close to her, "we started rather +badly to-night--at least let us be friends." And he held out his hand. +"Believe me, I wish to do all that I can to please you, but I am afraid +I make a very indifferent sort of lover. Forgive me," + +"Oh, you are well enough, I suppose," she said. "No man values what he +has won--it is only the winning of it that is any fun. I understand the +feeling myself. Don't let us talk heroics." + +John Derringham smiled. + +"Certainly not," he said. + +And then she put up her face and let him kiss her, which he did with +some sickening revolt in his heart. Even her physical beauty had no more +any effect upon him--he would as soon have kissed Arabella. + +So she sailed from the room again, with her mouth shut like a vice, and +her handsome eyes glancing at him over her shoulder. + +Next day, after having kept him waiting for an hour to take her out, she +decided they should spend what remained of the morning at the Bargello. +And, when they got there, she did her best to be a charming companion, +and pressed him to lean upon her instead of his stick. But to his +awakened understanding what was even probably true in her talk and +comprehension of the gems of art, seemed false and affected, and he was +only conscious of one continual jar as she spoke. + +A thousand little trifles, never remarked before, now appeared to loom +large in his vision. At last they came to the galleries above, to the +collection of the Della Robbias, and Mrs. Cricklander rhapsodized over +them, mixing them up with delightful unconcern. They were all just bits +of cheap-looking crockery to her eye, and it was impossibly difficult to +distinguish which was Luca's, Andrea's, or Giovanni's; and, security +having made her careless, she committed several blunders. + +John Derringham laid no pitfalls for her--indeed, he helped her out when +he could. To-day each new discovery no longer made him smile with bitter +cynicism, he was only filled with a sense of discomfort and regret. + +He stopped in front of Andrea's masterpiece, the tender young Madonna. +Something in the expression of the face made him think of Halcyone, +although the types of the two were entirely different; and Cecilia +Cricklander, watching, saw a look of deep pain grow in his eyes. + +"I wish to goodness he would get well and be human and masterful and +brilliant, as he used to be," she thought. "I am thoroughly tired out, +trying to cope with him. He is no more use now than a bump on a log. I +am sorry I made him come here!" + +"It is about time for lunch," said John Derringham, who could no longer +bear her prattle; and they returned to the hotel. + +Arabella and an American man made the _partie carree_, and Miss Clinker +did her best to help to get through the repast, and afterwards wrote in +a letter to her mother: + + Mr. Derringham has arrived. He still looks dreadfully ill and + careworn, and I can see is feeling his position acutely. Since that + dreadful day when he found my notes in Gibbon, I have never dared to + look at him when in the company of M. E. I feel that distressing + sensation of hot and cold during the whole time. M. E., now that no + further great efforts are needed, chatters on with most disquieting + inconsequence. I can see she is very much upset at Mr. Derringham's + attitude. The impression that the Conservative Goverment cannot last + has had also a great effect upon her, and she has set me to find out + exactly the position and amount of prestige the wife of a rising + member of the Opposition would have. This morning she sent for me, + when she was dressing, to know if it were true, as Mr. Derringham had + told her, that, if the Radicals got in, they might last seven + years--because, if so, she would then be almost thirty-eight, and the + best days of her youth would be over. I do not dare to think what + these remarks may mean, but in connection with the fact that she + receives daily letters from Mr. Hanbury-Green--that unpleasant + Socialistic person who is coming so much to the front--I almost fear, + and yet hope, that there is some chance for Mr. Derringham's escape. + He is bearing his trouble as only an English gentleman could do, and + at lunch paid her every attention. + +And old Mrs. Clinker smiled when she got this letter. + +But by the end of the afternoon John Derringham's face wore no smiles; a +blank despair had settled upon him. + +They drove along the Arno and into the Gardens. + +It was warm and beautiful, but, so forceful is a hostile atmosphere +created between two people, they both found it impossible to make +conversation. + +Mrs. Cricklander was burning with rage and a sense of impotency. She +felt her words and all her arts of pleasing were being nullified, and +that she was up against an odious situation in which her strongest +weapons were powerless. It made her nervous and very cross. She +particularly resented not being able to ascertain the cause of the +change in him, and felt personally aggrieved at his still being a +wretched wreck hobbling with a stick. He ought to have got quite well by +now--it was perfectly ridiculous. What if, after all, he would not be +worth while? But the indomitable part of her character made her +tenacious. She felt it was a different matter, throwing away what she +had won, to having to relinquish something that she knew she had never +really gained. She would make one more determined effort, and then, if +he would not give her love, he should be made to feel his bondage, she +would extort from him to the last ounce, her pound of flesh. + +"John, darling," she said, slipping her hand into his, under the rug as +they drove, "this beautiful place makes me feel so romantic. I wish you +would make love to me. You sit there looking like Dante with a beard, as +cold as ice." + +"I am very sorry," he answered, startled from a reverie. "I know I am a +failure in such sort of ways. What do you want me to say?" + +This was not promising, and her annoyance increased. + +"I want you to tell me you love me--over and over again," she whispered, +controlling her voice. + +"Women always ask these questions," he said to gain time. "They never +take anything for granted as men do." + +"No!" she flashed. "Not when a man's actions point to the possibility of +several other interpretations of his sentiments--then they want words to +console them. But you give me neither." + +"I am not a demonstrative person," he responded. "I will do all I can to +make you happy, but do not ask me for impossibilities. You will have to +put up with me as I am." + +"I shall decide that!" And she snatched away her hand angrily, and then +controlled herself--the moment had not yet come. He should not have +freedom, which now she felt he craved; he should remain tied until he +had at all events paid the last price of humiliation. So for the rest of +that day and those that followed she behaved with maddening +capriciousness, keeping him waiting for every meal and every +appointment--changing her mind as to what she would do--lavishing +caresses upon him which made him wince, and then treating him with +mocking coldness; but all with such extreme cleverness that she never +once gave him the chance to bring things to an open rupture. She was +beginning really to enjoy herself in this new game--it required even +more skill to torture and hold than to attract and keep at arm's length. +But at last John Derringham could bear no more. + +They had continuous lunches and dinners with the gay party of Americans +who had been of the company on the first evening, and there was never a +moment's peace. A life in public was as the breath of Cecilia +Cricklander's nostrils, and she did not consider the wishes of her +betrothed. In fact, but for spoken sympathy over his shattered condition +and inability to walk much, she did not consider him at all, and exacted +his attendance on all occasions, whether too fatiguing for him or not. + +The very last shred of glamour about her had long fallen from John +Derringham's eyes, and indeed things seemed to him more bald than they +really were. His proud spirit chafed from morning to night--chafed +hopelessly against the knowledge that his own action had bound him as no +ordinary bond of an engagement could. His whole personality appeared to +be changing; he was taciturn or cynically caustic, casting jibes at all +manner of things he had once held sacred. But after a week of abject +misery, he refused to bear any more, and when Mrs. Cricklander grew +tired of Florence, and decided to move on to Venice, he announced his +intention of taking a few days' tour by himself. He wished to see the +country round, he said, and especially make an excursion to San +Gimignano--that gem of all Italy for its atmosphere of the past. + +"Oh! I am thoroughly tired of these moldy places," Mrs. Cricklander +announced. "The Maulevriers are in Venice, and we can have a delightful +time at the Lido; the new hotel is quite good--you had much better come +on with me now. Moping alone cannot benefit anyone. You really ought to +cheer up and get quite well, John." + +But he was firm, and after some bickerings she was obliged to decide to +go to Venice alone with Arabella, and let her _fiance_ depart in his +motor early the next morning. + +Their parting was characteristic. + +"Good night, Cecilia," John Derringham said. No matter how capricious +she could be, he always treated her with ceremonious politeness. "I am +leaving so very early to-morrow, we had better say good-by now. I hope +my going does not really inconvenience you at all. I want a little rest +from your friends, and, when I join you at Venice again, I hope you will +let me see more of yourself." + +She put up her face, and kissed him with all the girlish rippling smiles +she had used for his seduction in the beginning. + +"Why, certainly," she said. "We will be regular old Darbys-and-Joans; so +don't you forget while you are away that you belong to me, and I am not +going to give you up to anything or anybody--so long as I want you +myself!" + +And John Derringham had gone to his room feeling more chained than ever, +and more bitterly resentful against fate. + +As soon as he left her, she sat down at her writing-table and wrote out +a telegram to be sent off the first thing the next day. It contained +only three words, and was not signed. + +But the recipient of it, Mr. Hanbury-Green, read it with wild emotion +when he received it in his rooms in London--and immediately made +arrangements to set off to Florence at once. + +"I'll beat him yet!" he said to himself, and he romantically kissed the +pink paper. For, "You may come" was what he had read. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + + +An hour or so before sunset the next day John Derringham in his motor +was climbing the steep roads which lead to San Gimignano, the city of +beautiful towers, which still stands, a record of things mediaeval, +untouched by the modernizing hand of men. + +A helpless sense of bitterness mastered him, and destroyed the +loveliness and peace of the view. Everything fine and great in his +thoughts and aims seemed tarnished. To what stage of degradation would +his utter disillusion finally bring him! Of course, when Cecilia +Cricklander should once be his wife, he would not permit her to lead +this life of continuous racket--or, if she insisted upon it, she should +indulge in it only when she went abroad alone. He would not endure it in +his home. And what sort of home would it be? He was even doubtful about +that now. Since she had so often carelessly thrown off her mask, he no +longer felt sure that she would even come up to the mark of what had +hitherto seemed her chief charm, her power of being a clever and +accomplished hostess. He could picture the scenes which would take place +between them when their wishes clashed! The contemplation of the future +was perfectly ghastly. He remembered, with a cynical laugh, how in the +beginning, before that fateful Good Friday when the Professor first +planted ruffling thoughts in his mind, and before the spell of Halcyone +had fallen upon him, he had thought that one of the compensations for +having to take a rich wife he had found in Cecilia. She would be his +intellectual companion during the rather rare moments he would be able +to spare for her from his work. He would be able to live with a woman +cultured in all branches which interested him, capable of discussing +with him any book or any thought, polished in brain and in methods. He +had imagined them, when alone together, spending their time in a +delightful and intellectual communion of ideas, which would make the tie +of marriage seem as almost a pleasure. And what was the reality?--An +absolute emptiness, and the knowledge that, unless Arabella Clinker +continued her ministrations, he himself would have to play her part! He +actually regretted his accession to fortune. But for it he could have +broken off the engagement with decency, but now his hands were tied. +Only Cecilia could release him, and she did not seem to have the +slightest intention of doing so. + +He savagely clenched his white teeth when he remembered the ridiculous +waiting lackey he had been made to turn into in the last week. Then he +looked up and tried to take interest in the quaint gateway through which +he was passing and on up to the unique town and the square where is the +ancient Podesta's palace, now the hotel. But he was in a mood of rasping +cynicism--even the exquisite evening sunlight seemed to mock at him. + +His highly trained eye took in the wonderful old-world beauty around him +with some sense of unconscious satisfaction, but the saintly calm of the +place made no impression upon him. Santa Fina and her flowers could not +soften or bring peace to his galled soul. The knowledge that the whole +situation was the result of his own doings kept his bitterness always at +white heat. The expression of his thin, haggard face was sardonic, and +the groups of simple children, accustomed to ask any stranger for stamps +for their collections--a queer habit of the place--turned away from him +when once they had looked into his eyes. + +He left his motor at the hotel and wandered into the square where the +remains of the palazzos of the two great Guelph and Ghibelline families, +the Ardinghelli and the Salvucci, frown at one another not fifty yards +apart--shorn of their splendors, but the Salvucci still with two towers +from which to hurl destruction at their enemies. + +John Derringham looked up at the balcony whence Dante had spoken, and +round to the Cathedral and the picturesque square. The few people who +passed seemed not in tune with his thoughts, so calm and saintly was the +type of their faces--all in keeping with a place where a house of the +sixteenth century is considered so aggressively modern as not to be of +any interest. It was too late for him now to go into the Cathedral; +nothing but the fortress battlements were possible, and he hobbled +there, desiring to see the sunset from its superb elevation. + +The gate-keeper, homely and simple, opened to him courteously, and he +went in to the first little courtyard, with its fig tree in the middle +and old grass-grown well surrounded by olives and lilac bushes; and then +he climbed the open stairs to the bastion, from whose battlements there +is to be obtained the most perfect view imaginable of the country, the +like of which Benozzo Gozzoli loved to paint. + +It has not changed in the least since those days, except that the tiles +of the roofs, which are now dark gray with age, were then red and +brilliant. But the cypress trees still surround the monasteries, and the +high hills are still crowned with castellos, while the fields make a +patchwork of different crops of olives and vines and grain. + +John Derringham mounted the stairs with his head down, musing bitterly, +so that, until he reached the top, he was not aware that a slender +girl's figure was seated upon the old stone bench which runs round the +wall. Her hat lay upon the seat beside her, while she gazed out over the +beautiful world. He paused with a wildly beating heart in which joy and +agony fought for mastery, but, as she turned to see who this stranger +could be, thus breaking in upon her solitude, his voice, hoarse with +emotion, said aloud her name: + +"Halcyone!" + +She started to her feet, and then sank back upon the bench again +unsteadily, and he came forward to her side. They both realized that +they were alone here in the sunset--alone upon this summit of the world. + +He sat down beside her and then he buried his face in his hands, letting +his cap fall; and all the pent-up misery and anguish of the past weeks +seemed to vibrate in his voice as he murmured: + +"Ah, God!--my love!" + +Her soft eyes melted upon him in deepest tenderness and sorrow. To see +him so pale and shattered, so changed from the splendid lover she had +known! + +But he was there--beside her--and what mattered anything else? She +longed to comfort him and tend him with fond care. Had he been the +veriest outcast he would ever have found boundless welcome and solace +waiting for him in her loving heart. + +"John!" she whispered, and put out gentle fingers and caressed his hair. + +He shivered and let his hands fall from his haggard face. + +"Darling," he said, "I am not worthy to touch the hem of your garment. +Why do you not turn from such a weakling and brute?" + +"Hush! Hush," she exclaimed, aghast. "You must not speak so of yourself. +I love you always, as you know, and I cannot hear him whom I love +abused." + +And now he looked into her eyes while he took her slender hand, and +there he saw the same wells of purity and devotion brimming with divine +faith and tenderness that he had last seen glistening with happy love. + +He folded her to his heart; the passionate emotion each was feeling was +too deep, too sacred for words; and then their eyes streamed with +scorching tears. + +They sat thus close for some seconds. The thirst and hunger of all these +days of rack and anguish must be assuaged before either could talk. But +at last she drew a little back and looked up into his face. + +"John," she said softly, "I read in an English paper a week ago that +your wedding was fixed for the seventh of October--my birthday. Is it +the truth?" + +He clasped his hands in agony. + +"It can never now be so," he said. "I cannot, I will not go through with +it. Oh, Halcyone, my darling one, you would pity me, although you would +despise me, if you knew--" + +"I could never despise you," she answered, nestling once more in his +arms. "John, for me nothing you could do would make any difference--you +would still be my love; and if you were weak I would make you strong, +and if cold and hungry, I would feed and comfort you, and if wicked, I +would only see you good." + +"Oh, my dear, my dear," he said, "you were always as an angel of +sweetness. Listen to the whole degrading story, and tell me then of that +which I must do." + +She took one of his hands and held it in both of hers; and it was as if +some stream of comfort flowed to him through their soft warm touch and +enabled him to begin his ugly task. + +He told her the whole thing from the beginning. Of his ambitions, and +how they held chief place in his life, and how he had meant to marry +Cecilia Cricklander as an aid to their advancement. He glossed over +nothing of his own baseness, but went on to show how, from the moment he +had seen her upon that Good Friday at the orchard house, his +determination about Cecilia Cricklander had begun to waver, until the +night under the tree when passion overcame every barrier and he knew he +must possess her--Halcyone--for his wife. + +He made no excuse for himself; he continued the plain tale of how, his +ambitions still holding him, he had selfishly tried to keep both joy and +them, by asking her--she who was so infinitely above him--to descend to +the invidious position of a secret wife. + +She knew the rest until it came to the cause of his accident, and, when +she heard it occurred because of his haste to get to her before she +should reach the house, she gave a little moan of anguish and leaned her +head against his breast. + +So the story went on--of his agonized thoughts and fever and fears--of +his comprehension that she had been taken from him, and of the utter +hopelessness of his financial position, and the whole outlook, until he +came to the night of his engagement; and here he paused. + +"Do not try to tell me any of this part, John, my dear lover," she said. +"I know the standard of honor in a man is that he must never give away +the absent woman, and I understand--you need not put anything into +words. I knew you were unhappy and coerced. I never for a moment have +doubted your love. You were surrounded with strong and cruel forces, and +all my tenderness could not reach you quite, to protect you as it should +have done, because I was so full of foolish anguish myself. Dearest, now +only tell me the end and the facts that I must know." + +He held her close to him in thankfulness, and then went on to speak of +the shame and degradation he had suffered for his weakness; the +drawn-out days of aching wonder at her silence, and finally the news of +his Uncle Joseph Scroope's death and the fortune that would come to him, +and how this fact had tied and bound his hands. + +"But it has grown to such a pass," he said, "that I had come to +breaking-point, and now I can never go back to her again. I have found +you, my one dear love, and I will never leave you more." + +Halcyone shook her head sadly, and asked him to listen to her side. And +when he knew that her leaving La Sarthe Chase had been brought about +because of his letter to Cheiron having been posted from London, so that +she hoped to find him there, it added to his pain to feel that, even in +this small turn of events, his action had been the motive force. + +But, as she went on, her pure and exquisite love and perfect faith +shining through it all seemed to draw his soul out of the mire in which +it had lain. And at last they knew each other's stories and were face to +face with the fateful moment of to-day, and he exclaimed gladly: + +"My darling, now nothing else matters--we will never, never part again." + +Then, as he looked into her eyes, he saw that not gladness but a solemn +depth of shadow grew there, and he clasped both her hands. A cold agony +chilled his whole being. What, O God, was she going to say? + +"John," she whispered, all the tenderness of the angels in her gentle +voice as she leaned and kissed the silver threads in his dark hair. +"John, do you remember, long ago when we spoke of Jason and Medea, and +you asked me the question then, Must he keep his word to her even if she +were a witch?--and I told you that was not the point at all: it was not +because she was or was not a witch, but because it was _his +word?_"--Here her voice broke, and he could hear the tears in it, and he +wildly kissed her hands. Then she went on: + +"Oh, my dear lover, it is the same question now. _You cannot break your +word._ Nothing but misfortune could follow. It is a hard law, but I know +it is true, and it is fate. We put in action the force which brings all +that we receive, and we who have courage pay the price without +flinching, and, above and beyond all momentary pleasure or pain, we must +be true to ourselves." + +"I cannot, I cannot!" he groaned in agony. "How can you condemn me to +such a fate?--tied to this woman whose every influence is degrading to +me; parted from you whom I adore--I would rather be dead. It is not +fair--not just, if you only knew!" + +Then he continued wildly. "Ah, God--and it is all because I forgot the +meaning of your dear and sacred, pledge with me that I must always be +good and true! If I could suffer alone--my darling, my soul!--then I +would go without a word back to hell, if you sent me. But you, +too--think, Halcyone! Can you bear your life? You who are so young, +separated for evermore from love and me. Oh! my own, my own--" + +Here he stopped his mad rush of words--her face was so white and +grave--and he let her draw herself from him, and put her hands upon his +shoulders, while her eyes, with tender stars of purity melting in their +depths, gazed into his. + +"John," she said, "do not try to weaken me. All Nature, who is my +friend, and the night-winds and their voices, and that dear God Who +never deserts me, tell me that for no present good must we lower +ourselves now. Nothing can ever hurt me. Go back and do that which being +a gentleman entails upon you to do--and leave the rest to God. This is +the winter of our souls, but it will not last forever. The spring is at +hand, if you will only trust, and believe with me that first we on our +side must be ready to pay the price." + +Then she bent forward and kissed him as an angel might have done, and, +without speaking more, rose and prepared to walk towards the stairway +which descended to the lower court. + +He followed her, and she turned before she began to descend the steps, +while she pointed to the beautiful country. + +"Look at the vines, all heavy with grapes," she said, "and the fields +shorn of their corn, and the olives shimmering in the sunset; and then, +dear lover, you will know that all things have their sequence, and our +time of joy will come. Ah! sweetheart, it is not farewell for ever; it +is only that we must wait for our spring." + +"Halcyone," he said, while his proud eyes again filled with tears, "you +have the absolute worship of my being. You have taught me, as ever, the +truth. Go, my darling, and I will do as you wish, and will try to make +myself more worthy of your noble soul. God keep you until we meet +again." + +She did not speak; she only looked at him with a divine look of love and +faith, and he watched her as she went down, it seemed, out of the very +heart of the setting sun and into the shadows beneath, and so +disappeared from his adoring eyes in a peaceful purple twilight. + +Then he returned to the old stone seat and leaning forward gazed out +over the exquisite scene. + +A great hush had fallen upon his torn heart. And thus he stayed +motionless until the night fell. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + + +Mrs. Cricklander awaited Mr. Hanbury-Green's coming quite impatiently. +She felt she wanted a little warmth and humanity after the chilling week +she had passed with her betrothed. What she meant to do with this latter +she had not yet made up her mind--the justice of an affair never +bothered her, and her complete unconsciousness of having committed any +wrong often averted her action's immediate consequence. That Mr. +Hanbury-Green should suffer, or that John Derringham should suffer, +mattered to her not one jot. She was really and truly under the +impression that only her personal comfort, pleasure and feelings were of +any importance in the world. Her brain always guarded these things, and, +when they were not in any jeopardy or fear of being inconvenienced, then +she was capable of numbers of kind and generous actions. And, if she had +ever been reproached about her colossal selfishness, she would have +looked up astonished, and replied: + +"Well, who is nearer to oneself than oneself?" + +Common sense like this is not to be controverted. + +It would only be when she was growing old that she would feel the +loneliness of knowing that, apart from the passion which she had +inspired because of her sex and her beauty, not a single human being had +ever loved her. For the present she was Venus Victrix, a glorious +creature, the desired of men--and that was enough. + +Mr. Hanbury-Green was a forceful person, unhampered by any of the +instincts of a gentleman, and therefore armed with a number of weapons +for winning his battles. He had determined to rise to the top upon the +wave of class hatred which he had been clever enough to create, and he +neither knew nor cared to what state of devastation he might bring the +country. He was a fitting mate in every way for Cecilia Cricklander, and +completely equipped to play with her at her own game. + +So, when they met in her sitting-room in the Florentine hotel, each +experienced a pleasurable emotion. + +His was tempered--or augmented--by a blunt and sufficiently brutal +passion, which only the ideal of circumspect outward conduct which +dominates the non-conformist lower middle classes, from which he had +sprung, kept him from demonstrating, by seizing his desired prize in his +arms. + +He was frankly in love, and meant to leave no stone unturned to oust +John Derringham from his position as _fiance_ of the lady--John +Derringham, whom he hated from the innermost core of his heart! + +Mrs. Cricklander fenced with him admirably. She did not need Arabella's +coachings in her dealings with him; he was quite uncultured, and +infinitely more appreciated what her old father had been used to call +her "horse sense" than he would have done her finest rhapsody upon +Nietzsche. Mrs. Cricklander had indeed with him that delightful sense of +rest and ceasing from toil that being herself gave. She felt she could +launch forth into as free a naturalness as if she had been selling +little pigs' feet in her grandfather's original shop. And all to a man +who was rising--rising in that great country of England, where some day +he might play a _role_ no less than Tallien's, and she could be "Notre +dame de Thermidor." + +Arabella had once told her of this lady's story, and she felt that the +time in Bordeaux when the beautiful Therese wore the red cap of Liberty +and hung upon the arm of one who had swum in the blood of the +aristocrats, must have been an experience worth having in life. Her +study of Madame Tallien went no further; it was the lurid revolutionary +part in her career that she liked. + +Mr. Hanbury-Green was very careful at first. He was quite aware that he +was only received with _empressement_ because he was successful; he knew +and appreciated the fact that Cecilia Cricklander only cared for members +of a winning side. He felt like that about people himself, and he +respected her for the way she fought to secure a footing among the hated +upper classes, and then trampled upon their necks. There were no shades +of her character which would have disgusted or dismayed him; even the +knowledge that her erudition was merely parrot-talk, would only have +appealed to his admiration as a further proof of her sagacity. + +They went on to Venice the day after he arrived, with Arabella to make a +chaperoning third, and for the first two days afterwards Cecilia kept +him at arm's length, but not waiting for his dinner! Some instinct told +her that in his home circle he would probably have been accustomed to +worthy, punctual women, and, while she enjoyed tantalizing him, she knew +that he had a nasty temper and could not be provoked too far. No bonds +of honor or chivalry would control his actions as they would those of +John Derringham. She was dealing with as lawless a being as herself, and +it was very refreshing. Mr. Hanbury-Green knew her one weak point--she +was intensely sensitive of the world's opinion, as are all people who +inwardly know they are shams. She would have hated to be the center of a +scandal, from the point of view that it would irreparably close doors to +her; and her resentment of barriers and barrier-makers was always +present. + +This he would remember as his strong card--the last to be played.--If +she continued being capricious until the moment of her _fiance's_ +expected return, he would use all his cunning--and it was no +inconsiderable quantity--and compromise her irrevocably, and so get her +to surrender upon his terms. For he had made up his mind, as he sped to +Florence, that Cecilia Cricklander should return to England as his wife. + +They had four days of the usual gay parties for every meal--there +happened to be a number of people passing through and staying at +Venice--and the early September weather was glorious and very hot. + +Mrs. Cricklander delighted in a gondola. There was something about it +which set off her stately beauty, she felt, and she reveled in the +admiration she provoked; and so did Mr. Hanbury-Green--he prized that +which the crowd applauded. But time was passing, and nothing the least +definite was settled yet, although he knew he had obtained a certain +mastery over her. + +On the Friday evening a telegram was received from John Derringham +saying he would return on the Saturday night, and Mr. Hanbury-Green felt +this was the moment to act. He had no intention of having any quarrel +with his rival, or of putting himself in the position of being called +upon to give an account of himself. The news of his dismissal must be +conveyed to John Derringham by the lady as that lady's free and +determined choice. + +So Mr. Green was very cautious all the Friday evening, and made himself +as irresistible as he could, using all his clever wits to flatter and +cajole Cecilia, and leaving not a trifle unconsidered which could +interfere with his plans. + +They were simple enough. + +He claimed to have discovered a quite new and quite charming spot on the +Lido, which he was most anxious to take Mrs. Cricklander to see +alone--he put a stress upon the word _alone_, and looked into her eyes. +They would go quite early and be back before tea, as John Derringham had +timed himself to arrive upon the mainland about seven o'clock, and would +be at the Daniellis, where they were all staying, for dinner. + +Mrs. Cricklander felt she must have one more delightful afternoon, and, +as this excursion might contain a spice of adventure, it thrilled her +blood. She had been exquisitely discreet--in public--forcing Arabella +always to talk to Mr. Hanbury-Green, and devoting herself to Lady +Maulevrier, or any other lady or old gentleman who happened to be +present. And then she felt free to spend long hours alone with Mr. +Hanbury-Green in her sitting-room, whose balcony hung over the beautiful +canal. No one could say a word--Arabella's discretion could always be +counted upon; and pleasure was secured. + +She looked, perhaps, more beautiful than she had ever done in her life +as they started. Mr. Hanbury-Green had hired a special gondola, not the +one they were accustomed to float about in,--and off they went. Where +was the harm, in broad daylight! and with Arabella to accompany them--as +far as the last steps, and then to be dropped? Cecilia felt like a +school-girl on a forbidden treat. + +When they were well out of sight of all observation, Mr. Hanbury-Green +began. He told her that he loved her, in all the most impressive +language he was master of; he felt that with her he might with safety +and success use the same flamboyant metaphors and exaggerations with +which he was accustomed to move his constituents. No restraint or +attention to accuracy was necessary here. And if his voice in his honest +excitement would have sounded a little cockney in Arabella's cultured +ears, Cecilia Cricklander did not notice it. On the contrary, she +thought the whole thing was the finest-sounding harangue she had ever +heard in her life. + +He went on to say that he could not live without her, and implored her +to throw over John Derringham and promise to be his wife. + +"He thinks you are madly in love with him, darling," he said, knowing +this would sting, "and will stand any of his airs. Let him see you are +not. Give him the snub he deserves for deserting you, and fling his +dismissal in his face." + +Cecilia Cricklander reddened and thrilled, too. Here, at all events, was +warmth. But she was not won yet. So she looked down, as if too full of +emotion to speak. She must gain time to consider what this would mean, +and, if worth while, how to lay her plans. + +Should the scheme contain certain elevation for herself and certain +humiliation for John Derringham, then there was something worthy of +consideration in it, for undoubtedly Percy Hanbury-Green suited her the +better of the two, as far as just the men themselves were concerned. She +knew she would get desperately tired of having to live up to John +Derringham's standard, and a divorce in England would not be so easily +obtained or so free from scandal, as her original one in America had +been. But she must think well, and weigh the matter before plunging in. + +Mr. Hanbury-Green saw her hesitation and instantly applied another +forceful note. He dwelt upon the political situation and grew eloquent +and magnetic, as when he was on the platform--for was he not playing for +stakes which, for the moment, he valued even more than some thousands of +votes? + +It was no wonder Cecilia Cricklander's imagination grew inflamed. He let +her see that as his wife she would, for seven years or more, ride on the +crest of the wave of an ever-rising tide to undreamed-of heights of +excitement and intrigue. "With you at my side, darling," Mr. Green said +passionately, "I could be stimulated into being Dictator myself. The +days of kings and constitutions are over. The people want a strong +despotic leader who has first brought about their downfall. And they +will get him--in ME!" + +This clinched the matter, and Cecilia, seeing visions of herself as +Madame Tallien, allowed herself to be drawn into his arms! + + * * * * * + +"Do you know, my beauty," the triumphant lover said as they floated back +to pick up Arabella upon the last steps, rather late in the afternoon, +"I had meant to get you somehow to-day. If you had refused to listen, I +intended to take you to the Lido and keep you there all night--the +gondolier and the people there are bribed--then you would have had no +choice but to marry me. Oh, you cannot balk me!" + +And all Cecilia Cricklander replied was, with a girlish giggle of +pleasure: + +"Oh, Percy, dear!" + +In the innermost recesses of their hearts there are a number of cold +women who adore a bold buccaneer! + +She had made one stipulation with him before they landed, and this was +one which in the future--little as she knew it then--would rob her of +all her triumph over John Derringham, and plant an everlasting and +bitter sting in her breast. + +She insisted that, as she did not wish to create a nine days' wonder, no +mention of his engagement to herself should be made public by Mr. +Hanbury-Green for at least a month after people were aware that she had +closed hers with John Derringham. All should be done with decency and in +order, so as not to militate in any way against her future position as +queen of the winning side. + +And, knowing that he had already telegraphed the announcement that the +marriage arranged between the Right Honorable John Derringham and Mrs. +Vincent Cricklander would not take place, so that it should appear in +the Monday morning papers--Mr. Hanbury-Green felt he could safely comply +with her caprice and bide his time. He had not the slightest intention +of ever permitting a whim of hers to interfere with his real wishes in +any way, and having a full command of her own weapons and methods, he +looked forward to a time of uninterrupted bliss when once she should be +his wife. To dissemble for a month or so would not hurt him, and might +even amuse him as a new game. + +So they entered Daniellis in subdued triumph, and said good night before +Arabella, with prim decorum, and then Cecilia mounted to make herself +look beautiful for the flinging of his _conge_ in John Derringham's +face. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + + +When Halcyone left the Fortezza she was conscious of no feeling of +depression or grief. Rather a gladness and security filled her heart. +She had seen him with her mortal eyes--her dear lover--and he was in +truth greatly in need of all her care and tender thoughts. Her beliefs +were so intense in those forces of protection with which that God Whom +she worshiped so truly surrounded her, that she never for a moment +doubted but these invisible currents would be directed to the +disentangling of destiny's threads. + +She made no speculations as to how this would be--God would find the +way. Her attitude was never one of pious resignation to a divine +chastisement. She did not believe God ever meant to chastise anyone. For +good or ill each circumstance was brought about by the individual's own +action in setting the sequence of events in motion, as the planting of +seed in the early spring produced fair flowers in the summer--or the +bruising of a limb produced pain. And the motion must go on until the +price had been paid or the pleasure obtained. And, when long ago she had +heard Cheiron and John Derringham having abstruse arguments upon Chance, +she used silently to wonder how they could be so dull as not to +understand there was no such thing really as Chance--if people were only +enabled to see clearly enough. If they could only trace events in their +lives to their sources, they would find that they themselves had long +ago--even perhaps in some former existence--put in motion the currents +to draw the events to themselves. What could be called "chance" in the +matter was only another name for ignorance. + +And, if people knew about these wonderful forces of nature, they could +connect themselves with only the good ones, and protect themselves from +the bad. Misfortune came through--figuratively--not knowing just where +to put the feet, and through not looking ahead to see what would be the +result of actions. + +Only, above and beyond all these forces of nature and these currents of +cause and effect, there was still the great, eternal Source of all +things, who was able to dispel ignorance and to endow one individual +with the power to help another by his prayers and thoughts. This God +could hasten and bring Happiness, if only He were believed in with +absolute faith. But that He would ever stoop to punish was an unheard-of +blasphemy. He was only and entirely concerned with good. Punishments +came as the results of actions. It followed then that John Derringham, +having paid the price of much sorrow for all his mistakes, would now +come into peace--and her prayers, and exceptional advantages in having +been allowed for years to learn the forces of nature, would be permitted +to help him. That he would be obliged to marry Mrs. Cricklander would +seem to be an overexaction, and not just. But they were not the judges, +and must in all cases fulfill their part of honesty and truth, no matter +what might betide. + +These were her convictions, and so they caused her to feel only a +God-like calm--as she went away into the purple shadows of the old +streets. + +Cheiron and she had been at San Gimignano for half a week, and almost +every child in the place knew and loved her. She had always a gracious +word or a merry smile when they clustered round her, as is their +friendly way with all travelers, when she came from the Cathedral or the +strange old solitary chapel of St. Jacopo. + +The Professor was waiting for her on the hotel steps, and he saw by some +extra radiance in her face that something unusual had happened. + +"What is it, my child?" he asked, as they went in and up to their dinner +in the big _salle a manger_ upon the first floor, which was then nearly +always empty of guests. + +"John Derringham is here, Master," she said--"and we have talked, and +now all shadows are gone--and we must only wait." + +"I am glad to hear it," replied Cheiron, and bristled his brows. + +This is all that was said between them on the subject, and, immediately +the meal was over, they retired to their rooms. But when alone in hers, +Halcyone took from the silken wrappings the Goddess Aphrodite, and in +the divine eyes read a glad blessing, and, as soon as her head touched +her pillow, she fell into a soft sweet sleep, while the warm night winds +flew in at the wide-opened windows and caressed her hair. + +And John Derringham, when the dark had fallen, came down from his high +watch tower, and walked slowly back to the hotel, leaning upon his +stick. He was still filled with the hush of his loved one's serene calm. +Surely, after all, there must be some truth in her beliefs, and he would +trust to them, too, and wait and hope--and above all keep his word, as +she had said, with that honor which is entailed upon a gentleman. + +He ordered his motor for dawn the next morning, so as to be away before +the chance of disturbing the two should occur. + +The rare and wonderful sight of a motor in those days caused a crowd to +collect whenever one should arrive or depart. It was an unheard-of thing +that two should visit the city at the same time--there had only been +three in the whole year--so Halcyone, when she heard the whizz next +morning, bounded from her bed and rushed to peep between the green +shutters. Some instinct told her that the noise indicated it was he--her +dear lover--about to start, and she had the happiness of gazing down +upon his upturned face unperceived, as his eyes searched the windows, +perhaps in some vague hope of being able to discern which was hers. + +And she showered upon him blessings of love and tenderness, and called +all the currents of good from the sky and the air, to comfort and +protect him and give him strength to go back and keep his word. And, +just as he was starting, a white pigeon flew down and circled round John +Derringham's head--and he was conscious that at the same moment the sun +must have risen above the horizon, for it suddenly gilded the highest +towers. And he passed out of the dark gate into its glory, and took the +Siena road, a mighty purpose of strength in his heart. + +After a few days of wandering, during which he strove not to let grief +or depression master him again, he sent a telegram to Venice to Cecilia +Cricklander. And on that Saturday evening, he walked into her +sitting-room with a pale and composed face. + +She was seated upon the sofa and arranged with every care, and was +looking triumphantly beautiful as she smoked a cigarette. Her fine eyes +had in them all the mocking of the fiend as she greeted him lazily. + +"How are you, John?" she said casually--and puffed rings of smoke, +curling up her red lips to do so in a manner that, John Derringham was +unpleasantly aware, he would once have found attractive, but that now +only filled him with disgust. + +"I am well," he said, "thank you,--better for the change and the sight +of some most interesting things." + +"And I, also," she responded with provoking glances from under her lids, +"am better--for the change! I have seen--a man, since which I seem to be +able the better to value your love!" + +And she leaned back and laughed with rasping mockery, which galled his +ears--although for some strange reason she could no longer gall his +soul. He felt calm and blandly indifferent to her, like someone acting +in a dream. + +"I am glad you were, and are, amused," he said. He had not made the +slightest attempt to kiss her in greeting--and she had not even held out +her hand. + +"You are quite rich now, John, aren't you?" after a short silence she +presently asked nonchalantly--"that is, as you English count riches--ten +or twelve thousand a year. I suppose it will keep you in comfort." + +He leaned back and smiled one of his old cynical smiles. + +"Yes," he said, "it is extremely rich for me; my personal wants are not +great." + +"That is splendid, then," she went on, "because I shall not feel I am +really depriving you of anything by doing what I intend to do in +throwing you over--otherwise I should have been glad to settle something +upon you for life!" + +As he listened, John Derringham's eyes flashed forth steel, but the pith +of her speech had in it such divine portent, as it fell upon his ears, +that the insult of its wording left him less roused than she hoped he +would have been. + +She saw that it was joy, not rage, which lay deep in his eyes, and the +fury of her whole nature blazed up, so that she forgot the years of +polish that she had acquired--forgot her elaborately prepared plan that +for an hour she would torture and play with him, as a cat plays with a +mouse, and, crimsoning with wrath, she hurled forth her displeasure, +cutting things short. + +"You are only a paltry fortune-hunter, John Derringham, for all your +fine talk," she said loudly, raising her voice, and allowing it to +regain its original broad accent, "and I have kept you on just to punish +you. But, if you thought I was ever going to marry you now that you are +no better than a cripple, and don't amount to thirty cents in the +opinion of the world--you or your Government either!--you made a great +mistake. I have something much more delightful on hand--so you can take +back your ring and your freedom--and go and find some meeker woman who +will put up with your airs." + +And she picked up from a table beside her his diamond gage, which she +had taken from her hand before his entrance, and threw it over to +him--and then leaned back as if exhausted with anger among the cushions. + +John Derringham had grown very pale as the insulting words fell from her +lips--and now he rose to his feet, and standing there looked at her with +pitying contempt. + +"Then I will say good-by, Cecilia," he said. "The manner of your release +of me cancels the pain it might otherwise have caused me. I can only +wish you all success with any new venture you may make--and assure you +always of my deep respect." + +And, calmly putting the ring in his pocket, he turned round and slowly +left the room--when, meeting Arabella upon the stairs, she was startled +to see him shaking with sardonic laughter. + +"Good-night, and good-by, dear Miss Clinker," he said; "I am glad to +have had this opportunity of thanking you again and again for your sweet +goodness to me when I was ill; it was something which I shall never +forget." + +"Oh, Mr. Derringham!" said Arabella, "you haven't parted from Mrs. +Cricklander, have you?" But she saw from his laughing eyes that he had, +and, before she was aware of it, good, honest soul, she had blurted out: +"Oh, I'm so glad!" + +Then they shook hands heartily, to hide her dreadful confusion, and John +Derringham went on to his rooms at the Britannia, where he was staying, +with nothing but a mad, wild joy in his heart. + +What did Cecilia Cricklander's insults matter? What did anything on +earth matter? He was free to go and seek his beloved one--and have every +sorrow healed as he held her to his heart. The only necessary thing now +was to find her immediately, which would require some thinking out. It +was too late to get an answer to any telegrams to England--he must wait +until the morning. Mrs. Porrit would know where Cheiron's next address +would be. Yes, he could hope to come up with the wanderers perhaps not +later than the day after tomorrow. + +But when Arabella entered her employer's sitting-room after wishing him +good-by, she found Mrs. Cricklander in violent hysterics, and she had to +have the doctor and a sleeping draught before she could be calmed. + +The hatefulness, the impossible arrogance and insolence of the man, she +had thought! and the humiliation to herself of knowing full well that, +instead of making this dismissal a scene of subtle superlative +cleverness, so that through all his torture he would be obliged to +admire and respect her skill--she had let her temper get the better of +her, and had shown him a side of herself that, she was well aware, was +most unrefined, so that he had been able to leave her, not as a humbled, +beaten cur, as she had intended, but feeling what she knew to be +unfeigned contempt. + +No wonder she had hysterics! It was galling beyond compare, and not all +Mr. Hanbury-Green's devotion or flattery next day could heal the bitter +hurt. + +"Oh, how I will help you, Percy!" she said, "to pull them all down from +their pedestals, and drag them to the guillotine!" + +And Mr. Hanbury-Green had laughed, and said it gratified him greatly to +feel her sympathy and cooeperation would be with him, but he feared they +would never have the humorous pleasure of getting as far as that! + +And, it being a Sunday, Arabella Clinker wrote to her mother to apprise +her of these events. + + The engagement is over [Mrs. Clinker was told]--the advent of Mr. + Hanbury-Green (a very unpleasant personality, afraid of being polite + to me in case I should fancy myself his equal) seemed to clinch + matters in M. E.'s mind. I suppose he was able to give her some + definite assurance of the future of the Government. In any case, I + could see, when they returned from their excursion in the gondola + yesterday, that things were upon a very familiar footing between + them. Mr. H.G. has none of Mr. Derringham's restraint or refinement, + and, after M. E. had seen Mr. Derringham and, I presume, returned him + his freedom, she had a terrible fit of hysterics, only calmed when + Mr. Hanbury-Green entered the room and suggested emptying the water + jug over her. It appears he has a sister who is subject to these + attacks, and this is the only method which has any effect upon her. I + suppose in his circle they would have a number of crude remedies + which we are unaccustomed to, but it seemed to be the right one for + M. E., who pulled herself together at once. + + They told me privately that they are engaged, but do not intend to + announce it yet, and I believe they are really suited to each other. + I had thought at one time that Mr. Derringham might be equally a mate + for her, because of his selfishness, but, after I grew to know him + when he was ill, I saw that he was infinitely above her, and not + really more selfish than other men--and, as you know, I have extended + to him my pity and commiseration ever since. Your liking of him + confirmed my good opinion. I am to stay on with M. E. as long as I + will, because Mr. Hanbury-Green, she says, is not cultivated either, + and I may be of use to them both, she thinks, in the future, although + she has not imparted this to him. I do not believe I shall like + having to render his speeches erudite, because my political + convictions are all upon the other side. But something else may turn + up, and it is a comfort to know things are settled for the present. + Mr. Derringham looked so joyous as he came from her sitting-room, + after his dismissal, that I am sure he will go off at once to that + person I have often given you a hint about,--and his restoration to + health may consequently be looked upon as a certainty. I fear the + influences we shall have to live under now will not encourage that + high tone which endeavoring to keep up with Mr. Derringham and his + party entailed, and it may grow more than I can bear. The inference + to be drawn from M. E.'s defection to the other side is not + felicitous, and gives me cause for the most gloomy foreboding as to + the future of the country, because she would never have done it if + she had not received from Mr. Hanbury-Green absolute guarantees that + with him she will occupy the highest position. Everything + Conservative is _vieux jeu_ now, she says, and she must go with the + tide. + +And from this the letter wandered on to personal matters. + +Meanwhile John Derringham had received Mrs. Porrit's answer and had +ascertained the Professor's probable address, and was joyously speeding +his way on to Rome. + + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + + +The Palace of the Caesars was lying in blazing heat when Halcyone and the +Professor decided to spend the afternoon there. People had warned them +not to get to Rome until October, but they were both lovers of the sun, +and paid no heed. It would be particularly delightful to have the +eternal city to themselves, and they had come straight down from San +Gimignano, meaning to pick up their motor again at Perugia on their way +back, as the roads to the south were so bad. + +They had only arrived the evening before, and felt the Palatine hill +should be their first pilgrimage. It was completely deserted in the heat +and they wandered in peace. They had gone all through the dark rooms +which overlook the Forum, and had reached the garden upon the top, with +its cypress and cool shade. Here Halcyone sat down on a bench, looking +over the wonderful scene. She wanted to re-read a letter from her Aunt +Roberta which had arrived as they were starting out. + +The old ladies were delighted with their accession to a modest fortune, +the matter was turning out well, and they hoped to have their ancient +brougham repainted and a quiet horse to draw it, before very long, so +that, even when it rained, they could have the pleasure of going to +church. + +William, the Aunt Roberta added, was really growing a little old for so +many duties, and would, under the new and more prosperous _regime_, +confine himself to being only butler. Halcyone would find several +changes on her return; among them the four gates had been mended! + +As she read this part of the letter, Halcyone almost sighed! The gates, +especially the one of the beech avenue, had always been such friends of +hers, she knew and loved each crack. And then her thoughts wandered, as +ever, to her lover. Where was he and how had it fared with him? Her +serene calm was not disturbed--she felt certainty in every breath of the +soft warm air--the certainty that the springtime of their souls had +come. + +Now, that same morning, John Derringham had arrived at the Grand Hotel, +and, after breakfasting, had made his way to the hotel to which Mrs. +Porrit had informed him the Professor's letters were to be addressed. +And Demetrius, whom he asked for, hearing Mr. Carlyon was out, was able +to give him information as to where his master had gone; so that he set +off at once. + +The Palace of the Caesars was rather a labyrinth to expect to find +anybody in, but he would do his best. And so it happened, after about an +hour's search, that he came upon Cheiron alone, just as he reached +Livia's house. + +Mr. Carlyon held out his hand. + +"Well, John," he said, "and so we meet again." + +His old pupil shook it heartily, and Cheiron, seeing that joyous light +in his eyes, raised his left penthouse with a whimsical smile. + +"Got clear of the Octopus, I should imagine," he said laconically. +"Well, better late than never--Halcyone is over on the bench under the +cypress, gazing upon the Tarpeian rock; perhaps you may like to go to +her--" and he pointed in that direction. + +"It is what I have come at post-haste from Venice to do, Master," John +Derringham said. "Mrs. Cricklander was kind enough to release me on +Saturday evening--she has other views, it seems!"--and he laughed with +his old boyish gayety. + +"Well, I won't keep you," Cheiron answered. "Bring my little girl back +to the hotel when these gates shut. No doubt you will have enough to +talk about till then," and he smiled benignly. + +"You will give us your blessing, Master?" John Derringham asked. But the +Professor growled as he turned to go on. + +"She has my blessing always," he said, "and you will have it, too, if +you make her happy, but you don't deserve her, you know, John." + +John Derringham drew himself up and looked straight out in front of +him--his face was moved. + +"I know I do not," he said, "but I hope you believe me, Cheiron, when I +tell you that I mean to devote the rest of my life to attain that +object--and at least no man could worship her more." + +"Get on with your courting then, lad!" said the Professor, pointing with +his stick in Halcyone's direction, while his wise eyes smiled. "I +suppose she will think you perfect in any case--it is her incredible +conviction!" And with this he shook his old pupil's hand again, and the +two men went their separate ways; John Derringham forgetful of even his +lame ankle as he rapidly approached his beloved. + +She saw him coming--she had been thinking of him deeply in an exquisite +day-dream, and this seemed just the sequence of it, and quite natural +and yet divine. + +She rose and held out both hands to him, the radiance of heaven in her +tender eyes. For she knew that all was well and joy had come. + +And they spoke not a word as he folded her in his arms. + + * * * * * + +A week later they were married very quietly at the Embassy, and went +south to spend their honeymoon, leaving Mr. Carlyon to go back to +England alone. He was tired of wandering, he said, and sighed for the +comforts of the orchard house and his pipe and his Aristotle. + +And Aphrodite went with the bridal pair, no doubt content. + +The manner of Mrs. Cricklander's dismissal of John Derringham had left +him unhampered by any consideration for her feelings. + +And when she read the announcement in the _New York Herald_ the day +after the wedding, she burned with furious rage. + +So this was the meaning of everything all along! It had not been Cora +Lutworth or his political preoccupations, or anything but simply the +odious fact that he had been in love with somebody else! This wretched +English girl had taken him from her--a creature of whose existence she +had never even heard! + +And the world would know of his marriage before her own news had been +made public! The gall of the whole thing was hardly to be borne! + +She felt that, had she been aware that John Derringham's affections were +really given elsewhere, nothing would have induced her to break off the +engagement! Mr. Hanbury-Green was all very well, and was being a most +exceptional lover, only this hateful humiliation and blow to her +self-love mattered more than any mere man! + +But of such things the married two recked not at all. Their springtime +of bliss had come. + +And, as they sat absolutely alone upon the inner steps of the Temple of +Poseidon at Paestum, looking out upon the sapphire sea and azure sky, +the noble columns in front of them all bathed in golden light, and a +solemn crow perched above as priest to bless them, Halcyone drew the +wrappings from the goddess's head. + +"See, John," she said, "Aphrodite is perfectly happy; she is smiling as +never before. She knows that we have found all her message." And she +laid her head against his shoulder as he encircled her with his arm. + +"Dear," she went on, with that misty look in her serene eyes as though +they could see into the beyond, "for me, however much beautiful things +exalt me and take me to God, I can never go there alone. It always seems +as if I must put out my hand and take your hand." + +"Sweetheart," he answered, holding her close, "and long ago I called +love a draught of the poison cup--what a poor blind fool was I!" + +"Yes," she said tenderly. "John, we are much wiser now--and, when we +return to the world out of this divine dream-country, you will teach me +of that life which you must live in the fierce arena where you will +fight for a principle against such odds; and I shall be always there to +comfort you and give you of my sympathy and tenderness. And, as you +instruct me in the day and its strenuous toils, I will teach you of the +soothing, peaceful currents of the night. And we shall know only joy, +because we have seen how it always comes if we go straight on and leave +the tangled threads to God." + +John Derringham bent and kissed her lips and he murmured: + +"My darling--my one woman with a soul." + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Halcyone, by Elinor Glyn + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HALCYONE *** + +***** This file should be named 13530.txt or 13530.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/5/3/13530/ + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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