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+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: 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
+
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