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+Project Gutenberg's Doctor Claudius, A True Story, by F. Marion Crawford
+
+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: Doctor Claudius, A True Story
+
+Author: F. Marion Crawford
+
+Release Date: March 1, 2005 [EBook #15223]
+[Last updated: October 2, 2015]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DOCTOR CLAUDIUS, A TRUE STORY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Paul Murray, Charlie Kirschner and the PG Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+DOCTOR CLAUDIUS
+
+A True Story
+
+
+
+BY F. MARION CRAWFORD
+
+Author OF "MR. ISAACS"
+
+
+
+
+London
+
+MACMILLAN AND CO.
+
+1883
+
+
+
+
+Dedicated
+
+TO
+
+MY DEAR FRIENDS
+
+THE COUNTESS MARGARET AND
+
+CLAUDIUS, PH.D.
+
+
+
+
+DOCTOR CLAUDIUS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+"I believe I am old," said the Doctor, pushing his straight-backed
+wooden chair from the table, and turning from his books to look out of
+his small window. "Yes, I am certainly very old," he said again, rapping
+absently on the arm of the chair with the pen he held. But the fingers
+that held the instrument were neither thin nor withered, and there was
+no trembling in the careless motion of the hand. The flaxen hair, long
+and tangled, was thick on the massive head, and the broad shoulders were
+flat and square across. Whatever Dr. Claudius might say of himself, he
+certainly did not look old.
+
+And yet he said to himself that he was, and he probably knew. He said to
+himself, as he had said every day for many long months, that this was
+the secret of the difference he felt between his life and the life of
+his companions--such companions as he had, between his thoughts and
+their thoughts, between his ways and their ways. Of late the fancy had
+gained a stronger hold on his imagination, excited by solitude and an
+undue consumption of the midnight oil, and as he turned his face to the
+evening light, an observer, had there been one, might have felt half
+inclined to agree with him. His face was pale, and the high aquiline
+nose looked drawn. Moreover, the tangled hair and beard contrasted
+strangely with his broad, spotless collar, and his dressing-gown of
+sober black. The long habit of neatness in dress survived any small
+vanity of personal looks.
+
+He rose, and throwing the pen impatiently on the table, went to the
+little window and looked out. His shoulders overlapped the opening on
+both sides as he thrust his yellow head out into the evening sunshine,
+and Master Simpelmayer, the shoemaker down in the street, glanced up,
+and seeing that the Herr Doctor was taking his evening sniff of the
+Neckar breeze, laid down his awl and went to "vespers,"--a "maas" of
+cool beer and a "pretzel." For the Herr Doctor was a regular man, and
+always appeared at his window at the same hour, rain or shine. And when
+Simpelmayer mended the well-worn shoes that came to him periodically
+from across the way, he was sure that the flaxen-haired student would
+not call over to know if they were finished until the sun was well down
+and the day far spent. On this particular evening, however, there was no
+mending in hand for the Herr Doctor, and so the crooked little shoemaker
+filled himself a pipe, and twisted his apron round his waist, and
+stumped leisurely down the street to the beer-shop at the corner, where
+he and his fellows took their pots and their pipes, undisturbed by the
+playful pranks of the students.
+
+But the Doctor remained at his window, and neither vouchsafed look nor
+greeting to Master Simpelmayer. He was not thinking of shoes or
+shoemakers just then, though, to judge by his face, he was thinking very
+intently of something. And well he might, for he had been reading
+serious stuff. The walls of his little chamber were lined with books,
+and there was a small sliding-rack on the table, presumably for those
+volumes he immediately required for his work. A rare copy of _Sextus
+Empiricus_, with the Greek and Latin side by side, lay open on an
+inclined desk at one end, and the table was strewn with papers, on which
+were roughly drawn a variety of mathematical figures, margined all
+around with odd-looking equations and algebraically-expressed formulae.
+Well-thumbed volumes of mathematical works in English, German, and
+French, lay about, opened in various places, and there was a cracked old
+plate, half full of tobacco ashes and the ends of cigarettes. The
+remaining furniture of the room was simple and poor: a neat camp
+bedstead, a boot-jack, and a round mirror, not more than four inches in
+diameter; a tin tub and an iron washing-stand; a much battered old
+"schlaeger," with the colours at the hilt all in rags, hung over the iron
+stove; and that was all the room contained besides books and the
+working-table and chair. It would be impossible to live more simply, and
+yet everything was neat and clean, and stamped, too, with a certain
+_cachet_ of individuality. There were probably hundreds of student-rooms
+in the town of Heidelberg which boasted no more adornment or luxury than
+this, and yet there was not one that looked like it. A student's room,
+as he grows up, is a reflection of himself; it is a kind of dissolving
+view, in which the one set of objects and books fades gradually away as
+his opinions form themselves, and as he collects about him the works
+that are really of interest to him, as distinguished from those with
+which he has been obliged to occupy himself prior to taking his
+academic steps. Then, as in the human frame every particle of bone and
+sinew is said to change in seven years, the student one day looks about
+him and recognises that hardly a book or a paper is there of all the
+store over which he was busied in those months before he took his
+degree, or sustained his disputation. When a man has entered on his
+career, if he enters on it with a will, he soon finds that all books and
+objects not essential as tools for his work creep stealthily into the
+dusty corner, or to the inaccessible top shelf of the bookcase,--or if
+he is very poor, to the second-hand bookshop. He cannot afford to be
+hampered by any dead weight.
+
+Now Dr. Claudius had gone through many changes of thought and habit
+since he came to Heidelberg ten years ago. But he had never changed his
+quarters; for he loved the garret window and the isolation from visits
+and companions that he gained by his three flights of stairs. The
+camp-bed in the corner was the same whereon he had lain after his first
+duel, with a bag of ice on his head and his bosom friend by his side,
+with a long pipe. At that very table he had drawn his first caricature
+of Herr Professor Winkelnase, which had been framed and hung up in the
+"Kneipe"--the drinking-hall of his corps; at the same board he had
+written his thesis for his doctorate, and here again he had penned the
+notes for his first lecture. Professor Winkelnase was dead; not one of
+his old corps-brothers remained in Heidelberg, but still he clung to the
+old room. The learned doctors with whom he drank his wine or his beer of
+an evening, when he sallied forth from his solitude, wondered at his way
+of living; for Dr. Claudius was not poor, as incomes go in South
+Germany. He had a modest competence of his own to begin with, and his
+lectures brought him in something, so that he might have had a couple of
+rooms "_parterre_"--as the Germans call the _rez-de-chaussee_--and could
+have been as comfortable as he pleased. But no one ever attempted to
+account for Dr. Claudius at all. He was a credit to the University,
+where first-rate men are scarce,--for Heidelberg is not a seat of very
+great learning; and no one troubled to inquire why he did not return to
+his native country when he had obtained his "Phil.D." Only, if he meant
+to spend the rest of his life in Heidelberg, it was high time he married
+and settled down to genuine "Philisterleben"--at least so Dr. Wiener had
+said to Dr. Wurst over the second "schoppen" every night for a year
+past.
+
+But Claudius did not marry, nor did he even allow his blue eyes to rest
+contemplatively on black-eyed Fraeulein Wiener, or red-cheeked Fraeulein
+Wurst. He would indeed occasionally accept an invitation to drink coffee
+at his colleagues' houses, but his talk was little and his manner a
+placid blank. He had been wild enough ten years before, when his yellow
+hair and tall straight presence were the admiration of every burgher's
+daughter in the Hirschgasse or the Langestrasse; but years and study had
+brought out the broad traits of his character, his uniformly quiet
+manner, his habits of regularity, and a certain deliberateness of gait
+and gesture which well became his towering figure and massive strength.
+He was utterly independent in all his ways, without the least trace of
+the arrogance that hangs about people whose independence is put on, and
+constantly asserted, in order to be beforehand with the expected
+opposition of their fellow-men.
+
+Dr. Claudius was a Swede by birth and early education, and finding
+himself at twenty free to go where he would, he had wandered to
+Heidelberg in pursuit of the ideal student-life he had read so much of
+in his Northern home. Full of talent, independent and young, he cared
+little for the national enmities of Scandinavians and Germans, and, like
+all foreigners who behave sensibly, he was received with open arms by
+the enthusiastic students, who looked upon him as a sort of typical
+Goth, the prototype of the Teutonic races. And when they found how
+readily he learned to handle schlaeger and sabre, and that, like a true
+son of Odin, he could drain the great horn of brown ale at a draught,
+and laugh through the foam on his yellow beard, he became to them the
+embodiment of the student as he should be. But there was little of all
+that left now, and though the stalwart frame was stronger and tougher in
+its manly proportions, and the yellow beard grown long and curly, and
+the hair as thick as ever, the flush of youth was gone; and Dr. Claudius
+leaned out of his high window and smelled the river breeze, and said to
+himself it was not so sweet as it used to be, and that, for all he only
+had thirty summers behind him, he was growing old--very old; and that
+was why he did not care to spend more than half-an-hour of an evening
+with Dr. Wiener and Dr. Wurst.
+
+In truth it was an unnatural life for a man just reaching his prime, and
+full of imagination and talent and love for the beautiful. But he had
+fallen into the philosophical groove of study which sooner or later
+seems to absorb so many gifted minds, only to lay them waste in nine
+cases out of ten. A brilliant mathematician, he had taken his doctorate
+without difficulty, and his thesis had even attracted some attention.
+From the higher speculations of modern mathematics to the study of
+philosophy is but a step, and Claudius had plunged into the vast sea of
+Kant, Spinoza, and Hegel, without, perhaps, having any very definite
+idea of what he was doing, until he found himself forced to go forward
+or to acknowledge himself baffled and beaten. This he was not willing to
+do, and so he had gone on and on, until one day, some six months ago, he
+had asked himself what it all led to? why he had laboured so hard for
+years over such things? whether the old free life and ready enjoyment
+were not better than this midnight prowling among other people's
+thoughts, which, whatever they might have been when spoken, never seemed
+quite clear on paper? Or would it not be better to leave the whole thing
+and go back to his Northern home? He might find plenty of adventure
+there, and breathe in fresh youth and vitality in the cold bright life
+of the Norwegian fisheries or of some outlying Swedish farm. And yet he
+could not make up his mind to move, or to acknowledge that he had
+laboured in vain. It was in vain, though, he said, as he looked out at
+the flowing river. Had he gained a single advantage either for his
+thoughts or his deeds by all his study of philosophy? In his weariness
+he said to himself that he had not; that he had been far better able to
+deal with questions of life, so long as he had only handled the exact
+sciences, than he was now, through all this uncertain saturation of
+foggy visions and contradictory speculations. Questions of life--but did
+questions of life ever arise for him? He had reduced it all to its
+simplest expression. His little store of money was safely invested, and
+he drew the income four times a year. He possessed no goods or chattels
+not stowed away in his garret chamber. He owed no man anything; he was
+not even a regular professor, tied to his University by a fixed
+engagement. In a word, he was perfectly free and untrammelled. To what
+end? He worked on from force of habit; but work had long ceased to amuse
+him. When had he laughed last? Probably not since his trip on foot to
+the Bavarian Highlands, where he had met a witty journalist from Berlin,
+with whom he had walked for a couple of days.
+
+This evening he was more weary than usual. He almost thought he would go
+away if he could think of any place to go to where life might be more
+interesting. He had no relations excepting an uncle, who had emigrated
+to America when Claudius was a baby, and who wrote twice a year, with
+that regular determination to keep up his family ties which
+characterises the true Northman. To this uncle he also wrote regularly
+at stated intervals, telling of his quiet student-life. He knew that
+this solitary relation was in business in New York, and he inferred from
+the regular offers of assistance which came in every letter that he was
+in good circumstances,--but that was all. This evening he fell to
+thinking about him. The firm was "Barker and Lindstrand," he remembered.
+He wondered what Mr. Barker was like. By the by it would soon be
+midsummer, and he might expect the half-yearly letter at any time. Not
+that it would interest him in the least when it came, but yet he liked
+to feel that he was not utterly alone in the world. There was the
+postman coming down the street in his leisurely, old-fashioned way,
+chatting with the host at the corner and with the tinman two doors off,
+and then--yes, he was stopping at Dr. Claudius's door.
+
+The messenger looked up, and, seeing the Doctor at his window, held out
+a large envelope.
+
+"A letter for you, Herr Doctor," he cried, and his red nose gleamed in
+the evening glow, strongly foreshortened to the Doctor's eye.
+
+"Gleich," replied Claudius, and the yellow head disappeared from the
+window, its owner descending to open the door.
+
+As he mounted the dingy staircase Claudius turned the great sealed
+envelope over and over in his hand, wondering what could be the
+contents. It was postmarked "New York," but the hand was large and round
+and flourished, not in the least like his uncle's sexagenarian
+crabbedness of hieroglyphic. In the corner was the name of a firm he did
+not know, and the top of the letter was covered with a long row of
+stamps, for it was very thick and heavy. So he went into his room, and
+sat down on the window-sill to see what Messrs. Screw and Scratch of
+Pine Street, New York, could possibly want of Claudius, Phil.D. of
+Heidelberg.
+
+His curiosity soon gave way to very considerable surprise. The first
+part of the letter contained the formal announcement of the sudden
+decease of Gustavus Lindstrand, of the firm of Barker and Lindstrand of
+New York. Claudius laid down the letter and sighed. His one relation had
+not been much to him. He had no recollection even of the old gentleman's
+appearance, but the regular correspondence had given him a feeling of
+reliance, a sensation of not being absolutely alone. He was alone now.
+Not a relation of any description in the world. Well, he would read the
+remainder of the letter. He turned over the page.
+
+"We enclose a copy of the will," the lawyer continued, "for your
+inspection. You will see that Mr. Screw of our firm is appointed joint
+executor with Mr. Silas B. Barker, and we await your further
+instructions. In view of the large fortune you inherit," . . .
+
+Claudius looked up suddenly and gazed blankly out of the window; then he
+went on--
+
+. . . "by the aforesaid will of your uncle, the late Mr. Gustavus
+Lindstrand, it might be well if, at your convenience, you could pay a
+visit to this country."
+
+Here Claudius thought it was time to look at the will itself. Unfolding
+the document, which was very short, he acquainted himself with the
+contents. There were a few legacies to old servants, and one or two to
+persons who were probably friends. Everything else was devised and
+bequeathed "to my nephew, the son of my sister, Claudius,
+_privat-docent_ in the University of Heidelberg, Grand Duchy of Baden,
+Germany." And it appeared that the surplus, after deducting all legacies
+and debts, amounted to about one million and a half of dollars.
+
+Claudius carefully reread the papers without betraying the smallest
+emotion. He then put them back in the envelope, and opening a small iron
+cash-box, which stood on a shelf of the book-case, locked up will,
+letter, power of attorney, and all. Then he shook his long limbs, with a
+sigh, and having rolled a thick cigarette, lighted it, and sat down in
+his chair to think. The shadows were deepening, and the smoke of his
+tobacco showed white against the gloom in the room. The news he had just
+received would have driven some men crazy, and certainly most people
+would experience some kind of vivid sensation at finding themselves
+suddenly endowed with immense wealth from a quarter where they did not
+even suspect it existed. Moreover, old Lindstrand's will was perfectly
+unequivocal, and contained none of those ill-natured restrictions about
+marrying or not marrying, or assuming the testator's name, or anything
+which could put the legatee to the slightest inconvenience. But Claudius
+experienced no sensation of pleasure at finding himself sole master of a
+million and a half.
+
+It was not that he was foolish enough to despise money, or even to
+pretend to, as some people do. He would have felt keenly the loss of his
+own little store, and would have hated to work for money instead of
+working for work's sake. But he had enough, and had always had enough,
+for his small wants. He loved beautiful things intensely, but he had no
+desire to possess them; it was enough that he might see them, and carry
+away the remembrance. He loved books, but he cared not a jot for rare
+editions, so long as there were cheap ones published in Leipzic. That
+old copy of _Sextus Empiricus_, on the desk there, he had bought because
+he could not get an ordinary edition; and now that he had read it he did
+not care to keep it. Of course it contained a great deal that was good,
+but he had extracted the best of it, and meant to sell the volume to the
+first bidder--not that he wanted the money, but because it was in the
+way; if he allowed things to accumulate, there would be no turning round
+in his little den. So he leaned back in his straight-backed chair and
+wondered what in the world he should do with "all that money." He might
+travel. Yes, but he preferred to travel with a view of seeing things,
+rather than of reaching places. He would rather walk most of the way.
+The only way in which he could possibly live up to such an income must
+be by changing his entire mode of life--a house, somewhere in a great
+city, horses, servants, and even a wife--Claudius laughed for the first
+time in many months, a deep Homeric laugh--they would all help him to
+get rid of his money. But then, a life like that--pshaw! impossible. He
+was sick of it before beginning, then what would he feel after a month
+of it?
+
+The problem faced him in the dark, like an unsolved equation, staring
+out black and white before his eyes, or like an unfinished game of chess
+when one goes to bed after five or six hours' play. Something he must
+decide, because it was his nature to decide always, before he left a
+subject, on some course of thought. Meanwhile he had been so little
+disturbed by the whole business that, in spite of his uncle's death, and
+a million and a half of money, he was hungry and thirsty. So he struck a
+match and lit his study-lamp, and found his coat and hat and stick. Then
+he paused. He did not want to meet Dr. Wiener and Dr. Wurst that
+evening; he would fetch himself something to eat and drink, and be
+quiet. So he slung a heavy stone jug on his arm, and, turning his lamp
+down to save the oil, trudged down the stairs and out into the street.
+He made for the little inn at the corner, and while the fat old landlord
+filled his jug with the best Markgraefler, he himself picked out a couple
+of smoked sausages from the great pile on the counter, and wrapping them
+up with half a dozen pretzels, transferred the package to his capacious
+pocket. Then he took the jug from the innkeeper, and having paid half a
+gulden for the whole supply of eatables and wine, he departed to consume
+them in solitude. It was his usual supper. He had done the same thing
+for ten years, off and on, whenever he was not inclined for company.
+
+"But I suppose it is incongruous," he soliloquised, "that, being a
+millionaire, I should fetch my own supper." Once more he laughed aloud
+in the crowded street, for it was warm and the people were sitting in
+front of their houses, Simpelmayer the shoemaker, and Blech the tinman,
+and all the rest, each with his children and his pot of beer. As the
+Doctor laughed, the little boys laughed too, and Blech remarked to
+Simpelmayer that the Herr Doctor must have won the great prize in the
+Hamburg lottery, for he had not heard him laugh like that in three
+years.
+
+"Freilich," returned the crooked shoemaker, "but he was used to laugh
+loud enough ten years ago. I can remember when he first moved in there,
+and his corps-fellows locked him in his room for a jest, and stood
+mocking in the street. And he climbed right down the woodwork and
+stepped on the signboard of the baker and jumped into the street,
+laughing all the while, though they were holding in their breath for
+fear he should break his neck. Ja, he was a right student; but he is
+changed now--the much reading, lieber Blech, the much reading." And the
+old fellow looked after Claudius as he disappeared into the dark
+doorway.
+
+The Doctor mounted his three flights with even tread, and, turning up
+his light, proceeded leisurely to eat his twisted rolls and sausages.
+When he had done that, he took the great stone jug in his hand, as if it
+had been a wine-glass, and set it to his lips and drank a long draught.
+
+The result of his cogitations, assisted by the soothing influence of
+supper, was to be foreseen. In the first place, he reflected that the
+problem was itself a myth. No one could require of him that he should
+use his money unless he liked. He might let it accumulate without any
+trouble to himself; and then, why should he tell any one of his
+inheritance? Surely he might go on living as he was living now for an
+indefinite period, and nobody would be the wiser. Besides, it would be a
+novel sensation to feel that while living like a simple student he
+possessed a great power, put away, as it were, on the shelf, whereby he
+could, if he liked, at any moment astonish the whole country. Very
+novel, indeed, and considering the importance of the question of the
+disposal of his income, he could well afford to give it six months'
+consideration. And he might move undisturbed about the University and
+eat his supper with Dr. Wiener and Dr. Wurst without being the object of
+general interest, which he would at once become if it were known that
+he, a simple _privat-docent_, with his decent black coat and his
+twice-mended shoes, was the richest man in the Grand Duchy of Baden.
+
+These reflections of Dr. Claudius, strange as they must seem in the eyes
+of men of the world, were only what were to be expected from a man of
+his education and character. He had travelled after a fashion, it is
+true, and had frequented society when he was younger; for the Heidelberg
+student is a lover of the dance, and many of the wild young _burschen_
+become the brilliant officers of the crack regiments of the first army
+in the world. He had been in Paris and Vienna and Rome for a few weeks,
+and, being of a good family in the North, had received introductions
+through the diplomatic representatives of his country. His striking
+personality had always attracted attention, and he might have gone
+everywhere had he chosen. But he had only cared enough for society and
+its life to wish to see it now and then, and he fancied that he
+understood it at a glance--that it was all a sham and a glamour and
+vanity of vanities. There was, of course, a potent reason for all this.
+In his short peregrinations into the world of decorations and blue
+ribbons and cosmopolitan uniforms he had never come across a woman that
+interested him. He had a holy reverence for woman in the abstract, but
+he had not met one to whom he could do homage as the type of the ideal
+womanhood he worshipped. Perhaps he expected too much, or perhaps he
+judged too much by small and really insignificant signs. As no man
+living or dead has ever understood any woman for five minutes at a time,
+he was not to be blamed. Women are very like religion--we must take them
+on faith, or go without.
+
+Moreover, Dr. Claudius had but an indifferent appreciation of the value
+of money; partly because he had never cared for what it would buy, and
+had therefore never examined its purchasing power, and partly because he
+had never lived intimately with people who spent a great deal. He knew
+nothing of business, and had never gambled, and he did not conceive that
+the combination of the two could be of any interest. Compared with the
+questions that had occupied his mind of late, it seemed to make no more
+difference whether a man were rich or poor than whether he had light
+hair or dark. And if he had seriously asked himself whether even those
+great problems which had occupied the minds of the mightiest thinkers
+led to any result of importance, it was not likely that he would bestow
+a thought on such a trivial matter as the question of pounds, shillings,
+and pence.
+
+So, before he went to bed, he took out a sheet of paper and an
+envelope--he never bought but one package of envelopes a year, when he
+sent his New Year's card to the other doctors of the University--and
+wrote a short letter to Messrs. Screw and Scratch of Pine Street, New
+York. He acknowledged the receipt of their communication, deplored the
+death of his only relation, and requested that they would look after his
+money for him, as he had no use whatever for it at present. He objected,
+he said, to signing a power of attorney as yet, for as there was no
+hurry they might consult him by letter or telegraph as often as they
+liked. When Messrs. Screw and Scratch read this epistle they opened
+their eyes wide, wondering what manner of man Claudius, Phil.D., might
+be. And it took them some time to find out. But Claudius put out his
+light when he had signed and sealed the missive, and slept the sleep of
+the strong and the just, undisturbed by the possession of a fortune or
+by any more doubts as to the future.
+
+Before receiving this letter he had thought seriously of going away. Now
+that a move was almost thrust upon him, he found that he did not want to
+make it. A professor he would live and die. What could be more
+contemptible, he reflected, than to give up the march of thought and the
+struggle for knowledge, in order to sit at ease, devising means of
+getting rid of so much cash? And he straightened his great limbs along
+the narrow camp-bed and was asleep in five minutes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+When Claudius awoke at daybreak he had a strong impression that he had
+been dreaming. His first action was to open his iron box and read the
+will over again. That being done, he reflected that his determination to
+keep his fortune a secret was a wise one, and that for the present he
+would abide by it. So he went out and got a notary to attest his
+signature to the letter, and posted it to Messrs. Screw and Scratch, and
+returned to his books. But the weather was intensely hot, and the sun
+beat down fiercely on the roof over his head, so that after two or three
+hours he gave it up and sallied forth to seek coolness abroad. His steps
+turned naturally upwards towards the overhanging castle where he was
+sure of a breeze and plenty of shade; and as he passed the famous old
+"Wirthshaus zum faulen Pelz" on the ascent, he turned in and took a
+drink of the cool clear ale and a pretzel, an operation termed in
+Germany the "Fruehschoppen," or "early glass," and as universal a
+practice as the early tea in the tropics before the sun is up, or the
+"vermouth" of the Italian before the evening meal. Having offered this
+customary libation to the summer deities, the Doctor leisurely climbed
+the hill and entered the precincts of the Schloss. Sure enough, there
+was a breeze here among the ruins, and shade in abundance wherein to
+lie and read all through the summer day, with an occasional shift of
+position as the sun rose and sank in the blazing sky.
+
+Claudius stretched himself out near the great ruined tower under a bit
+of wall, and, pulling out a book, began to read. But the book did not
+interest him, and before long he let it drop and fell to thinking. The
+light wind stirred the broad green foliage over him, and the sun struck
+fiercely down beyond the border of shade; but then, again, beyond there
+were more trees and more shade. The nameless little crickets and flies
+and all manner of humming things panted musically in the warm air; the
+small birds chirped lazily now and then in desultory conversation, too
+hot to hop or fly; and a small lizard lay along the wall dazed and
+stupid in the noontide heat. The _genius loci_ was doubtless cooling
+himself in the retirement of some luxurious hole among the ruins, and
+the dwarf Perkeo, famous in song and toast, had the best of it that day
+down in the cellar by the great tun.
+
+But Claudius was of a tough nature, and minded neither heat nor cold;
+only when a large bluebottle fly buzzed round his nose he whisked his
+broad hat to drive the tormentor away, and said to himself that summer
+had its drawbacks even in Germany, though there were certainly more
+flies and mosquitoes and evil beasts on the wing in Sweden during the
+two months' heat there. On the whole, he was pretty comfortable among
+the ruins on this June day, though he ought to begin considering where
+his summer foot tour was to take him this year. It might be as well,
+certainly. Where could he go? There was the Black Forest, but he knew
+that thoroughly; Bohemia--he had been there; Switzerland; the
+Engadine--yes, he would go back to Pontresina and see what it had grown
+into since he was there six years ago. It used to be a delightful place
+then, as different from St. Moritz as anything could well be. Only
+students and artists and an occasional sturdy English climber used to go
+to Pontresina, while all Europe congregated at St. Moritz half a dozen
+miles away. He would go there as he went everywhere, with a knapsack and
+a thick stick and a few guldens in his pocket, and be happy, if so be
+that he had any capacity for enjoyment left in him.
+
+"It is absurd," said Claudius to himself, argumentatively. "I am barely
+thirty years old, as strong as an ox, and I have just inherited more
+money than I know what to do with, and I feel like an old cripple of
+ninety, who has nothing left to live for. It must be morbid imagination
+or liver complaint, or something."
+
+But it was neither liver nor imagination, for it was perfectly genuine.
+Tired of writing, tired of reading, of seeing, of hearing, and speaking;
+and yet blessed with a constitution that bid fair to carry him through
+another sixty years of life. He tried to argue about it. Was it possible
+that it came of living in a foreign country with whose people he had but
+a fancied sympathy? There are no folk like our own folk, after all; and
+there is truly a great gulf between Scandinavians and every other kind
+of people. But it seemed to Claudius that he loved the Germans and their
+ways--and indeed he did; but does not everyday experience show that the
+people we admire, and even love, the most are not necessarily those with
+whom we are most in sympathy or with whom it is best for us to live? He
+would have been better among his own Northern people; but that did not
+strike him, and he determined he would go to the Engadine to-morrow or
+next day.
+
+The Doctor, having made up his mind, shifted his position and sat up,
+pulling a pipe from his pocket, which he proceeded to fill and to light.
+The flame of the match was white and transparent in the mid-day glare,
+and the smoke hung lazily about as he puffed at the ungainly instrument
+of enjoyment.
+
+Before he had half finished his pipe he heard footsteps on the path. He
+looked up idly and saw a lady--_two_ ladies--coming leisurely towards
+him. Beyond the fact that it was an unusual hour for strangers to visit
+the Schloss--and they evidently were strangers--there was nothing
+unusual in the apparition; and Claudius merely rose to his feet and
+moved slowly on, not from any desire to get out of the way, but merely
+because he was too well bred to remain seated by the path while a lady
+passed, and having risen, he could not very well stand still. So he
+moved on till he stood by the broken tower, and seeing that by climbing
+down he could reach a more secure resting-place, with the advantage of a
+view, he let himself drop easily on to a projecting ledge of masonry and
+resumed his pipe with philosophic indifference. Before long he heard
+voices above him, or more properly a voice, for one of the parties
+confined her conversation strictly to yea and nay, while the other spoke
+enthusiastically, and almost as if soliloquising, about the scene.
+
+It was a deep-strung voice, that would have been masculine if it had
+been the least harsh; but it was not--it was only strong and large and
+smooth, a woman's voice with the gift of resonance that lends interest
+where there might otherwise seem to be none. There is a certain kind of
+voice in woman that seems to vibrate in a way especially its own.
+Whether it be that under certain conditions of the vocal organs
+harmonic sounds are produced as they may be upon a stringed instrument
+or upon an organ pipe; or whether, again, the secret lies deeper,
+depending on the subtile folding and unfolding of new-shaped waves of
+sound to which our ordinary ears are not used--who can tell? And yet
+there are voices that from the first produce upon us a strange
+impression unlike anything else in the world. Not that we necessarily
+become interested in the possessor of the voice, who may remain for ever
+utterly indifferent to us, for the magic lies in the tone merely, which
+seems to have a power of perpetuating itself and rebounding among the
+echoes of our recollections. Barely, very rarely, singers possess it,
+and even though their powers be limited there comes a strange thrill
+into their singing which fixes it indelibly on the memory.
+
+Such a voice it was that Claudius heard as he lay on his ledge of
+masonry some ten feet below, and listened to the poetic flow of the
+strange lady's thoughts on Heidelberg and the scene at her feet. He did
+not move, for he was sure she had not seen him; and he supposed she
+would go away in a few minutes. He was destined to be seen, however. She
+stopped talking, and was apparently lost in thought; but in a moment
+there was a small cry.
+
+"O mon Dieu!" and a dainty lace-covered parasol fell over the edge, and,
+striking the platform where Claudius was lying, went straight to the
+bottom of the ruin, some twenty feet farther.
+
+"What a nuisance," said the thrilling voice from above, "I can never get
+it back now; and there are no gardeners or people about."
+
+"Permit me, Madam," said Claudius, stepping as far out as he dared, and
+looking up to catch a glimpse of a beautiful woman in black and white
+staring down at the unlucky parasol in a rather helpless fashion. "Do
+not be disturbed, Madam; I will get it for you in a moment." And he
+began to descend.
+
+The fair unknown protested--Monsieur must not trouble himself; Monsieur
+would certainly break his neck--_enfin_, it was very obliging on the
+part of Monsieur to risk himself in such a terrible gulf, etc. etc. But
+"Monsieur," when once he had caught sight of those dark eyes, climbed
+steadily down to the bottom, and had reached the lost parasol before the
+string of polite protestations had ceased. The ascent was quickly
+accomplished, and he stood at the summit, hat in hand, to return the
+object of his search to its rightful owner. There was not a trace of
+embarrassment on his face; and he looked the foreign lady boldly in the
+eyes as he bowed. She could not express her thanks sufficiently, and
+would probably have wished to continue expressing them for some time
+longer to the handsome and herculean young man, who had apparently
+started out of space to her assistance; but when Claudius had taken a
+good look he simply answered--
+
+"Il n'y a pas de quoi, Madame," and bowing low walked off. Perhaps the
+least contraction of curiosity was in his eyes; and he would have liked
+to know who the lady was who had the crown and the large M carved in the
+ivory of her parasol stick. But, after all, he came to the conclusion
+that he did not care, and so went strolling down the path, wondering
+where he could hide himself if visitors were to infest the Schloss at
+this time of year, and in the hottest hours of the day.
+
+"I will leave here to-morrow," he said, "and see if I cannot be more
+comfortable in Pontresina." He reached another part of the Schloss, and
+sitting down resumed his pipe, which seemed destined to interruptions.
+
+The lady of the parasol had made an impression on Dr. Claudius, for all
+his apparent indifference. It was rarely, indeed, nowadays that he
+looked at a woman at all; and to-day he had not only looked, but he
+owned to himself, now it was past, that he would like to look again. If
+he had had any principle in avoiding women during the last few years, he
+would not have admitted now that he would like to see her again--just
+for one moment. But he had no principle in the matter. It was choice,
+and there it ended; and whenever he should take it into his head to
+associate with the fair sex again, he would consider it a sign that his
+youth had returned, and he would yield without the smallest struggle.
+But in this ease--"Pshaw!" thought the humble _privat-docent_, "she is
+some great lady, I suppose. How should I make her acquaintance? Oh! I
+forgot--I am a millionaire to-day; I have only to ask and it shall be
+opened." He smiled to himself, and, with the returning sense of the
+power to do what he pleased, the little undefined longing for another
+glimpse of the fair stranger subsided for a time.
+
+Then he regretted it. He was sorry it was gone; for while it had been
+there he had felt a something telling him he was not old after all, but
+only very young--so young that he had never been in love. As a
+consequence of his wishing his little rag of sentiment back again, it
+came; but artificially this time, and as if expecting to be criticised.
+He would contemplate for a space the fair picture that had the power to
+rouse his weary soul, even for an instant, from the sea of indifference
+in which it was plunged.
+
+Claudius lay back in the grass and crossed one leg over the other. Then
+he tried to recall the features of the woman who had begun to occupy his
+thoughts. She was certainly very beautiful. He could remember one or two
+points. Her skin was olive-tinted and dark about the eyes, and the eyes
+themselves were like soft burning amber, and her hair was very black.
+That was all he could recollect of her--saving her voice. Ah yes! he had
+seen beautiful women enough, even in his quiet life, but he had never
+heard anything exactly like this woman's tones. There are some sounds
+one never forgets. For instance, the glorious cry of the trumpeter swans
+in Iceland when they pass in full flight overhead in the early morning;
+or the sweet musical ring of the fresh black ice on the river as it
+clangs again to sweep of the steel skate. Claudius tried to compare the
+sound of that voice to something he had heard, but with little success.
+
+Southern and Eastern born races fall in love at first sight in a way
+that the soberer Northener cannot understand. A face in a crowd, a
+glance, a droop of the lashes, and all is said. The seed of passion is
+sown and will grow in a day to all destroying proportions. But the
+Northern heart is a very different affair. It will play with its
+affections as a cat plays with a mouse; only the difference is, that the
+mouse grows larger and more formidable, like the one in the story of the
+Eastern sage, which successively changed its shape until it became a
+tiger, and the wise man was driven to take precautions for his own
+safety. There is never the least doubt in the mind of an Italian or an
+Oriental when he is in love; but an Englishman will associate with a
+woman for ten years, and one day will wake up to the fact that he loves
+her, and has loved her probably for some time past. And then his whole
+manner changes immediately, and he is apt to make himself very
+disagreeable unless indeed the lady loves him--and women are rarely in
+doubt in their inmost hearts as to whether they love or not.
+
+The heart of the cold northern-born man is a strange puzzle. It can only
+be compared in its first awakening to a very backward spring. In the
+first place, the previous absence of anything like love has bred a rough
+and somewhat coarse scepticism about the existence of passion at all.
+Young Boreas scoffs at the mere mention of a serious affection, and
+turns up his nose at a love-match. He thinks young women no end of fun;
+his vanity makes him fancy himself the heartless hero of many an
+adventure, and if, as frequently happens, he is but an imperfect
+gentleman, he will not scruple to devise, imagine, and recount (to his
+bosom friend, of course, in strictest secrecy) some hairbreadth escape
+from an irate husband or an avenging father, where he has nearly lost
+his life, he says, in the pursuit of some woman, generally a lady of
+spotless reputation whom he barely knows. But put him in her society for
+an hour, with every opportunity of pressing his suit, and the veriest
+lambkin could not be more harmless. He has not yet tasted blood, though
+he will often smack his lips and talk as if he had.
+
+It is generally chance that makes him fall in love the first time. He is
+thrown together with his fate--tall or short, dark or fair, it makes no
+difference--in some country house or on some journey. For a long time
+her society only amuses him and helps to pass the hours, for Boreas is
+easily bored and finds time a terrible adversary. Gradually he
+understands that she is a necessity to his comfort, and there is nothing
+he will not do to secure her on every possible opportunity for himself.
+Then perhaps he allows to himself that he really does care a little, and
+he loses some of his incrustation of vanity. He feels less sure of
+himself, and his companions observe that he ceases to talk of his
+alleged good fortunes. Very, very slowly his real heart wakes up, and
+whatever is manly and serious and gentle in his nature comes
+unconsciously to the surface. Henceforth he knows he loves, and because
+his love has been slow to develop itself it is not necessarily sluggish
+or deficient when once it is come. But Englishmen are rarely heroic
+lovers except in their novels. There is generally a little bypath of
+caution, a postern gate of mercantile foresight, by which they can slip
+quietly out at the right moment and forget all about the whole thing.
+
+Claudius was not an Englishman, but a Scandinavian, and he differed from
+the imaginary young man described above in that he had a great broad
+reverence of woman and for woman's love. But it was all a theory, of
+which the practice to him was as yet unknown. He had soon wearied of the
+class of women he had met in his student-life--chiefly the daughters of
+respectable Heidelberg Philistines, of various degrees of south Teutonic
+prettiness; and the beautiful women of the world, of whom he had caught
+a glimpse in his travels had never seemed real enough to him to be in
+any way approached. He never had realised that his own personality,
+combined with his faultless manners, would have soon made him a
+favourite in what is called society, had he chosen to court it.
+
+After all, it was very vague this passing fancy for the dark-eyed woman
+of the Schloss. Perhaps Dr. Claudius watched his symptoms too narrowly,
+and was overmuch pleased at finding that something could still rouse a
+youthful thrill in him, after the sensation of old age that had of late
+oppressed him. A man, he said to himself, is not old so long as he can
+love--and be loved--well, so long as he can love, say, and let the rest
+take care of itself. And by and by the sun went westering down the hill,
+and he shook himself out of his dreams, and pocketed his book and turned
+homeward. His day, he thought, had not amounted to much after all, and
+he would spend the evening in sober study, and not dream any more until
+bedtime. But he would be sociable this evening and eat his supper--now
+he thought about it, it would be dinner and supper combined--in the
+company of his colleagues at their favourite haunt. And he would go
+to-morrow, he would certainly go to the Engadine.
+
+But to-morrow came, and the Herr Doctor looked out of his window as
+usual, and he did not go to Pontresina or anywhere else, nor the next
+day, nor the day after. Only up to the Schloss every day through the hot
+week, with his book and his pipe, and there he would lie and read and
+smoke, and say to himself, "To-morrow I will certainly go." There was
+something almost pathetic in Claudius, thus day after day revisiting the
+scene where he had experienced a momentary sensation of youth and
+vitality, where he had discovered, somewhat to his surprise, that he was
+still alive and full of strength and sanguine hope, when he thought
+himself so old. And lying among the ruins he called up the scene again
+and again, and the strange woman gradually got possession of his mind,
+as a cunning enchantress might, and she moulded his thoughts about her
+till they clung to her and burned. He did not seriously think to meet
+her again in the Schloss, if he thought of it at all, for he knew of
+course that she must have been a bird of passage, only pausing an
+instant on that hot day to visit some scene long familiar to her memory.
+And of course, like a true philosophical student, he did not attempt to
+explain to himself his own conduct, nor to catalogue the reasons for and
+against a daily visit to the old castle.
+
+So the week passed, and another after it, and one day, late in the
+afternoon, Claudius descended the hill and went up as usual to his
+chamber above the river, to spend an hour indoors before going to
+supper. It was a beautiful evening, and he left his door partly open on
+to the landing that the breeze might blow through the room as he sat by
+the window. A book was in his hand before he had sat many moments, from
+sheer force of habit; but he did not read. The sounds of the street rose
+pleasantly to his ear as the little boys and girls played together
+across each other's doorsteps. To tell the truth, it all seemed very far
+off, much farther than three flights of steps from the little crowd
+below to the solitary nest of learning aloft where he sat; and Dr.
+Claudius was, in his thoughts, incalculably far away from the
+shoemaker's Hans and the tinman's Gretel and their eight-year-old
+flirtation. Claudius was flirting with his fancies, and drawing pretty
+pictures in the smoke, with dark eyes and masses of black hair; and then
+he moved uneasily, and came back to his threadbare proposition that he
+was old, and that it was absurd that he should be.
+
+"Ah! what would I not give to enjoy it all--to feel I could wish one
+moment to remain!" He sighed and leaned back in the straight-backed
+chair. The door creaked slightly, he thought it was the evening wind. It
+creaked again; he turned his head, and his gaze remained riveted on the
+opening. A beautiful pair of dark eyes were fixed on him, deep and
+searching, and on meeting his, a great silky black head was pushed
+forward into the room, and a magnificent black hound stalked slowly
+across the floor and laid his head on the Doctor's knee with a look of
+evident inquiry.
+
+Claudius was fond of animals, and caressed the friendly beast, wondering
+to whom he might belong, and speculating whether the appearance of the
+dog heralded the approach of a visitor. But the dog was not one of those
+that he knew by sight in the streets of Heidelberg--one of those superb
+favourites of the students who are as well known as the professors
+themselves to every inhabitant of a university town in Germany. And the
+Doctor stroked the beautiful head and listened for steps upon the
+stairs. Before long he heard an ominous stumbling, as of some one
+unfamiliar with the dark and narrow way, and in a moment more a young
+man stood in the doorway, dazzled by the flood of the evening sunshine
+that faced him.
+
+"Mr. Claudius live here?" interrogated the stranger in a high and
+metallic, but gentlemanly voice.
+
+"I am Dr. Claudius," said the tenant of the old chair, rising politely.
+"Pray be seated, sir," and he offered his one seat to his visitor, who
+advanced into the middle of the room.
+
+He was a young man, dressed in the extreme of the English fashion. He
+was probably excessively thin, to judge by his face and neck and hands,
+but he was made up admirably. He removed his hat and showed a forehead
+of mediocre proportions, over which his dark hair was conscientiously
+parted in the middle. Though not in appearance robust, he wore a
+moustache that would not have disgraced a Cossack, his eyes were small,
+gray, and near together, and his complexion was bad. His feet were
+minute, and his hands bony.
+
+He took the offered chair, and Claudius sat down upon the bed, which was
+by no means so far removed in the little room as to make conversation at
+that distance difficult.
+
+"Dr. Claudius?" the stranger repeated, and the Doctor nodded gravely.
+"Dr. Claudius, the nephew of the late Mr. Gustavus Lindstrand of New
+York?"
+
+"The same, sir. May I inquire to what good fortune I am indebted--"
+
+"Oh! of course," interrupted the other, "I am Mr. Barker--Silas B.
+Barker junior of New York, and my father was your uncle's partner."
+
+"Indeed," said Claudius, rising and coming forward, "then we must shake
+hands again," and his face wore a pleasant expression. He thought
+nothing of first impressions, and was prepared to offer a hearty welcome
+to any friend of his uncle, even of the most unprepossessing type. Mr.
+Barker was not exactly unprepossessing; he was certainly not handsome,
+but there was a look of action about him that was not unpleasing.
+Claudius felt at once, however, that the American belonged to a type of
+humanity of which he knew nothing as yet. But they shook hands
+cordially, and the Doctor resumed his seat.
+
+"And is it long since you received the news, Professor?" inquired Mr.
+Barker, with the ready Transatlantic use of titles.
+
+"I heard of my uncle's death about three weeks ago--rather less."
+
+"Ah yes! And the news about the will--did you hear that?"
+
+"Certainly," said the Doctor; "I received the intelligence
+simultaneously."
+
+"Well," said the American, "do you propose to continue living here?"
+
+Claudius looked at his visitor. He was as yet unfamiliar with New World
+curiosity, and thought the question a rather strange one. However, he
+reflected that Mr. Barker's father might have some moral claim to know
+what his old partner's heir meant to do with his money; so he answered
+the question categorically.
+
+"I was, as perhaps you may imagine, greatly surprised at the
+intelligence that I had inherited a great fortune. But you will hardly
+understand, with your tastes,"--the Doctor glanced at Mr. Barker's
+faultless costume,--"that such abundant and unexpected wealth may not be
+to me a wholly unalloyed blessing." Claudius proceeded to explain how
+little he cared for the things that his money might bring him, and
+announced his intention of continuing his present mode of life some time
+longer. Mr. Silas B. Barker junior of New York opened his small eyes
+wider and wider, as his host set forth his views.
+
+"I should think you would be bored to death!" he said simply.
+
+"_Ennui_, in the ordinary sense, does not exist for a man whose life is
+devoted to study. What corresponds to it is a very different thing. I
+sometimes feel oppressed with a sense of profound dissatisfaction with
+what I am doing--"
+
+"I should think so," remarked Mr. Barker. Then, checking himself, he
+added, "I beg your pardon, don't misunderstand me. I can hardly conceive
+of leading such a life as yours. I could never be a professor."
+
+Claudius judged the statement to be strictly true. Mr. Barker did not
+look like a professor in the least. However, the Doctor wanted to be
+civil.
+
+"Have you just arrived? Have you seen our sights?"
+
+"Came last night from Baden-Baden. I have been here before. You had
+better come around to my hotel, and take dinner with me. But first we
+will drive somewhere and get cool."
+
+Claudius put on his best coat and combed his hair, apologising to Mr.
+Barker for the informality. Mr. Barker watched him, and thought he would
+make a sensation in New York.
+
+"We might go up to the castle," said the American, when they were seated
+in the carriage. So to the castle they went, and, leaving their carriage
+at the entrance, strolled slowly through the grounds till they reached
+the broken tower.
+
+"If they had used dynamite," said Mr. Barker, "they would have sent the
+whole thing flying across the river."
+
+"It would have been less picturesque afterwards," said Claudius.
+
+"It would have been more effective at the time."
+
+Claudius was thinking of the dark woman and her parasol, and how he had
+climbed down there a few weeks before. To show to himself that he did
+not care, he told his companion the incident as graphically as he could.
+His description of the lady was so graphic that Mr. Barker screwed up
+his eyes and put out his jaw, so that two great lines circled on his
+sallow face from just above the nostril, under his heavy moustache to
+his chin.
+
+"I could almost fancy I had seen her somewhere," said he.
+
+"Where?" asked Claudius eagerly.
+
+"I thought he would give himself away," was the American's terse inward
+reflection; but he answered coolly--
+
+"I don't know, I am sure. Very likely I am mistaken. It was pretty
+romantic though. Ask me to the wedding, Professor."
+
+"What wedding?"
+
+"Why, when you marry the fascinating creature with the parasol."
+
+Claudius looked at Mr. Barker with some astonishment.
+
+"Do you generally manage things so quickly in your country?"
+
+"Oh, I was only joking," returned the American. "But, of course, you can
+marry anybody you like, and why not the dark lady? On the whole, though,
+if I were you, I would like to astonish the natives before I left. Now,
+you might buy the castle here and turn it into a hotel."
+
+"Horrible!" ejaculated Claudius.
+
+"No worse than making a hotel of Switzerland, which is an older and more
+interesting monument than the castle of Heidelberg."
+
+"Epigrammatic, but fallacious, Mr. Barker."
+
+"Epigrams and proverbs are generally that."
+
+"I think," said Claudius, "that proverbs are only fallacious when they
+are carelessly applied."
+
+"Very likely. Life is too short to waste time over weapons that will
+only go off in some singular and old-fashioned way. When I start out to
+do any shooting, I want to hit."
+
+So they went to dinner. Claudius found himself becoming gayer in the
+society of his new acquaintance than he had been for some time past. He
+could not have said whether he liked him or thought him interesting, but
+he had a strong impression that there was something somewhere, he could
+not tell what, which Mr. Barker understood thoroughly, and in which he
+might show to great advantage. He felt that however superficial and
+unartistic the American might be, he was nevertheless no fool. There was
+something keen and sharp-edged about him that proclaimed a character
+capable of influencing men, and accustomed to deal boldly and daringly
+with life.
+
+They dined as well as could be expected in a country which is not
+gastronomic, and Mr. Barker produced a rare brand of cigars, without
+which, he informed his guest, he never travelled. They were fat brown
+Havanas, and Claudius enjoyed them.
+
+"Let us go to Baden-Baden," said Barker, sucking at his weed, which
+protruded from his immense moustache like a gun under the raised
+port-hole of an old-fashioned man-of-war.
+
+"If I were seeking innocent recreation from my labours, that is not
+exactly the spot I would choose to disport myself in," replied Claudius.
+"The scenery is good, but the people are detestable."
+
+"I agree with you; but it is a nice place for all that. You can always
+gamble to pass the time."
+
+"I never play games of chance, and there is no play in Baden now."
+
+"Principle or taste, Professor?"
+
+"I suppose I must allow that it is principle. I used to play a little
+when I was a student; but I do not believe in leaving anything to
+fortune. I would not do it in anything else."
+
+"Well, I suppose you are right; but you miss a great deal of healthy
+excitement. You have never known the joys of being short of a thousand
+N.P. or Wabash on a rising market."
+
+"I fear I do not understand the illustration, Mr. Barker."
+
+"No? Well, it is not to be wondered at. Perhaps if you ever come to New
+York you will take an interest in the stock market."
+
+"Ah--you were referring to stocks? Yes, I have read a little about your
+methods of business, but that kind of study is not much in my line. Why
+do you say Baden, though, instead of some quiet place?"
+
+"I suppose I like a crowd. Besides, there are some people I know there.
+But I want you to go with me, and if you would rather not go to
+Baden-Baden, we can go somewhere else. I really think we ought to become
+better acquainted, and I may prevail on you to go with me to New York."
+
+Claudius was silent, and he blew a great cloud of smoke. What sort of a
+travelling companion would Mr. Barker be for him? Could there be a
+greater contrast to his own nature? And yet he felt that he would like
+to observe Mr. Barker. He felt drawn to him without knowing why, and he
+had a presentiment that the American would drag him out of his quiet
+life into a very different existence. Mr. Barker, on the other hand,
+possessed the showman's instinct. He had found a creature who, he was
+sure, had the elements of a tremendous lion about town; and having found
+him, he meant to capture him and exhibit him in society, and take to
+himself ever after the credit of having unearthed the handsome, rich,
+and talented Dr. Claudius from a garret in Heidelberg. What a story that
+would be to tell next year, when Claudius, clothed and clipped, should
+be marrying the girl of the season, or tooling his coach down the
+Newport avenue, or doing any of the other fashionable and merry things
+that Americans love to do in spring and summer!
+
+So Mr. Barker insisted on driving Claudius back to his lodging, though
+it was only five minutes' walk, and exacted a promise that the Doctor
+should take him on the morrow to a real German breakfast at the Fauler
+Pelz, and that they would "start off somewhere" in the afternoon.
+
+Claudius said he had enjoyed a very pleasant evening, and went up to his
+room, where he read an elaborate article on the vortex theory by
+Professor Helmholtz, with which, having dipped into transcendental
+geometry, he was inclined to find fault; and then he went calmly to bed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+Claudius told his old landlord--his _philister_, as he would have called
+him--that he was going away on his customary foot tour for a month or
+so. He packed a book and a few things in his knapsack and joined Mr.
+Barker. To Claudius in his simplicity there was nothing incongruous in
+his travelling as a plain student in the company of the
+exquisitely-arrayed New Yorker, and the latter was far too much a man of
+the world to care what his companion wore. He intended that the Doctor
+should be introduced to the affectionate skill of a London tailor before
+he was much older, and he registered a vow that the long yellow hair
+should be cut. But these details were the result of his showman's
+intuition; personally, he would as readily have travelled with Claudius
+had he affected the costume of a shoeblack. He knew that the man was
+very rich, and he respected his eccentricity for the present. To
+accomplish the transformation of exterior which he contemplated, from
+the professional and semi-cynic garb to the splendour of a swell of the
+period, Mr. Barker counted on some more potent influence than his own.
+The only point on which his mind was made up was that Claudius must
+accompany him to America and create a great sensation.
+
+"I wonder if we shall meet her," remarked Mr. Barker reflectively, when
+they were seated in the train.
+
+"Whom?" asked Claudius, who did not intend to understand his companion's
+chaff.
+
+But Mr. Barker had shot his arrow, and started cleverly as he answered--
+
+"Did I say anything? I must have been talking to myself."
+
+Claudius was not so sure. However, the hint had produced its effect,
+falling, as it did, into the vague current of his thoughts and giving
+them direction. He began to wonder whether there was any likelihood of
+his meeting the woman of whom he had thought so much, and before long he
+found himself constructing a conversation, supposed to take place on
+their first encounter, overleaping such trifles as probability, the
+question of an introduction, and other formalities with the ready
+agility of a mind accustomed to speculation.
+
+"The scenery is fine, is it not?" remarked Claudius tritely as they
+neared Baden.
+
+"Oh yes, for Europe. We manage our landscapes better in America."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"Swivels. You can turn the rocks around and see the other side."
+
+Claudius laughed a little, but Barker did not smile. He was apparently
+occupied in inventing a patent transformation landscape on wheels. In
+reality, he was thinking out a _menu_ for dinner whereby he might feed
+his friend without starving himself. For Mr. Barker was particular about
+his meals, and accustomed to fare sumptuously every day, whereas he had
+observed that the Doctor was fond of sausages and decayed cabbage. But
+he knew such depraved tastes could not long withstand the blandishments
+and caressing hypersensualism of Delmonico, if he ever got the Doctor so
+far.
+
+Having successfully accomplished the business of dining, Mr. Barker
+promised to return in an hour, and sallied out to find the British
+aristocracy, whom he knew. The British aristocracy was taking his coffee
+in solitude at the principal _cafe_, and hailed Mr. Barker's advent with
+considerable interest, for they had tastes in common.
+
+"How are you, Duke?"
+
+"Pretty fit, thanks. Where have you been?"
+
+"Oh, all over. I was just looking for you."
+
+"Yes?" said the aristocracy interrogatively.
+
+"Yes. I want you to introduce me to somebody you know."
+
+"Pleasure. Who?"
+
+"She has black eyes and dark hair, very dark complexion, middling
+height, fine figure; carries an ivory-handled parasol with a big M and a
+crown." Mr. Barker paused for a look of intelligence on the Englishman's
+face.
+
+"Sure she's here?" inquired the latter.
+
+"I won't swear. She was seen in Heidelberg, admiring views and dropping
+her parasol about, something like three weeks ago."
+
+"Oh! ah, yes. Come on." And the British aristocracy settled the rose in
+his button-hole and led the way. He moved strongly with long steps, but
+Mr. Barker walked delicately like Agag.
+
+"By the by, Barker, she is a countrywoman of yours. She married a
+Russian, and her name is Margaret."
+
+"Was it a happy marriage?" asked the American, taking his cigar from his
+mouth.
+
+"Exceedingly. Husband killed at Plevna. Left her lots of tin."
+
+They reached their destination. The Countess was at home. The Countess
+was enchanted to make the acquaintance of Monsieur, and on learning that
+he was an American and a compatriot, was delighted to see him. They
+conversed pleasantly. In the course of twenty minutes the aristocracy
+discovered he had an engagement and departed, but Mr. Barker remained.
+It was rather stretching his advantage, but he did not lack confidence.
+
+"So you, too, Countess, have been in Heidelberg this summer?"
+
+"About three weeks ago. I am very fond of the old place."
+
+"Lovely, indeed," said Barker. "The castle, the old tower half blown
+away in that slovenly war--"
+
+"Oh, such a funny thing happened to me there," exclaimed the Countess
+Margaret, innocently falling into the trap. "I was standing just at the
+edge with Miss Skeat--she is my companion, you know--and I dropped my
+parasol, and it fell rattling to the bottom, and suddenly there started,
+apparently out of space--"
+
+"A German professor, seven or eight feet high, who bounded after the
+sunshade, and bounded back and bowed and left you to your astonishment.
+Is not that what you were going to say, Countess?"
+
+"I believe you are a medium," said the Countess, looking at Barker in
+astonishment. "But perhaps you only guessed it. Can you tell me what he
+was like, this German professor?"
+
+"Certainly. He had long yellow hair, and a beard like Rip van Winkle's,
+and large white hands; and he was altogether one of the most striking
+individuals you ever saw."
+
+"It is evident that you know him, Mr. Barker, and that he has told you
+the story. Though how you should have known it was I--"
+
+"Guess-work and my friend's description."
+
+"But how do you come to be intimate with German professors, Mr. Barker?
+Are you learned, and that sort of thing?"
+
+"He was a German professor once. He is now an eccentricity without a
+purpose. Worth millions, and living in a Heidelberg garret, wishing he
+were poor again."
+
+"What an interesting creature! Tell me more, please."
+
+Barker told as much of Claudius's history as he knew.
+
+"Too delightful!" ejaculated the Countess Margaret, looking out of the
+window rather pensively.
+
+"Countess," said the American, "if I had enjoyed the advantage of your
+acquaintance even twenty-four hours I would venture to ask leave to
+present my friend to you. As it is--" Mr. Barker paused.
+
+"As it is I will grant you the permission unasked," said the Countess
+quietly, still looking out of the window. "I am enough of an American
+still to know that your name is a guarantee for any one you introduce."
+
+"You are very kind," said Mr. Barker modestly. Indeed the name of Barker
+had long been honourably known in connection with New York enterprise.
+The Barkers were not Dutch, it is true, but they had the next highest
+title to consideration in that their progenitor had dwelt in Salem,
+Massachusetts.
+
+"Bring him in the morning," said the Countess, after a moment's thought.
+
+"About two?"
+
+"Oh no! At eleven or so. I am a very early person. I get up at the
+screech of dawn."
+
+"Permit me to thank you on behalf of my friend as well as for myself,"
+said Mr. Barker, bending low over the dark lady's hand as he took his
+departure.
+
+"So glad to have seen you. It is pleasant to meet a civilised countryman
+in these days."
+
+"It can be nothing to the pleasure of meeting a charming countrywoman,"
+replied Mr. Barker, and he glided from the room.
+
+The dark lady stood for a moment looking at the door through which her
+visitor had departed. It was almost nine o'clock by this time, and she
+rang for lights, subsiding into a low chair while the servant brought
+them. The candles flickered in the light breeze that fanned fitfully
+through the room, and, finding it difficult to read, the Countess sent
+for Miss Skeat.
+
+"What a tiny little world it is!" said Margaret, by way of opening the
+conversation.
+
+Miss Skeat sat down by the table. She was thin and yellow, and her bones
+were on the outside. She wore gold-rimmed eyeglasses, and was well
+dressed, in plain black, with a single white ruffle about her long and
+sinewy neck. She was hideous, but she had a certain touch of dignified
+elegance, and her face looked trustworthy and not unkind.
+
+"Apropos of anything especial?" asked she, seeing that the Countess
+expected her to say something.
+
+"Do you remember when I dropped my parasol at Heidelberg?"
+
+"Perfectly," replied Miss Skeat.
+
+"And the man who picked it up, and who looked like Niemann in
+_Lohengrin_?"
+
+"Yes, and who must have been a professor. I remember very well."
+
+"A friend of mine brought a friend of his to see me this afternoon, and
+the man himself is coming to-morrow."
+
+"What is his name?" asked the lady-companion.
+
+"I am sure I don't know, but Mr. Barker says he is very eccentric. He is
+very rich, and yet he lives in a garret in Heidelberg and wishes he were
+poor."
+
+"Are you quite sure he is in his right mind, dear Countess?"
+
+Margaret looked kindly at Miss Skeat. Poor lady! she had been rich once,
+and had not lived in a garret. Money to her meant freedom and
+independence. Not that she was unhappy with Margaret, who was always
+thoughtful and considerate, and valued her companion as a friend; but
+she would rather have lived with Margaret feeling it was a matter of
+choice and not of necessity, for she came of good Scottish blood, and
+was very proud.
+
+"Oh yes!" answered the younger lady; "he is very learned and
+philosophical, and I am sure you will like him. If he is at all
+civilised we will have him to dinner."
+
+"By all means," said Miss Skeat with alacrity. She liked intelligent
+society, and the Countess had of late indulged in a rather prolonged fit
+of solitude. Miss Skeat took the last novel--one of Tourgueneff's--from
+the table and, armed with a paper-cutter, began to read to her
+ladyship.
+
+It was late when Mr. Barker found Claudius scribbling equations on a
+sheet of the hotel letter-paper. The Doctor looked up pleasantly at his
+friend. He could almost fancy he had missed his society a little; but
+the sensation was too novel a one to be believed genuine.
+
+"Did you find your friends?" he inquired.
+
+"Yes, by some good luck. It is apt to be the other people one finds, as
+a rule."
+
+"Cynicism is not appropriate to your character, Mr. Barker."
+
+"No. I hate cynical men. It is generally affectation, and it is always
+nonsense. But I think the wrong people have a way of turning up at the
+wrong moment." After a pause, during which Mr. Barker lighted a cigar
+and extended his thin legs and trim little feet on a chair in front of
+him, he continued:
+
+"Professor, have you a very strong and rooted dislike to the society of
+women?"
+
+Assailed by this point-blank question, the Doctor put his bit of paper
+inside his book, and drumming on the table with his pencil, considered a
+moment. Mr. Barker puffed at his cigar with great regularity.
+
+"No," said Claudius at last, "certainly not. To woman man owes his life,
+and to woman he ought to owe his happiness. Without woman civilisation
+would be impossible, and society would fall to pieces."
+
+"Oh!" ejaculated Mr. Barker.
+
+"I worship woman in the abstract and in the concrete. I reverence her
+mission, and I honour the gifts of Heaven which fit her to fulfil it."
+
+"Ah!" exclaimed Mr. Barker.
+
+"I think there is nothing made in creation that can be compared with
+woman, not even man. I am enthusiastic, of course, you will say, but I
+believe that homage and devotion to woman is the first duty of man,
+after homage and devotion to the Supreme Being whom all different races
+unite in describing as God."
+
+"That will do, thank you," said Mr. Barker, "I am quite satisfied of
+your adoration, and I will not ask her name."
+
+"She has no name, and she has all names," continued Claudius seriously.
+"She is an ideal."
+
+"Yes, my feeble intelligence grasps that she cannot be anything else.
+But I did not want a confession of faith. I only asked if you disliked
+ladies' society, because I was going to propose to introduce you to some
+friends of mine here."
+
+"Oh!" said Claudius, and he leaned back in his chair and stared at the
+lamp. Barker was silent.
+
+The Doctor was puzzled. He thought it would be very rude of him to
+refuse Mr. Barker's offer. On the other hand, in spite of his
+protestations of devotion to the sex, he knew that the exalted opinion
+he held of woman in general had gained upon him of late years, since he
+had associated less with them. It was with him a beautiful theory, the
+outcome of a knightly nature thrown back on itself, but as yet not fixed
+or clearly defined by any intimate knowledge of woman's character, still
+less by any profound personal experience of love. Courtesy was uppermost
+as he answered.
+
+"Really," he said at last, "if you are very desirous of presenting me to
+your friends, of course I--"
+
+"Oh, only if it is agreeable to you, of course. If it is in any way
+the reverse--" protested the polite Mr. Barker.
+
+"Not that--not exactly disagreeable. Only it is some time since I have
+enjoyed the advantage of an hour's conversation with ladies; and
+besides, since it comes to that, I am here as a pedestrian, and I do not
+present a very civilised appearance."
+
+"Don't let that disturb you. Since you consent," went on Mr. Barker,
+briskly taking everything for granted, "I may tell you that the lady in
+question has expressed a wish to have you presented, and that I could
+not do less than promise to bring you if possible. As for your personal
+appearance, it is not of the least consequence. Perhaps, if you don't
+mind a great deal, you might have your hair cut. Don't be offended,
+Professor, but nothing produces an appearance of being dressed so
+infallibly as a neatly-trimmed head."
+
+"Oh, certainly, if you think it best, I will have my hair cut. It will
+soon grow again."
+
+Mr. Barker smiled under the lambrikin of his moustache. "Yes," thought
+he, "but it sha'n't."
+
+"Then," he said aloud, "we will go about eleven."
+
+Claudius sat wondering who the lady could be who wanted to have him
+presented. But he was afraid to ask; Barker would immediately suppose he
+imagined it to be the dark lady. However, his thoughts took it as a
+certainty that it must be she, and went on building castles in the air
+and conversations in the clouds. Barker watched him and probably guessed
+what he was thinking of; but he did not want to spoil the surprise he
+had arranged, and fearing lest Claudius might ask some awkward question,
+he went to bed, leaving the Doctor to his cogitations.
+
+In the morning he lay in wait for his friend, who had gone off for an
+early walk in the woods. He expected that a renewal of the attack would
+be necessary before the sacrifice of the yellow locks could be
+accomplished, and he stood on the steps of the hotel, clad in the most
+exquisite of grays, tapering down to the most brilliant of boots. He had
+a white rose in his buttonhole, and his great black dog was lying at his
+feet, having for a wonder found his master, for the beast was given to
+roaming, or to the plebeian society of Barker's servant. The American's
+careful attire contrasted rather oddly with his sallow face, and with
+the bony hand that rested against the column. He was a young man, but he
+looked any age that morning. Before long his eye twinkled and he changed
+his position expectantly, for he saw the tall figure of Claudius
+striding up the street, a head and shoulders above the strolling crowd;
+and, wonderful to relate, the hair was gone, the long beard was
+carefully clipped and trimmed, and the Doctor wore a new gray hat!
+
+"If he will black his boots and put a rose in his coat, he will do. What
+a tearing swell he will be when he is dressed," thought Mr. Barker, as
+he looked at his friend.
+
+"You see I have followed your advice," said Claudius, holding out his
+hand.
+
+"Always do that, and you will yet taste greatness," said the other
+cheerfully. "You look like a crown prince like that. Perfectly immense."
+
+"I suppose I am rather big," said Claudius apologetically, not catching
+the American idiom. Mr. Barker, however, did not explain himself, for he
+was thinking of other things.
+
+"We will go very soon. Excuse the liberty, Professor, but you might have
+your boots blacked. There is a little cad down the backstairs who does
+it."
+
+"Of course," answered Claudius, and disappeared within. A small man who
+was coming out paused and turned to look after him, putting up his
+eyeglass. Then he took off his hat to Mr. Barker.
+
+"Pardon, Monsieur," he began, "if I take the liberty of making an
+inquiry, but could you inform me of the name of that gentleman, whose
+appearance fills me with astonishment, and whose vast dimensions obscure
+the landscape of Baden?"
+
+Mr. Barker looked at the small man for a moment very gravely.
+
+"Yes," said he pensively, "his royal highness _is_ a large man
+certainly." And while his interlocutor was recovering enough to
+formulate another question, Mr. Barker moved gently away to a
+flowerstand.
+
+When Claudius returned his friend was waiting for him, and himself
+pinned a large and expensive rose in the Doctor's buttonhole. Mr. Barker
+surveyed his work--the clipped head, the new hat, the shiny boots and
+the rose--with a satisfied air, such as Mr. Barnum may have worn when he
+landed Jumbo on the New York pier. Then he called a cab, and they drove
+away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+The summer breath of the roses blew sweetly in through the long windows
+of the Countess's morning-room from the little garden outside as Barker
+and Claudius entered. There was an air of inhabited luxury which was
+evidently congenial to the American, for he rubbed his hands softly
+together and touched one or two objects caressingly while waiting for
+the lady of the house. Claudius glanced at the table and took up a book,
+with that singular student habit that is never lost. It was a volume of
+English verse, and in a moment he was reading, just as he stood, with
+his hat caught between the fingers that held the book, oblivious of
+countesses and visits and formalities. There was a rustle and a step on
+the garden walk, and both men turned towards the open glass door.
+Claudius almost dropped the vellum-covered poet, and was very
+perceptibly startled as he recognised the lady of his Heidelberg
+adventure--the woman who had got, as by magic, a hold over his thoughts,
+so that he dreamed of her and wondered about her, sleeping and waking.
+
+Dark-eyed Countess Margaret, all clad in pure white, the smallest of
+lace fichus just dropped over her heavy hair, moved smoothly up the
+steps and into the room.
+
+"Good morning, Mr. Barker, I am so glad you have come," said she,
+graciously extending her hand in the cordial Transatlantic fashion.
+
+"Permit me to present my friend, Professor Claudius," said Barker.
+Claudius bowed very low. The plunge was over, and he recovered his
+outward calm, whatever he might feel.
+
+"Mr. Barker flatters me, Madam," he said quietly. "I am not a professor,
+but only a private lecturer."
+
+"I am too far removed from anything learned to make such distinctions,"
+said the Countess. "But since good fortune has brought you into the
+circle of my ignorance, let me renew my thanks for the service you did
+me in Heidelberg the other day."
+
+Claudius bowed and murmured something inaudible.
+
+"Or had you not realised that I was the heroine of the parasol at the
+broken tower?" asked Margaret smiling, as she seated herself in a low
+chair and motioned to her guests to follow her example. Barker selected
+a comfortable seat, and arranged the cushion to suit him before he
+subsided into repose, but the Doctor laid hands on a stern and
+solid-looking piece of carving, and sat upright facing the Countess.
+
+"Pardon me," said he, "I had. But it is always startling to realise a
+dream." The Countess looked at Claudius rather inquiringly; perhaps she
+had not expected he was the sort of man to begin an acquaintance by
+making compliments. However, she said nothing, and he continued, "Do you
+not always find it so?"
+
+"The bearded hermit is no duffer," thought Mr. Barker. "He will say
+grace over the whole barrel of pork."
+
+"Ah! I have few dreams," replied the Countess, "and when I do have any,
+I never realise them. I am a very matter-of-fact person."
+
+"What matters the fact when you are the person, Madam?" retorted
+Claudius, fencing for a discussion of some kind.
+
+"Immense," thought Mr. Barker, changing one leg over the other and
+becoming interested.
+
+"Does that mean anything, or is it only a pretty paradox?" asked the
+lady, observing that Claudius had thrown himself boldly into a crucial
+position. Upon his answer would probably depend her opinion of him as
+being either intelligent or _banal_. It is an easy matter to frame
+paradoxical questions implying a compliment, but it is no light task to
+be obliged to answer them oneself. Claudius was not thinking of
+producing an effect, for the fascination of the dark woman was upon him,
+and the low, strange voice bewitched him, so he said what came
+uppermost.
+
+"Yes," said he, "there are persons whose lives may indeed be matters of
+fact to themselves--who shall say?--but who are always dreams in the
+lives of others."
+
+"Charming," laughed the Countess, "do you always talk like that,
+Professor Claudius?"
+
+"I have always thought," Mr. Barker remarked in his high-set voice,
+"that I would like to be the dream of somebody's life. But somehow
+things have gone against me."
+
+The other two laughed. He did not strike one as the sort of individual
+who would haunt the love-sick dreams of a confiding heart.
+
+"I would rather it were the other way," said Claudius thoughtfully.
+
+"And I," rejoined the American, "would drink perdition to the
+unattainable."
+
+"Either I do not agree with you, Mr. Barker," said the Countess, "or
+else I believe nothing is unattainable."
+
+"I implore you to be kind, and believe the latter," he answered
+courteously.
+
+"Come, I will show you my garden," said Margaret rising. "It is
+pleasanter in the open air." She led the way out through the glass door,
+the men walking on her right and left.
+
+"I am very fond of my garden," she said, "and I take great care of it
+when I am here." She stopped and pulled two or three dead leaves off a
+rosebush to illustrate her profession of industry.
+
+"And do you generally live here?" asked Claudius, who was as yet in
+complete ignorance of the Countess's name, title, nationality, and mode
+of life, for Mr. Barker had, for some occult reason, left him in the
+dark.
+
+Perhaps the Countess guessed as much, for she briefly imparted a good
+deal of information.
+
+"When Count Alexis, my husband, was alive, we lived a great deal in
+Russia. But I am an American like Mr. Barker, and I occasionally make a
+trip to my native country. However, I love this place in summer, and I
+always try to be here. That is my friend, Miss Skeat, who lives with
+me."
+
+Miss Skeat was stranded under a tree with a newspaper and several books.
+Her polished cheekbones and knuckles glimmered yellow in the shade. By
+her side was a long cane chair, in which lay a white silk wrap and a bit
+of needlework, tumbled together as the Countess had left them when she
+went in to receive her visitors. Miss Skeat rose as the party
+approached. The Countess introduced the two men, who bowed low, and they
+all sat down, Mr. Barker on the bench by the ancient virgin, and
+Claudius on the grass at Margaret's feet. It was noonday, but there was
+a light breeze through, the flowers and grasses. The conversation soon
+fell into pairs as they sat.
+
+"I should not have said, at first sight, that you were a very
+imaginative person, Dr. Claudius," said the Countess.
+
+"I have been dreaming for years," he answered. "I am a mathematician,
+and of late I have become a philosopher in a small way, as far as that
+is possible from reading the subject. There are no two branches of
+learning that require more imagination than mathematics and philosophy."
+
+"Philosophy, perhaps," she replied, "but mathematics--I thought that was
+an exact science, where everything was known, and there was no room for
+dreaming."
+
+"I suppose that is the general impression. But do you think it requires
+no imagination to conceive a new application of knowledge, to invent new
+methods where old ones are inadequate, to lay out a route through the
+unknown land beyond the regions of the known?"
+
+"Ordinary people, like me, associate mathematics with measurement and
+figures and angles."
+
+"Yes," said Claudius, "but it is the same as though you confused
+religion with its practical results. If the religion is true at all, it
+would be just as true if man did not exist, and if it consequently had
+no application to life."
+
+"I understand the truth of that, though we might differ about the word.
+So you have been dreaming for years--and what were your dreams like?"
+The Countess looked down earnestly at Claudius, who in his turn looked
+at her with a little smile. She thought he was different from other men,
+and he was wondering how much of his dreams he might tell her.
+
+"Of all sorts," he answered, still looking up into her face. "Bitter and
+sweet. I have dreamed of the glory of life and of mind-power, of the
+accomplishment of the greatest good to the greatest number; I have
+believed the extension of science possible 'beyond the bounds of all
+imaginable experience' into the realms of the occult and hidden; I have
+wandered with Hermes by the banks of the Nile, with Gautama along the
+mud-flats of the Ganges. I have disgusted myself with the writings of
+those who would reduce all history and religion to solar myths, and I
+have striven to fathom the meaning of those whose thoughts are profound
+and their hearts noble, but their speech halting. I have dreamed many
+things, Countess, and the worst is that I have lived to weary of my
+dreams, and to say that all things are vanity--all save one," he added
+with hesitation. There was a momentary pause.
+
+"Of course," Mr. Barker was saying to Miss Skeat, with a fascinating
+smile, "I have the greatest admiration for Scotch heroism. John Grahame
+of Claver-house. Who can read Macaulay's account--"
+
+"Ah," interrupted the old gentlewoman, "if you knew how I feel about
+these odious calumnies!"
+
+"I quite understand that," said Barker sympathetically. He had
+discovered Miss Skeat's especial enthusiasm.
+
+Margaret turned again to the Doctor.
+
+"And may I ask, without indiscretion, what the one dream may be that you
+have refused to relegate among the vanities?"
+
+"Woman," answered Claudius, and was silent.
+
+The Countess thought the Doctor spoke ironically, and she laughed aloud,
+half amused and half annoyed. "I am in earnest," said Claudius,
+plucking a blade of grass and twisting it round his finger.
+
+"Truly?" asked she.
+
+"Foi de gentilhomme!" he answered.
+
+"But Mr. Barker told me you lived like a hermit."
+
+"That is the reason it has been a dream," said he.
+
+"You have not told me what the dream was like. What beautiful things
+have you fancied about us?"
+
+"I have dreamed of woman's mission, and of woman's love. I have fancied
+that woman and woman's love represented the ruling spirit, as man and
+man's brain represent the moving agent, in the world. I have drawn
+pictures of an age in which real chivalry of word and thought and deed
+might be the only law necessary to control men's actions. Not the scenic
+and theatrical chivalry of the middle age, ready at any moment to break
+out into epidemic crime, but a true reverence and understanding of
+woman's supreme right to honour and consideration; an age wherein it
+should be no longer coarsely said that love is but an episode in the
+brutal life of man, while to woman it is life itself. I have dreamed
+that the eternal womanhood of the universe beckoned me to follow."
+
+The Countess could not take her eyes off Claudius. She had never met a
+man like him; at least she had never met a man who plunged into this
+kind of talk after half an hour's acquaintance. There was a thrill of
+feeling in her smooth deep voice when she answered: "If all men thought
+as you think, the world would be a very different place."
+
+"It would be a better place in more ways than one," he replied.
+
+"And yet you yourself call it a dream," said Margaret, musing.
+
+"It is only you, Countess, who say that dreams are never realised."
+
+"And do you expect to realise yours?"
+
+"Yes--I do." He looked at her with his bold blue eyes, and she thought
+they sparkled.
+
+"Tell me," she asked, "are you going to preach a crusade for the
+liberation of our sex? Do you mean to bring about the great change in
+the social relations of the world? Is it you who will build up the
+pedestal which we are to mount and from which we shall survey countless
+ranks of adoring men?"
+
+"Do you not see, as you look down on me from your throne, from this
+chair, that I have begun already?" answered Claudius, smiling, and
+making a pretence of folding his hands.
+
+"No," said the Countess, overlooking his last speech; "if you had any
+convictions about it, as you pretend to have, you would begin at once
+and revolutionise the world in six months. What is the use of dreaming?
+It is not dreamers who make history."
+
+"No, it is more often women. But tell me, Countess, do you approve of my
+crusade? Am I not right? Have I your sanction?"
+
+Margaret was silent. Mr. Barker's voice was heard again, holding forth
+to Miss Skeat.
+
+"In all ages," he said, with an air of conviction, "the aristocracy of a
+country have been in reality the leaders of its thought and science and
+enlightenment. Perhaps the form of aristocracy most worthy of admiration
+is that time-honoured institution of pre-eminent families, the Scottish
+clan, the Hebrew tribe--"
+
+Claudius overheard and opened his eyes. It seemed to him that Barker was
+talking nonsense. Margaret smiled, for she knew her companion well, and
+understood in a moment that the American had discovered her hobby, and
+was either seeking to win her good graces, or endeavouring to amuse
+himself by inducing her to air her views. But Claudius returned to the
+charge.
+
+"What is it to be, Countess?" he asked. "Am I to take up arms and sail
+out and conquer the universe, and bring it bound to your feet to do you
+homage; or shall I go back to my turret chamber in Heidelberg?"
+
+"Your simile seems to me to be appropriate," said Margaret. "I am sure
+your forefathers must have been Vikings."
+
+"They were," replied Claudius, "for I am a Scandinavian. Shall I go out
+and plunder the world for your benefit? Shall I make your universality,
+your general expression, woman, sovereign over my general expression,
+man?"
+
+"Considering who is to be the gainer," she answered, laughing, "I cannot
+well withhold my consent. When will you begin?"
+
+"Now."
+
+"And how?"
+
+"How should I begin," said he, a smile on his face, and the light
+dancing in his eyes, "except by making myself the first convert?"
+
+Margaret was used enough to pretty speeches, in earnest and in jest, but
+she thought she had never heard any one turn them more readily than the
+yellow-bearded student.
+
+"And Mr. Barker," she asked, "will you convert him?"
+
+"Can you look at him at this moment, Countess, and say you really think
+he needs it?"
+
+She glanced at the pair on the bench, and laughed again, in the air,
+for it was apparent that Mr. Barker had made a complete conquest of Miss
+Skeat. He had led the conversation about tribes to the ancient practices
+of the North American Indians, and was detailing their customs with
+marvellous fluency. A scientific hearer might have detected some
+startling inaccuracies, but Miss Skeat listened with rapt attention.
+Who, indeed, should know more about Indians than a born American who had
+travelled in the West?
+
+The Countess turned the conversation to other subjects, and talked
+intelligently about books. She evidently read a great deal, or rather
+she allowed Miss Skeat to read to her, and her memory was good. Claudius
+was not behind in sober criticism of current literature, though his
+reading had been chiefly of a tougher kind. Time flew by quickly, and
+when the two men rose to go their visit had lasted two hours.
+
+"You will report the progress of your conquest?" said the Countess to
+Claudius as she gave him her hand, which he stooped to kiss in the good
+old German fashion.
+
+"Whenever you will permit me, Countess," he said.
+
+"I am always at home in the middle of the day. And you too, Mr. Barker,
+do not wait to be asked before you come again. You are absolutely the
+only civilised American I know here."
+
+"Don't say that, Countess. There is the Duke, who came with me
+yesterday."
+
+"But he is English."
+
+"But he is also American. He owns mines and prairies, and he emigrates
+semi-annually. They all do now. You know rats leave a sinking ship, and
+they are going to have a commune in England."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Barker, how can you!" exclaimed Miss Skeat.
+
+"But I am only joking, of course," said he, and pacified her. So they
+parted.
+
+Mr. Barker and Claudius stood on the front door-step, and the former lit
+a cigar while the carriage drove up.
+
+"Doctor," said he, "I consider you the most remarkable man of my
+acquaintance."
+
+"Why?" asked Claudius as he got into the carriage.
+
+"Well, for several reasons. Chiefly because though you have lived in a
+'three pair back' for years, and never seen so much as a woman's ear, by
+your own account, you nevertheless act as if you had never been out of a
+drawing-room during your life. You are the least shy man I ever saw."
+
+"Shy?" exclaimed Claudius, "what a funny idea! Why should I be shy?"
+
+"No reason in the world, I suppose, after all. But it is very odd." And
+Mr. Barker ruminated, rolling his cigar in his mouth. "Besides," he
+added, after a long pause, "you have made a conquest."
+
+"Nonsense. Now, you have some right to flatter yourself on that score."
+
+"Miss Skeat?" said Mr. Barker. "Sit still, my heart!"
+
+They drove along in silence for some time. At last Mr. Barker began
+again,--
+
+"Well, Professor, what are you going to do about it?"
+
+"About what?"
+
+"Why, about the conquest. Shall you go there again?"
+
+"Very likely." Claudius was annoyed at his companion's tone of voice. He
+would have scoffed at the idea that he loved the Countess at first
+sight; but she nevertheless represented his ideal to him, and he could
+not bear to hear Mr. Barker's chaffing remarks. Of course Barker had
+taken him to the house, and had a right to ask if Claudius had found the
+visit interesting. But Claudius was determined to check any kind of
+levity from the first. He did not like it about women on any terms, but
+in connection with the Countess Margaret it was positively unbearable.
+So he answered curtly enough to show Mr. Barker he objected to it. The
+latter readily understood and drew his own inferences.
+
+A different conversation ensued in the Countess's garden when the
+visitors were gone.
+
+"Well, Miss Skeat," said Margaret, "what do you think of my new
+acquaintances?"
+
+"I think Mr. Barker is the most agreeable American I ever met," said
+Miss Skeat. "He has very sound views about social questions, and his
+information on the subject of American Indians is perfectly
+extraordinary."
+
+"And the Doctor? what do you think of him?"
+
+"He dresses very oddly," said the lady companion; "but his manners seem
+everything that could be desired, and he has aristocratic hands."
+
+"I did not notice his dress much. But he is very handsome. He looks like
+a Scandinavian hero. You know I was sure I should meet him again that
+day in Heidelberg."
+
+"I suppose he really is very good-looking," assented Miss Skeat.
+
+"Shall we have them to dinner some day? I think we might; very quietly,
+you know."
+
+"I would certainly advise it, dear Countess. You really ought to begin
+and see people in some way besides allowing them to call on you. I
+think this solitude is affecting your spirits."
+
+"Oh no; I am very happy--at least, as happy as I can be. But we will
+have them to dinner. When shall it be?"
+
+"To-morrow is too soon. Say Thursday, since you ask me," said Miss
+Skeat.
+
+"Very well. Shall we read a little?" And Tourgueneff was put into
+requisition.
+
+It was late in the afternoon when the Countess's phaeton, black horses,
+black liveries, and black cushions, swept round a corner of the drive.
+Claudius and Barker, in a hired carriage, passed her, coming from the
+opposite direction. The four people bowed to each other--the ladies
+graciously, the men with courteous alacrity. Each of the four was
+interested in the others, and each of the four felt that they would all
+be thrown together in the immediate future. There was a feeling among
+them that they had known each other a long time, though they were but
+acquaintances of to-day and yesterday.
+
+"I have seldom seen anything more complete than that turn-out," said Mr.
+Barker. "The impression of mourning is perfect; it could not have been
+better if it had been planned by a New York undertaker."
+
+"Are New York undertakers such great artists?" asked Claudius.
+
+"Yes; people get buried more profusely there. But don't you think it is
+remarkably fine?"
+
+"Yes. I suppose you are trying to make me say that the Countess is a
+beautiful woman," answered Claudius, who was beginning to understand
+Barker. "If that is what you want, I yield at once. I think she is the
+most beautiful woman I ever saw."
+
+"Ah!--don't you think perhaps that Miss Skeat acts as an admirable
+foil?"
+
+"Such beauty as that requires no foil. The whole world is a foil to
+her."
+
+"Wait till you come to America. I will show you her match in Newport."
+
+"I doubt it. What is Newport?"
+
+"Newport is the principal watering-place of our magnificent country. It
+is Baden, Homburg, Bigorre, and Biarritz rolled into one. It is a
+terrestrial paradise, a land of four-in-hands and houris and
+surf-bathing and nectar and ambrosia. I could not begin to give you an
+idea of it; wait till you get there."
+
+"A society place, I suppose, then?" said Claudius, not in the least
+moved by the enthusiastic description.
+
+"A society place before all things. But you may have plenty of solitude
+if you like."
+
+"I hardly think I should care much for Newport," said Claudius.
+
+"Well, I like it very much. My father has a place there, to which I take
+the liberty of inviting you for the season, whenever you make up your
+mind to enjoy yourself."
+
+"You are very good, I am sure; and if, as you say, I ever go to America,
+which seems in your opinion paramount to enjoying myself, I will take
+advantage of your kind invitation."
+
+"Really, I hope you will. Shall we go and dine?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+On the following day Claudius and Mr. Barker received each a note. These
+communications were in square, rough envelopes, and directed in a large
+feminine handwriting. The contents intimated that the Countess Margaret
+would be glad to see them at dinner at half-past seven on Thursday.
+
+"That is to-morrow," said Mr. Barker pensively.
+
+Claudius, who was generally the calmest of the calm, made a remark in
+German to the effect that he fervently desired a thousand million
+bushels of thunder-weather to fly away with him that very instant.
+
+"Did you say anything, Professor?" inquired Mr. Barker blandly.
+
+"I did. I swore," answered Claudius. "I have half a mind to swear
+again."
+
+"Do it. Profanity is the safety-valve of great minds. Swear loudly, and
+put your whole mind to it."
+
+Claudius strode to the window of their sitting-room and looked out.
+
+"It is extremely awkward, upon my word," he said.
+
+"What is awkward, Professor? The invitation?"
+
+"Yes--very."
+
+"Why, pray? I should think you would be very much pleased."
+
+"Exactly--I should be: but there is a drawback."
+
+"Of what nature? Anything I can do?"
+
+"Not exactly. I cannot wear one of your coats."
+
+"Oh! is that it?" said Mr. Barker; and a pleasant little thrill of
+triumph manifested itself, as he pushed out his jaw and exhibited his
+circular wrinkle. "Of course--how stupid of me! You are here as a
+pedestrian, and you have no evening dress. Well, the sooner we go and
+see a tailor the better, in that case. I will ring for a carriage." He
+did so, remarking internally that he had scored one in putting the
+Doctor into a position which forced him to dress like a Christian.
+
+"Do you never walk?" asked Claudius, putting a handful of cigarettes
+into his pocket.
+
+"No," said the American, "I never walk. If man were intended by an
+all-wise Providence to do much walking he would have four legs."
+
+The tailor promised upon his faith as a gentleman to make Claudius
+presentable by the following evening. Baden tailors are used to
+providing clothes at short notice; and the man kept his word.
+
+Pending the event, Barker remarked to Claudius that it was a pity they
+might not call again before the dinner. Claudius said in some countries
+he thought it would be the proper thing; but that in Germany Barker was
+undoubtedly right--it would not do at all.
+
+"Customs vary so much in society," said Barker; "now in America we have
+such a pretty habit."
+
+"What is that?"
+
+"Sending flowers--we send them to ladies on the smallest provocation."
+
+"But is not the Countess an American?" asked Claudius.
+
+"Yes, certainly. Old Southern family settled north."
+
+"In that case," said Claudius, "the provocation is sufficient. Let us
+send flowers immediately." And he took his hat from the table.
+
+Thought Mr. Barker, "My show Doctor is going it;" but he translated his
+thoughts into English.
+
+"I think that is a good idea. I will send for a carriage."
+
+"It is only a step," said Claudius, "we had much better walk."
+
+"Well, anything to oblige you."
+
+Claudius had good taste in such things, and the flowers he sent were
+just enough to form a beautiful _ensemble_, without producing an
+impression of lavish extravagance. As Mr. Barker had said, the sending
+of flowers is a "pretty habit,"--a graceful and gentle fashion most
+peculiar to America. There is no country where the custom is carried to
+the same extent; there is no other country where on certain occasions it
+is requested, by advertisement in the newspapers, "that no flowers be
+sent." Countess Margaret was charmed, and though Miss Skeat, who loved
+roses and lilies, poor thing, offered to arrange them and put them in
+water, the dark lady would not let her touch them. She was jealous of
+their beauty.
+
+The time seemed long to Claudius, though he went in the meanwhile with
+Barker and the British aristocracy to certain races. He rather liked the
+racing, though he would not bet. The Duke lost some money, and Barker
+won a few hundred francs from a Russian acquaintance. The Duke drank
+curacao and potass water, and Mr. Barker drank champagne, while Claudius
+smoked innumerable cigarettes. There were a great many bright dresses,
+there was a great deal of shouting, and the congregation of the
+horse-cads was gathered together.
+
+"It does not look much like Newmarket, does it?" said the Duke.
+
+"More like the Paris Exposition, without the exposition," said Barker.
+
+"Do you have much racing in America?" asked Claudius.
+
+"Just one or two," answered Barker, "generally on wheels."
+
+"Wheels?"
+
+"Yes. Trotting. Ag'd nags in sulkies. See how fast they can go a mile,"
+explained the Duke. "Lots of shekels on it too, very often."
+
+At last the evening came, and Claudius appeared in Barker's room arrayed
+in full evening-dress. As Barker had predicted to himself, the result
+was surprising. Claudius was far beyond the ordinary stature of men, and
+the close-fitting costume showed off his athletic figure, while the
+pale, aquiline features, with the yellow heard that looked gold at
+night, contrasted in their refinement with the massive proportions of
+his frame, in a way that is rarely seen save in the races of the far
+north or the far south.
+
+The Countess received them graciously, and Miss Skeat was animated. The
+flowers that Claudius had sent the day before were conspicuously placed
+on a table in the drawing-room. Mr. Barker, of course, took in the
+Countess, and Miss Skeat put her arm in that of Claudius, inwardly
+wondering how she could have overlooked the fact that he was so
+excessively handsome. They sat at a round table on which were flowers,
+and a large block of ice in a crystal dish.
+
+"Do you understand Russian soups?" asked Margaret of Claudius, as she
+deposited a spoonful of a wonderful looking _pate_ in the middle of her
+_consomme_.
+
+"Alas" said the Doctor, "I am no gastronome. At least my friend Mr.
+Barker tells me so, but I have great powers of adaptation. I shall
+follow your example, and shall doubtless fare sumptuously."
+
+"Do not fear," said she, "you shall not have any more strange and
+Cossack things to eat. I like some Russian things, but they are so
+tremendous, that unless you have them first you cannot have them at
+all."
+
+"I think it is rather a good plan," said Barker, "to begin with
+something characteristic. It settles the plan of action in one's mind,
+and helps the memory."
+
+"Do you mean in things in general, or only in dinner?" asked the
+Countess.
+
+"Oh, things in general, of course. I always generalise. In conversation,
+for instance. Take the traditional English stage father. He always
+devotes himself to everlasting perdition before he begins a
+sentence,--and then you know what to expect."
+
+"On the principle of knowing the worst--I understand," said Margaret.
+
+"As long as people understand each other," Claudius put in, "it is
+always better to plunge _in medias res_ from the first."
+
+"Yes, Dr. Claudius, you understand that very well;" and Margaret turned
+towards him as she spoke.
+
+"The Doctor understands many things," said Barker in parenthesis.
+
+"You have not yet reported the progress of the crusade," continued the
+Countess, "I must know all about it at once."
+
+"I have been plotting and planning in the spirit, while my body has been
+frequenting the frivolities of this over-masculine world," answered the
+Doctor. At this point Miss Skeat attacked Mr. Barker about the North
+American Indians, and the conversation paired off, as it will under such
+circumstances.
+
+Claudius was in good spirits and talked wittily, half in jest, one would
+have thought, but really in earnest, about what was uppermost in his
+mind, and what he intended should be uppermost in the world. It was a
+singular conversation, in the course of which he sometimes spoke very
+seriously; but the Countess did not allow herself the luxury of being
+serious, though it was an effort to her to laugh at the enthusiasm of
+his language, for he had a strong vitality, and something of the gift
+which carries people away. But Margaret had an impression that Claudius
+was making love, and had chosen this attractive ground upon which to
+open his campaign. She could not wholly believe him different from other
+men--at least she would not believe so soon--and her instinct told her
+that the fair-haired student admired her greatly.
+
+Claudius, for his part, wondered at himself, when he found a moment to
+reflect on what he had been saying. He tried to remember whether any of
+these thoughts had been formulated in his mind a month ago. He was,
+indeed, conscious that his high reverence for women in the abstract had
+been growing in him for years, but he had had no idea how strong his
+belief had grown in this reverence as an element in social affairs.
+Doubtless the Doctor had often questioned why it was that women had so
+little weight in the scale, why they did so little of all they might do,
+and he had read something of their doings across the ocean. But it had
+all been vague, thick, and foggy, whereas now it was all sharp and
+clean-edged. He had made the first step out of his dreams in that he
+had thought its realisation possible, and none but dreamers know how
+great and wide that step is. The first faint dawning, "It may be true,
+after all," is as different from the remote, listless view of the
+shadowy thought incapable of materialisation, as a landscape picture
+seen by candle-light is different from the glorious reality of the scene
+it represents. Therefore, when Claudius felt the awakening touch, and
+saw his ideal before him, urging him, by her very existence which made
+it possible, to begin the fight, he felt the blood run quickly in his
+veins, and his blue eyes flashed again, and the words came flowing
+easily and surely from his lips. But he wondered at his own eloquence,
+not seeing yet that the divine spark had kindled his genius into a broad
+flame, and not half understanding what he felt.
+
+It is late in the day to apostrophise love. It has been done too much by
+people who persuade themselves that they love because they say they do,
+and because it seems such a fine thing. Poets and cynics, and good men
+and bad, have had their will of the poor little god, and he has grown so
+shy and retiring that he would rather not be addressed, or described, or
+photographed in type, for the benefit of the profane. He is chary of
+using pointed shafts, and most of his target practice is done with heavy
+round-tipped arrows that leave an ugly black bruise where they strike,
+but do not draw the generous blood. He lurks in out-of-the-way places
+and mopes, and he rarely springs out suddenly on unwary youth and maid,
+as he used to in the good old days before Darwin and La Rochefoucauld
+destroyed the beauty of the body and the beauty of the soul,--or man's
+belief in them, which is nearly the same. Has not the one taught us to
+see the animal in the angel, and the other to detect the devil in the
+saint? And yet we talk of our loves as angels and our departed parents
+as saints, in a gentle, commonplace fashion, as we talk of our articles
+of faith. The only moderns who apostrophise love with any genuine
+success are those who smack their lips sensuously at his flesh and
+blood, because they are too blind to see the lovely soul that is
+enshrined therein, and they have too little wit to understand that soul
+and body are one.
+
+Mr. Barker, who seemed to have the faculty of carrying on one
+conversation and listening to another at the same time, struck in when
+Claudius paused.
+
+"The Professor, Countess," he began, "is one of those rare individuals
+who indulge in the most unbounded enthusiasm. At the present time I
+think, with all deference to his superior erudition, that he is running
+into a dead wall. We have seen something of the 'woman's rights'
+question in America. Let us take him over there and show him what it all
+means."
+
+"My friend," answered Claudius, "you are one of those hardened sceptics
+for whom nothing can be hoped save a deathbed repentance. When you are
+mortally hit and have the alternative of marriage or death set before
+you in an adequately lively manner, you will, of course, elect to marry.
+Then your wife, if you get your deserts, will rule you with a rod of
+iron, and you will find, to your cost, that the woman who has got you
+has rights, whether you like it or not, and that she can use them."
+
+"Dollars and cents," said Barker grimly, "that is all."
+
+"No, it is not all," retorted Claudius. "A wise Providence has provided
+women in the world who can make it very uncomfortable for sinners like
+you, and if you do not reform and begin a regular course of worship, I
+hope that one of them will get you."
+
+"Thanks. And if I repent and make a pilgrimage on my knees to every
+woman I know, what fate do you predict? what countless blessings are in
+store for me?"
+
+The Countess was amused at the little skirmish, though she knew that
+Claudius was right. Barker, with all his extreme politeness and his
+pleasant speeches, had none of the knightly element in his character.
+
+"You never can appreciate the 'countless blessings' until you are
+converted to woman-worship, my friend," said Claudius, evading the
+question. "But," he added, "perhaps the Countess might describe them to
+you."
+
+But Margaret meant to do nothing of the kind. She did not want to
+continue the general conversation on the topic which seemed especially
+Claudius's own, particularly as Mr. Barker seemed inclined to laugh at
+the Doctor's enthusiasm. So she changed the subject, and began asking
+the American questions about the races on the previous day.
+
+"Of course," she said, "I do not go anywhere now."
+
+The dinner passed off very pleasantly. Miss Skeat was instructed in the
+Knickerbocker and Boston peerage, so to speak, by the intelligent Mr.
+Barker, who did not fail, however, to hint at the superiority of
+Debrett, who does not hesitate to tell, and boldly to print in black and
+white, those distinctions of rank which he considers necessary to the
+salvation of society; whereas the enterprising compilers of the "Boston
+Blue Book" and the "New York List" only divide society up into streets,
+mapping it out into so many square feet and so much frontage of dukes,
+marquesses, generals, and "people we don't know." Miss Skeat listened
+to the disquisition on the rights of birth with rapt attention, and the
+yellow candle-light played pleasantly on her old corners, and her
+ancient heart fluttered sympathetically. Margaret, on the other side,
+made Claudius talk about his youth, and took infinite pleasure in
+listening to his tales of the fresh Northern life he had led as a boy.
+The Doctor had the faculty of speech and told his stories with a certain
+vigour that savoured of the sea.
+
+"I hope you will both come and see me," said the Countess, as the two
+men took their departure; but as she spoke she looked at Barker.
+
+Half an hour later they sat in their sitting-room at the hotel, and
+Barker sipped a little champagne while Claudius smoked cigarettes, as
+usual. As usual, also, they were talking. It was natural that two
+individuals endowed with the faculty of expressing their thoughts, and
+holding views for the most part diametrically opposed, should have a
+good deal to say to each other. The one knew a great deal, and the other
+had seen a great deal; both were given to looking at life rather
+seriously than the reverse. Barker never deceived himself for a moment
+about the reality of things, and spent much of his time in the practical
+adaptation of means to ends he had in view; he was superficial in his
+knowledge, but profound in his actions. Claudius was an intellectual
+seeker after an outward and visible expression of an inward and
+spiritual truth which he felt must exist, though he knew he might spend
+a lifetime in the preliminary steps towards its attainment. Just now
+they were talking of marriage.
+
+"It is detestable," said Claudius, "to think how mercenary the marriage
+contract is, in all civilised and uncivilised countries. It ought not
+to be so--it is wrong from the very beginning."
+
+"Yes, it is wrong of course," answered Barker, who was always ready to
+admit the existence and even the beauty of an ideal, though he never
+took the ideal into consideration for a moment in his doings. "Of course
+it is wrong; but it cannot be helped. It crops up everywhere, as the
+question of dollars and cents will in every kind of business; and I
+believe it is better to be done with it at first. Now you have to pay a
+Frenchman cash down before he will marry your daughter."
+
+"I know," said Claudius, "and I loathe the idea."
+
+"I respect your loathing, but there it is, and it has the great
+advantage that it is all over, and there is no more talk about it. Now
+the trouble in our country is that people marry for love, and when they
+get through loving they have got to live, and then somebody must pay the
+bills. Supposing the son of one rich father marries the daughter of
+another rich father; by the time they have got rid of the novelty of the
+thing the bills begin to come in, and they spend the remainder of their
+amiable lives in trying to shove the expense off on to each other. With
+an old-fashioned marriage contract to tie them up, that would not
+happen, because the wife is bound to provide so many clothes, and the
+husband has to give her just so much to eat, and there is an end of it.
+See?"
+
+"No, I do not see," returned Claudius. "If they really loved each
+other--"
+
+"Get out!" interrupted Barker, merrily. "If you mean to take the
+immutability of the human affections as a basis of argument, I have
+done."
+
+"There your cynicism comes in," said the other, "and denies you the
+pleasure and profit of contemplating an ideal, and of following it up
+to its full development."
+
+"Is it cynical to see things as they are instead of as they might be in
+an imaginary world?"
+
+"Provided you really see them as they are--no," said Claudius. "But if
+you begin with an idea that things, as they are, are not very good, you
+will very soon be judging them by your own inherent standard of badness,
+and you will produce a bad ideal as I produce a good one, farther still
+from the truth, and extremely depressing to contemplate."
+
+"Why?" retorted Barker; "why should it be depressing to look at
+everything as it is, or to try to? Why should my naturally gay
+disposition suffer on making the discovery that the millennium is not
+begun yet? The world may be bad, but it is a merry little place while it
+lasts."
+
+"You are a hopeless case," said Claudius, laughing; "if you had a
+conscience and some little feeling for humanity, you would feel
+uncomfortable in a bad world."
+
+"Exactly. I am moderately comfortable because I know that I am just like
+everybody else. I would rather, I am sure."
+
+"I am not sure that you are," said Claudius thoughtfully.
+
+"Oh! not as you imagine everybody else, certainly. Medieval persons who
+have a hankering after tournaments and crawl about worshipping women."
+
+"I do not deny the softer impeachment," answered the Doctor, "but I
+hardly think I crawl much."
+
+"No, but the people you imagine do--the male population of this merry
+globe, as you represent it to the Countess."
+
+"I think Countess Margaret understands me very well."
+
+"Yes," said Barker, "she understands you very well." He did not
+emphasise the remark, and his voice was high and monotonous; but the
+repetition was so forcible that Claudius looked at his companion rather
+curiously, and was silent. Barker was examining the cork of his little
+pint bottle of champagne--"just one square drink," as he would have
+expressed it--and his face was a blank.
+
+"Don't you think, Professor," he said at last, "that with your views
+about the rights of women you might make some interesting studies in
+America?"
+
+"Decidedly."
+
+"You might write a book."
+
+"I might," said Claudius.
+
+"You and the Countess might write a book together."
+
+"Are you joking?"
+
+"No. What I have heard you saying to each other this evening and the
+other day when we called would make a very interesting book, though I
+disagree with you both from beginning to end. It would sell, though."
+
+"It seems to me you rather take things for granted when you infer that
+the Countess would be willing to undertake anything of the kind."
+
+Barker looked at the Doctor steadily, and smiled.
+
+"Do you really think so? Do you imagine that if you would do the work
+she would have any objection whatever to giving you the benefit of her
+views and experience?"
+
+"In other words," Claudius said, "you are referring to the possibility
+of a journey to America, in the company of the charming woman to whom
+you have introduced me."
+
+"You are improving, Professor; that is exactly what I mean. Let us
+adjourn from the bowers of Baden to the wind-swept cliffs of Newport--we
+can be there before the season is over. But I forgot, you thought you
+would not like Newport."
+
+"I am not sure," said Claudius. "Do you think the Countess would go?"
+
+"If you will call there assiduously, and explain to her the glorious
+future that awaits your joint literary enterprise, I believe she might
+be induced."
+
+Claudius went to bed that night with his head full of this new idea,
+just as Mr. Barker had intended. He dreamed he was writing with the
+Countess, and travelling with her and talking to her; and he woke up
+with the determination that the thing should be done if it were
+possible. Why not? She often made a trip to her native country, as she
+herself had told him, and why should she not make another? For aught he
+knew, she might be thinking of it even now.
+
+Then he had a reaction of despondency. He knew nothing of her ties or of
+her way of life. A woman in her position probably made engagements long
+beforehand, and mapped out her year among her friends. She would have
+promised a week here and a month there in visits all over Europe, and
+the idea that she would give up her plans and consent, at the instance
+of a two days' acquaintance, to go to America was preposterous. Then
+again, he said to himself, as he came back from his morning walk in the
+woods, there was nothing like trying. He would call as soon as it was
+decent after the dinner, and he would call again.
+
+Mr. Barker was a man in whom a considerable experience of men
+supplemented a considerable natural astuteness. He was not always right
+in the judgments he formed of people and their aims, but he was more
+often right than wrong. His way of dealing with men was calculated on
+the majority, and he knew that there are no complete exceptions to be
+found in the world's characters. But his standard was necessarily
+somewhat low, and he lacked the sympathetic element which enables one
+high nature to understand another better than it understands its
+inferiors. Barker would know how to deal with the people he met;
+Claudius could understand a hero if he ever met one, but he bore himself
+toward ordinary people by fixed rules of his own, not caring or
+attempting to comprehend the principles on which they acted.
+
+If any one had asked the Doctor if he loved the Countess, he would have
+answered that he certainly did not. That she was the most beautiful
+woman in the world, that she represented to him his highest ideal, and
+that he was certain she came up to that ideal, although he knew her so
+little, for he felt sure of that. But love, the Doctor thought, was
+quite a different affair. What he felt for Margaret bore no resemblance
+to what he had been used to call love. Besides, he would have said, did
+ever a man fall in love at such short notice? Only in books. But as no
+one asked him the question, he did not ask it of himself, but only went
+on thinking a great deal of her, and recalling all she said. He was in
+an unknown region, but he was happy and he asked no questions.
+Nevertheless his nature comprehended hers, and when he began to go often
+to the beautiful little villa, he knew perfectly well that Barker was
+mistaken, and that the dark Countess would think twice and three times
+before she would be persuaded to go to America, or to write a book, or
+to do anything in the world for Claudius, except like him and show him
+that he was welcome. She would have changed the subject had Claudius
+proposed to her to do any of the things he seemed to think she was ready
+to do, and Claudius knew it instinctively. He was bold with women, but
+he never transgressed, and his manner allowed him to say many things
+that would have sounded oddly enough in Mr. Barker's mouth. He impressed
+women with a sense of confidence that he might be trusted to honour them
+and respect them under any circumstances.
+
+The Countess was accustomed to have men at her feet, but she had never
+treated a man unjustly, and if they had sometimes lost their heads it
+was not her fault. She was a loyal woman, and had loved her husband as
+much as most good wives, though with an honest determination to love him
+better; for she was young when they married, and she thought her love
+stronger than it really was. She had mourned him sincerely, but the
+wound had healed, and being a brave woman, with no morbid sensitiveness
+of herself, she had contemplated the possibility of marrying again,
+without, however, connecting the idea with any individual. She had liked
+Claudius from the first, and there had been something semi-romantic
+about their meeting in the Schloss at Heidelberg. On nearer acquaintance
+she liked him better, though she knew that he admired her, and by the
+time a fortnight had passed Claudius had become an institution. They
+read together and they walked together, and once she took him with her
+in the black phaeton, whereupon Barker remarked that it was "an immense
+thing on wheels."
+
+Mr. Barker, seeing that his companion was safe for the present, left
+Baden for a time and lighted on his friend the Duke at Como, where the
+latter had discovered some attractive metal. The Duke remarked that Como
+would be a very decent place if the scenery wasn't so confoundedly bad.
+"I could beat it on my own place in the west," he added.
+
+The British aristocracy liked Mr. Barker, because he was always
+inventing original ways of passing the time, and because, though he was
+so rich, he never talked about money except in a vague way as "lots of
+shekels," or "piles of tin." So they said they would go back to Baden
+together, which they did, and as they had talked a good deal about
+Claudius, they called on the Countess the same afternoon, and there,
+sure enough, was the Swede, sitting by the Countess's side in the
+garden, and expounding the works of Mr. Herbert Spencer. Barker and the
+Duke remained half an hour, and Claudius would have gone with them, but
+Margaret insisted upon finishing the chapter, so he stayed behind.
+
+"He's a gone 'coon, Duke," remarked Barker, beginning to smoke as soon
+as he was in the Victoria.
+
+"I should say he was pretty hard hit, myself. I guess nothing better
+could have happened." The Duke, in virtue of his possessions in America,
+affected to "guess" a little now and then when none of those horrid
+people were about.
+
+"Come on, Duke," said Barker, "let us go home, and take them with us."
+
+"I could not go just now. Next month. Autumn, you know. Glories of the
+forest and those sort of things."
+
+"Think they would go?"
+
+"Don't know," said the Duke. "Take them over in the yacht, if they
+like."
+
+"All right. We can play poker while they bay the moon."
+
+"Hold on, though; she won't go without some other woman, you know. It
+would be in all the papers."
+
+"She has a lady-companion," said Barker.
+
+"That won't do for respectability."
+
+"It is rather awkward, then." There was silence for a few moments.
+
+"Stop a bit," said the Duke suddenly. "It just strikes me. I have got a
+sister somewhere. I'll look her up. She is never ill at sea, and they
+have sent her husband off to Kamtchatka, or some such place."
+
+"That's the very thing," said Barker. "I will talk to Claudius. Can you
+manage the Countess, do you think? Have you known her long?"
+
+"Rather. Ever since she married poor Alexis."
+
+"All right, then. You ask her." And they reached their hotel.
+
+So these two gentlemen settled things between them. They both wanted to
+go to America, and they were not in a hurry, so that the prospect of a
+pleasant party, with all the liberty and home feeling there is on board
+of a yacht, was an immense attraction. Barker, of course, was amused and
+interested by his scheme for making Claudius and the Countess fall in
+love with each other, and he depended on the dark lady for his show.
+Claudius would not have been easily induced to leave Europe by argument
+or persuasion, but there was little doubt that he would follow the
+Countess, if she could be induced to lead. The Duke, on the other hand,
+thought only of making up a well-arranged party of people who wanted to
+make the journey in any case, and would not be on his hands after he
+landed. So two or three days later he called on the Countess to open the
+campaign. It was not altogether new ground, as they had crossed together
+once before. The Duke was not very good at leading the conversation up
+to his points, so he immediately began talking about America, in order
+to be sure of hitting somewhere near the mark.
+
+"I have not been over since the autumn," he said, "and I really ought to
+go."
+
+"When will you start?" asked Margaret.
+
+"I meant to go next month. I think I will take the yacht."
+
+"I wonder you do not always do that. It is so much pleasanter, and you
+feel as if you never had gone out of your own house."
+
+"The fact is," said he, plunging, "I am going to take my sister, and I
+would like to have a little party. Will you not join us yourself,
+Countess, and Miss Skeat?"
+
+"Really, Duke, you are very kind. But I was not thinking of going home
+just yet."
+
+"It is a long time since you have been there. Not since--"
+
+"Yes, I know," said Margaret gravely. "And perhaps that is why I
+hesitate to go now."
+
+"But would it not be different if we all went together? Do you not think
+it would be much nicer?"
+
+"Did you say your sister was going?"
+
+"Oh yes, she will certainly go."
+
+"Well," said the Countess after a moment's thought, "I will not say just
+yet. I need not make up my mind yet; need I? Then I will take a few days
+to think of it."
+
+"I am sure you will decide to join us," said the Duke pressingly.
+
+"Perhaps I ought to go, and it is so kind of you, really, to give me
+such a delightful chance." She had a presentiment that before long she
+would be on her way to join the yacht, though at first sight it seemed
+rather improbable, for, as Claudius had guessed, she had a great many
+engagements for visits. If any one had suggested to her that morning
+that she might make a trip to America, she would have said it was quite
+impossible. The idea of the disagreeable journey, the horror of being
+cast among an immense crowd of unknown travellers; or, still worse, of
+being thrown into the society of some chance acquaintance who would make
+the most of knowing her--it was all sufficient, even in the absence of
+other reasons, to deter her from undertaking the journey. But in the
+party proposed by the Duke it was all very different. He was a
+gentleman, besides being a peer, and he was an old friend. His sister
+was a kind-hearted gentlewoman of narrow views but broad humanity; and
+not least, the yacht was sure to be perfection, and she would be the
+honoured guest. She would be sorry to leave Baden for some reasons; she
+liked Claudius very much, and he made her feel that she was leading an
+intellectual life. But she had not entirely realised him yet. He was to
+her always the quiet student whom she had met in Heidelberg, and during
+the month past the feeling she entertained for him had developed more in
+the direction of intellectual sympathy than of personal friendship. She
+would not mind parting with him any more than she would mind laying down
+an interesting book before she had half read it. Still that was
+something, and the feeling had weight.
+
+"Miss Skeat," she said, when they were alone, "you have never been in
+America?"
+
+"No, dear Countess, I have never been there, and until lately I have
+never thought I would care to go."
+
+"Would you like to go now?"
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed the ancient one, "I would like it of all things!"
+
+"I am thinking of going over next month," said Margaret, "and of course
+I would like you to go with me. Do you mind the sea very much?"
+
+"Oh dear, no! I used to sail a great deal when I was a girl, and the
+Atlantic cannot be worse than our coast."
+
+Miss Skeat's assent was a matter of real importance to Margaret, for the
+old gentlewoman was sincerely attached to her, and Margaret would have
+been very unwilling to turn her faithful companion adrift, even for a
+time, besides the minor consideration that without a companion she would
+not go at all. The end of it was that by dinner-time she had made up her
+mind to write excuses to all the people who expected her, and to accept
+the Duke's invitation. After all, it was not until next month, and she
+could finish the book she was reading with Claudius before that. She
+postponed writing to the Duke until the following day, in order to make
+a show of having considered the matter somewhat longer. But her
+resolution did not change, and in the morning she despatched a friendly
+little note to the effect that she found her engagements would permit
+her, etc. etc.
+
+When Margaret told Miss Skeat that they were going in one of the finest
+yachts afloat, with the Duke and his sister, her companion fairly
+crackled with joy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+The Duke was away during the day, and did not receive the Countess's
+note until late in the evening. To tell the truth, he was very glad to
+find that she was going; but he felt there might be difficulties in the
+way; for, of course, he was bound to let her know the names of his
+remaining guests. She might hesitate when she heard that Claudius and
+Barker were to be of the party. After all, Barker was the companion whom
+the Duke wanted. He knew nothing about Claudius, but he had met enough
+men of all types of eccentricity not to be much surprised at him, and as
+the Doctor was evidently a gentleman, there was no objection. Therefore,
+as soon as the Duke knew of Margaret's determination, he sallied forth,
+armed with her note, to find Mr. Barker. It was late, but the American
+was nocturnal in his habits, and was discovered by his friend in a huge
+cloud of tobacco smoke, examining his nails with that deep interest
+which in some persons betokens thought.
+
+"It's all right," said the Duke; "she will go."
+
+"You don't mean it?" said Barker, taking his legs off the sofa and
+wrinkling his face.
+
+"There you are. Note. Formal acceptance, and all the rest of it." And he
+handed Margaret's letter to Barker.
+
+"Well, that is pretty smart practice," remarked the latter; "I expected
+you would have difficulties."
+
+"Said she would take some days to make up her mind. She wrote this the
+same evening I called, I am sure. Just like a woman."
+
+"Well, I think it's deuced lucky, anyhow," said Barker. "Did you tell
+her who was going?"
+
+"I told her about my sister. I have not mentioned you or your friend
+yet. Of course I will do that as soon as I am sure of you both."
+
+"Well," said Barker, "if you don't mind, perhaps you might write a note
+to the Doctor. He might be shy of accepting an invitation by word of
+mouth. Do you mind?"
+
+"Not in the least," said the Englishman; "give me a rag of paper and a
+quill, and I'll do it now."
+
+And he accordingly did it, and directed the invitation to Claudius,
+Phil.D., and Barker pushed it into the crack of the door leading to the
+apartment where the Doctor was sleeping, lest it should be forgotten.
+
+The next morning Claudius appeared with the Duke's note in his hand.
+
+"What does this mean?" he asked. "I hardly know him at all, and here he
+asks me to cross the Atlantic in his yacht. I wish you would explain."
+
+"Keep your hair on, my young friend," replied Mr. Barker jocosely. "He
+has asked you and me because his party would not be complete without
+us."
+
+"And who are 'the party'?"
+
+"Oh, very small. Principally his sister, I believe. Hold on though, Miss
+Skeat is going."
+
+"Miss Skeat?" Claudius anticipated some chaff from his friend, and knit
+his brows a little.
+
+"Yes; Miss Skeat and the Countess; or, perhaps I should say the Countess
+and Miss Skeat."
+
+"Ah!" ejaculated Claudius, "any one else?"
+
+"Not that I know of. Will you go?"
+
+"It is rather sudden," said the Doctor reflectively.
+
+"You must make up your mind one way or the other, or you will spoil the
+Duke's arrangements."
+
+"Barker," said Claudius seriously, "do you suppose the Countess knows
+who are going?"
+
+"My dear boy," replied the other, peeling a peach which he had impaled
+on a fork, "it is not likely the Duke would ask a lady to go with him
+without telling her who the men were to be. Be calm, however; I have
+observed your habits, and in two hours and twenty-three minutes your
+mind will be at rest."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"It is now thirty-seven minutes past nine. Do you mean to say you have
+failed once for weeks past to be at the Countess's as the clock strikes
+twelve?"
+
+Claudius was silent. It was quite true; he went there daily at the same
+hour; for, as appeared in the beginning of this tale, he was a regular
+man. But he reflected just now that the Countess would not be likely to
+speak of the party unless she knew that he was to be one. He had not
+accepted his invitation yet, and the Duke would certainly not take his
+acceptance as a foregone conclusion. Altogether it seemed probable that
+he would be kept in suspense. If he then accepted without being sure of
+the Countess, he was binding himself to leave her. Claudius had many
+things to learn yet.
+
+"If I were you," said Barker, "I would write at once and say 'Yes.' Why
+can't you do it now?"
+
+"Because I have not made up my mind."
+
+"Well, a bird in the hand is the soul of business, as the good old
+proverb says. I have accepted for myself, anyhow; but I would be sorry
+to leave you on this side."
+
+So Claudius went to the Countess as usual, and found her in her
+morning-room awaiting him. He bent over her hand, but as he took it he
+thought it was a trifle colder than usual. It might have been
+imagination, but he fancied her whole manner was less cordial than
+before. And he said to himself, "She has heard I am going, and she is
+annoyed, and is not glad to see me." There was a preternatural solemnity
+about their conversation which neither of them could break through, and
+in a few minutes they both looked as though they had not smiled for
+years.
+
+Now Claudius was entirely mistaken. Margaret had not heard that he was
+going. If she had, she would have spoken frankly, as was her nature to
+do always, if she spoke at all. Margaret had accepted the Duke's
+invitation, and intended to keep her word, and she had no suspicion
+whatever of who the other guests might be. She foresaw that such a
+journey would break up her acquaintance with Claudius, and she regretted
+it; and especially she regretted having allowed the Doctor so much
+intimacy and so many visits. Not that he had taken advantage of the
+footing on which he was received, for any signs of such a disposition on
+his part would have abruptly terminated the situation; he had been the
+very model of courtesy from the first. But she knew enough of men to
+perceive that this gentle homage clothed a more sincere admiration than
+lay at the root of the pushing attentions of some other men she had
+known. Therefore she made up her mind that as there were yet three
+weeks before sailing, after the expiration of which she would never be
+likely to see Claudius again, she would let him down easily, so to
+speak, that there might be no over-tender recollections on his part, nor
+any little stings of remorse on her own. He had interested her; they had
+spent a couple of pleasant months; she had given him no encouragement,
+and he was gone without a sigh: that was the way in which Countess
+Margaret hoped to remember Dr. Claudius by that time next month. And so,
+fearing lest she might inadvertently have been the least shade too
+cordial, she began to be a little more severe, on this hot morning when
+Claudius, full of indecision, followed her out to their favourite
+reading-place under the trees. It was the same spot where they had sat
+when Barker first brought him to see her. Margaret had no particular
+feeling about the little nook under the trees. It was merely the most
+convenient place to sit and work; that was all. But to Claudius the
+circle of green sward represented the temple of his soul, and Margaret
+was to him Rune Wife and prophetess as well as divinity. In such places,
+and of such women, his fair-haired forefathers, bare-armed and
+sword-girt, had asked counsel in trouble, and song-inspiration in peace.
+
+Here they sat them down, she determined to do the right by him, and
+thinking it an easy matter; he utterly misunderstanding her. Without a
+smile, they set to work at their reading. They read for an hour or more,
+maintaining the utmost gravity, when, as luck would have it, the word
+"friendship" occurred in a passage of the book. Claudius paused a
+moment, his broad hand laid flat on the open page.
+
+"That is one of the most interesting and one of the most singularly
+misunderstood words in all languages," he said.
+
+"What word?" inquired Margaret, looking up from her work, to which she
+had attentively applied herself while he was reading.
+
+"Friendship."
+
+"Will you please define what it means?" said she.
+
+"I can define what I myself mean by it, or rather what I think I mean by
+it. I can define what a dozen writers have meant by it. But I cannot
+tell what it really means, still less what it may ultimately come to
+mean."
+
+"You will probably be best able to explain what you mean by it
+yourself," answered Margaret rather coldly. "Will you please begin?"
+
+"It seems to me," Claudius began, "that the difficulty lies in the
+contradiction between the theory and the fact. Of course, as in all such
+cases, the theory loses the battle, and we are left groping for an
+explanation of the fact which we do not understand. Perhaps that is a
+little vague?" Claudius paused.
+
+"A little vague--yes," said she.
+
+"I will try and put it more clearly. First take the fact. No one will
+deny that there have occasionally in the world's history existed
+friendships which have stood every test and which have lasted to the
+very end. Such attachments have been always affairs of the heart, even
+between man and man. I do not think you can name an instance of a
+lasting friendship on a purely intellectual basis. True friendship
+implies the absence of envy, and the vanity of even the meanest
+intellect is far too great to admit of such a condition out of pure
+thought-sympathy."
+
+"I do not see any contradiction, even admitting your last remark, which
+is cynical enough." Margaret spoke indifferently, as making a mere
+criticism.
+
+"But I believe most people connect the idea of friendship, beyond
+ordinary liking, with intellectual sympathy. They suppose, for instance,
+that a man may love a woman wholly and entirely with the best kind of
+love, and may have at the same time a friend with whom he is in entire
+sympathy."
+
+"And why not?" she asked.
+
+"Simply because he cannot serve two masters. If he is in entire sympathy
+with more than one individual he must sometimes not only contradict
+himself, as he would rightly do for one or the other alone, but he must
+also contradict one in favour of the other in case they disagree. In
+such a case he is no longer in entire sympathy with both, and either his
+love or his friendship must be imperfect." Claudius looked at the
+Countess to see what impression he had made. She did not return his
+glance.
+
+"In other words?" was her question.
+
+"In other words," he answered in a tone of conviction, "friendship is
+only a substitute for love, and cannot exist beside it unless lover and
+friend be one and the same person. Friendship purely intellectual is a
+fallacy, owing to the manifest imperfections of human nature. It must,
+then, be an affair of the heart, whatever you may define that to be, and
+cannot, therefore, exist at the same time with any other affair of the
+heart without inevitable contradiction. How often has love separated old
+friends, and friendship bred discord between lovers!"
+
+"I never heard that argument before," said Margaret, who, to tell the
+truth, was surprised at the result of the Doctor's discourse.
+
+"What do you think of it?" he asked.
+
+"I am not sure, but the point is interesting. I think you are a little
+vague about what an 'affair of the heart,' as you call it, really is."
+
+"I suppose an affair of the heart to be such a situation of the feelings
+that the heart rules the head and the actions by the head. The prime
+essence of love is that it should be complete, making no reservations
+and allowing of no check from the reason."
+
+"A dangerous state of things."
+
+"Yes," said Claudius. "When the heart gets the mastery it knows neither
+rest nor mercy. If the heart is good the result will be good, if it is
+bad the result will be evil. Real love has produced incalculably great
+results in the lives of individuals and in the life of the world."
+
+"I suppose so," said Margaret; "but you made out friendship to be also
+an 'affair of the heart,' so far as you believe in it at all. Is true
+friendship as uncalculating as true love? Does it make no reservations,
+and does it admit of no check from the reason?"
+
+"I think, as I said, that friendship is a substitute for love, second
+best in its nature and second best, too, in its unselfishness."
+
+"Many people say love is selfishness itself."
+
+"I know," answered the Doctor, and paused as if thinking.
+
+"Do you not want to smoke?" asked Margaret, with a tinge of irony, "it
+may help you to solve the difficulty."
+
+"Thank you, no," said he, "the difficulty is solved, and it is no
+difficulty at all. The people who say that do not know what they are
+talking about, for they have never been in love themselves. Love, worth
+the name, is complete; and being complete, demands the whole, and is
+not satisfied with less than the whole any more than it is satisfied
+with giving less than all that it has. The selfishness lies in demanding
+and insisting upon having everything, while only offering rags and
+shreds in return; and if one may find this fault in ordinary love
+affairs, one may find it tenfold in ordinary friendships. Friendship may
+be heroic but love is godlike."
+
+Margaret had become interested in spite of herself, though she had
+preserved the constrained manner she had first assumed. Now, however, as
+Claudius turned his flashing blue eyes to hers, she understood that she
+had allowed the conversation to go far enough, and she marvelled that on
+the very day when she was trying to be most unapproachable he should
+have said more to show what was next his heart than ever before. She did
+not know enough of exceptional natures like his to be aware that a touch
+of the curb is the very thing to rouse the fierce blood. True, he spoke
+generally, and even argumentatively, and his deep voice was calm enough,
+but there was a curious light in his eyes that dazzled her even in the
+mid-day sun, and she looked away.
+
+"I am not sure I agree with you," she said, "but you put it very
+clearly. Shall we go on reading?"
+
+Claudius was some time in finding his place in the open book, and then
+went on. Again he misunderstood her, for though he could not remember
+saying anything he regretted, he fancied she had brought the
+conversation to a somewhat abrupt close. He read on, feeling very
+uncomfortable, and longing for one of those explanations that are
+impossible between acquaintances and emotional between lovers. He felt
+also that if he ever spoke out and told her he loved her it would be in
+some such situation as the present. Margaret let her needlework drop and
+leaned back in the long chair, staring at a very uninteresting-looking
+tree on the other side of the garden. Claudius read in a steady
+determined tone, emphasising his sentences with care, and never once
+taking his eyes from the book. At last, noticing how quietly he was
+doing his work, Margaret looked at him, not furtively or as by stealth,
+but curiously and thoughtfully. He was good to look at, so strong and
+straight, even as he sat at ease with the book in his hand, and the
+quivering sunlight through the leaves played over his yellow beard and
+white forehead. She knew well enough now that he admired her greatly,
+and she hoped it would not be very hard for him when she went away.
+Somehow, he was still to her the professor, the student, quiet and
+dignified and careless of the world, as she had first known him. She
+could not realise Claudius as a man of wealth and power, who was as well
+able to indulge his fancies as the Duke himself,--perhaps more so, for
+the Duke's financial affairs were the gossip of Europe, and always had
+been since he came of age.
+
+Meanwhile the Doctor reached the end of the chapter, and there was a
+pause. Neither spoke, and the silence was becoming awkward, when a
+servant came across the lawn announcing the Duke.
+
+"Ask his Grace to come outside," said Margaret, and the representative
+of the aristocracy was striding over the green, hat in hand, a moment
+afterwards. Margaret put out her hand and Claudius rose. Each felt that
+the _deus ex machina_ had arrived, and that the subject of the yachting
+excursion would be immediately broached.
+
+"Immense luck, finding you both," remarked the Duke when he was seated.
+
+"We have been reading. It is so pleasant here," said Margaret, to say
+something.
+
+"I have come to thank you for your kind note, Countess. It is extremely
+good of you to go in such a party, with your taste for literature and
+those sort of things."
+
+"I am sure it is I who ought to thank you, Duke. But when are we to
+sail?"
+
+"About the tenth of next month, I should say. Will that be convenient?"
+
+Margaret turned to Claudius.
+
+"Do you think we can finish our book by the tenth, Dr. Claudius?"
+
+"If not," broke in the Duke, "there is no reason why you should not
+finish it on board. We shall have lovely weather."
+
+"Oh no!" said Margaret, "we must finish it before we start. I could not
+understand a word of it alone."
+
+"Alone?" inquired the Duke. "Ah! I forgot. Thought he had told you. I
+have asked Dr. Claudius to give us the pleasure of his company."
+
+"Oh, indeed!" said Margaret. "That will be very nice." She did not look
+as if she thought so, however. Her expression was not such as led the
+Duke to believe she was pleased, or Claudius to think she would like his
+going. To tell the truth, she was annoyed for more than one reason. She
+thought the Duke, although he was such an old friend, should have
+consulted her before making up the list of men for the party. She was
+annoyed with Claudius because he had not told her he was going, when he
+really thought she knew it, and was displeased at it. And most of all,
+she was momentarily disconcerted at being thus taken off her guard.
+Besides, the Duke must have supposed she liked Claudius very much, and
+he had perhaps contrived the whole excursion in order to throw them
+together. Her first impulse was to change her mind and not go after all.
+
+Meanwhile Claudius was much astonished at the turn things had taken.
+Margaret had known nothing about the invitation to the Doctor after all,
+and her coldness this morning must be attributed to some other cause.
+But now that she did know she looked less pleased than ever. She did not
+want him. The Doctor was a proud man in his quiet way, and he was,
+moreover, in love, not indeed hopelessly as yet, for love is never
+wholly irrevocable until it has survived the crucial test, attainment of
+its object; but Claudius loved, and he knew it. Consequently his pride
+revolted at the idea of thrusting himself where he was not wanted, and
+his love forbade him to persecute the woman he worshipped. He also said
+to himself, "I will not go." He had not yet accepted the invitation.
+
+"I had intended to write to you this afternoon," he said, turning to the
+Duke. "But since it is my good fortune to be able to thank you in person
+for your kind invitation, let me do so now."
+
+"I hope you are going," said the Duke.
+
+"I fear," answered Claudius, "that I shall be prevented from joining
+you, much as I would like to do so. I have by no means decided to
+abandon my position in Heidelberg."
+
+Neither Margaret nor the Duke were in the least prepared for this piece
+of news. The Duke was taken aback at the idea that any human being could
+refuse such an invitation. Following on his astonishment that Margaret
+should not be delighted at having the Doctor on board, the intelligence
+that the Doctor did not want to go at all threw the poor man into the
+greatest perplexity. He had made a mistake somewhere, evidently; but
+where or how he could not tell.
+
+"Barker," he said to himself, "is an ass. He has made me muff the whole
+thing." However, he did not mean to give up the fight.
+
+"I am extremely sorry to hear you say that, Dr. Claudius," he said
+aloud, "and I hope you will change your mind, if I have to send you an
+invitation every day until we sail. You know one does not ask people on
+one's yacht unless one wants them very much, and we want you. It is just
+like asking a man to ride your favourite hunter; you would not ask him
+unless you meant it, for fear he would." The Duke seldom made so long a
+speech, and Claudius felt that the invitation was really genuine, which
+gave his wounded pride a pleasant little respite from its aches. He was
+grateful, and he said so. Margaret was silent and plied her needle,
+planning how she might escape the party if Claudius changed his mind and
+went, and how she could with decency leave herself the option of going
+if he remained. She did not intend to give people any farther chance of
+pairing her off with Claudius or any one else whom they thought she
+fancied, and she blamed herself for having given people even the shadow
+of an idea that such officious party-making would please her.
+
+Claudius rose to go. The position was not tenable any longer, and it was
+his only course. The Countess bade him good morning with more cordiality
+than she had displayed as yet; for, in spite of her annoyance, she
+would have been sorry to wound his feelings. The change of tone at
+first gave Claudius a thrill of pleasure, which gave way to an increased
+sense of mortification as he reflected that she was probably only
+showing that she was glad to be rid of him--a clumsy, manlike thought,
+which his reason would soon get the better of. So he departed.
+
+There was silence for some minutes after he had gone, for Margaret and
+the Englishman were old friends, and there was no immediate necessity
+for making conversation. At last he spoke with a certain amount of
+embarrassment.
+
+"I ought to have told you before that I had asked those two men."
+
+"Who is the other?" she inquired without looking up.
+
+"Why, Barker, his friend."
+
+"Oh, of course! But it would have been simpler to have told me. It made
+it rather awkward, for of course Dr. Claudius thought I knew he was
+asked and wondered why I did not speak of it. Don't you see?" she raised
+her eyes as she put the question.
+
+"It was idiotic of me, and I am very sorry. Please forgive me."
+
+"As he is not going, it does not make any difference, of course, and so
+I forgive you."
+
+Considering that Barker had suggested the party, that it was Barker whom
+the Duke especially wanted to amuse him on the trip, that Barker had
+proposed Margaret and Claudius, and that, finally, the whole affair was
+a horrid mess, the Duke did not see what he could have done. But he knew
+it was good form to be penitent whenever it seemed to be expected, and
+he liked Margaret well enough to hope that she would go. He did not
+care very much for the society of women at any time. He was more or less
+married when he was at home, which was never for long together, and when
+he was away he preferred the untrammelled conversational delights of a
+foreign green-room to the twaddle of the embassies or to the mingled
+snobbery and philistinism produced by the modern fusion of the almighty
+dollar and the _ancienne noblesse_.
+
+And so he was in trouble just now, and his one idea was to submit to
+everything the Countess might say, and then to go and "give it" to Mr.
+Barker for producing so much complication. But Margaret had nothing more
+to say about the party, and launched out into a discussion of the
+voyage. She introduced a cautious "if" in most of her sentences. "_If_ I
+go I would like to see Madeira," and "_if_ we join you, you must take
+care of Miss Skeat, and give her the best cabin," etc. etc. The Duke
+wisely abstained from pressing his cause, or asking why she qualified
+her plans. At last he got away, after promising to do every conceivable
+and inconceivable thing which she should now or at any future time
+evolve from the depths of her inventive feminine consciousness.
+
+"By the way, Duke," she called after him, as he went over the, lawn,
+"may I take old Vladimir if I go?"
+
+"If you go," he answered, moving back a step or two, "you may bring all
+the Imperial Guards if you choose, and I will provide transports for
+those that the yacht won't hold."
+
+"Thanks; that is all," she said laughing, and the stalwart peer vanished
+through the house. The moment he was gone Margaret dropped her work and
+lay back in her long chair to think. The heavy lids half closed over
+her dark eyes, and the fingers of her right hand slowly turned round and
+round the ring she wore upon her left. Miss Skeat was upstairs reading
+Lord Byron's _Corsair_ in anticipation of the voyage. Margaret did not
+know this, or the thought of the angular and well-bred Scotchwoman
+bounding over the glad waters of the dark blue sea would have made her
+smile. As it was, she looked serious.
+
+"I am sorry," she thought to herself. "It was nice of him to say he
+would not go."
+
+Meanwhile the strong-legged nobleman footed it merrily towards Barker's
+hotel. It was a good two miles, and the Duke's ruddy face shone again
+under the August sun. But the race characteristic was strong in him, and
+he liked to make himself unnecessarily hot; moreover he was really fond
+of Barker, and now he was going to pitch into him, as he said to
+himself, so it was indispensable to keep the steam up. He found his
+friend as usual the picture of dried-up coolness, so to say. Mr. Barker
+never seemed to be warm, but he never seemed to feel cold either, and at
+this moment, as he sat in a half-lighted room, clad in a variety of
+delicate gray tints, with a collar that looked like fresh-baked biscuit
+ware, and a pile of New York papers and letters beside him, he was
+refreshing to the eye.
+
+"Upon my word, Barker, you always look cool," said the Duke, as he sat
+himself down in an arm-chair, and passed his handkerchief round his
+wrists. "I would like to know how you do it."
+
+"To begin with, I do not rush madly about in the sun in the middle of
+the day. That may have something to do with it."
+
+The Duke sneezed loudly, from the mingled dust and sunshine he had been
+inhaling.
+
+"And then I don't come into a cold room and catch cold, like you. Here I
+sit in seclusion and fan myself with the pages of my newspapers as I
+turn them over."
+
+"You have got us all into the deuce of a mess with your confounded
+coolness," said the Duke after a pause, during which he had in vain
+searched all his pockets for his cigar-case. Barker had watched him, and
+pushed an open box of Havanas across the table. But the Duke was
+determined to be sulky, and took no notice of the attention. The
+circular wrinkle slowly furrowed its way round Barker's mouth, and his
+under jaw pushed forward. It always amused him to see sanguine people
+angry. They looked so uncomfortable, and "gave themselves away" so
+recklessly.
+
+"If you won't smoke, have some beer," he suggested. But his Grace fumed
+the redder.
+
+"I don't understand how a man of your intelligence, Barker, can go and
+put people into such awkward positions," he said. "I think it is
+perfectly idiotic."
+
+"Write me down an ass, by all means," said Barker calmly; "but please
+explain what you mean. I told you not to buy in the Green Swash Mine,
+and now I suppose you have gone and done it, because I said it might
+possibly be active some day."
+
+"I have been to see the Countess this morning," said the Duke, beating
+the dust from his thick walking-boot with his cane.
+
+"Ah!" said Barker, without any show of interest. "Was she at home?"
+
+"I should think so," said the Duke. "Very much at home, and Dr. Claudius
+was there too."
+
+"Oh! so you are jealous of Claudius, are you?" The ducal wrath rose.
+
+"Barker, you are insufferably ridiculous."
+
+"Duke, you had much better go to bed," returned his friend.
+
+"Look here, Barker--"
+
+"Do not waste your vitality in that way," said the American. "I wish I
+had half of it. It quite pains me to see you. Now I will put the whole
+thing clearly before you as I suppose it happened, and you shall tell me
+if it is my fault or not, and whether, after all, it is such a very
+serious matter. Countess Margaret did not know that Claudius was going,
+and did not speak of the trip. Claudius thought she was angry, and when
+you arrived and let the cat out of the bag the Countess thought you were
+trying to amuse yourself by surprising her, and she was angry too. Then
+they both made common cause and would have nothing more to do with you,
+and told you to go to the devil, and at this moment they are planning to
+remain here for the next forty or fifty years, and are sending off a
+joint telegram to Professor Immanuel Spencer, or whatever his name is,
+to hurry up and get some more books ready for them to read. I am glad
+you have not bought Green Swash, though, really." There was a pause, and
+the Duke glared savagely at the cigar-box.
+
+"Is your serene highness satisfied that I know all about it?" asked
+Barker at last.
+
+"No, I am not. And I am not serene. She says she will go, and Claudius
+says he won't. And it is entirely your fault."
+
+"It is not of any importance what he says, or whether it is my fault or
+not. If you had bestirred yourself to go and see her at eleven before
+Claudius arrived it would not have happened. But he will go all the
+same; never fear. And the Countess will persuade him too, without our
+doing anything in the matter."
+
+"You would not have thought so if you had seen the way she received the
+news that he was invited," grumbled the Duke.
+
+"If you associated more with women you would understand them better,"
+replied the other.
+
+"I dare say." The Englishman was cooler, and at last made up his mind to
+take one of Mr. Barker's cigars. When he had lit it, he looked across at
+his friend. "How do you expect to manage it?" he inquired.
+
+"If you will write a simple little note to the Countess, and say you are
+sorry there should have been any misunderstanding, and if you and I
+leave those two to themselves for ten days, even if she invites us to
+dinner, they will manage it between them, depend upon it. They are in
+love, you know perfectly well."
+
+"I suppose they are," said the Duke, as if he did not understand that
+kind of thing. "I think I will have some curacao and potass;" and he
+rang the bell.
+
+"That's not half a bad idea," he said when he was refreshed. "I begin to
+think you are not so idiotic as I supposed."
+
+"Waal," said Barker, suddenly affecting the accents of his native shore,
+"I _ain't_ much on the drivel _this_ journey _any_how." The Duke
+laughed; he always laughed at Americanisms.
+
+"I guess _so_," said the Duke, trying ineffectually to mimic his friend.
+Then he went on in his natural voice, "I have an idea."
+
+"Keep it," said Barker; "they are scarce."
+
+"No; seriously. If we must leave them alone, why--why should we not go
+down and look at the yacht?"
+
+"Not bad at all. As you say, we might go round and see how she looks.
+Where is she?"
+
+"Nice."
+
+So the one went down and the other went round, but they went together,
+and saw the yacht, and ran over to Monte Carlo, and had a good taste of
+the dear old green-table, now that they could not have it in Baden any
+longer. And they enjoyed the trip, and were temperate and well dressed
+and cynical, after their kind. But Claudius stayed where he was.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+The daily reading proceeded as usual after Barker's departure, but
+neither Margaret nor Claudius mentioned the subject of the voyage.
+Margaret was friendly, and sometimes seemed on the point of relapsing
+into her old manner, but she always checked herself. What the precise
+change was it would be hard to say. Claudius knew it was very easy to
+feel the difference, but impossible to define it. As the days passed, he
+knew also that his life had ceased to be his own; and, with the
+chivalrous wholeness of purpose that was his nature, he took his soul
+and laid it at her feet, for better for worse, to do with as she would.
+But he knew the hour was not come yet wherein he should speak; and so he
+served her in silence, content to feel the tree of life growing within
+him, which should one day overshadow them both with its sheltering
+branches. His service was none the less whole and devoted because it had
+not yet been accepted.
+
+One evening, nearly a week after they had been left to themselves,
+Claudius was sitting over his solitary dinner in the casino restaurant
+when a note was brought to him, a large square envelope of rough paper,
+and he knew the handwriting. He hesitated to open it, and, glancing
+round the brilliantly-lighted restaurant, involuntarily wondered if any
+man at all those tables were that moment in such suspense as he. He
+thought it was probably an intimation that she was going away, and that
+he was wanted no longer. Then, for the first time in many days, he
+thought of his money. "And if she does," he said half aloud, "shall I
+not follow? Shall not gold command everything save her heart, and can I
+not win that for myself?" And he took courage and quietly opened the
+note.
+
+     "MY DEAR DR. CLAUDIUS--As the time is approaching, will you not do
+     me a favour? I want you to make a list of books to read on the
+     voyage--that is, if I may count on your kindness as an expounder.
+     If not, please tell me of some good novels.
+
+     "Sincerely yours,"
+
+and her full name signed at the end. The hot blood turned his white
+forehead red as Claudius finished reading. He could not believe his
+eyes, and the room swam for a moment; for he was very much in love, this
+big Swede. Then he grew pale again and quite calm, and read the note
+over. Novels indeed! What did he know about novels? He would ask her
+plainly if she wanted his company on the yacht or no. He would say,
+"Shall I come? or shall I stay behind?" Claudius had much to learn from
+Mr. Barker before he was competent to deal with women. But then Claudius
+would have scorned the very expression "to deal" with them; theirs to
+command, his to obey--there was to be no question of dealing. Only in
+his simple heart he would like to know in so many words what the
+commands were; and that is sometimes a little hard, for women like to be
+half understood before they speak, and the grosser intellect of man
+seldom more than half understands them after they have spoken.
+
+A note requires an answer, and Claudius made the usual number of
+failures. When one has a great deal more to say than one has any right
+to say, and when at the same time one is expected to say particularly
+little, it is very hard to write a good note. All sorts of ideas creep
+in and express themselves automatically. A misplaced plural for a
+singular, a superlative adjective where the vaguer comparative belongs;
+the vast and immeasurable waste of weary years that may lie between
+"dear" and "dearest," the gulf placed between "sincerely yours, John
+Smith," and "yours, J.S.," and "your J.," until the blessed state is
+reached wherein the signature is omitted altogether, and every word
+bears the sign-manual of the one woman or one man who really exists for
+you. What a registering thermometer of intimacy exists in notes, from
+the icy zero of first acquaintance to the raging throb of boiling
+blood-heat! So Claudius, after many trials, arrived at the requisite
+pitch of absolute severity, and began his note, "My dear Countess
+Margaret," and signed it, "very obediently yours," which said just what
+was literally true; and he stated that he would immediately proceed to
+carry out the Countess's commands, and make a list in which nothing
+should be wanting that could contribute to her amusement.
+
+When he went to see her on the following day he was a little surprised
+at her manner, which inclined more to the severe coldness of that
+memorable day of difficulties than to the unbending he had expected from
+her note. Of course he had no reason to be disappointed, and he showed
+his inexperience. She was compensating her conscience for the concession
+she had made in intimating that he might go. It was indeed a concession,
+but to what superior power she had yielded it behoves not inquisitive
+man to ask. Perhaps she thought Claudius would enjoy the trip very much,
+and said to herself she had no right to make him give it up.
+
+They read together for some time, and at last Claudius asked her, in
+connection with a point which arose, whether she would like to read a
+German book that he thought good.
+
+"Very much," said she. "By the by, I am glad you have been able to
+arrange to go with us. I thought your engagements were going to prevent
+you."
+
+Claudius looked at her, trying to read her thoughts, in which he failed.
+He might have been satisfied, but he was not. There was a short silence,
+and then he closed the book over his hand and spoke.
+
+"Countess, do you wish me to go or not?"
+
+Margaret raised her dark eyebrows. He had never seen her do that before.
+But then he had never said anything so clumsy before in his whole life,
+and he knew it the moment the words were out of his mouth, and his face
+was white in sunshine. She looked at him suddenly, a slight smile on her
+lips, and her eyes just the least contracted, as if she were going to
+say something sarcastic. But his face was so pitifully pale. She saw how
+his hand trembled. A great wave of womanly compassion welled up in her
+soul, and the smile faded and softened away as she said one word.
+
+"Yes." It came from the heart, and she could not help it if it sounded
+kindly.
+
+"Then I will go," said Claudius, hardly knowing what he said, for the
+blood came quickly back to his face.
+
+"Of course you will, I could have told you that ever so long ago,"
+chirped a little bullfinch in the tree overhead.
+
+A couple of weeks or more after the events last chronicled, the steam
+yacht _Streak_ was two days out on the Atlantic, with a goodly party on
+board. There were three ladies--the Duke's sister, the Countess, and
+Miss Skeat, the latter looking very nautical in blue serge, which sat
+tightly over her, like the canvas cover sewn round a bicycle when it is
+sent by rail. Of men there were also three--to wit, the owner of the
+yacht, Mr. Barker, and Dr. Claudius.
+
+The sea has many kinds of fish. Some swim on their sides, some swim
+straight, some come up to take a sniff of air, and some stay below. It
+is just the same with people who go to sea. Take half a dozen
+individuals who are all more or less used to the water, and they will
+behave in half a dozen different ways. One will become encrusted to the
+deck like a barnacle, another will sit in the cabin playing cards; a
+third will spend his time spinning yarns with the ship's company, and a
+fourth will rush madly up and down the deck from morning till night in
+the pursuit of an appetite which shall leave no feat of marine digestion
+untried or unaccomplished. Are they not all stamped on the memory of
+them that go down to the sea in yachts? The little card-box and the
+scoring-book of the players, the deck chair and rugs of the inveterate
+reader, the hurried tread and irascible eye of the carnivorous
+passenger, and the everlasting pipe of the ocean talker, who feels time
+before him and the world at his feet wherein to spin yarns--has any one
+not seen them?
+
+Now, the elements on board of the _Streak_ were sufficiently diverse to
+form a successful party, and by the time they were two days out on the
+long swell, with a gentle breeze just filling the trysails, and
+everything stowed, they had each fallen into the groove of sea life that
+was natural to him or to her. There were Barker and the Duke in the
+pretty smoking-room forward with the windows open and a pack of cards
+between them. Every now and then they stopped to chat a little, or the
+Duke would go out and look at the course, and make his rounds to see
+that every one was all right and nobody sea-sick. But Barker rarely
+moved, save to turn his chair and cross one leg over the other, whereby
+he might the more easily contemplate his little patent leather shoes and
+stroke his bony hands over his silk-clad ankles; for Mr. Barker
+considered sea-dressing, as he called it, a piece of affectation, and
+arrayed himself on board ship precisely as he did on land. The Duke, on
+the other hand, like most Englishmen when they get a chance, revelled in
+what he considered ease; that is to say, no two of his garments matched
+or appeared to have been made in the same century; he wore a flannel
+shirt, and was inclined to go about barefoot when the ladies were not on
+deck, and he adorned his ducal forehead with a red worsted cap, price
+one shilling.
+
+Margaret, as was to be expected, was the deck member, with her
+curiously-wrought chair and her furs and her portable bookcase; while
+Miss Skeat, who looked tall and finny, and sported a labyrinthine
+tartan, was generally to be seen entangled in the weather-shrouds near
+by. As for the Duke's sister, Lady Victoria, she was plain, but healthy,
+and made regular circuits of the steamer, stopping every now and then to
+watch the green swirl of the foam by the side, and to take long draughts
+of salt air into her robust lungs. But of all the party there was not
+one on whom the change from the dry land to the leaping water produced
+more palpable results than on Claudius. He affected nothing nautical in
+dress or speech, but when the Duke saw him come on deck the first
+morning out, there was something about his appearance that made the
+yachtsman say to Barker--
+
+"That man has been to sea, I am positive. I am glad I asked him."
+
+"All those Swedes are amphibious," replied Barker; "they take to the
+water like ducks. But I don't believe he has smelled salt water for a
+dozen years."
+
+"They are the best sailors, at all events," said the Duke. "I have lots
+of them among the men. Captain a Swede too. Let me introduce you." They
+were standing on the bridge. "Captain Sturleson, my friend Mr. Barker."
+And so in turn the captain was made known to every one on board; for he
+was an institution with the Duke, and had sailed his Grace's yachts ever
+since there had been any to sail, which meant for about twenty years. To
+tell the truth, if it were not for those beastly logarithms, the Duke
+was no mean sailing-master himself, and he knew a seaman when he saw
+one; hence his remark about Claudius. The Doctor knew every inch of the
+yacht and every face in the ship's company by the second day, and it
+amused the Countess to hear his occasional snatches of the clean-cut
+Northern tongue that sounded like English, but was yet so different.
+
+Obedient to her instructions, he had provided books of all sorts for the
+voyage, and they began to read together, foolishly imagining that, with
+the whole day at their disposal, they would do as much work as when they
+only met for an hour or two daily to accomplish a set purpose. The
+result of their unbounded freedom was that conversation took the place
+of reading. Hitherto Margaret had confined Claudius closely to the
+matter in hand, some instinct warning her that such an intimacy as had
+existed during his daily visits could only continue on the footing of
+severe industry she had established from the first. But the sight of the
+open deck, the other people constantly moving to and fro, the proper
+aspect of the lady-companion, just out of earshot, and altogether the
+appearance of publicity which the sea-life lent to their _tete-a-tete_
+hours, brought, as a necessary consequence, a certain unbending. It
+always seemed such an easy matter to call some third party into the
+conversation if it should grow too confidential. And so, insensibly,
+Claudius and Margaret wandered into discussions about the feelings,
+about love, hate, and friendship, and went deep into those topics which
+so often end in practical experiment. Claudius had lived little and
+thought much; Margaret had seen a great deal of the world, and being
+gifted with fine intuitions and tact, she had reasoned very little about
+what she saw, understanding, as she did, the why and wherefore of most
+actions by the pure light of feminine genius. The Doctor theorised, and
+it interested his companion to find facts she remembered suddenly
+brought directly under a neat generalisation; and before long she found
+herself trying to remember facts to fit his theories, a mode of going in
+double harness which is apt to lead to remarkable but fallacious
+results. In the intervals of theorising Claudius indulged in small
+experiments. But Barker and the Duke played poker.
+
+Of course the three men saw a good deal of each other--in the early
+morning before the ladies came on deck, and late at night when they sat
+together in the smoking-room. In these daily meetings the Duke and
+Claudius had become better acquainted, and the latter, who was reticent,
+but perfectly simple, in speaking of himself, had more than once alluded
+to his peculiar position and to the unexpected change of fortune that
+had befallen him. One evening they were grouped as usual around the
+square table in the brightly-lighted little room that Barker and the
+Duke affected most. The fourfold beat of the screw crushed the water
+quickly and sent its peculiar vibration through the vessel as she sped
+along in the quiet night. The Duke was extended on a transom, and
+Claudius on the one opposite, while Barker tipped himself about on his
+chair at the end of the table. The Duke was talkative, in a disjointed,
+monosyllabic fashion.
+
+"Yes. I know. No end of a queer sensation, lots of money. Same thing
+happened to me when I came of age."
+
+"Not exactly the same thing," said Claudius; "you knew you were going to
+have it."
+
+"No," put in Barker. "Having money and being likely to have it are about
+the same as far as spending it goes. Particularly in England."
+
+"I believe the whole thing is a fraud," said the Duke in a tone of
+profound reflection. "Never had a cent before I came of age. Seems to me
+I never had any since."
+
+"Spent it all in water-melon and fire-crackers, celebrating your
+twenty-first birthday, I suppose," suggested Barker.
+
+"Spent it some way, at all events," replied the Duke. "Now, here," he
+continued, addressing Barker, "is a man who actually has it, who never
+expected to have it, who has got it in hard cash, and in the only way
+in which it is worth having--by somebody else's work. Query--what will
+Claudius do with his millions?" Exhausted by this effort of speech, the
+Duke puffed his tobacco in silence, waiting for an answer. Claudius
+laughed, but said nothing.
+
+"I know of one thing he will do with his money. He will get married,"
+said Barker.
+
+"For God's sake, Claudius," said the Duke, looking serious, "don't do
+that."
+
+"I don't think I will," said Claudius.
+
+"I know better," retorted Barker, "I am quite sure I shall do it myself
+some day, and so will you. Do you think if I am caught, you are going to
+escape?"
+
+The Duke thought that if Barker knew the Duchess, he might yet save
+himself.
+
+"You are no chicken, Barker, and perhaps you are right. If they catch
+you they can catch anybody," he said aloud.
+
+"Well, I used to say the mamma was not born who could secure me. But I
+am getting old, and my nerves are shaken, and a secret presentiment
+tells me I shall be bagged before long, and delivered over to the
+tormentors."
+
+"I pity you if you are," said the Duke. "No more poker, and very little
+tobacco then."
+
+"Not as bad as that. You are as much married as most men, but it does
+not interfere with the innocent delights of your leisure hours, that I
+can see."
+
+"Ah, well--you see--I am pretty lucky. The Duchess is a domestic type of
+angel. Likes children and bric-a-brac and poultry, and all those things.
+Takes no end of trouble about the place."
+
+"Why should not I marry the angelic domestic--the domestic angel, I
+mean?"
+
+"You won't, though. Doesn't grow in America. I know the sort of woman
+you will get for your money."
+
+"Give me an idea." Barker leaned back in his chair till it touched the
+door of the cabin, and rolled his cigar in his mouth.
+
+"Of course she will be the rage for the time. Eighteen or nineteen
+summers of earthly growth, and eighteen or nineteen hundred years of
+experience and calculation in a former state."
+
+"Thanks, that sounds promising. Claudius, this is intended for your
+instruction."
+
+"You will see her first at a ball, with a cartload of nosegays slung on
+her arms, and generally all over her. That will be your first
+acquaintance; you will never see the last of her."
+
+"No--I know that," said Barker gloomily.
+
+"She will marry you out of hand after a three months' engagement. She
+will be married by Worth, and you will be married by Poole. It will be
+very effective, you know. No end of wedding presents, and acres of
+flowers. And then you will start away on your tour, and be miserable
+ever after."
+
+"I am glad you have done," was Barker's comment.
+
+"As for me," said Claudius, "I am of course not acquainted with the
+peculiarities of American life, but I fancy the Duke is rather severe in
+his judgment."
+
+It was a mild protest against a wholesale condemnation of American
+marriages; but Barker and the Duke only laughed as if they understood
+each other, and Claudius had nothing more to say. He mentally compared
+the utterances of these men, doubtless grounded on experience, with the
+formulas he had made for himself about women, and which were undeniably
+the outcome of pure theory. He found himself face to face with the old
+difficulty, the apparent discord between the universal law and the
+individual fact. But, on the other hand, he could not help comparing
+himself with his two companions. It was not in his nature to think
+slightingly of other men, but he felt that they were of a totally
+different mould, besides belonging to a different race. He knew that
+however much he might enjoy their society, they had nothing in common
+with him, and that it was only his own strange fortune that had suddenly
+transported him into the very midst of a sphere where such characters
+were the rule and not the exception.
+
+The conversation languished, and Claudius left the Duke and Barker, and
+went towards his quarters. It was a warm night for the Atlantic, and
+though there was no moon, the stars shone out brightly, their reflection
+moving slowly up and down the slopes of the long ocean swell. Claudius
+walked aft, and was going to sit down for a few minutes before turning
+in, when he was suddenly aware of a muffled female figure leaning
+against the taffrail only a couple of paces from where he was. In spite
+of the starlight he could not distinguish the person. She was wrapped
+closely in a cloak and veil, as if fearing the cold. As it must be one
+of the three ladies who constituted the party, Claudius naturally raised
+his cap, but fearing lest he had chanced on the Duke's sister, or still
+worse, on Miss Skeat, he did not speak. Before long, however, as he
+leaned against the side, watching the wake, the unknown remarked that it
+was a delightful night. It was Margaret's voice, and the deep musical
+tones trembled on the rise and fall of the waves, as if the sounds
+themselves had a distinct life and beating in them. Did the dark woman
+know what magic lay in her most trivial words? Claudius did not care a
+rush whether the night were beautiful or otherwise, but when she said it
+was a fine evening, it sounded as if she had said she loved him.
+
+"I could not stay downstairs," she said, "and so when the others went to
+bed I wrapped myself up and came here. Is it not too wonderful?"
+
+Claudius moved nearer to her.
+
+"I have been pent up in the Duke's _tabagie_ for at least two hours," he
+said, "and I am perfectly suffocated."
+
+"How can you sit in that atmosphere? Why don't you come and smoke on
+deck?"
+
+"Oh! it was not only the tobacco that suffocated me to-night, it was the
+ideas."
+
+"What ideas?" asked Margaret.
+
+"You have known the Duke a long time," said he, "and of course you can
+judge. Or rather, you know. But to hear those two men talk is enough to
+make one think there is neither heaven above nor hell beneath." He was
+rather incoherent.
+
+"Have they been attacking your favourite theories," Margaret asked, and
+she smiled behind her veil; but he could not see that, and her voice
+sounded somewhat indifferent.
+
+"Oh! I don't know," he said, as if not wanting to continue the subject;
+and he turned round so as to rest his elbows on the taffrail. So he
+stood, bent over and looking away astern at the dancing starlight on the
+water. There was a moment's silence.
+
+"Tell me," said Margaret at last.
+
+"What shall I tell you, Countess?" asked Claudius.
+
+"Tell me what it was you did not like about their talk."
+
+"It is hard to say, exactly. They were talking about women, and American
+marriages; and I did not like it, that is all." Claudius straightened
+himself again and turned towards his companion. The screw below them
+rushed round, worming its angry way through the long quiet waves.
+
+"Barker," said Claudius, "was saying that he supposed he would be
+married some day--delivered up to torture, as he expressed it--and the
+Duke undertook to prophesy and draw a picture of Barker's future spouse.
+The picture was not attractive."
+
+"Did Mr. Barker think so too?"
+
+"Yes. He seemed to regard the prospects of matrimony from a resigned and
+melancholy point of view. I suppose he might marry any one he chose in
+his own country, might he not?"
+
+"In the usual sense, yes," answered Margaret.
+
+"What is the 'usual sense'?" asked the Doctor.
+
+"He might marry beauty, wealth, and position. That is the usual meaning
+of marrying whom you please."
+
+"Oh! then it does not mean any individual he pleases?"
+
+"Certainly not. It means that out of half a dozen beautiful, rich, and
+accomplished girls it is morally certain that one, at least, would take
+him for his money, his manners, and his accomplishments."
+
+"Then he would go from one to the other until he was accepted? A
+charming way of doing things, upon my word!" And Claudius sniffed the
+night air discontentedly.
+
+"Oh no," said Margaret. "He will be thrown into the society of all six,
+and one of them will marry him, that will be the way of it."
+
+"I cannot say I discover great beauty in that social arrangement either,
+except that it gives the woman the choice."
+
+"Of course," she answered, "the system does not pretend to the
+beautiful, it only aspires to the practical. If the woman is satisfied
+with her choice, domestic peace is assured." She laughed.
+
+"Why cannot each satisfy himself or herself of the other? Why cannot the
+choice be mutual?"
+
+"It would take too long," said she; and laughed again.
+
+"Very long?" asked Claudius, trying not to let his voice change. But it
+changed nevertheless.
+
+"Generally very long," she answered in a matter-of-fact way.
+
+"Why should it?"
+
+"Because neither women nor men are so easily understood as a chapter of
+philosophy," said she.
+
+"Is it not the highest pleasure in life, that constant, loving study of
+the one person one loves? Is not every anticipated thought and wish a
+triumph more worth living for than everything else in the wide world?"
+He moved close to her side. "Do you not think so too?" She said nothing.
+
+"I think so," he said. "There is no pleasure like the pleasure of trying
+to understand what a woman wants; there is no sorrow like the sorrow of
+failing to do that; and there is no glory like the glory of success. It
+is a divine task for any man, and the greatest have thought it worthy of
+them." Still she was silent; and so was he for a little while, looking
+at her side face, for she had thrown back the veil and her delicate
+profile showed clearly against the sea foam.
+
+"Countess," he said at last; and his voice came and went fitfully with
+the breeze--"I would give my whole life's strength and study for the
+gladness of foreseeing one little thing that you might wish, and of
+doing it for you." His hand stole along the taffrail till it touched
+hers, but he did not lift his fingers from the polished wood.
+
+"Dr. Claudius, you would give too much," she said; for the magic of the
+hour and place was upon her, and the Doctor's earnest tones admitted of
+no laughing retort. She ought to have checked him then, and the instant
+she had spoken she knew it; but before she could speak again he had
+taken the hand he was already touching between both of his, and was
+looking straight in her face.
+
+"Margaret, I love you with all my soul and heart and strength." Her hand
+trembled in his, but she could not take it away. Before she had answered
+he had dropped to his knee and was pressing the gloved fingers to his
+lips.
+
+"I love you, I love you, I love you," he repeated, and his strength was
+as the strength of ten in that moment.
+
+"Dr. Claudius," said she at last, in a broken and agitated way, "you
+ought not to have said this. It was not right of you." She tried to
+loose her hand, but he rose to his feet still clasping it.
+
+"Forgive me," he said, "forgive me!" His face was almost luminously
+pale. "All the ages cannot take from me this--that I have told you."
+
+Margaret said never a word, but covered her head with her veil and
+glided noiselessly away, leaving Claudius with his white face and
+staring eyes to the contemplation of what he had done. And she went
+below and sat in her stateroom and tried to think it all over. She was
+angry, she felt sure. She was angry at Claudius and half angry at
+herself--at least she thought so. She was disappointed, she said, in the
+man, and she did not mean to forgive him. Besides, in a yacht, with a
+party of six people, where there was absolutely no escape possible, it
+was unpardonable. He really ought not to have done it. Did he think--did
+he flatter himself--that if she had expected he was going to act just
+like all the rest of them she would have treated him as she had? Did he
+fancy his well-planned declaration would flatter _her_? Could he not see
+that she wanted to consider him always as a friend, that she thought she
+had found at last what she had so often dreamed of--a friendship proof
+against passion? It was so common, so commonplace. It was worse, for it
+was taking a cruel advantage of the narrow limits within which they were
+both confined. Besides, he had taken advantage of her kindness to plan a
+scene which he knew would surprise her out of herself. She ought to have
+spoken strongly and sharply and made him suffer for his sin while he was
+yet red-handed. And instead, what had she done? She had merely said very
+meekly that "it was not right," and had sought safety in a hasty
+retreat.
+
+She sighed wearily, and began to shake out the masses of her black hair,
+that was as the thickness of night spun fine. And as she drew out the
+thick tortoise-shell pins that bore it up, it rolled down heavily in a
+soft dark flood and covered her as with a garment. Then she leaned back
+and sighed again, and her eyes fell on a book that lay at the corner of
+her dressing-table, where she had left it before dinner. It was the book
+they had been reading, and the mark was a bit of fine white cord that
+Claudius had cunningly twisted and braided, sailor fashion, to keep the
+place. Margaret rose to her feet, and taking the book in her hand,
+looked at it a moment without opening it. Then she hid it out of sight
+and sat down again. The action had been almost unconscious, but now she
+thought about it, and she did not like what she had done. Angry with him
+and with herself, she was yet calm enough to ask why she could not bear
+the sight of the volume on the table. Was it possible she had cared
+enough about her friendship for the Doctor to be seriously distressed at
+its sudden termination? She hardly knew--perhaps so. So many men had
+made love to her, none had ever before seemed to be a friend.
+
+The weary and hard-worked little sentiment that we call conscience spoke
+up. Was she just to him? No. If she had cared even as much as that
+action showed, had he no right to care also? He had the right, yes; but
+he had been wanting in tact. He should have waited till they were
+ashore. Poor fellow! he looked so white, and his hands were so cold. Was
+he there still, looking out at the ship's wake? Margaret, are you quite
+sure you never thought of him save as a friendly professor who taught
+you philosophy? And there was a little something that would not be
+silenced, and that would say--Yes, you are playing tricks with your
+feelings, you care for him, you almost love him. And for a moment there
+was a fierce struggle in the brave heart of that strong woman as she
+shook out her black hair and turned pale to the lips. She rose again,
+and went and got the book she had hidden, and laid it just where it had
+lain before. Then she knew, and she bowed her head till her white
+forehead touched the table before her, and her hands were wet as they
+pressed her eyelids.
+
+"I am very weak," she said aloud, and proceeded with her toilet.
+
+"But you will be kind to him, Margaret," said the little voice in her
+heart, as she laid her head on the pillow.
+
+"But it is my duty to be cold. I do not love him," she argued, as the
+watch struck eight bells.
+
+Poor Saint Duty! what a mess you make of human kindness!
+
+Claudius was still on deck, and a wretched man he was, as his chilled
+hands clung to the side. He knew well enough that she was angry, though
+she had reproached herself with not having made it clear to him. He said
+to himself he ought not to have spoken, and then he laughed bitterly,
+for he knew that all his strength could not have kept back the words,
+because they were true, and because the truth must be spoken sooner or
+later. He was hopeless now for a time, but he did not deceive himself.
+
+"I am not weak. I am strong. And if my love is stronger than I what does
+that prove? I am glad it is, and I would not have it otherwise. It is
+done now and can never be undone. I am sorry I spoke to-night. I would
+have waited if I could. But I could not, and I should despise myself if
+I could. Love that is not strong enough to make a man move in spite of
+himself is not worth calling love. I wonder if I flattered myself she
+loved me? No, I am quite sure I did not. I never thought anything about
+it. It is enough for me that I love her, and live, and have told her so;
+and I can bear all the misery now, for she knows. I suppose it will
+begin at once. She will not speak to me. No, not that, but she will not
+expect me to speak to her. I will keep out of her way; it is the least I
+can do. And I will try and not make her life on board disagreeable. Ah,
+my beloved, I will never hurt you again or make you angry."
+
+He said these things over and over to himself, and perhaps they
+comforted him a little. At eight bells the Swedish captain turned out,
+and Claudius saw him ascend the bridge, but soon he came down again and
+walked aft.
+
+"God afton, Captain," said Claudius.
+
+"It is rather late to say good evening, Doctor," replied the sailor.
+
+"Why, what time is it?"
+
+"Midnight."
+
+"Well, I shall turn in."
+
+"If you will take my advice," said the captain, "you won't leave any
+odds and ends lying about to-night. We shall have a dance before
+morning."
+
+"Think so?" said Claudius indifferently.
+
+"Why, Doctor, where are your eyes? You are a right Svensk sailor when
+you are awake. You have smelled the foam in Skager Rak as well as I."
+
+"Many a time," replied the other, and looked to windward. It was true;
+the wind had backed to the north-east, and there was an angry little
+cross sea beginning to run over the long ocean swell. There was a
+straight black belt below the stars, and a short, quick splashing,
+dashing, and breaking of white crests through the night, while the
+rising breeze sang in the weather rigging.
+
+Claudius turned away and went below. He took the captain's advice, and
+secured his traps and went to bed. But he could not sleep, and he said
+over and over to himself that he loved her, that he was glad he had told
+her so, and that he would stand by the result of his night's work,
+through all time,--ay, and beyond time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+Lady Victoria was not afraid of the sea. No indeed, and if her brother
+would go with her she would like nothing better. And Miss Skeat, too,
+would she like to come? Such a pity poor Margaret had a headache. She
+had not even come to breakfast.
+
+Yes, Miss Skeat would come, and the boatswain would provide them both
+with tarpaulins and sou'-westers, and they would go on deck for a few
+minutes. But Mr. Barker was so sorry he had a touch of neuralgia, and
+besides he knew that Claudius was on deck and would be of more use to
+the ladies than he could ever be. Mr. Barker had no idea of getting wet,
+and the sudden headache of the Countess, combined with the absence of
+Claudius from her side, interested him. He meant to stay below and watch
+the events of the morning. Piloted by the Duke, the strong English girl
+and the wiry old Scotch lady made their way up the companion, not
+without difficulty, for the skipper's prediction was already fulfilled,
+and the _Streak_ was ploughing her way through all sorts of weather at
+once.
+
+The deck was slippery and sloppy, and the sharp spray was blowing itself
+in jets round every available corner. The sky was of an even lead
+colour, but it was hard to tell at first whether it was raining or not.
+The Duke's face gleamed like a wet red apple in the wind and water as
+he helped his sister to the leeward and anchored her among the shrouds.
+
+"Hullo, Claudius, you seem to like this!" he sang out, spying the tall
+Swede near the gangway. Claudius came towards them, holding on by the
+pins and cleats and benches. He looked so white that Lady Victoria was
+frightened.
+
+"You are not well, Dr. Claudius. Please don't mind me, my brother will
+be back in a moment. Go below and get warm. You really look ill."
+
+"Do I? I do not feel ill at all. I am very fond of this kind of weather."
+And he put one arm through the shrouds and prepared for conversation
+under difficulties. Meanwhile the Duke brought out Miss Skeat, who
+rattled inside her tarpaulin, but did not exhibit the slightest
+nervousness, though a bit of a sea broke over the weather-bow just as
+she appeared.
+
+"Keep your eye peeled there, will you?" the Duke shouted away to the men
+at the wheel; whereat they grinned, and luffed a little, just enough to
+let the lady get across.
+
+"Steady!" bawled the Duke again when Miss Skeat was made fast; and the
+men at the wheel held her off once more, so that the spray flew up in a
+cloudy sheet.
+
+Claudius was relieved. He had expected to see Margaret come up the
+companion, and he had dreaded the meeting, when he would almost of
+necessity be obliged to help her across and touch her hand; and he
+inwardly blessed her wisdom in staying below. The others might have
+stayed there too, he thought, instead of coming up to get wet and to
+spoil his solitude, which was the only thing left to him to-day.
+
+But Claudius was not the man to betray his ill-temper at being
+disturbed; and after all there was something about these two women that
+he liked--in different ways. The English girl was so solidly
+enthusiastic, and the Scotch gentlewoman so severely courageous, that he
+felt a sort of companionable sympathy after he had been with them a few
+minutes.
+
+Lady Victoria, as previously hinted, was married, and her husband, who
+was in the diplomatic service, and who had prospects afterwards of
+coming into money and a peerage, was now absent on a distant mission.
+They had not been married very long, but his wife was always ready to
+take things cheerfully, and, since she could not accompany him, she had
+made up her mind to be happy without him; and the trip with her brother
+was "just the very thing." Mr. Barker admired what he called her
+exuberant vitality, and expressed his opinion that people with a
+digestion like that were always having a good time. She was strong and
+healthy, and destined to be the mother of many bold sons, and she had a
+certain beauty born of a good complexion, bright eyes, and white teeth.
+To look at her, you would have said she must be the daughter of some
+robust and hardworking settler, accustomed from her youth to face rain
+and snow and sunshine in ready reliance on her inborn strength. She did
+not suggest dukes and duchesses in the least. Alas! the generation of
+those ruddy English boys and girls is growing rarer day by day, and a
+mealy-faced, over-cerebrated people are springing up, who with their
+children again, in trying to rival the brain-work of foreigners with
+larger skulls and more in them, forget that their English forefathers
+have always done everything by sheer strength and bloodshed, and can as
+easily hope to accomplish anything by skill as a whale can expect to
+dance upon the tight rope. They would do better, thought Lady Victoria,
+to give it up, to abandon the struggle for intellectual superiority of
+that kind. They have produced greater minds when, the mass of their
+countrymen were steeped in brutality, and Elizabethan surfeit of beef
+and ale, than they will ever produce with a twopenny-halfpenny universal
+education. What is the use? Progress. What is progress? Merely the
+adequate arrangement of inequalities--in the words of one of their own
+thinkers who knows most about it and troubles himself least about
+theories. What is the use of your "universal" education, to which
+nine-tenths of the population submit as to a hopeless evil, which takes
+bread out of their mouths and puts bran into their heads; for might they
+not be at work in the fields instead of scratching pothooks on a slate?
+At least so Lady Victoria thought.
+
+"You look just like a sailor," said she to Claudius.
+
+"I feel like one," he answered, "and I think I shall adopt the sea as a
+profession."
+
+"It is such a pity," said Miss Skeat, sternly clutching the twisted wire
+shroud. "I would like to see you turn pirate; it would be so
+picturesque--you and Mr. Barker." The others laughed, not at the idea of
+Claudius sporting the black flag--for he looked gloomy enough to do
+murder in the first degree this morning--but the picture of the
+exquisite and comfort-loving Mr. Barker, with his patent-leather shoes
+and his elaborate travelling apparatus, leading a band of black-browed
+ruffians to desperate deeds of daring and blood, was novel enough to be
+exhilarating; and they laughed loudly. They did not understand Mr.
+Barker; but perhaps Miss Skeat, who liked him with an old-maidenly
+liking, had some instinct notion that the gentle American could be
+dangerous.
+
+"Mr. Barker would never do for a pirate," laughed Lady Victoria; "he
+would be always getting his feet wet and having attacks of neuralgia."
+
+"Take care, Vick," said her brother, "he might hear you."
+
+"Well, if he did? I only said he would get his feet wet. There is no
+harm in that, and it is clear he has neuralgia, because he says it
+himself."
+
+"Well, of course," said the Duke, "if that is what you mean. But he will
+wet his feet fast enough when there is any good reason."
+
+"If you make it 'worth his while,' of course," said Lady Victoria, "I
+have no doubt of it." She turned up her nose, for she was not very fond
+of Mr. Barker, and she thought poorly of the Duke's financial
+enterprises in America. It was not a bit like a good old English
+gentleman to be always buying and selling mines and stocks and all sorts
+of things with queer names.
+
+"Look here, Vick, we won't talk any more about Barker, if you please."
+
+"Very well, then you can talk about the weather," said she.
+
+"Yes," said Claudius, "you may well do that. There is a good deal of
+weather to talk about."
+
+"Oh, I like a storm at sea, of all things!" exclaimed Lady Victoria,
+forgetting all about Mr. Barker in the delicious sense of saltness and
+freedom one feels on the deck of a good ship running through a lively
+sea. She put out her face to catch the fine salt spray on her cheek.
+Just then a little water broke over the side abaft the gangway, and the
+vessel rose and fell to the sweep of a big wave. The water ran along
+over the flush deck, as if hunting for the scuppers, and came swashing
+down to the lee where the party were standing, wetting the ladies' feet
+to the ankle. The men merely pulled themselves up by the ropes they
+held, and hung till the deck was clear again.
+
+"I don't suppose it hurts you to get wet," said the Duke to his sister,
+"but you would be much better under hatches while this sort of thing is
+going on."
+
+"I think, if you will help me, I will go down and see how the Countess
+is," said Miss Skeat; and Claudius detached her from the rigging and got
+her down the companion, but the Duke stayed with his sister, who begged
+for a few minutes more. Once below, Claudius felt how near he was to
+Margaret, who was doubtless in the ladies' cabin. He could reach his own
+quarters without entering that sanctum, of course, but as he still held
+Miss Skeat's arm to steady her to the door, he could not resist the
+temptation of putting his head through, for he knew now that she must be
+there. It was a large sitting-room, extending through the whole beam,
+with big port-holes on each side. Miss Skeat entered, and Claudius
+looked in.
+
+There was Margaret, looking much as usual, her face turned a little from
+him as she lay in a huge arm-chair. She could not see him as she was,
+and his heart beat furiously as he looked at the face he loved best of
+all others.
+
+Margaret spoke to Miss Skeat without turning her head, for she was
+working at some of her eternal needlework.
+
+"Have you had a good time? How did you get down?"
+
+"Such an airing," answered the lady-companion, who was divesting herself
+of her wraps, "and Dr Claudius--"
+
+The last was lost to the Doctor's ear, for he withdrew his head and beat
+a hasty retreat. Miss Skeat also stopped speaking suddenly, for as she
+mentioned his name she looked naturally towards the door, supposing him
+to be standing there, and she just saw his head disappear from between
+the curtains. Margaret turned her eyes and saw Miss Skeat's
+astonishment.
+
+"Well, what about Dr. Claudius?" she asked.
+
+"Oh, nothing," said Miss Skeat, "you asked me how I got down, and I was
+going to say Dr. Claudius gave me his arm, and I thought he had come in
+here with me."
+
+Neither Miss Skeat nor Claudius had noticed Mr. Barker, who was
+ensconced on a corner transom, with his nails and a book to amuse
+himself with. He saw the whole thing: how the Doctor put his white face
+and dripping beard through the curtains, and suddenly withdrew it at the
+mention of his name, and how Miss Skeat held her peace about having seen
+it too. He reflected that something had happened, that Miss Skeat knew
+all about it, and that she was a discreet woman. He wondered what it
+could be. Claudius would not look like that unless something were wrong,
+he thought, and he would certainly come back in five minutes if
+everything were right. He had not seen him at breakfast. He took out his
+watch softly and let it drop on his book, face upwards. Meanwhile he
+talked to the two ladies about the weather, and listened to Miss Skeat's
+rapturous account of the spray and the general slipperiness of the upper
+regions. When five minutes were elapsed he put his watch back and said
+he thought he would try it himself, as he fancied the fresh air would do
+him good. So he departed, and obtained a pair of sea-boots and an
+oilskin, which he contemplated with disgust, and put on with
+resolution. He wanted to find the Duke, and he wanted to see Claudius;
+but he wanted them separately.
+
+Mr. Barker cautiously put his head out of the cuddy door and espied the
+Duke and his sister. This was not exactly what he wanted, and he would
+have retired, but at that moment Lady Victoria caught sight of him, and
+immediately called out to him not to be afraid, as it was much smoother
+now. But Mr. Barker's caution had proceeded from other causes, and being
+detected, he put a bold face on it, stepped on the deck and slammed the
+door behind him. Lady Victoria was somewhat surprised to see him tread
+the slippery deck with perfect confidence and ease, for she thought he
+was something of a "duffer." But Barker knew how to do most things more
+or less, and he managed to bow and take off his sou'wester with
+considerable grace in spite of the rolling. Having obtained permission
+to smoke, he lighted a cigar, crooked one booted leg through the iron
+rail, and seated himself on the bulwark, where, as the steamer lurched,
+he seemed to be in a rather precarious position. But there was a sort of
+cat-like agility in his wiry frame, that bespoke unlimited powers of
+balancing and holding on.
+
+"I thought there were more of you," he began, addressing Lady Victoria.
+"You seem to be having quite a nice time here."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I wish I had come up sooner; the atmosphere downstairs is very
+oppressive."
+
+"I thought you had neuralgia," said Lady Victoria.
+
+"So I had. But that kind of neuralgia comes and goes very suddenly.
+Where is the giant of the North?"
+
+"Dr. Claudius? He went down with Miss Skeat, and when he came up again
+he said he would go forward," answered she, giving the nautical
+pronunciation to the latter word.
+
+"Oh, I see him," cried Barker, "there he is, just going up the bridge.
+By Jove! what a height he looks."
+
+"Yes," put in the Duke, "he is rather oversparred for a nor'-easter, eh?
+Rather be your size, Barker, for reefing tawpsels;" and the Englishman
+laughed.
+
+"Well," said Barker, "when I first knew him he used to wear a balustrade
+round his neck to keep from being dizzy. I wouldn't care to have to do
+that. I think I will go and have a look too." And leaving his companions
+to laugh at his joke, Mr. Barker glided easily from the rail, and began
+his journey to the bridge, which he accomplished without any apparent
+difficulty. When he had climbed the little ladder he waved his hand to
+the Duke and his sister, who screamed something complimentary in reply;
+and then he spoke to Claudius who was standing by the skipper, his legs
+far apart, and both his hands on the railing.
+
+"Is that you, Barker?" asked Claudius; "you are well disguised this
+morning."
+
+"Claudius," said the other, "what on earth is the row?" The captain was
+on the other side of the Doctor, and could not hear in the wind.
+
+"What row?" asked Claudius. Barker knew enough of his friend by this
+time to be aware that roundabout methods of extracting information were
+less likely to be successful than a point-blank question.
+
+"Don't pretend ignorance," said he. "You look like a ghost, you are so
+pale, and when you put your head through the curtains a quarter of an
+hour ago, I thought you were one. And you have not been near the
+Countess this morning, though you have never been away from her before
+since we weighed anchor. Now, something has happened, and if I can do
+anything, tell me, and I will do it, right away." It is a good old plan,
+that one of trying to satisfy one's curiosity under pretence of offering
+assistance. But Claudius did not trouble himself about such things; he
+wanted no help from any one, and never had; and if he meant to tell,
+nothing would prevent him, and if he did not mean to tell, no power
+would make him.
+
+"Since you have found it out, Barker, something has happened, as you
+say; and thanks for your offer of help, but I cannot tell you anything
+more about it."
+
+"I think you are unwise."
+
+"Perhaps."
+
+"I might help you a great deal, for I have some natural tact."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Besides, you know I am as secret as the grave."
+
+"Quite so."
+
+"I introduced you to the Countess, too."
+
+"I know it."
+
+"And I should be very sorry indeed to think that my action should have
+had any evil consequences."
+
+"I am sure you would."
+
+"Then, my dear fellow, you must really take me a little more into your
+confidence, and let me help you," said Barker, in the tone of an injured
+man.
+
+"Perhaps I ought," said Claudius.
+
+"Then why will you not tell me what has happened now?"
+
+"Because I won't," said Claudius, turning sharply on Barker, and
+speaking in a voice that seemed to make the railings shake. He was
+evidently on the point of losing his temper, and Barker repented him
+too late of his attempt to extract the required information. Now he
+changed his tone.
+
+"Excuse me, Claudius, I did not mean to offend you."
+
+"You did not offend me at all, Barker. But please--do not ask me any
+more questions about it." Claudius was perfectly calm again.
+
+"No indeed, my dear fellow, I would not think of it;--and I don't seem
+to think that I should advise anybody else to," he added mentally. He
+made up his mind that it must be something very serious, or Claudius,
+who was so rarely excited, would hardly have behaved as he had done. He
+made a few remarks about the weather, which had certainly not improved
+since morning; and then, resolving that he would find out what was the
+matter before he was much older, he glided down the ladder and went aft.
+Lady Victoria had disappeared, and her brother was trying to light a
+short black pipe.
+
+"Duke," Barker began, "what the deuce is the matter with Claudius this
+morning?"
+
+"Don't know, I'm sure. My sister thinks it is very odd."
+
+"Well, if you don't know, I don't either, but I can make a pretty good
+guess."
+
+The Duke's vesuvian was sputtering in the spray and wind, and he got a
+good light before he answered.
+
+"I'll take six to four he marries her, at all events."
+
+"I don't go in for playing it as low down as that on my friends," said
+Barker virtuously, "or I would take you in hundreds. You must be crazy.
+Can't you see he has shown up and is sold? Bah! it's all over, as sure
+as you're born."
+
+"Think that's it?" said the other, much interested. "You may be right.
+Glad you would not bet, anyhow."
+
+"Of course that's it. The idiot has proposed to her here, on board, and
+she has refused him, and now he has to face the fury of the elements to
+keep out of her way."
+
+"Upon my soul, it looks like it," said the Duke. "He won't stay on the
+bridge much longer if this lasts, though."
+
+"You had best ask your sister," answered Barker. "Women always know
+those things first. What do you say to a game? It is beastly dirty
+weather to be on the deck watch." And so they pushed forward to the
+smoking-room, just before the bridge, and settled themselves for the day
+with a pack of cards and a box of cigars.
+
+As Margaret had not put in an appearance at breakfast, which was a late
+and solid meal on board, and as there was no other regular congregation
+of the party until dinner, for each one lunched as he or she pleased, it
+was clear that the Countess and Claudius would not be brought together
+until the evening. Margaret was glad of this for various reasons, some
+definable and others vague. She felt that she must have misjudged
+Claudius a little, and she was glad to see that her exhibition of
+displeasure on the previous night had been sufficient to keep him away.
+Had he been as tactless as she had at first thought, he would surely
+have sought an early opportunity of speaking to her alone, and the rest
+of the party were so much used to seeing them spend their mornings
+together that such an opportunity would not have been lacking, had he
+wished it. And if he had misunderstood her words and manner--well, if
+he had not thought they were meant as a decisive check, he would have
+followed her there and then, last night, when she left him. She felt a
+little nervous about his future conduct, but for the present she was
+satisfied, and prepared herself for the inevitable meeting at dinner
+with a certain feeling of assurance. "For," said she, "I do not love him
+in the least, and why should I be embarrassed?"
+
+Not so poor Claudius, who felt the blood leave his face and rush wildly
+to his heart, as he entered the saloon where the party were sitting down
+to dinner. The vessel was rolling heavily, for the sea was running high
+under the north-easter, and dinner would be no easy matter. He knew he
+must sit next to her and help her under all the difficulties that arise
+under the circumstances. It would have been easy, too, for them both to
+see that the eyes of the other four were upon them, had either of them
+suspected it. Claudius held himself up to the full of his great height
+and steadied every nerve of his body for the meeting. Margaret belonged
+to the people who do not change colour easily, and when she spoke, even
+the alert ear of Mr. Barker opposite could hardly detect the faintest
+change of tone. And yet she bore the burden of it, for she spoke first.
+
+"How do you do, Dr. Claudius?"
+
+"Thank you, well. I was sorry to hear you had a headache to-day. I hope
+you are better."
+
+"Thanks, yes; much better." They all sat down, and it was over.
+
+The conversation was at first very disjointed, and was inclined to turn
+on small jokes about the difficulty of dining at an angle of forty-five
+degrees. The weather was certainly much heavier than it had been in the
+morning, and the Duke feared they would have a longer passage than they
+had expected, but added that they would be better able to judge
+to-morrow at twelve. Claudius and Margaret exchanged a few sentences,
+with tolerable tact and indifference; but, for some occult reason, Mr.
+Barker undertook to be especially lively and amusing, and after the
+dinner was somewhat advanced he launched out into a series of stories
+and anecdotes which served very well to pass the time and to attract
+notice to himself. As Mr. Barker was generally not very talkative at
+table, though frequently epigrammatic, his sudden eloquence was
+calculated to engage the attention of the party. Claudius and Margaret
+were glad of the rattling talk that delivered them from the burden of
+saying anything especial, and they both laughed quite naturally at
+Barker's odd wit. They were grateful to him for what he did, and
+Claudius entertained some faint hope that he might go on in the same
+strain for the rest of the voyage. But Margaret pondered these things.
+She saw quickly that Barker had perceived that some embarrassment
+existed, and was spending his best strength in trying to make the meal a
+particularly gay one. But she could not understand how Barker could have
+found out that there was any difficulty. Had Claudius been making
+confidences? It would have been very foolish for him to do so, and
+besides, Claudius was not the man to make confidences. He was reticent
+and cold as a rule, and Barker had more than once confessed to the
+Countess that he knew very little of Claudius's previous history,
+because the latter "never talked," and would not always answer
+questions. So she came to the conclusion that Barker only suspected
+something, because the Doctor had not been with her during the day. And
+so she laughed, and Claudius laughed, and they were well satisfied to
+pay their social obolus in a little well-bred and well-assumed hilarity.
+
+So the dinner progressed, in spite of the rolling and pitching; for
+there was a good deal of both, as the sea ran diagonally to the course,
+breaking on the starboard quarter. They had reached the dessert, and two
+at least of the party were congratulating themselves on the happy
+termination of the meal, when, just as the Duke was speaking, there was
+a heavy lurch, and a tremendous sea broke over their heads. Then came a
+fearful whirring sound that shook through every plate and timber and
+bulkhead, like the sudden running down of mammoth clock-work, lasting
+some twenty seconds; then everything was quiet again save the sea, and
+the yacht rolled heavily to and fro.
+
+Every one knew that there had been a serious accident, but no one moved
+from the table. The Duke sat like a rock in his place and finished what
+he was saying, though no one noticed it. Miss Skeat clutched her silver
+fruit-knife till her knuckles shone again, and she set her teeth. Mr.
+Barker, who had a glass of wine in the "fiddle" before him, took it out
+when the sea struck and held it up steadily to save it from being
+spilled; and Lady Victoria, who was not the least ashamed of being
+startled, cried out--
+
+"Goodness gracious!" and then sat holding to the table and looking at
+her brother.
+
+Margaret and Claudius were sitting next each other on one side of the
+table. By one of those strange, sympathetic instincts, that only
+manifest themselves in moments of great danger, they did the same thing
+at the same moment. Claudius put out his left hand and Margaret her
+right, and those two hands met just below the table and clasped each
+other, and in that instant each turned round to the other and looked the
+other in the face. What that look told man knoweth not, but for one
+instant there was nothing in the world for Margaret but Claudius. As for
+him, poor man, he had long known that she was the whole world to him,
+his life and his death.
+
+It was very short, and Margaret quickly withdrew her hand and looked
+away. The Duke was the first to speak.
+
+"I do not think it is anything very serious," said he. "If you will all
+sit still, I will go and see what is the matter." He rose and left the
+saloon.
+
+"I don't fancy there is any cause for anxiety," said Barker. "There has
+probably been some slight accident to the machinery, and we shall be off
+again in an hour. I think we ought to compliment the ladies on the
+courage they have shown; it is perfectly wonderful." And Mr. Barker
+smiled gently round the table. Lady Victoria was palpably scared and
+Miss Skeat was silent. As for Margaret, she was confused and troubled.
+The accident of her seizing Claudius's hand, as she had done, was a
+thousand times more serious than any accident to the ship. The Doctor
+could not help stealing a glance at her, but he chimed in with Barker in
+praising the coolness of all three ladies. Presently the Duke came back.
+He had been forward by a passage that led between decks to the
+engine-room, where he had met the captain. The party felt reassured as
+the ruddy face of their host appeared in the doorway.
+
+"There is nothing to fear," he said cheerfully. "But it is a horrid
+nuisance, all the same."
+
+"Tell us all about it," said Lady Victoria.
+
+"Well--we have lost our means of locomotion. We have carried away our
+propeller."
+
+"What are you going to do about it?" asked Barker.
+
+"Do? There is nothing to be done. We must sail for it. I am dreadfully
+sorry."
+
+"It is not your fault," said Claudius.
+
+"Well, I suppose not. It happens even to big steamers."
+
+"And shall we sail all the way to New York?" asked his sister, who was
+completely reassured. "I think it will be lovely." Miss Skeat also
+thought sailing much more poetic than steaming.
+
+"I think we must hold a council of war," said the master. "Let us put it
+to the vote. Shall we make for Bermuda, which is actually nearer, but
+which is four or five days' from New York, or shall we go straight and
+take our chance of a fair wind?"
+
+"If you are equally willing to do both, why not let the ladies decide?"
+suggested Barker.
+
+"Oh no," broke in the Countess, "it will be much more amusing to vote.
+We will write on slips of paper and put them in a bag."
+
+"As there are five of you I will not vote," said the Duke, "for we might
+be three on a side, you know."
+
+So they voted, and there were three votes for New York and two for
+Bermuda.
+
+"New York has it," said the Duke, who counted, "and I am glad, on the
+whole, for it is Sturleson's advice." Barker had voted for New York, and
+he wondered who the two could have been who wanted to go to Bermuda.
+Probably Miss Skeat and Lady Victoria. Had the Countess suspected that
+those two would choose the longer journey and out-vote her, if the
+decision were left to the ladies?
+
+Meanwhile there had been heavy tramping of feet on the deck, as the men
+trimmed the sails. She could only go under double-reefed trysails and
+fore-staysail for the present, and it was no joke to keep her head up
+while the reefs were taken in. It was blowing considerably more than
+half a gale of wind, and the sea was very heavy. Soon, however, the
+effect of the sails made itself felt; the yacht was a good sea-boat, and
+when she fairly heeled over on the port-tack and began to cut the waves
+again, the ladies downstairs agreed that sailing was much pleasanter and
+steadier than steam, and that the next time they crossed in a yacht they
+would like to sail all the way. But in spite of their courage, and
+notwithstanding that they were greatly reassured by the explanations of
+Mr. Barker, who made the nature of the accident quite clear to them,
+they had been badly shaken, and soon retired to their respective
+staterooms. In the small confusion of getting to their feet to leave the
+cabin it chanced that Claudius found himself helping Margaret to the
+door. The recollection of her touch and look when the accident happened
+was strong in him yet and gave him courage.
+
+"Good-night, Countess," he said; "shall I have the pleasure of reading
+with you to-morrow?"
+
+"Perhaps," she answered; "if it is very fine. Fate has decreed that we
+should have plenty of time." He tried to catch a glance as she left his
+arm, but she would not, and they were parted for the night. Barker had
+gone into the engine-room, now quiet and strange; the useless machinery
+stood still as it had been stopped when the loss of the propeller,
+relieving the opposition to the motor-force, allowed it to make its
+last frantic revolutions. The Duke and Claudius were left alone in the
+main cabin.
+
+"Well," said the Duke, "we are in for it this time, at all events."
+
+"We are indeed," said Claudius; "I hope the delay will not cause you any
+serious inconvenience, for I suppose we shall not reach New York for a
+fortnight at least."
+
+"It will not inconvenience me at all. But I am sorry for you--for you
+all, I mean," he added, fearing he had been awkward in thus addressing
+Claudius directly, "because it will be so very disagreeable, such an
+awful bore for you to be at sea so long."
+
+"I have no doubt we shall survive," said the other, with a smile. "What
+do you say to going on deck and having a chat with Sturleson, now that
+all is quiet?"
+
+"And a pipe?" said the Duke, "I am with you." So on deck they went, and
+clambered along the lee to the smoking-room, without getting very wet.
+Sturleson was sent for, and they reviewed together the situation. The
+result of the inquiry was that things looked much brighter to all three.
+They were in a good sea-boat, well manned and provisioned, with nothing
+to fear from the weather, and if they were lucky they might make Sandy
+Hook in a week. On the other hand, they might not; but it is always well
+to take a cheerful view of things. People who cross the Atlantic in
+yachts are very different from the regular crowds that go backwards and
+forwards in the great lines. They are seldom in a hurry, and have
+generally made a good many voyages before. Perhaps the Duke himself, in
+his quality of host, was the most uncomfortable man on board. He did
+not see how the Countess and the Doctor could possibly survive being
+shut up together in a small vessel, for he was convinced that Barker
+knew all about their difficulty. If he had not liked Claudius so much,
+he would have been angry at him for daring to propose to this beautiful
+young friend of his. But then Claudius was Claudius, and even the Duke
+saw something in him besides his wealth which gave him a right to aspire
+to the highest.
+
+"I can't make out," the Duke once said to Barker, "where Claudius got
+his manners. He never does anything the least odd; and he always seems
+at his ease."
+
+"I only know he came to Heidelberg ten years ago, and that he is about
+thirty. He got his manners somewhere when he was a boy."
+
+"Of course, there are lots of good people in Sweden," said the Duke;
+"but they all have titles, just as they do in Germany. And Claudius has
+no title."
+
+"No," said Barker pensively, "I never heard him say he had a title."
+
+"I don't know anything about it," answered the Duke. "But I have been a
+good deal about Sweden, and he is not in the least like a respectable
+Swedish burgher. Did you not tell me that his uncle, who left him all
+that money, was your father's partner in business?"
+
+"Yes, I remember once or twice hearing the old gentleman say he had a
+nephew. But he was a silent man, though he piled up the dollars."
+
+"Claudius is a silent man too," said the Duke.
+
+"And he has sailed into the dollars ready piled."
+
+But this was before the eventful day just described; and the Duke had
+forgotten the conversation, though he had repeated the reflections to
+himself, and found them true. To tell the truth, Claudius looked more
+like a duke than his host, for the sea air had blown away the
+professorial cobwebs; and, after all, it did not seem so very
+incongruous in the Englishman's eyes that his handsome guest should fall
+in love with the Countess Margaret. Only, it was very uncomfortable; and
+he did not know exactly what he should do with them for the next ten
+days. Perhaps he ought to devote himself to the Countess, and thus
+effectually prevent any approaches that Claudius might meditate.
+Yes--that was probably his duty. He wished he might ask counsel of his
+sister; but then she did not know, and it seemed unfair, and altogether
+rather a betrayal of confidence or something--at all events, it was not
+right, and he would not do it. Barker might be wrong too. And so the
+poor Duke, muddle-headed and weary with this storm in his tea-cup, and
+with having his tea-cup come to grief in a real storm into the bargain,
+turned into his deck-cabin to "sleep on it," thinking the morning would
+bring counsel.
+
+Claudius had many things to think of too; but he was weary, for he had
+slept little of late, and not at all the night before; so he lay down
+and went over the scenes of the evening; but soon he fell asleep, and
+dreamed of her all the night long.
+
+But the good yacht _Streak_ held on her course bravely, quivering in the
+joy of her new-spread wings. For what hulk is so dull and pitifully
+modern as not to feel how much gladder a thing it is to bound along with
+straining shrouds and singing sails and lifting keel to the fierce music
+of the wind than to be ever conscious of a burning sullenly-thudding
+power, put in her bosom by the unartistic beast, man, to make her grind
+her breathless way whither he would, and whither she would not? Not the
+meanest mud-scow or harbour tug but would rather have a little mast and
+a bit of canvas in the fresh salt breeze than all the hundreds of
+land-born horse-powers and fire-driven cranks and rods that a
+haste-loving generation can cram into the belly of the poor craft. How
+much more, then, must the beautiful clean-built _Streak_ have rejoiced
+on that night when she felt the throbbing, gnashing pain of the engines
+stop suddenly in her breast, and was allowed to spread her beautiful
+wings out to be kissed and caressed all over by her old lover, the
+north-east wind?
+
+And the grand crested waves came creeping up, curling over their dark
+heads till they bristled with phosphorescent foam; and some of them
+broke angrily upward, jealous that the wind alone might touch those
+gleaming sails. But the wind roared at them in his wrath and drove them
+away, so that they sank back, afraid to fight with him; and he took the
+ship in his strong arms, and bore her fast and far that night, through
+many a heaving billow, and past many a breaking crest--far over the
+untrodden paths, where footsteps are not, neither the defiling hand of
+man.
+
+But within were beating hearts and the breathings of life. The strong
+man stretched to his full length on his couch, mighty to see in his
+hard-earned sleep. And the beautiful woman, with parted lips and wild
+tossing black hair; dark cheeks flushed with soft resting; hands laid
+together lovingly, as though, in the quiet night, the left hand would
+learn at last what good work the right hand has wrought; the fringe of
+long eyelashes drooping with the lids, to fold and keep the glorious
+light safe within, and--ah yes, it is there!--the single tear still
+clinging to its birthplace--mortal impress of immortal suffering. Is it
+not always there, the jewelled sign-manual of grief?
+
+But the good yacht _Streak_ held on her course bravely; and the
+north-easter laughed and sang as he buffeted the waves from the path of
+his love.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+The Duke was the first to be astir in the morning, and as soon as he
+opened his eyes he made up his mind that the weather was improving. The
+sea was still running high, but there was no sound of water breaking
+over the bulwarks. He emerged from his deck-cabin, and took a sniff of
+the morning air. A reef had been shaken out of the trysails, and the
+fore-topsail and jib were set. He went aft, and found the mate just
+heaving the patent log.
+
+"Nine and a half, your Grace," said the officer with a chuckle, for he
+was an old sailor, and hated steamers.
+
+"That's very fair," remarked the owner, skating off with his bare feet
+over the wet deck. Then he went back to his cabin to dress.
+
+Presently Mr. Barker's neat person emerged from the cuddy. He looked
+about to see if any one were out yet, but only a party of red-capped
+tars were visible, swabbing the forward deck with their pendulum-like
+brooms, and working their way aft in a regular, serried rank. The
+phalanx moved with an even stroke, and each bare foot advanced just so
+many inches at every third sweep of the broom, while the yellow-haired
+Norse 'prentice played the hose in front of them. Mr. Barker perceived
+that they would overtake him before long, and he determined on flight,
+not forward or aft, but aloft; and he leisurely lifted himself into the
+main-shrouds, and climbing half-way, hooked his feet through the
+ratlines. In this position he took out a cigar, lighted it with a
+vesuvian, and, regardless of the increased motion imparted to him at his
+greater elevation, he began to smoke. The atmosphere below must have
+been very oppressive indeed to induce Mr. Barker to come up before
+breakfast--in fact, before eight o'clock--for the sake of smoking a
+solitary cigar up there by the catharpings. Mr. Barker wanted to think,
+for an idea had struck him during the night.
+
+In ten minutes the parade of deck-swabbers had passed, and Claudius also
+appeared on deck, looking haggard and pale. He did not see Barker, for
+he turned, seaman-like, to the weatherside, and the try-sail hid his
+friend from his sight. Presently he too thought he would go aloft, for
+he felt cramped and weary, and fancied a climb would stretch his limbs.
+He went right up to the crosstrees before he espied Barker, a few feet
+below him on the other side. He stopped a moment in astonishment, for
+this sort of diversion was the last thing he had given the American
+credit for. Besides, as Barker was to leeward, the rigging where he was
+perched stood almost perpendicular, and his position must have been a
+very uncomfortable one. Claudius was not given to jocularity as a rule,
+but he could not resist such a chance for astonishing a man who imagined
+himself to be enjoying an airy solitude between sky and water. So he
+gently swung himself into the lee rigging and, leaning far down,
+cautiously lifted Mr. Barker's cap from his head by the woollen button
+in the middle. Mr. Barker knocked the ash from his cigar with his free
+hand, and returned it to his mouth; he then conveyed the same hand to
+the top of his head, to assure himself that the cap was gone. He knew
+perfectly well that in his present position he could not look up to see
+who had played him the trick.
+
+"I don't know who you are," he sang out, "but I may as well tell you my
+life is insured. If I catch cold, the company will make it hot for
+you--and no error."
+
+A roar of laughter from below saluted this sally, for the Duke and
+Sturleson had met, and had watched together the progress of the joke.
+
+"I will take the risk," replied Claudius, who had retired again to the
+crosstrees. "I am going to put it on the topmast-head, so that you may
+have a good look at it."
+
+"You can't do it," said Barker, turning himself round, and lying flat
+against the ratlines, so that he could look up at his friend.
+
+"What's that?" bawled the Duke from below.
+
+"Says he will decorate the maintruck with my hat, and I say he can't do
+it," Barker shouted back.
+
+"I'll back Claudius, level money," answered the Duke in stentorian
+tones.
+
+"I'll take three to two," said Barker.
+
+"No, I won't. Level money."
+
+"Done for a hundred, then," answered the American.
+
+It was an unlikely thing to bet on, and Barker thought he might have
+given the Duke odds, instead of asking them, as he had done. But he
+liked to get all he could in a fair way. Having arranged his bet, he
+told Claudius he might climb to the mast-head if he liked, but that he,
+Barker, was going down so as to have a better view; and he forthwith
+descended. All three stood leaning back against the weather bulwarks,
+craning their necks to see the better. Claudius was a very large man, as
+has been said, and Barker did not believe it possible that he could drag
+his gigantic frame up the smooth mast beyond the shrouds. If it were
+possible, he was quite willing to pay his money to see him do it.
+
+Claudius put the woollen cap in his pocket, and began the ascent. The
+steamer, as has been said, was schooner-rigged, with topsail yards on
+the foremast, but there were no ratlines in the main topmast shrouds,
+which were set about ten feet below the mast-head. To this point
+Claudius climbed easily enough, using his arms and legs against the
+stiffened ropes. A shout from the Duke hailed his arrival.
+
+"Now comes the tug of war," said the Duke.
+
+"He can never do it," said Barker confidently.
+
+But Barker had underrated the extraordinary strength of the man against
+whom he was betting, and he did not know how often, when a boy, Claudius
+had climbed higher masts than those of the _Streak_. The Doctor was one
+of those natural athletes whose strength does not diminish for lack of
+exercise, and large as he was, and tall, he was not so heavy as Barker
+thought. Now he pulled the cap out of his pocket and held it between his
+teeth, as he gripped the smooth wood between his arms and hands and
+legs, and with firm and even motion he began to swarm up the bare pole.
+
+"There--I told you so," said Barker. Claudius had slipped nearly a foot
+back.
+
+"He will do it yet," said the Duke, as the climber clasped his mighty
+hands to the mast. He would not slip again, for his blood was up, and he
+could almost fancy his iron grip pressed deep into the wood. Slowly,
+slowly those last three feet were conquered, inch by inch, and the broad
+hand stole stealthily over the small wooden truck at the topmast-head
+till it had a firm hold--then the other, and with the two he raised and
+pushed his body up till the truck was opposite his breast.
+
+"Skal to the Viking!" yelled old Sturleson, the Swedish captain, his
+sunburnt face glowing red with triumph as Claudius clapped the woollen
+cap over the mast-head.
+
+"Well done, indeed, man!" bawled the Duke.
+
+"Well," said Barker, "it was worth the money, anyhow."
+
+There was a faint exclamation from the door of the after-cabin; but none
+of the three men heard it, nor did they see a horror-struck face, stony
+and wide-eyed, staring up at the mast-head, where the Doctor's athletic
+figure swayed far out over the water with the motion of the yacht. Time
+had flown, and the bright sunlight streaming down into the ladies' cabin
+had made Margaret long for a breath of fresh air; so that when Lady
+Victoria appeared, in all sorts of jersies and blue garments, fresh and
+ready for anything, the two had made common cause and ventured up the
+companion without any manly assistance. It chanced that they came out on
+the deck at the very moment when Claudius was accomplishing his feat,
+and seeing the three men looking intently at something aloft, Margaret
+looked too, and was horrified at what she saw. Lady Victoria caught her
+and held her tightly, or she would have lost her footing with the lurch
+of the vessel. Lady Victoria raised her eyes also, and took in the
+situation at a glance.
+
+"Don't be afraid," she said, "he can take care of himself, no doubt. My
+brother used to be able to do it before he grew so big."
+
+Claudius descended rapidly, but almost lost his hold when he saw
+Margaret leaning against the taffrail. He would not have had her see him
+for worlds, and there she was, and she had evidently witnessed the whole
+affair. Before he had reached the deck, the Duke had seen her too, and
+hastened to her side. She was evidently much agitated.
+
+"How can you allow such things?" she said indignantly, her dark eyes
+flashing at him.
+
+"I had nothing to say about it, Countess. But he did it magnificently."
+
+Claudius had reached the deck, and eluding the compliments of Barker and
+Sturleson, hastened to the cuddy door, bowing to the ladies as he
+passed. He meant to beat a retreat to his cabin. But Margaret was
+determined to call him to account for having given her such a fright.
+
+"Dr. Claudius," said the voice that he loved and feared.
+
+"Yes, Countess," said he, steadying himself by the door as the vessel
+lurched.
+
+"Will you please come here? I want to speak to you." He moved to her
+side, waiting his chance between two seas. "Do you think you have a
+right to risk your life in such follies?" she asked, when he was close
+to her. The Duke and Lady Victoria were near by.
+
+"I do not think I have risked my life, Countess. I have often done it
+before."
+
+"Do you think, then, that you have a right to do such things in the
+sight of nervous women?"
+
+"No, Countess, I pretend to no such brutality, and I am very sincerely
+sorry that you should have unexpectedly seen me. I apologise most
+humbly to you and to Lady Victoria for having startled you;" he bowed to
+the Duke's sister as he spoke, and moved to go away. He had already
+turned when Margaret's face softened.
+
+"Dr. Claudius," she called again. He was at her side in a moment.
+"Please do not do it again--even if I am not there." She looked at him;
+he thought it strange. But he was annoyed at the whole business, and
+really angry with himself. She had spoken in a low tone so that the
+others had not heard her.
+
+"Countess," said he in a voice decidedly sarcastic, "I pledge myself
+never in future to ascend to the mast-head of any vessel or vessels
+without your express permission."
+
+"Very well," said she coldly; "I shall keep you to your word." But
+Claudius had seen his mistake, and there was no trace of irony in his
+voice as he looked her steadfastly in the eyes and answered.
+
+"Believe me, I will keep any promise I make to you," he said earnestly,
+and went away. Lady Victoria, who was not without tact, and had guessed
+that Margaret had something to say to the Doctor, managed meanwhile to
+keep her brother occupied by asking him questions about the exploit, and
+he, falling into the trap, had begun to tell the story from the
+beginning, speaking loud, by way of showing Claudius his appreciation.
+But Claudius, recking little of his laurels, went and sat in his cabin,
+pondering deeply. Barker, from a distance, had witnessed the
+conversation between Margaret and the Doctor. He came up murmuring to
+himself that the plot was thickening. "If Claudius makes a corner in
+mast-heads, there will be a bull market," he reflected, and he also
+remembered that just now he was a bear. "In that case," he continued
+his train of thought, "no more mast-heads."
+
+"Good morning, Countess; Lady Victoria, good morning," he said, bowing.
+"I would take off my hat if I could, but the Doctor has set the cap of
+liberty on high." Lady Victoria and the Duke laughed, but Margaret said
+"Good morning" without a smile. Barker immediately abandoned the subject
+and talked about the weather, which is a grand topic when there is
+enough of it. It was clear by this time that they had passed through a
+violent storm, which had gone away to southward. The sea was heavy of
+course, but the wind had moderated, and by twelve o'clock the yacht was
+running between nine and ten knots, with a stiff breeze on her quarter
+and all sails set.
+
+The Duke was extremely attentive to Margaret all that day, rarely
+leaving her side, whether she was below or on deck; bringing her books
+and rugs, and adjusting her chair, and altogether performing the offices
+of a faithful slave and attendant. Whenever Claudius came within hail
+the Duke would make desperate efforts to be animated, lengthening his
+sentences with all the vigorous superlatives and sledge-hammer adverbs
+he could think of, not to mention any number of "you knows." His efforts
+to be agreeable, especially when there appeared to be any likelihood of
+Claudius coming into the conversation, were so palpable that Margaret
+could not but see there was a reason for the expenditure of so much
+energy. She could not help being amused, but at the same time she was
+annoyed at what she considered a bit of unnecessary officiousness on the
+part of her host. However, he was such an old friend that she forgave
+him. But woman's nature is impatient of control. Left to herself she
+would have avoided Claudius; forcibly separated from him she discovered
+that she wanted to speak to him. As the day wore on and the Duke's
+attentions never relaxed, she grew nervous, and tried to think how she
+could send him away. It was no easy matter. If she asked for anything,
+he flew to get it and returned breathless, and of course at that very
+moment Claudius was just out of range. Then she called Miss Skeat, but
+the Duke's eloquence redoubled, and he talked to them both at once; and
+at last she gave it up in despair, and said she would lie down for a
+while. Once safe in her stateroom, the Duke drew a long breath, and went
+in search of Mr. Barker. Now Mr. Barker, in consequence of the idea that
+had unfolded itself to his fertile brain in the darkness of night, had
+been making efforts to amuse Claudius all day long, with as much
+determination as the Duke had shown in devoting himself to the Countess,
+but with greater success; for Barker could be very amusing when he
+chose, whereas the Duke was generally most amusing when he did not wish
+to be so. He found them in the smoking cabin, Claudius stretched at full
+length with a cigarette in his teeth, and Barker seated apparently on
+the table, the chair, and the transom, by a clever distribution of the
+various parts of his body, spinning yarns of a high Western flavour
+about death's-head editors and mosquitoes with brass ribs.
+
+The Duke was exhausted with his efforts, and refreshed himself with beer
+before he challenged Barker to a game.
+
+"To tell the truth, Duke," he answered, "I don't seem to think I feel
+like winning your money to-day. I will go and talk to the ladies, and
+Claudius will play with you."
+
+"You won't make much headway there," said the Duke. "The Countess is
+gone to bed, and Miss Skeat and my sister are reading English history."
+
+"Besides," put in Claudius, "you know I never play."
+
+"Well," said Barker, with a sigh, "then I will play with you, and
+Claudius can go to sleep where he is." They cut and dealt. But Claudius
+did not feel at all sleepy. When the game was well started he rose and
+went out, making to himself the same reflection that Margaret had made,
+"Why is my friend so anxious to amuse me to-day?" He seldom paid any
+attention to such things, but his strong, clear mind was not long in
+unravelling the situation, now that he was roused to thinking about it.
+Barker had guessed the truth, or very near it, and the Duke and he had
+agreed to keep Claudius and Margaret apart as long as they could.
+
+He went aft, and descended to the cabin. There sat Miss Skeat and Lady
+Victoria reading aloud, just as the Duke had said. He went through the
+passage and met the steward, or butler, whom he despatched to see if the
+Countess were in the ladies' cabin. The rosy-cheeked, gray-haired priest
+of Silenus said her ladyship was there, "alone," he added with a little
+emphasis. Claudius walked in, and was not disappointed. There she sat at
+the side of the table in her accustomed place, dark and beautiful, and
+his heart beat fast. She did not look up.
+
+"Countess," he began timidly.
+
+"Oh, Doctor Claudius, is that you? Sit down." He sat down on the
+transom, so that he could see the evening light fall through the
+port-hole above him on her side face, and as the vessel rose and fell
+the rays of the setting sun played strangely on her heavy hair.
+
+"I have not seen you all day," she said.
+
+"No, Countess." He did not know what to say to her.
+
+"I trust you are none the worse for your foolish performance this
+morning?" Her voice was even and unmodulated, not too friendly and not
+too cold.
+
+"I am, and I am not. I am unspeakably the worse in that I displeased
+you. Will you forgive me?"
+
+"I will forgive you," in the same tone.
+
+"Do you mean it? Do you mean you will forgive me what I said to you
+that--the other night?"
+
+"I did not say that," she answered, a little weariness sounding with the
+words. Claudius's face fell.
+
+"I am sorry," he said very simply.
+
+"So am I. I am disappointed in you more than I can say. You are just
+like all the others, and I thought you were different. Do you not
+understand me?"
+
+"Not entirely, though I will try to. Will you not tell me just what you
+mean to say?"
+
+"I think I will," she answered, looking up, but not towards Claudius.
+She hesitated a moment and then continued, "We are not children, Dr.
+Claudius; let us speak plainly, and not misunderstand each other." She
+glanced round the cabin as if to see if they were alone. Apparently she
+was not satisfied. "Move my chair nearer to the sofa, please," she
+added; and he rose and did her bidding.
+
+"I have not much to say," she went on, "but I do not want to say it
+before the whole ship's company. It is this: I thought I had found in
+you a friend, a man who would be to me what no one has ever been--a
+friend; and I am disappointed, for you want to be something else. That
+is all, except that it must not be thought of, and you must go."
+
+An Englishman would have reproached her with having given him
+encouragement; an Italian would have broken out into a passionate
+expression of his love, seeking to kindle her with his own fire. But the
+great, calm Northman clasped his hands together firmly on his knee and
+sat silent.
+
+"You must go--" she repeated.
+
+"I cannot go," he said honestly.
+
+"That is all the more reason why you should go at once," was the
+feminine argument with which she replied.
+
+"Let us go back to two days ago, and be as we were before. Will you not
+forget it?"
+
+"We cannot--you cannot, and I cannot. You are not able to take back your
+words or to deny them."
+
+"May God forbid!" said he very earnestly. "But if you will let me be
+your friend, I will promise to obey you, and I will not say anything
+that will displease you."
+
+"You cannot," she repeated; and she smiled bitterly.
+
+"But I can, and I will, if you will let me. I am very strong, and I will
+keep my word;" and indeed he looked the incarnation of strength as he
+sat with folded hands and earnest face, awaiting her reply. His words
+were not eloquent, but they were plain and true, and he meant them.
+Something in the suppressed power of his tone drove away the smile from
+Margaret's face, and she looked toward him.
+
+"Could you?" she asked. But the door opened, and Lady Victoria entered
+with her book.
+
+"Oh!" said Lady Victoria.
+
+"I must go and dress," said Claudius.
+
+"We will go on with the book to-morrow," said the Countess. And he bore
+away a light heart.
+
+On the following day the Duke began to take care of the Countess, as he
+had done yesterday, and Barker turned on the fireworks of his
+conversation for the amusement of Claudius. Claudius sat quite still for
+an hour or more, perhaps enjoying the surprise he was going to give the
+Duke and Barker. As the latter finished a brilliant tale, for the
+veracity of which he vouched in every particular, Claudius calmly rose
+and threw away his cigarette.
+
+"That is a very good story," he said. "Good-bye for the present. I am
+going to read with the Countess." Barker was nearly "taken off his
+feet."
+
+"Why--" he began, but stopped short. "Oh, very well. She is on deck. I
+saw the Duke bring up her rugs and things." His heavy moustache seemed
+to uncurl itself nervously, and his jaw dropped slowly, as he watched
+Claudius leave the deck-cabin.
+
+"I wonder when they got a chance," he said to himself.
+
+But Barker was not nearly so much astonished as the Duke. The latter was
+sitting by Margaret's side, near the wheel, making conversation. He was
+telling her such a good story about a mutual friend--the son of a great
+chancellor of the great empire of Kakotopia--who had gambled away his
+wife at cards with another mutual friend.
+
+"And the point of the story," said the Duke, "is that the lady did not
+object in the least. Just fancy, you know, we all knew her, and now she
+is married again to--" At this point Claudius strode up, and Margaret,
+who did not care to hear any more, interrupted the Duke.
+
+"Dr. Claudius, I have our book here. Shall we read?" The Doctor's face
+flushed with pleasure. The Duke stared.
+
+"I will get a chair," he said; and his long legs made short work of it.
+
+"Well, if you will believe it," said the Duke, who meant to finish his
+story, "it was not even the man who won her at cards that she married
+when she was divorced. It was a man you never met; and they are living
+in some place in Italy." The Duke could hardly believe his eyes when
+Claudius boldly marched up with his chair and planted himself on
+Margaret's other side. She leaned back, looking straight before her, and
+turning the leaves of the book absently backwards and forwards. The Duke
+was evidently expected to go, but he sat fully a minute stupidly looking
+at Margaret. At last she spoke.
+
+"That was not a very nice story. How odd! I knew them both very well. Do
+you remember where we left off, Dr. Claudius?"
+
+"Page one hundred and nineteen," answered the Doctor, who never forgot
+anything. This looked like business, and the Duke rose. He got away
+rather awkwardly. As usual, he departed to wreak vengeance on Mr.
+Barker.
+
+"Barker," he began with emphasis, "you are an ass."
+
+"I know it," said Barker, with humility. "I have been saying it over to
+myself for a quarter of an hour, and it is quite true. Say it again; it
+does me good."
+
+"Oh, that is all. If you are quite sure you appreciate the fact I am
+satisfied."
+
+"It dawned upon me quite suddenly a few minutes ago. Claudius has been
+here," said Barker.
+
+"He has been there too," said the Duke. "He is there now."
+
+"I suppose there is no doubt that we are talking about the same thing?"
+
+"I don't know about you," said the other. "I am talking about Claudius
+and Countess Margaret. They never had a chance to speak all day
+yesterday, and now she asks him to come and read with her. Just as I was
+telling no end of a jolly story too." Mr. Barker's wrinkle wound slowly
+round his mouth. He had been able to shave to-day, and the deep furrow
+was clearly defined.
+
+"Oh! she asked him to read, did she?" Then he swore, very slowly and
+conscientiously, as if he meant it.
+
+"Why the deuce do you swear like that?" asked the Duke. "If it is not
+true that she has refused him, you ought to be very glad." And he
+stuffed a disreputable short black pipe full of tobacco.
+
+"Why, of course I am. I was swearing at my own stupidity. Of course I am
+very glad if she has not refused him." He smiled a very
+unhealthy-looking smile. "See here--" he began again.
+
+"Well? I am seeing, as you call it."
+
+"This. They must have had a talk yesterday. He was here with me, and
+suddenly he got up and said he was going to read with her. And you say
+that she asked him to read with her when he went to where you were."
+
+"Called out to him half across the deck--in the middle of my story, too,
+and a firstrate one at that."
+
+"She does not care much for stories," said Barker; "but that is not the
+question. It was evidently a put-up job."
+
+"Meaning a preconcerted arrangement," said the Duke. "Yes. It was
+arranged between them some time yesterday. But I never left her alone
+until she said she was going to lie down."
+
+"And I never left him until you told me she had gone to bed."
+
+"She did not lie down, then," said the Duke.
+
+"Then she lied up and down," said Barker, savagely playful.
+
+"Ladies do not lie," said the Duke, who did not like the word, and
+refused to laugh.
+
+"Of course. And you and I are a couple of idiots, and we have been
+protecting her when she did not want to be protected. And she will hate
+us for ever after. I am disgusted. I will drown my cares in drink. Will
+you please ring the bell?"
+
+"You had better drink apollinaris. Grog will go to your head. I never
+saw you so angry." The Duke pressed the electric button.
+
+"I loathe to drink of the water," said Barker, tearing off the end of a
+cigar with his teeth. The Duke had seen a man in Egypt who bit off the
+heads of black snakes, and he thought of him at that moment. The steward
+appeared, and when the arrangements were made, the ocean in which Barker
+proposed to drown his cares was found to consist of a small glass of a
+very diluted concoction of champagne, bitters, limes, and soda water.
+The Duke had some, and thought it very good.
+
+"It is not a question of language," said Barker, returning to the
+conversation. "They eluded us and met. That is all."
+
+"By her wish, apparently," said the other.
+
+"We must arrange a plan of action," said Barker.
+
+"Why? If she has not refused him, it is all right. We have nothing more
+to do with it. Let them go their own way."
+
+"You are an old friend of the Countess's, are you not?" asked the
+American. "Yes--very well, would you like to see her married to
+Claudius?"
+
+"Upon my word," said the Duke, "I cannot see that I have anything to say
+about it. But since you ask me, I see no possible objection. He is a
+gentleman--has money, heaps of it--if she likes him, let her marry him
+if she pleases. It is very proper that she should marry again; she has
+no children, and the Russian estates are gone to the next heir. I only
+wanted to save her from any inconvenience. I did not want Claudius to be
+hanging after her, if she did not want him. She does. There is an end of
+it." O glorious English Common Sense! What a fine thing you are when
+anybody gets you by the right end.
+
+"You may be right," said Barker, with a superior air that meant "you are
+certainly wrong." "But would Claudius be able to give her the position
+in foreign society--"
+
+"Society be damned," said the Duke. "Do you think the widow of Alexis
+cannot command society? Besides, Claudius is a gentleman, and that is
+quite enough."
+
+"I suppose he is," said Mr. Barker, with an air of regret.
+
+"Suppose? There is no supposing about it. He is." And the Duke looked at
+his friend as if he would have said, "If I, a real, palpable, tangible,
+hereditary duke, do not know a gentleman when I see one, what can _you_
+possibly know about it, I would like to inquire?" And that settled the
+matter.
+
+But Mr. Barker was uneasy in his mind. An idea was at work there which
+was diametrically opposed to the union of Claudius and Margaret, and day
+by day, as he watched the intimacy growing back into its old
+proportions, he ground his gold-filled teeth with increasing annoyance.
+He sought opportunities for saying and doing things that might curtail
+the length of those hours when Claudius sat at her side, ostensibly
+reading. Ostensibly? Yes--the first day or two after she had allowed him
+to come back to her side were days of unexampled industry and severe
+routine, only the most pertinent criticisms interrupting from time to
+time the even progress from line to line, from page to page, from
+paragraph to paragraph, from chapter to chapter. But soon the criticism
+became less close, the illustration more copious, the tongue more
+eloquent, and the glance less shy. The elective strength of their two
+hearts rose up and wrought mightily, saying, "We are made for each
+other, we understand each other, and these foolish mortals who carry us
+about in their bosoms shall not keep us apart." And to tell the truth,
+the foolish mortals made very little effort. Margaret did not believe
+that Claudius could possibly break his plighted word, and he knew that
+he would die rather than forfeit his faith. And so they sat side by side
+with the book, ostensibly reading, actually talking, most of the day.
+And sometimes one or the other would go a little too near the forbidden
+point, and then there was a moment's silence, and the least touch of
+embarrassment; and once Margaret laughed a queer little laugh at one of
+these stumbles, and once Claudius sighed. But they were very happy, and
+the faint colour that was natural to the Doctor's clear white skin came
+back as his heart was eased of its burden, and Margaret's dark cheek
+grew darker with the sun and the wind that she took no pains to keep
+from her face, though the olive flushed sometimes to a warmer hue, with
+pleasure--or what? She thought it was the salt breeze.
+
+"How well those two look!" exclaimed Lady Victoria once to Mr. Barker.
+
+"I have seen Claudius look ghastly," said Barker, for he thought they
+looked too "well" altogether.
+
+"Yes; do you remember one morning--I think it was the day before, or the
+day after, the accident? I thought he was going to faint."
+
+"Perhaps he was sea-sick," suggested Barker.
+
+"Oh no, we were a week out then, and he was never ill at all from the
+first."
+
+"Perhaps he was love-sick," said the other, willing to be spiteful.
+
+"How ridiculous! To think of such a thing!" cried the stalwart English
+girl; for she was only a girl in years despite her marriage. "But
+really," she continued, "if I were going to write a novel I would put
+those two people in it, they are so awfully good-looking. I would make
+all my heroes and heroines beautiful if I wrote books."
+
+"Then I fear I shall never be handed down to posterity by your pen, Lady
+Victoria," said Barker, with a smile.
+
+"No," said she, eyeing him critically, "I don't think I would put you in
+my book. But then, you know, I would not put myself in it either."
+
+"Ah," grinned Mr. Barker, "the book would lose by that, but I should
+gain."
+
+"How?" asked her ladyship.
+
+"Because we should both be well out of it," said he, having reached his
+joke triumphantly. But Lady Victoria did not like Mr. Barker, or his
+jokes, very much. She once said so to her brother. She thought him
+spiteful.
+
+"Well, Vick," said her brother good-naturedly, "I daresay you are
+right. But he amuses me, and he is very square on settling days."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Meanwhile Lady Victoria was not mistaken--Mr. Barker was spiteful; but
+she did not know that she was the only member of the party to whom he
+ventured to show it, because he thought she was stupid, and because it
+was such a relief to say a vicious thing now and then. He devoted
+himself most assiduously to Miss Skeat, since Margaret would not accept
+his devotion to her, and indeed had given him little chance to show that
+he would offer it. The days sped fast for some of the party, slowly for
+others, and pretty much as they did anywhere else for the Duke, who was
+in no especial hurry to arrive in New York. His affairs were large
+enough to keep, and he had given himself plenty of time. But
+nevertheless his affairs were the object in view; and though he did not
+like to talk about those things, even with Barker, the fate of Claudius
+and Margaret as compared with the larger destinies of the Green Swash
+Mining Company were as the humble and unadorned mole-hill to the glories
+of the Himalaya. People had criticised the Duke's financial career in
+England. Why had he sold that snuffbox that Marie Therese gave to his
+ancestor when--well, you know when? Why had he converted those
+worm-eaten manuscripts, whereon were traced many valuable things in a
+variety of ancient tongues, into coin of the realm? And why had he
+turned his Irish estates into pounds, into shillings, yea, and into
+pence. Pence--just think of it! He had sold his ancestral lands for
+_pence_; that was what it came to. These and many other things the
+scoffers scoffed, with a right good-will. But none save the Duke could
+tell how many broad fields of ripening grain, and vine-clad hills, and
+clean glistening miles of bright rail, and fat ore lands sodden with
+wealth of gold and silver and luscious sulphurets--none save the Duke
+could tell how much of these good things the Duke possessed in that
+great land beyond the sea, upon which if England were bodily set down it
+would be as hard to find as a threepenny bit in a ten-acre field. But
+the Duke never told. He went about his business quietly, for he said in
+his heart, "Tush! I have children to be provided for; and if anything
+happens to the old country, I will save some bacon for them in the new,
+and they may call themselves dukes or farmers as far as I am concerned;
+but they shall not lack a few hundred thousand acres of homestead in the
+hour of need, neither a cow or two or a pig."
+
+The breeze held well, on the whole, and old Sturleson said they were
+having a wonderful run, which was doubtless an effort on the part of
+nature to atone for the injury she had done. But the days flew by, and
+yet they were not at their voyage's end. At last, as they sat sunning
+themselves in the fair September weather, Sturleson came to them, his
+bright quadrant, with its coloured glasses sticking out in all
+directions, in his hand, and told the Duke he thought that by to-morrow
+afternoon they would sight the Hook. The party were all together, as it
+happened, and there was a general shout, in which, however, Claudius
+joined but faintly. He longed for contrary winds, and he wished that
+Sandy Hook and all its appurtenances, including New York and the United
+States, would sink gently down to the bottom of the sea. He knew, and
+Sturleson had told him, that with unfavourable weather they might be at
+sea a month, and he was one of the two who voted to go to Bermuda when
+the accident occurred.
+
+That evening, as the sun was going down to his tossing bed of golden
+waves, all canopied with softest purple, Margaret stood leaning over the
+taffrail. Every stitch of canvas was out--topsails, gaff-topsails,
+staysails, and jibs--and the good yacht bounded with a will to the
+bright west. But the dark woman looked astern to where the billows
+rolled together, forgetting what precious burden they had borne.
+Claudius stole to her side and stood a moment looking at her face.
+
+"So it is over," he said at last.
+
+"Nearly over. It has been very pleasant," said she.
+
+"It has been more than pleasant. It has been divine--for me."
+
+"Hush!" said Margaret softly; "remember." There was silence, save for
+the rushing of the rudder through the dark-blue foam. Again Claudius
+spoke, softly, and it seemed to her that the voice was not his, but
+rather that it came up mystically from the water below.
+
+"Are you sorry it is over?" he asked--or the voice of the mighty deep
+welling up with its burden of truth.
+
+"Yes, I am very sorry," she answered, whether she would or no. The sun
+sank down, and the magic after-glow shone in the opposite sky, tinging
+ship and sails and waves.
+
+"I am very sorry too," he said; and he sighed and looked astern
+eastwards, and thought of the golden hours he had spent on that broad
+track stretching away behind. Margaret leaned down, resting her chin on
+her hands, and presently she unfolded them, and her fingers stole
+upwards and covered her face, and she bent her head. There was a mighty
+beating in Claudius's breast, and a thousand voices in the air cried to
+him to speak and to say what was in his heart to say. But he would not,
+for he had given the woman at his side the promise of his faith. At last
+she looked up and turned toward him. They were alone on the deck in the
+faintness of the gathering twilight.
+
+"Claudius, you have kept your promise truly and well. Keep it--keep it
+always." She held out her ungloved hand.
+
+"Always, my queen and my lady," and he kissed the white fingers once.
+
+"Hullo!" shouted the Duke, emerging from the cuddy. "Upon my word! Why,
+it's dinner time."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+How they left the good yacht _Streak_, and how they bade a hearty
+farewell to that old sea lion Captain Sturleson, and how they went
+through the hundred and one formalities of the custom-house, and the
+thousand and one informalities of its officials, are matters of interest
+indeed, but not of history. There are moments in a man's existence when
+the act of conveying half a dozen sovereigns to the pocket of that stern
+monitor of good faith, the brass-buttoned custom-house officer with the
+tender conscience, is of more importance to salvation than women's love
+or the Thirty-nine Articles. All this they did. Nor were they spared by
+the great tormentor of the West, who bristleth with the fretful quill,
+whose ears surround us in the night-time, and whose voice is as the
+voice of the charmer, the reporter of the just and the unjust, but
+principally of the latter. And Mr. Barker made an appointment with the
+Duke, and took a tender farewell of the three ladies, and promised to
+call on Claudius in the afternoon, and departed. But the rest of the
+party went to a famous old hotel much affected by Englishmen, and whose
+chief recommendation in their eyes is that there is no elevator, so that
+they can run upstairs and get out of breath, and fancy themselves at
+home. Of course their apartments had been secured, and had been waiting
+for them a week, and the Countess was glad to withdraw for the day into
+the sunny suite over the corner that was hers. As for Miss Skeat, she
+went to the window and stayed there, for America was quite different
+from what she had fancied. Claudius descended to the lower regions, and
+had his hair cut; and the cook and the bar-keeper and the head "boots,"
+or porter, as he called himself, all came and looked in at the door of
+the barber's shop, and stared at the huge Swede. And the barber walked
+reverently round him with scissors and comb, and they all agreed that
+Claudius must be Mr. Barnum's new attraction, except the head porter--no
+relation of an English head porter--who thought it was "Fingal's babby,
+or maybe the blessed Sint Pathrick himself." And the little boy who
+brushed the frequenters of the barber's shop could not reach to
+Claudius's coat collar, so that the barber had to set a chair for him,
+and so he climbed up.
+
+The Duke retired also to the depths of his apartments, and his servant
+arrayed him in the purple and stove-pipe of the higher civilisation. And
+before long each of the ladies received a large cardboard box full of
+fresh-cut flowers, sent by Mr. Barker of course; and the Duke, hearing
+of this from his man, sent "his compliments to Lady Victoria, and would
+she send him a rose for his coat?" So the Duke sallied forth on foot,
+and the little creases in his clothes showed that he had just arrived.
+But he did not attract any attention, for the majority of the population
+of New York have "just arrived." Besides, he had not far to go. He had a
+friend in town who lived but a few steps from the hotel, and his first
+move on arriving was generally to call there.
+
+Claudius waited a short time to see whether Mr. Barker would come; but
+as Claudius rarely waited for anybody, he soon grew impatient, and
+squeezing himself into a cab, told the driver to take him to Messrs.
+Screw and Scratch in Pine Street. He was received with deference, and
+treated as his position demanded. Would he like to see Mr. Silas B.
+Barker senior? Very natural that he should want to make the acquaintance
+of his relative's old friend and partner. Mr. Screw was out, yes--but
+Mr. Scratch would accompany him. No trouble at all. Better "go around
+right off," as Mr. Barker would probably go to Newport by the boat that
+evening. So they went "around right away," and indeed it was a circular
+journey. Down one elevator, through a maze of corridors, round crowded
+corners, through narrow streets, Claudius ploughing his way through
+billows of curbstone brokers, sad and gay, messenger-boys, young clerks,
+fruit vendors, disreputable-looking millionaires and gentlemanly-looking
+scamps, newspaper-boys, drunken Irishmen, complacent holders of
+preferred, and scatterbrained speculators in wild-cat, an atmosphere of
+tobacco smoke, dust, melons, and unintelligible jargon--little Mr.
+Scratch clinging to his client's side, nodding furiously at every other
+face he saw, and occasionally shouting a word of outlandish etymology,
+but of magic import. Claudius almost thought it would be civil to offer
+to carry the little man, but when he saw how deftly Mr. Scratch got in a
+foot here and an elbow there, and how he scampered over any little bit
+of clear pavement, the Doctor concluded his new acquaintance was
+probably used to it. More elevators, more passages, a glass door, still
+bearing the names "Barker and Lindstrand," and they had reached their
+destination.
+
+The office was on the second floor, with large windows looking over the
+street; there were several people in the room they first entered, and
+the first person Claudius saw was Mr. Barker junior, his friend.
+
+"Well," said Barker, "so you have found us out. That's right. I was
+coming round to see you afterwards, for I did not suppose you would like
+to face 'the street' alone. Father," he said, turning to a thickset man
+with white hair and bushy eyebrows, "this is Dr. Claudius, Mr.
+Lindstrand's nephew."
+
+The old gentleman looked up keenly into Claudius's face, and smiled
+pleasantly as he put out his hand. He said a few words of cordial
+welcome, and seemed altogether a sturdy, hearty, hardworking man of
+business--rather a contrast to his son. He hoped that Claudius would
+come on to Newport with Silas, as he wanted to have a long talk with
+him. The old gentleman was evidently very busy, and his son took
+Claudius in charge.
+
+"What is that?" asked the Doctor, looking curiously at a couple of
+wheels that unwound unceasingly long strips of white paper. The paper
+passed through a small instrument, and came out covered with
+unintelligible signs, coiling itself in confusion into a waste-basket
+below.
+
+"That has driven more men to desperation, ruin, and drink, than all the
+other evils of humanity put together," said Barker. "That is the
+ticker."
+
+"I perceive that it ticks," said Claudius. And Barker explained how
+every variation in the market was instantly transmitted to every place
+of business, to every club, and to many private houses in New York, by
+means of a simple arrangement of symbols--how "Gr. S." meant Green
+Swash, and "N.P. pr." "North Pacific, preferred," and many other things.
+Claudius thought it an ingenious contrivance, but said it must be very
+wearing on the nerves.
+
+"It is the pulse of New York," said Barker. "It is the croupier calling
+out from morning till night 'trente-sept, rouge, impair,' and then
+'Messieurs faites votre jeu--le jeu est fait.' When stock goes down you
+buy, when it goes up you sell. That is the whole secret."
+
+"I think it is very like gambling," said Claudius.
+
+"So it is. But we never gamble here, though we have a ticker to see what
+other people are doing. Besides, it tells you everything. Horse-racing,
+baseball, steamers, births, deaths, and marriages; corn, wheat, tobacco,
+and cotton. Nobody can live here without a ticker."
+
+And after this they went out into the street again, and Mr. Scratch took
+off his hat to Claudius, which is the highest token of unusual esteem
+and respect of which "the street" is capable, and in a moment the heels
+of his boots were seen disappearing into the dense crowd. Claudius and
+Barker walked on, and crossed Broadway; a few steps farther, and the
+Doctor was brought face to face with the triumph of business over
+privacy--the elevated railway. He had caught a glimpse of portions of it
+in the morning, but had supposed the beams and trestles to be
+scaffoldings for buildings. He stood a few moments in profound thought,
+contemplating and comprehending this triumph of wheels.
+
+"It is a great invention," he said quietly. And when they were seated in
+the long airy car, he looked out of the window, and asked whether the
+people in the first stories of the houses did not find it very
+disagreeable to have trains running by their windows all day.
+
+"The social and municipal economy of New York," explained Mr. Barker,
+"consists in one-third of the population everlastingly protesting
+against the outrageous things done by the other two-thirds. One-third
+fights another third, and the neutral third takes the fees of both
+parties. All that remains is handed over to the deserving poor."
+
+"That is the reason, I suppose, why there are so few poor in New York,"
+observed the Doctor with a smile.
+
+"Exactly," said Barker; "they go West."
+
+"I would like to discuss the political economy of this country with you,
+when I have been here six months."
+
+"I hope you will not. And when you have been here six months you will be
+willing to pay a large sum rather than discuss it with any one."
+
+And so they went up town, and Claudius watched everything with interest,
+and occasionally made a remark. Barker was obliged to go on, and he put
+Claudius out on the platform at the station nearest his hotel, and which
+was in fact at the same cross-street. As Claudius ascended the steps he
+was overtaken by the Duke, who was breathless with running.
+
+"I--am afraid--it is too late," he panted; "come along," and he seized
+Claudius by the arm and dragged him to the corner of Fifth Avenue,
+before he could ask any questions.
+
+"What is the matter?" asked the Doctor, looking about.
+
+"He is gone," said the Duke, who had recovered his speech, "I knew he
+would, but I thought there was time. I was with a friend of mine, and I
+had just left him when I saw you, and as I have asked him to dinner I
+wanted to introduce you first. But he is always in such a hurry. Nowhere
+to be seen. Probably down town by this time." They turned back and went
+in. The Duke asked for the ladies. The Countess and her companion had
+gone to drive in the park, but Lady Victoria was upstairs.
+
+"Vick, I am going to have a man to dinner--of course we will all dine
+together the first night ashore--a man you have heard me speak of; you
+will like him amazingly."
+
+"Who is he?"
+
+"He is the uncle of the whole human race."
+
+"Including the peerage?" laughed Lady Victoria.
+
+"Peerage? I should think so. The whole of Debrett and the _Almanach de
+Gotha_. Nobility and gentry, the Emperor of China and the North American
+Indians."
+
+"That will suit Miss Skeat. She is always talking about the North
+American Indians. I think I know who it is."
+
+"Of course you do, and now he is coming." There was a pause. "Vick, may
+I smoke?"
+
+"Oh yes, if you like." His Grace lit a cigarette.
+
+"Vick, I am afraid you have had a dreadfully stupid time of it on this
+trip. I am so sorry. Those people turned out rather differently from
+what I had expected." The Duke was fond of his sister, though she was
+much younger than he, and he began to reflect that she had been poorly
+provided for, as he had engaged Barker most of their time.
+
+"Not at all. You know I am so fond of the sea and the open air, and I
+have enjoyed it all so much. Besides--"
+
+"It is awfully good of you to say so, my dear, but I don't believe a
+word of it. 'Besides'--you were going to say something."
+
+"Was I? Oh yes. Besides, you could not have had another man, you know,
+because it would have spoiled the table."
+
+"No, but I was so selfish about Barker, because he can play cards, and
+Claudius would not, or could not."
+
+"I am not sorry for that, exactly," said Lady Victoria. "You remember,
+we talked about him once. I do not like Mr. Barker very much."
+
+"Oh, he is no end of a good fellow in his way," said her brother. "Have
+you--a--any reason for not liking him, Vick?"
+
+"I think he is spiteful. He says such horrid things."
+
+"Does he? What about?" said the Duke indifferently, as he tore a bit of
+charred paper from the end of his cigarette, which had burned badly. She
+did not answer at first. He inspected the cigarette, puffed it into
+active life again, and looked up.
+
+"What about, Vick?"
+
+"About his friend--about Doctor Claudius. I like Doctor Claudius." Lady
+Victoria smoothed her rebellious brown hair at the huge over-gilt
+pier-glass of the little drawing-room which she and Margaret had in
+common.
+
+"I like him too," said the Duke. "He is a gentleman. Why don't you do
+your hair like the American women--all fuzzy, over your eyes? I should
+think it would be much less trouble."
+
+"It's not neat," said her ladyship, still looking into the glass. Then
+suddenly, "Do you know what I think?"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I believe Mr. Barker would like to marry Margaret himself."
+
+"Pshaw! Victoria, don't talk nonsense. Who ever heard of such a thing!
+The Duke rose and walked once up and down the room; then he sat down
+again in the same place. He was not pleased at the suggestion.
+
+"Why is it such nonsense?" she asked.
+
+"Any number of reasons. Besides, she would not have him."
+
+"That would not prevent him from wishing to marry her."
+
+"No, of course not, but--well, it's great stuff." He looked a little
+puzzled, as if he found it hard to say exactly why he objected to the
+idea.
+
+"You would be very glad if Claudius married her, would you not?" asked
+his sister.
+
+"Glad--I don't know--yes, I suppose so."
+
+"But you pretend to like Mr. Barker a great deal more than you like
+Doctor Claudius," said she argumentatively.
+
+"I know him better," said the Duke; "I have known Barker several years."
+
+"And he is rich--and that, and why should he not think of proposing to
+Margaret?"
+
+"Because--well I don't know, but it would be so deuced inappropriate,"
+in which expression the honest-hearted Englishman struck the truth,
+going for it with his head down, after the manner of his people.
+
+"At first he was very nice," said Lady Victoria, who had gained a point,
+though for what purpose she hardly knew; "but after a while he began to
+say disagreeable things. He hinted in all sorts of ways that Claudius
+was not exactly a gentleman, and that no one knew where he came from,
+and that he ought not to make love to Margaret, and so on, till I wanted
+to box his ears;" and she waxed warm in her wrath, which was really due
+in great part to the fact that Mr. Barker was personally not exactly to
+her taste. If she had liked him she would have thought differently of
+the things he said. But her brother was angry too by this time, for he
+remembered a conversation he had had with Barker on the same topic.
+
+"I told Barker once that Claudius was a gentleman, every inch of him,
+and I should think that was enough. As if I did not know--it's too bad,
+upon my word!" And the ducal forehead reddened angrily. The fact was
+that both he and his sister had taken an unaccountable fancy to this
+strange Northman, with his quiet ways and his unaffected courtesy, and
+at the present moment they would have quarrelled with their best friends
+rather than hear a word against him. "My guest, too, and on my yacht,"
+he went on; and it did his sister good to see him angry--"it's true he
+brought him, and introduced him to me." Then a bright idea struck him.
+"And if Claudius were not a gentleman, what the deuce right had Barker
+to bring him to me at all, eh? Wasn't it his business to find out? My
+word! I would like to ask him that, and if I find him I will." Lady
+Victoria had no intention of making mischief between her brother and Mr.
+Barker. But she did not like the American, and she thought Barker was
+turning the Duke into a miner, or a farmer, or a greengrocer, or
+something--it was not quite clear. But she wished him out of the way,
+and fate had given her a powerful weapon. It was just that sort of
+double-handedness that the Duke most hated of all things in the earth.
+Moreover, he knew his sister never exaggerated, and that what she had
+told him was of necessity perfectly true.
+
+Woe to Mr. Silas B. Barker junior if he came in the Duke's way that
+evening!
+
+"I suppose he is coming to dinner?" said the Duke after a pause, during
+which his anger had settled into a comfortable ferocity.
+
+"No," said Lady Victoria; "he sent some flowers and a note of regret."
+
+"Well--I am glad of that. Would you like to go for a drive, Vick?"
+
+"Yes, of all things. I have not been here since I was married"--which
+was about eighteen months, but she had already caught that matronly
+phrase--"and I want to see what they have been doing to the Park."
+
+"All right. We'll take Claudius, if he is anywhere about the place."
+
+"Of course," said Lady Victoria. And so the brother and sister prepared
+to soothe their ruffled feelings by making much of the man who was "a
+gentleman." But they were right, for Claudius was all they thought him,
+and a great deal more too, as they discovered in the sequel.
+
+Having driven in the Park, the Duke insisting that Claudius should sit
+in the place of honour with Lady Victoria, and having criticised to
+their satisfaction the few equipages they met--for it was too early for
+New York--they went back to their hotel, and dispersed to dress for
+dinner. The Duke, as he had told his sister, had invited his friend to
+dine. They all sat together waiting his arrival. Punctual to the moment,
+the door opened, and Mr. Horace Bellingham beamed upon the assembled
+party. Ay, but he was a sight to do good to the souls of the hungry and
+thirsty, and of the poor, and in misery!
+
+He requires description, not that any pen can describe him, but no one
+ever saw him who did not immediately wish to try. He was short,
+decidedly; but a broad deep chest and long powerful arms had given him
+many an advantage over taller adversaries in strange barbarous lands. He
+was perfectly bald, but that must have been because Nature had not the
+heart to cover such a wonderful cranium from the admiring gaze of
+phrenologists. A sweeping moustache and a long imperial of snowy white
+sat well on the ruddy tan of his complexion, and gave him an air at once
+martial and diplomatic. He was dressed in the most perfect of London
+clothes, and there were superb diamonds in his shirt, while a priceless
+sapphire sparkled, in a plain gold setting, on his broad, brown hand. He
+is the only man of his time who can wear precious stones without
+vulgarity. He moves like a king and has the air of the old school in
+every gesture. His dark eyes are brighter than his diamonds, and his
+look, for all his white beard and seventy years, is as young and fresh
+as the rose he wears in his coat.
+
+There are some people who turn gray, but who do not grow hoary, whose
+faces are furrowed but not wrinkled, whose hearts are sore wounded in
+many places, but are not dead. There is a youth that bids defiance to
+age, and there is a kindness which laughs at the world's rough usage.
+These are they who have returned good for evil, not having learned it as
+a lesson of righteousness, but because they have no evil in them to
+return upon others. Whom the gods love die young, and they die young
+because they never grow old. The poet, who at the verge of death said
+this, said it of, and to, this very man.
+
+The Duke went through the introductions, first to the Countess, then to
+Miss Skeat, then to his sister, and last of all to Claudius, who had
+been intently watching the newcomer. Mr. Bellingham paused before
+Claudius, and looked up in a way peculiarly his own, without raising his
+head. He had of course heard in New York of the strange fortune that had
+befallen Claudius on the death of the well-known Mr. Lindstrand, and now
+he stood a minute trying to take the measure of the individual before
+him, not in the least overcome by the physical proportions of the outer
+man, but struck by the intellectual face and forehead that surmounted
+such a tower of strength.
+
+"I was in Heidelberg myself--a student," said he, his face lighting up
+with coming reminiscences, "but that was long before you were born,
+fifty years ago."
+
+"I fancy it is little changed," said Claudius.
+
+"I would like to go back to the Badischer Hof. I remember once--" but he
+broke off short and turned to the Countess, and sat down beside her. He
+knew all her people in America and her husband's people abroad. He
+immediately began telling her a story of her grandmother, with a _verve_
+and graphic spirit that enchanted Margaret, for she liked clever old
+men. Besides he is not old. It is not so long since--well, it is a long
+story. However, in less than one minute the assembled guests were
+listening to the old-time tale of Margaret's ancestress, and the waiter
+paused breathless on the threshold to hear the end, before he announced
+dinner.
+
+There are two very different ways of dining--dining with Mr. Bellingham,
+and dining without him. But for those who have dined with him, all
+other prandial arrangements are an empty sham. At least so Claudius said
+to Margaret in an aside, when they got to the fruit. And Margaret, who
+looked wonderfully beautiful with a single band of gold through her
+black hair, laughed her assent, and said it was hopeless for the men of
+this day to enter the lists against the veterans of the _ancien regime_.
+And Claudius was not in the least hurt by the comparison, odious though
+it would have been to Mr. Barker, had he been there. Claudius had plenty
+of vanity, but it did not assume the personal type. Some people call a
+certain form of vanity pride. It is the same thing on a larger scale.
+Vanity is to pride what nervousness is to nerve, what morbid conscience
+is to manly goodness, what the letter of the law is to the spirit.
+
+Before they rose from the table, Mr. Bellingham proposed that they
+should adjourn to Newport on the following day. He said it was too early
+to be in New York and that Newport was still gay; at all events, the
+weather promised well, and they need not stay more than twenty-four
+hours unless they pleased. The proposition was carried unanimously, the
+Duke making a condition that he should be left in peace and not
+"entertained in a handsome manner by the _elite_ of our Newport
+millionaires"--as the local papers generally have it. Lady Victoria
+would not have objected to the operation of "being entertained" by
+Newport, for it amused her to see people, but of course she would enjoy
+herself very well without it. She always enjoyed herself, even when she
+went for a walk in the rain on a slippery Yorkshire road, all bundled up
+in waterproofs and hoods and things for her poor people--she enjoyed it
+all.
+
+As for Claudius, he knew that if he went to Newport he must of necessity
+stay with the Barkers, but as he had not yet learned to look at Mr.
+Barker in the light of a rival, he thought this would be rather
+convenient than otherwise. The fact that he would be within easy reach
+of Margaret was uppermost in his mind.
+
+During the last two days his relations with her had been of the
+happiest. There was an understanding between them, which took the place
+of a great deal of conversation. Claudius felt that his error in
+speaking too boldly had been retrieved, if not atoned for, and that
+henceforward his position was assured. He was only to be a friend, it
+was true, but he still felt that from friendship to love was but a step,
+and that the time would come. He thought of the mighty wooings of the
+heroes of his Northern home, and he felt in him their strength and their
+constancy. What were other men that he should think of them? He was her
+accepted friend of all others. She had said she hoped to find in him
+what she had never found before; and were not her words "always,
+always!" still ringing in his ears? She had found it then in him, this
+rare quality of friendship; she had found more,--a man who was a friend
+and yet a lover, but who could curb the strong passion to the semblance
+and docility of the gentler feeling. And when at last she should give
+the long-desired sign, the single glance that bids love speak, she would
+find such a lover as was not even dreamt of among the gods of the
+Greeks, nor yet among berserk heroes of ice and storm and battle. He
+felt to-day that he could endure to the end, for the end was worthy all
+endurance.
+
+And now he sat by her side and looked down into her face when she spoke,
+and they laughed together. Verily was Claudius the proudest man in all
+earth's quarters, and his blue eyes flashed a deep fire, and his
+nostrils expanded with the breath of a victory won. Mr. Bellingham, on
+the other side of the table, sparkled with a wit and grace that were to
+modern table-talk what a rare flagon of old madeira, crusted with years,
+but brimming with the imperishable strength and perfume of eternal
+youth, might be to a gaudily-ticketed bottle of California champagne,
+effervescent, machine-made, cheap, and nasty. And his glance
+comprehended the pair, and loved them. He thought they were like a
+picture of the North and of the South; and the thought called up
+memories in his brave old breast of a struggle that shook the earth to
+her foundations, and made him think of problems yet unsolved. He sat in
+his place silent for some minutes, and the broad brown hand stroked the
+snowy beard in deep thought, so that the conversation flagged, and the
+Duke began to talk about the voyage. But Mr. Bellingham took his
+brimming glass, filled with the wine that ripened in the sun when he
+himself was but a little boy, and he held it a moment to the light; the
+juice was clearer now than it had been that day sixty years, and the
+hand that held the goblet was as a hand of iron for strength and
+steadiness, though the dark fingers might have plucked the grapes on the
+day they were pressed. And with an old-time motion he carried it to his
+lips, then paused one instant, then drank it slowly, slowly to the last
+drop. It was a toast, but the speech was unspoken, and none knew to whom
+or to what he drained the measure. In a little time he began to speak
+again; the conversation turned upon mutual friends in England, and the
+dinner was at an end.
+
+But all through the evening Claudius never left Margaret's side. He
+felt that he was bridging over the difference between life at sea and
+life on land--that he was asserting his right to maintain in a
+drawing-room the privileges he had gained on the deck of the _Streak_.
+And Margaret, moreover, was especially friendly to-night, for she too
+felt the difference, and recognised that, after all, life on shore is
+the freer. There are certain conventionalities of a drawing-room that a
+man is less likely to break through, more certain to remember, than the
+unwritten rules of cruising etiquette. Most men who have led a free life
+are a little less likely to make love under the restraint of a white tie
+than they are when untrammelled by restraints of dress, which always
+imply some restraint of freedom.
+
+At least Margaret thought so. And Claudius felt it, even though he would
+not acknowledge it. They talked about the voyage; about what they had
+said and done, about the accident, and a hundred other things. There is
+a moment in acquaintance, in friendship, and in love, when two people
+become suddenly aware that they have a common past. Days, weeks, or
+months have been spent in conversation, in reading, perhaps in toil and
+danger, and they have not thought much about it. But one day they wake
+up to the fact that these little or great things bind them, as forming
+the portion of their lives that have touched; and as they talk over the
+incidents they remember they feel unaccountably drawn to each other by
+the past. Margaret and Claudius knew this on the first evening they
+spent together on shore. The confusion of landing, the custom-house, the
+strange quarters in the great hotel--all composed a drop-curtain
+shutting off the ocean scene, and ending thus an episode of their
+life-drama. A new act was beginning for them, and they both knew how
+much might depend on the way in which it was begun, and neither dared
+plan how it should end. At all events, they were not to be separated
+yet, and neither anticipated such a thing.
+
+Little by little their voices dropped as they talked, and they recked
+little of the others, as the dark cheek of the woman flushed with
+interest, and the blue light shone in the man's eyes. Their companions
+on the voyage were well used to seeing them thus together, and hardly
+noticed them, but Mr. Bellingham's bright eyes stole a glance from time
+to time at the beautiful pair in their corner, and the stories of youth
+and daring and love, that he seemed so full of this evening, flashed
+with an unwonted brilliancy. He made up his mind that the two were
+desperately, hopelessly, in love, and he had taken a fancy to Claudius
+from the first. There was no reason why they should not be, and he loved
+to build up romances, always ending happily, in his fertile imagination.
+
+But at last it was "good-night." Mr. Bellingham was not the man to spend
+the entire evening in one house, and he moved towards Margaret, hating
+to disturb the couple, but yet determined to do it. He rose, therefore,
+still talking, and, as the Duke rose also, cleverly led him round the
+chairs until within speaking distance of Margaret, who was still
+absorbed in her conversation. Then, having finished the one thread, he
+turned round.
+
+"By the by, Countess," he said, "I remember once--" and he told a
+graceful anecdote of Margaret's grandmother, which delighted every one,
+after which he bowed, like a young lover of twenty, to each of the three
+ladies, and departed.
+
+The party dispersed, the Duke and Claudius for half an hour's chat and
+a cigar, and the ladies to their rooms. But Claudius and Margaret
+lingered one moment in their corner, standing.
+
+"Has it been a happy day for you?" he asked, as she gave her hand.
+
+"Yes, it has been happy. May there be many like it!" she answered.
+
+"There shall be," said Claudius; "good-night, Countess."
+
+"Good-night--good-night, Claudius."
+
+The Duke waited fully ten minutes for the Doctor. It was the second time
+she had spoken his name without the formality of a prefix, and Claudius
+stood where she left him, thinking. There was nothing so very
+extraordinary in it, after all, he thought. Foreign women, especially
+Russians, are accustomed to omit any title or prefix, and to call their
+intimate friends by their simple names, and it means nothing. But her
+voice was so wonderful. He never knew his name sounded so sweet
+before--the consonants and vowels, like the swing and fall of a deep
+silver bell in perfect cadence. "A little longer," thought Claudius,
+"and it shall be hers as well as mine." He took a book from the table
+absently, and had opened it when he suddenly recollected the Duke, put
+it down and left the room.
+
+Soon a noiseless individual in a white waistcoat and a dress-coat put
+his head in at the door, advanced, straightened the chairs, closed the
+book the Doctor had opened, put the gas out and went away, shutting the
+door for the night, and leaving the room to its recollections. What
+sleepless nights the chairs and heavy-gilt glasses and gorgeous carpets
+of a hotel must pass, puzzling over the fragments of history that are
+enacted in their presence!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+Mr. Barker's urgent engagement up town that evening must have been to
+meet some one; but considering that the individual he might be supposed
+to be awaiting did not come, he showed a remarkable degree of patience.
+He went to a certain quiet club and ordered, with the utmost care, a
+meal after his own heart--for one; and though several members hailed him
+and greeted him on his return, he did not seem particularly interested
+in what they had to say, but sat solitary at his small square table with
+its exquisite service; and when he had eaten, and had finished his
+modest pint of Pommery Sec, he drank his coffee and smoked his own
+cigars in undisturbed contemplation of the soft-tinted wall-paper, and
+in calm, though apparently melancholy, enjoyment of the gentle light
+that pervaded the room, and of the sweet evening breeze that blew in
+from the trees of Madison Square, so restful after the dust and
+discomfort of the hot September day.
+
+Whoever it was that he awaited did not come, and yet Mr. Barker
+exhibited no sign of annoyance. He went to another room, and sat in a
+deep arm-chair with a newspaper which he did not read, and once he took
+a scrap of paper from his pocket and made a short note upon it with a
+patent gold pencil. It was a very quiet club, and Mr. Barker seemed to
+be its quietest member. And well he might be, for he had made up his
+mind on a grave point. He had determined to marry.
+
+He had long known it must come, and had said to himself more than once
+that "to every man upon this earth death cometh, soon or late;" but
+being human, he had put off the evil day, having always thought that it
+must, of necessity, be evil. But now it was different. What he had said
+to the Duke, and what the Duke had said to him, that evening on the
+yacht when they were talking about marriage, was exactly what he had
+always expected to occur. The day, he said, must come when the
+enterprising mamma will get the better of Silas B. Barker junior. The
+girl of the season, with her cartload of bouquets slung all over her,
+her neat figure, her pink-and-white complexion and her matchless staying
+powers in a ballroom, will descend upon the devoted victim Barker, beak
+and talons, like the fish-hawk on the poor, simple minnow innocently
+disporting itself in the crystal waters of happiness. There will be
+wedding presents, and a breakfast, and a journey, and a prospect of
+everlasting misery. All these things, thought he, must come to every man
+in time, unless he is a saint, or an author, or has no money, and
+therefore they must come to me; but now it was different. If there is to
+be any fishing, he thought, I will be the hawk, and the minnow may take
+its chance of happiness. Why should the minnow not be happy? I am a
+hawk; well--but I am a very good hawk.
+
+But these reflections were not what occupied his mind as he sat with his
+second cigar in the reading-room of his quiet club. These things he had
+elaborated in his brain at least three days ago, and they had now taken
+the form of a decision, against which there could be no appeal, because
+it was pleasant to the _ego_ of Mr Barker. Judgments of that sort he
+never reversed. He had fully determined to be the hawk, he had picked
+out his minnow, and he was meditating the capture of his prey. A great
+many people do as much as that, and discover too late that what they
+have taken for a minnow is an alligator, or a tartar, or a salamander,
+or some evil beast that is too much for their powers. This was what Mr.
+Barker was afraid of, and this was what he wished to guard against.
+Unfortunately he was a little late in the selection of his victim, and
+he knew it. He had determined to marry the Countess Margaret.
+
+He knew perfectly well that Claudius had determined upon the very same
+thing, and he knew that Claudius was intimate, to say the least of it,
+with the woman he loved. But Barker had made up his mind that Claudius
+had been refused, and had accepted the Platonic position offered him by
+the Countess, merely because he had not the strength to leave her. "Just
+like the vanity of a fellow like that," he argued, "not to be willing to
+believe himself beaten." He had drawn the whole situation in his mind
+entirely to his own satisfaction. If Claudius could only be removed, any
+other man would have as good a chance. The other man is
+Barker--therefore, remove Claudius at once. Remove him! Away with him!
+Let his place know him no more!
+
+Mr. Barker sat unmoved in his chair; but he contemplated the nail on the
+middle finger of his left hand with absorbed interest, even bringing it
+nearer the light in order to obtain a better view.
+
+He was one of those men who are seldom altogether unprepared. His mind
+was of the Napoleonic order, on a very small scale; with him to think of
+the end was to plan the means, and in the days that had followed the
+memorable night wherein the idea had struck him that he might marry the
+Countess in the teeth of Dr. Claudius, a project had grown up in his
+mind whereby he hoped now to effect his purpose. Perhaps the scheme had
+developed unconsciously, as often happens with persons whose lives are
+spent in planning. Perhaps he fondly hoped--for he was not without
+vanity--that he might yet win the Countess fairly, and had only
+contemplated his plot as a possibility. Be that as it may, from the
+moment he realised that a plan of action was necessary he also realised
+that the plan was ready, and he determined to put it into execution. It
+was an unfair plan he meditated, bad from the root up, and he knew it;
+but he did not hesitate on that account. Silas B. Barker junior had not
+enough conscience to make it an object for him to deceive himself as to
+the morality of his actions. A year or two since he would perhaps have
+defended himself in a general way by saying it was arrogance for a man
+to set himself up as any better than his surroundings. But between a
+year or two ago and this September evening there was set a gulf,
+represented by a couple of transactions in the "street," over which
+there was small joy in heaven and very little on earth.
+
+Fair or unfair, it would be so much easier if Claudius were out of the
+way. It would simplify Mr. Barker's campaign so much; and, besides, it
+was so easy a matter to remove him, for a time at least. How? Why,
+simply by asserting that Claudius was not Claudius, that he was not the
+late Mr. Lindstrand's nephew, that he had no right to the fortune, and
+that if he wished to save himself trouble he had better return
+immediately to Heidelberg and resume his duties as a private lecturer in
+the University. It was easy enough! Who was there to show that Claudius
+was Claudius? There was nothing but the attestation of a wretched
+Heidelberg notary, who might easily have been persuaded to swear a
+little in consideration of a large bribe.
+
+Besides, reflected Mr. Barker, the real Dr. Claudius was dead. He died
+about eight months ago; no doubt it was in the newspapers at the time,
+and a newspaper could certainly be found which should contain a notice
+of his death. Therefore, if the real Dr. Claudius were dead this Dr.
+Claudius was a sham, an impostor, a man obtaining money by personating
+the dead--in short, a criminal. However, it might not be necessary to
+proceed with all the rigour of the law, and he might be quietly sent
+back to Germany.
+
+Of course Mr. Barker was responsible in some measure for having
+introduced this villain to the Countess and to the Duke. But how could
+Mr. Barker, a creature of sunny, lamb-like innocence, be expected to
+know an impostor at first sight? Claudius had acted his part so very
+well, you know, and Barker had been deceived by his apparent frankness;
+he had not even made any inquiries in Heidelberg, but had simply gone to
+the address his father had given him. Of course, also, the pretender had
+adopted the obvious expedient of taking the dead man's lodgings; had
+installed himself there, and called himself "Dr. Claudius." Nobody in
+America had ever seen the real Dr. Claudius; none of the yachting party
+had any means of knowing whether he were what he pretended to be or
+not; the only person who vouched for him was Silas B. Barker junior. And
+if Silas B. Barker junior would not vouch for him any longer, who would,
+pray? Obviously, no one.
+
+"Dukes are very pretty things," said Mr. Barker; "and to know them
+intimately is a special grace. But they cannot swear to what they do not
+know anything about, any more than other people." And he lit another
+cigar, and looked at the clock, an old-fashioned black-marble timepiece
+with gilded hands. It wanted half an hour of midnight, and Mr. Barker's
+solitude had lasted since seven or thereabouts. Some one entered the
+room, bidding good-night to some one else at the door. Mr. Barker turned
+his eyes, and, recognising a friend, he smiled a wrinkled smile.
+
+"Well, Mr. Screw, how goes it?" he said. "It is some time since we met."
+
+"Happy to meet you, sir; glad to see you," replied the lawyer, putting
+out a long hand towards the part of the room where Mr. Barker was
+standing.
+
+Mr. Screw was Mr. Scratch's partner. Mr. Screw was very tall, very thin,
+and exceedingly yellow. He had thick yellow hair, streaked with gray.
+His face seemed bound in old parchment, and his eyes were like brass
+nails driven very deep, but bright and fixed when he spoke. He had a
+great abundance of teeth of all sizes and shapes; his face was clean
+shaven; and he wore a stand-up collar, with a narrow black tie neatly
+adjusted in a bow. His feet and hands were of immense size. He was in
+evening-dress. He doubled up a few of his joints and deposited himself
+in a deep arm-chair--the twin of Barker's--on the other side of the
+fireplace.
+
+"I thought very likely you would be here before the evening was out,"
+said Mr. Barker. "Yes," he continued after a pause, "that is the reason
+I came here. I wanted to see you on business, and I missed you to-day
+down town."
+
+"Oh! business, did you say?" inquired the other, rubbing his bony nose
+and looking at the empty grate.
+
+"Yes, rather important to you--more than to myself, though it concerns
+me too. You have a new client, I believe; the nephew of our old partner
+Mr. Lindstrand."
+
+"Dr. Claudius?" asked the lawyer, looking up.
+
+"He calls himself so, at any rate," said Barker.
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Mr. Screw quickly, shifting his position.
+
+"Do you think you have taken all the necessary steps towards
+ascertaining that he is the heir--the right man--the real Dr. Claudius?"
+
+"Great heavens!" exclaimed the lawyer, surprised and terribly frightened
+by Barker's insinuation, "you don't mean to say there is any doubt about
+it, do you?"
+
+"I am inclined to think there is doubt--yes, decidedly. It is a very
+serious matter, and I thought it best to speak to you about it before
+talking to my father. You see, though the loss might fall on us,
+indirectly, the moral responsibility is yours, since you are the lawyers
+in the case."
+
+"But your father is one of the executors, Mr. Barker," said Mr. Screw,
+who felt obliged to say something, and wanted to gain time.
+
+"My father--yes," and Barker smiled disagreeably. "Yes, he is one of the
+executors. But you yourself are the other, Mr. Screw. And as far as any
+intelligence in the matter is concerned, you might be alone." Barker
+was willing to flatter the lawyer at the expense of his fond parent.
+Screw would be of more use to him than many fathers in this matter. Mr.
+Screw relapsed into silence, and sat for some minutes, hooking one leg
+behind the other, and thrusting as much of his hands into his pockets as
+those receptacles would contain. After a time he changed his position,
+heaved a species of sigh that sounded like the sudden collapse of a set
+of organ-bellows, and ran his fingers through his thick hair.
+
+Barker thought he was going to speak. But he was mistaken; Mr. Screw was
+too much taken aback to speak yet. Then Barker spoke for him.
+
+"Well," said he, caressing his foot and looking at the ceiling, "what
+are you going to do about it?"
+
+"I shall do what is proper in such cases. I will stop his drawing any
+more money, and investigate the matter. If this is not the real
+Claudius, the real Claudius must be somewhere, and can be found."
+
+"Perhaps he is dead," suggested Barker.
+
+"It is about as easy to find a dead man as a live man," said Screw. "It
+is a surer thing, on the whole. A dead man can't change his clothes, and
+get his beard shaved off, and cavoort around the corner."
+
+"Not generally speaking," said the other, "no well-regulated corpse
+would do it, anyhow. Besides, if he is dead, there must have been some
+notice of it in the Heidelberg papers. He belonged to the University,
+and they always put those things in the local sheet in Germany."
+
+"That's so," said the lawyer. "Do you know anybody in Heidelberg who
+would look the matter up, Mr. Barker?"
+
+Mr. Barker did know some one in Heidelberg--the very man, in fact. He
+would write immediately, and set the inquiry on foot. Meanwhile there
+were other things to be settled. After the first shock the lawyer was
+not inclined to let Barker off so easily for having indorsed a man he
+suspected of being a humbug. Barker retorted that he had found Claudius
+in possession of the documents transmitted by Messrs. Screw and Scratch,
+and that it was not his fault if he supposed that those astute gentlemen
+had taken proper precautions to ascertain the identity of their client.
+He went into many details, explaining how his suspicions had been
+aroused by degrees in the course of many conversations. He was expecting
+a question from Mr. Screw. At last it came.
+
+"Mr. Barker," said Screw, fixing his brass-headed eyes intently on his
+companion--for Mr. Screw was no fool--"Mr. Barker, you brought this man
+over here, and you know him better than any one else. Now, what I want
+to know is this. He may be the right man, after all. What we are going
+to do is entirely precautionary. Do you want to appear or not?" Barker
+had not expected the question to be put so directly, but he was
+perfectly prepared for it.
+
+"I am sure I do not care," he said, with a fine indifference. "I have no
+objection. It is a mere question of expediency; do not consider me in
+the matter. Do what you think is right," he added, emphasising the last
+word, and meeting Screw's glance boldly enough. Screw looked at him for
+a moment or two in silence, and then turned his eyes away. There was the
+faintest reflection of a smile on his yellow face, and the expression
+became him well. Screw was astute, sharp as a ferret, relentless as a
+steel-corkscrew, crushing its cruel way through the creaking cork; but
+Screw was an honest man, as the times go. That was the difference
+between him and Barker. Screw's smile was his best expression, Barker's
+smile was of the devil, and very wily. Screw smiled because he was
+amused. Barker smiled when he was successful.
+
+"I think for the present," said Mr. Screw, "that unless you positively
+wish to appear, it would be as well that you should not. If we are
+mistaken, and the Doctor is really what he pretends to be, it will be
+very unpleasant for you afterwards to have been concerned in an inquiry
+into the validity of his rights."
+
+"Do you think so?" asked Barker, looking languidly across at Mr. Screw.
+"Very well, in that case you may conduct the inquiry, and I will not
+appear. I shall meet him just as if nothing had happened, and let him
+tell me what you have done. Of course he will tell me, the first thing.
+Besides, as you say, he may be the right man, after all."
+
+"Exactly," said Mr. Screw. He knew perfectly well that Barker would not
+want Claudius to know the part he had played, in case all turned out to
+be right, though he did not know that Barker was deceiving him. He
+supposed that Barker really had serious doubts about Claudius, and as
+there was no one else to vouch for the latter, he was very honestly
+frightened. He reviewed the situation in his own mind, and he came to
+the conclusion that he had really been remiss in the performance of his
+duties as executor. It had not seemed in the least probable that any
+deception could be practised, and yet, when all was said, there was only
+the Heidelberg notary's attestation of the signature to support the
+claimant of Mr. Lindstrand's fortune. This reflection comforted Mr.
+Screw a little. At all events, he would be perfectly justified in
+calling on Claudius and stating his difficulty, requesting him to give
+what assistance was in his power towards a speedy identification of
+himself. In the meantime he set himself to cross-examine Mr. Barker,
+endeavouring to extract all the information he could. But extracting
+information from Mr. Barker was no easy task, as he very soon found, and
+as the hands of the clock pointed to one, he rose slowly, as by stages,
+from the depths of his arm-chair, and made up his mind that Barker did
+not know very much about the matter, though he knew more than any one
+else, and that the only thing to be done was to go straight to Claudius
+and state the case. No honest man ever had much difficulty in proving
+who he was, thought Mr. Screw, and if he is an impostor, he will very
+likely not show fight at all, but make off to parts unknown, where he
+can very easily be caught.
+
+Barker rose from his seat too, and took leave of the lawyer, well
+pleased with the result of his evening's work. It was very satisfactory.
+He had produced exactly the impression on Mr. Screw's mind which he had
+intended to produce; and having set that engine of the law in motion, he
+knew that he could fold his hands and proceed to enjoy himself after his
+manner. He knew that everything would be done which could contribute to
+annoy and mortify Claudius, and that it would be done in such a way,
+with such paraphernalia of legal courtesy and mercantile formality, that
+the unhappy Doctor could not complain. Barker had shrewdly calculated
+the difficulties Claudius would have to surmount in identifying himself
+in a strange country, without friends, and against the prejudices of Mr.
+Screw, his uncle's executor. Moreover, if, after countless efforts and
+endless trouble, Claudius succeeded, as he probably would, in obtaining
+his fortune, Barker would be no worse off than before. He would have
+done nothing assailable, and he would have gained all the advantages of
+the time Claudius lost, not to mention the cloud of suspicion which must
+inevitably rest on the Doctor, until he should succeed in clearing
+himself before the world. With skill, courage, and money, there was no
+telling what progress Barker might make in his suit for the Countess,
+before Claudius was himself again. With such an advantage, if he could
+not outdo the Swede, he did not deserve to.
+
+So saying, Mr. Barker, left once more alone in the sitting-room, paced
+slowly twice round the table, looked at himself in the glass, twisted
+his heavy moustache into shape, and smoothed his hair. Then he took his
+hat and went out. There was a cab at the door of the club, and in a
+minute more he was spinning along Fifth Avenue, in the direction of his
+father's house.
+
+The machinery was wound up, and he had nothing more to do. To-morrow
+morning Claudius would pass a bad quarter of an hour with Mr. Screw, and
+in the afternoon Barker would call upon him and offer such consolation
+as was in his power; and when he had called on Claudius, he would call
+on the Countess Margaret and tell her what sad sceptics these legal
+people were, everlastingly pestering peaceable citizens in the hope of
+extracting from them a few miserable dollars. And he would tell her how
+sorry he was that Claudius should be annoyed, and how he, Barker, would
+see him through--that is, he hoped so; for, he would add, of course,
+such men as Mr. Screw and his own father would not make so much trouble
+if they did not at least think they had some cause for anxiety; and so
+forth, and so on. And he would leave the Countess with a most decided
+impression that there was something wrong about Claudius. Oh yes!
+something not _quite_ clear about his antecedents, you know. Of course
+it would come right in the end--no doubt of that; oh dear, no.
+
+It was a happy night for Mr. Barker; but Claudius slept ill. He had an
+evil dream.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+When Mr. Screw called at Claudius's hotel the next day, the Doctor had
+gone out. Mr. Screw said he would wait, and sat down with a book to pass
+the time, for he was fond of reading in his leisure moments, few as they
+were. Claudius had left the house early in the morning, and had gone to
+find the spot where his uncle had been buried--no easy matter, in the
+vast cemetery where the dead men lie in hundreds of thousands, in
+stately avenues and imposing squares, in houses grand and humble, high
+and low, but all closed and silent with the grandeur of a great waiting.
+Claudius was not sentimental in this pilgrimage; it was with him a
+matter of course, a duty which he performed naturally for the
+satisfaction of his conscience. He could not have told any other reason,
+though, if he had been called upon to analyse the feeling which impels
+most men to do the same thing, under the same circumstances, he would
+have replied that a scientific explanation of the fact could only be
+found in the ancient practices of "ancestor worship," of which some
+trace remains unto this day. But he would have added that it was a
+proper mark of reverence and respect for the dead, and that man
+naturally inclines to fulfil such obligations, unless deterred by
+indolence or the fear of ridicule. At any rate, he went alone; and it
+was late in the afternoon before he came back.
+
+When at last he returned, he was not surprised to find Mr. Screw
+awaiting him. He had not found that gentleman on his first visit to Pine
+Street; and it seemed very natural that his uncle's executor should call
+upon him. He was cordial and courteous to his visitor, who took the
+Doctor's measure, and looked into his honest eyes, and realised that
+this claimant to Lindstrand's money was undoubtedly a very fine fellow
+indeed. Mr. Screw felt that it would be hard to tell such a man to his
+face that he was not altogether satisfied of his identity. But then, as
+the lawyer reflected, swindlers are generally fine fellows; indeed,
+their imposing appearance is often their whole capital and
+stock-in-trade. Mr. Screw had a profound knowledge of mankind, and he
+immediately determined upon his course of action, which should be
+cautious, but at the same time honest and straightforward. After a
+preliminary exchange of civilities, he opened fire.
+
+"I have come on very delicate business, Dr. Claudius," said he; and he
+hooked one leg behind the other as he sat and ran his hands through his
+hair. Claudius settled himself in his chair and waited, not having any
+idea what the business might be.
+
+"You will readily understand," continued Mr. Screw, "that in my position
+I feel obliged to take every conceivable precaution in administering the
+estate of the late Mr. Lindstrand. You will, therefore, not be offended
+at what I am going to say. My personality has nothing to do with it, nor
+can any personal impression you produce upon me, no matter how
+favourable, be considered in the light of evidence. I have never seen
+you before, and I am bound to say that the little I know of you,
+although perfectly satisfactory as far as it goes, is not sufficient to
+prove in a court that you are really the person indicated in Mr.
+Lindstrand's will." Here Mr. Screw paused to see how Claudius would take
+the hint that more evidence was required.
+
+But Claudius, the embodiment of calm strength, intellectual and
+physical, was not to be moved by such trifles. He showed not the
+slightest emotion, nor did he betray any especial interest in what the
+lawyer was saying. His attitude was that of attention to a matter which
+it was his duty to understand and to elucidate. But that was all. He
+wished Mr. Screw would talk a little faster, and say what he required
+and go; but he was too courteous to hurry him.
+
+"My dear sir," he answered, "I fully understand your position, and any
+apology from you would be out of place. Pray proceed."
+
+"I have nothing more to say," said Mr. Screw, astonished at so much
+indifference where a great fortune was concerned. "I like to be brief in
+such matters. I have nothing more to say, sir, excepting that I would be
+greatly obliged if you would put into my hands such documents as you may
+think proper for the full establishing of your rights."
+
+"Very well," said Claudius. "If you will tell me what evidence you
+require I will procure it immediately." With that he rose, and lighted
+a cigarette.
+
+"A properly-attested certificate of your birth would be all-sufficient,"
+said Mr. Screw, who began to feel relieved by the conduct of the Doctor.
+The latter, however, suddenly stood still with the match in his fingers,
+and looked at the lawyer with a curious scrutiny.
+
+"I would prefer," he said, "to give some other evidence of my identity
+than that, if it is the same to you."
+
+"If you prefer it, of course," said the lawyer coldly. His suspicions
+were immediately roused, for he had named the simplest description of
+document he could think of, and it seemed odd that the Doctor should be
+so evidently disinclined to produce it.
+
+"I suppose," said the Doctor, "that the formal attestation of my
+identity by the authorities of the University of Heidelberg would be
+sufficient?"
+
+"Yes, I should think so," said Screw cautiously. "But will it not take
+some time to procure that?"
+
+"Well? If it does, what then?"
+
+"Only that--you will understand that until this matter is settled I
+should not feel justified in authorising you to draw upon the estate."
+
+Claudius's sense of logic was offended.
+
+"My dear sir," he replied, "have I drawn upon the estate for a single
+dollar yet?"
+
+"No, sir, I am bound to say you have not, although you might have
+considered it natural to do so, and we should have put no obstacle--"
+Mr. Screw stopped short. He had betrayed himself, and felt extremely
+embarrassed. But he said enough to give Claudius an idea of the
+situation. Something had occurred, some one had spoken, to cast a doubt
+on his identity; and Mr. Screw was the chosen emissary of that "some
+one."
+
+"Then, Mr. Screw," said the Doctor in measured tones, "I would admonish
+you to be more careful how you insinuate that I might do anything of the
+kind. You have inconvenienced me quite enough already. You had better
+not inconvenience me any more. I consider your conduct a piece of
+unparalleled clumsiness, and your language little short of impertinent.
+What you have said now you should have said in the letter which
+announced my uncle's death. Or you should have instructed Mr. Barker,
+who was abroad at the time and found me in Heidelberg, to make the
+necessary investigations. The evidence shall be forthcoming in proper
+season, and until then I do not desire the advantage of your company."
+
+Mr. Screw was so much astonished with this mode of address from a man
+whom he had foolishly imagined to be good-natured that he stood a moment
+by the table hesitating what he should say. Claudius took up a book and
+began to read.
+
+"Well," said he, perceiving that Mr. Screw was still in the room, "why
+don't you go?"
+
+"Really, Dr. Claudius, I am not accustomed--" he began.
+
+"Go," said Claudius, interrupting him; "it is not of the smallest
+interest to me to know what you are accustomed to. There is the door."
+
+"Sir--"
+
+"Do you prefer the window?" asked the Doctor, rising in great wrath and
+striding towards the unhappy lawyer. Mr. Screw instantly made up his
+mind that the door was preferable, and disappeared. When he was gone
+Claudius sat down again. He was very angry; but, in his own view, his
+anger was just. It was very clear to him, from the words Mr. Screw had
+inadvertently let fall, that some one had, for reasons unknown,
+undertaken to cause him a great deal of unpleasantness. What he had said
+to Screw was not to be denied. If there was any question as to his
+identity, full proof should have been required from the first. But his
+autograph letter from Heidelberg, attested by a notary, had been
+accepted as sufficient; and "Screw and Scratch" had answered the
+letter, and Claudius had received their answer in Baden. It had never
+entered his head that anything more would be required. So long as Screw
+had confined himself to stating his position, merely asking for further
+evidence, the Doctor had nothing to say. But at the suggestion that
+Claudius might want to draw money from the estate before his claims were
+fully established, he lost his temper. It was an imputation on his
+honour; and, however slight it might seem to Mr. Screw, Claudius was not
+the man to bear it.
+
+Ten minutes later Mr. Barker walked in unannounced. It was natural
+enough that he should call, but Claudius did not want him. The Doctor
+had not had time to think over the situation, but he had, a vague
+impression that Barker had something to do with this sudden cloud of
+annoyance that had risen to darken his path. Barker, on his side, was
+prepared for storms, but he intended to play the part of confidential
+friend and consoler. Claudius, however, wanted neither friends nor
+consolation, and he was in the worst of tempers. Nevertheless, he rose
+and offered his guest a chair, and asked him how he did. Barker took the
+chair and said he was fairly well, on the way to recovery from the
+voyage.
+
+"What have you been doing all day, Claudius?" he asked.
+
+"I have been to a place called Greenwood, to see where they had buried
+my uncle," answered Claudius, and relapsed into silence.
+
+"No wonder you look so gloomy. Whatever induced you to do such a thing?"
+
+"I was not induced," said Claudius. "He was my last relation in the
+world, and I did the only thing I could to honour his memory, which was
+to go and see his grave."
+
+"Yes, very proper, I am sure," replied Barker. "If my relations would
+begin and die, right away, I would trot around and see their graves fast
+enough!"
+
+Claudius was silent.
+
+"What on earth is the matter with you, Claudius? Have you got a
+headache, or are you going to be married?"
+
+Claudius roused himself, and offered Barker a cigar.
+
+"There is nothing the matter," he said; "I suppose my excursion has made
+me a little gloomy; but I shall soon get over that. There are matches on
+the mantelpiece."
+
+"Thanks. Why did you not come down town to-day? Oh! of course you were
+away. It was very good fun. We had a regular bear garden."
+
+"It looked like something of that sort yesterday when I was there."
+
+"Yesterday? Oh! you had never been there before. Yes, it is always like
+that. I say, come and take a drive in the park before dinner."
+
+"No, thanks. I am very sorry, but I have an appointment in a few
+minutes. I would like to go very much; you are very kind."
+
+"Business?" asked the inquisitive Mr. Barker.
+
+"Well--yes, if you like, business."
+
+"Oh!" said Barker. "By the by, have you seen any of your lawyer people
+to-day?" Barker had expected that Claudius would confide to him the
+trouble Screw was raising. But as Claudius did not begin, Barker asked
+the question.
+
+"Yes," answered the Doctor, "Screw has been here. In fact he is just
+gone."
+
+"Anything wrong?" inquired the tormentor.
+
+"No, nothing wrong that I know of," said Claudius. Then he suddenly
+turned sharply on Barker, and looked straight at him. "Did you expect to
+hear that there was anything wrong?" he asked quickly. Claudius had a
+very unpleasant way of turning upon his antagonist just a minute before
+the enemy was ready for him. Barker had found this out before, and,
+being now directly interrogated, he winced perceptibly.
+
+"Oh dear, no," he hastened to say. "But lawyers are great bores
+sometimes, especially where wills are concerned. And I thought perhaps
+Screw might be wearying you with his formalities."
+
+"No," said Claudius indifferently, "nothing to--" he was interrupted by
+a knock at the door. It was the Duke's servant, a quiet man in gray
+clothes and gray whiskers. He had a bald head and bright eyes.
+
+"His Grace's compliments, sir, and can you see him now, sir?"
+
+"Yes, I will come in a moment," said Claudius.
+
+"I think, sir," said the man, "that his Grace is coming to your rooms."
+
+"Very good. My compliments, and I shall be glad to see him." The gray
+servant vanished.
+
+Barker rose to go; but Claudius was begging him not to hurry, when there
+was another knock, and the Duke entered. He shook hands with Claudius,
+and spoke rather coldly to Barker. The latter was uneasy, and felt that
+he was in the way. He was. Barker had fallen into a singular error of
+judgment in regard to the relations existing between the Duke and
+Claudius. He had imagined it in his power to influence the Duke's
+opinion, whereas in trying to effect that object he had roused the
+Englishman's animosity. Besides, Mr. Barker was to the Duke a caprice.
+He found the quick-thinking man of business amusing and even useful, but
+for steady companionship he did not want him. A passage across the
+Atlantic was more than enough to satisfy his desire for Mr. Barker's
+society, even if Barker had not managed to excite his indignation. But
+Claudius was different. The honest nobleman could not tell why it was,
+but it was true, nevertheless. He looked upon the Doctor more as an
+equal than Barker. The Duke was a very great man in his own country, and
+it was singular indeed that he should find a man to his liking, a man
+who seemed of his own caste and calibre, in the simple _privat-docent_
+of a German university. Perhaps Barker felt it too. At all events, when
+the Duke sat himself down in Claudius's room, after begging permission
+to ring for lights, and made himself most evidently at home, Mr. Barker
+felt that he was in the way; and so, promising to call on Claudius again
+in the morning, he departed. Claudius stood by the mantelpiece while the
+servant lit the gas.
+
+"I am very glad to see you," he said, when the man had gone.
+
+"I am glad of that, for I want your society. The Countess Margaret has a
+headache, and Lady Victoria has gone to dine in her rooms, and to spend
+the evening with her."
+
+"I am very sorry to hear that the Countess is not well," said Claudius,
+"but I am very glad of anything that brings you here to-night. I am in
+trouble--that is, I have been very much annoyed."
+
+"Ah, very sorry," said the Duke.
+
+"It so happens that you are the only person in America, as far as I
+know, who can help me."
+
+"I?" The Duke opened his eyes wide. Then he reflected that it might be
+something concerning the Countess, and waited.
+
+"You are a gentleman," said Claudius reflectively, and hardly addressing
+his visitor as he said it.
+
+"Quite so," said the Duke. "It's a very fine word that."
+
+"And a man of honour," continued Claudius in a meditative tone.
+
+"The deuce and all, it's the same thing," said the Duke, rather puzzled.
+
+"Yes; in some countries it is. Now, what I want to ask you is this.
+Could you, as a gentleman and a man of honour, swear in a court of law
+that you know me, and that I am the person I represent myself to be?
+That is the question."
+
+The Duke was too much surprised to answer directly. He made a great fuss
+over his cigar, and got up and shut the window. Then he sat down in
+another chair.
+
+"I don't know what you mean," he said at last, to gain time.
+
+"I mean what I say," said Claudius. "Could you swear, before the Supreme
+Court of the United States, for instance, that I am Claudius, sometime
+student, now Doctor of Philosophy of the University of Heidelberg in
+Germany? Could you swear that?"
+
+"My dear boy," said the other, "what in the world are you driving at?"
+The Duke realised that he could not conscientiously swear to any such
+statement as that proposed by Claudius; and, liking him as he did, he
+was much distressed at being put into such a corner.
+
+"I will tell you afterwards what it is about, Duke," said Claudius. "I
+am serious, and I would like you to answer the question, though I
+foresee that you will say you could not swear to anything of the kind."
+
+"Honestly, Claudius, though there is not the slightest doubt in my mind
+that you are what you appear to be, I could not conscientiously swear it
+in evidence. I do not know anything about you. But Barker could."
+
+"No, he could not. He knows no more about me than you do, saving that he
+met me two or three days sooner. He met me in Heidelberg, it is true,
+but he made no inquiries whatever concerning me. It never entered his
+head that I could be anything but what I professed to be."
+
+"I should think not, indeed," said the Duke warmly.
+
+"But now that I am here in the flesh, these lawyers are making trouble.
+One of them was here a little while since, and he wanted documentary
+evidence of my identity."
+
+"Who was the lawyer?"
+
+"A Mr. Screw, one of the executors of the will."
+
+"Who is the other executor?" asked the Duke quickly.
+
+"Barker's father."
+
+The Englishman's face darkened, and he puffed savagely at his cigar. He
+had been angry with Barker the day before. Now he began to suspect him
+of making trouble.
+
+"What sort of evidence did the man want?" he asked at length.
+
+"Any sort of documentary evidence would do. He asked me for my
+certificate of birth, and I told him he could not have it. And then he
+went so far as to remark in a very disagreeable way that he could not
+authorise me to draw upon the estate until I produced evidence."
+
+"Well, that is natural enough."
+
+"It would have been so at first. But they had accepted the mere
+signature to my letter from Heidelberg as proof of my existence, and I
+got word in Baden in July that I might draw as much as I pleased. And
+now they turn upon me and say I am not myself. Something has happened.
+Fortunately I have not touched the money, in spite of their kind
+permission."
+
+"There is something very odd about this, Claudius. Have you got such a
+thing as a birth certificate to show?"
+
+"Yes," answered Claudius, after a pause. "I have everything in perfect
+order, my mother's marriage and all."
+
+"Then why, in Heaven's name, can you not show it, and put all these
+rascally lawyers to flight?"
+
+"Because--" Claudius began, but he hesitated and stopped. "It is a
+curious story," he said, "and it is precisely what I want to talk to you
+about."
+
+"Is it very long?" asked the Duke; "I have not dined yet."
+
+"No, it will not take long, and if you have nothing better to do we will
+dine together afterwards. But first there are two things I want to say.
+If I prove to you that I am the son of my uncle's sister, will you tell
+Mr. Screw that you know it for a fact, that is, that if it had to be
+sworn to, you would be willing to swear to it?"
+
+"If you prove it to me so that I am legally sure of it, of course I
+will."
+
+"The other thing I will ask you is, not to divulge what I shall tell
+you, or show you. You may imagine from my being unwilling to show these
+papers, even to a lawyer, when my own fortune is concerned, that I
+attach some importance to secrecy."
+
+"You may trust me," said the Duke; "you have my word," he added, as if
+reluctantly. People whose word is to be trusted are generally slow to
+give it. Claudius bowed his head courteously, in acknowledgment of the
+plighted promise. Then he opened a trunk that stood in a corner of the
+room, and took from it the iron box in which he had deposited the
+lawyer's letter on that evening three months before, when his destiny
+had roused itself from its thirty years' slumber. He set the box on the
+table, and having locked the door of the room sat down opposite his
+guest. He took a key from his pocket.
+
+"You will think it strange," he said with a smile, "that I should have
+taken the liberty of confiding to you my secret. But when you have seen
+what is there, you will perceive that you are the most fitting confidant
+in this country--for general reasons, of course; for I need not say
+there is nothing in those papers which concerns you personally."
+Claudius unlocked the box and took out a few letters that were lying on
+the top, then he pushed the casket across the table to the Duke.
+
+"Will you please examine the contents for yourself?" he said. "There are
+only three or four papers to read--the rest are letters from my father
+to my mother--you may look at them if you like; they are very old."
+
+All this time the Duke looked very grave. He was not accustomed to have
+his word of honour asked for small matters, and if this were some
+trivial question of an assumed name, or the like, he was prepared to be
+angry with Claudius. So he silently took the little strong box, and
+examined the contents. There were two packages of papers, two or three
+morocco cases that might contain jewels, and there was a string of
+pearls lying loose in the bottom of the casket. The Duke took the pearls
+curiously in his hand and held them to the light. He had seen enough of
+such things to know something of their value, and he knew this string
+might be worth anywhere from eight to ten thousand pounds. He looked
+graver than ever.
+
+"Those are beautiful pearls, Dr. Claudius," he said; "too beautiful for
+a Heidelberg student to have lying about among his traps." He turned
+them over and added, "The Duchess has nothing like them."
+
+"They belonged to my mother," said Claudius simply. "I know nothing of
+their value."
+
+The Duke took the papers and untied the smaller package, which appeared
+to contain legal documents, while the larger seemed to be a series of
+letters filed in their envelopes, as they had been received.
+
+"My mother's name was Maria Lindstrand," said Claudius. He leaned back,
+smoking the eternal cigarette, and watched the Duke's face.
+
+Before the Englishman had proceeded far he looked up at Claudius,
+uttering an exclamation of blank amazement. Claudius merely bent his
+head as if to indorse the contents of the paper, and was silent. The
+Duke read the papers carefully through, and examined one of them very
+minutely by the light. Then he laid them down with a certain reverence,
+as things he respected.
+
+"My dear Claudius--" he rose and extended his hand to the young man with
+a gesture that had in it much of dignity and something of pride. "My
+dear Claudius, I shall all my life remember that you honoured me with
+your confidence. I accepted it as a token of friendship, but I am now
+able to look upon it as a very great distinction."
+
+"And I, Duke, shall never forget that you believed in me on my own
+merits, before you were really able to swear that I was myself."
+Claudius had also risen, and their hands remained clasped a moment. Then
+Claudius applied himself to rearranging the contents of his box; and the
+Duke walked up and down the room, glancing from time to time at the
+Doctor. He stopped suddenly in his walk.
+
+"But--goodness gracious! why have you kept this a secret?" he asked, as
+if suddenly recollecting himself.
+
+"My mother," said Claudius, "was too proud to come forward and claim
+what my father, but for his untimely death, would have given her in a
+few months. As for me, I have been contented in my life, and would have
+been unwilling to cause pain to any one by claiming my rights. My mother
+died when I was a mere child, and left these papers sealed, directing me
+not to open them until I should be twenty-one years old. And so when I
+opened them, I made up my mind to do nothing about it."
+
+"It is not easy to understand you, Claudius; but I will swear to
+anything you like."
+
+"Thank you; I am very grateful."
+
+"Do not speak of that. I am proud to be of service. By the by, the
+present--the present incumbent is childless, I believe. He must be your
+father's brother?"
+
+"Yes," said Claudius. "Should he die, I would not hesitate any longer."
+
+"No indeed, I hope not. It is a shame as it is."
+
+"By the by," said Claudius, who had put away his box; "why did you not
+go to Newport to-day? I meant to go on to-morrow and meet you there.
+This business had put it out of my head."
+
+"Lady Victoria and the Countess both wanted to stay another day."
+
+"Is the Countess ill?" asked Claudius. "Or do you think she would see me
+this evening?"
+
+"I do not think there is anything especial the matter. She will very
+likely see you after dinner. As for me, I am hungry; I have walked all
+over New York this afternoon."
+
+"Very well, let us dine. You know New York, and must select the place."
+
+Arm-in-arm they went away together, and the Duke introduced Claudius to
+the glories of Delmonico's.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+Troubles never come singly; moreover, they come on horseback, and go
+away on foot. If Claudius had passed an unpleasant afternoon, the
+Countess's day had been darkened with the shadow of a very serious
+difficulty. Early in the morning her maid had brought her coffee, and
+with it a note in a foreign hand. The maid, who was French, and
+possessed the usual characteristics of French maids, had exhausted her
+brain in trying to discover who the sender might be. But the missive was
+sealed with wax, and a plain "N" was all the impression. So she adopted
+the usual expedient of busying herself in the room, while her mistress
+opened the note, hoping that some chance exclamation, or even perhaps an
+answer, might give her curiosity the food it longed for. But Margaret
+read and reread the note, and tore it up into very small pieces,
+thoughtfully; and, as an afterthought, she burned them one by one over a
+wax taper till nothing was left. Then she sent her maid away and fell to
+thinking. But that did not help her much; and the warm sun stole through
+the windows, and the noise in the street prevented her from sleeping,
+for she was unused to the sound of wheels after the long weeks at sea.
+And so she rang for her maid again. The maid came, bringing another
+note, which, she said, had been given her by "Monsieur Clodiuse;" and
+would there be an answer?
+
+It was simply a few lines to say he was going to be away all day, and
+that he hoped to have the pleasure of seeing the Countess in Newport
+to-morrow. But for some reason or other Margaret was not pleased with
+the note, and merely said there would be no answer.
+
+"Madame would she dress herself to go out, or to keep the lodging?"
+
+Madame would not go out. Was it warm? Oh yes, it was very warm. In fact
+it was _hebetant_. Would Madame see Monsieur le Duc if he called at
+eleven? Monseigneur's Monsieur Veelees had charged her to inquire of
+Madame. No, Madame would not see Monsieur le Duc this morning. But if
+any one called, Madame desired to be informed. Madame would be served.
+And so the toilet proceeded.
+
+It was not very long before some one called. There was a knock at the
+door of the bedroom. Clementine left the Countess's hair, which she was
+busy combing and tressing, and went to the door. It was old Vladimir,
+Margaret's faithful Russian servant.
+
+"At this hour!" exclaimed the Countess, who was not in the best of
+tempers. "What does he want?"
+
+Vladimir ventured to make a remark in Russian, from the door, which
+produced an immediate effect. Margaret rose swiftly, overturning her
+chair and sweeping various small articles from the table in her rapid
+movement. She went very quickly to the door, her magnificent black hair
+all hanging down. She knew enough Russian to talk to the servant.
+
+"What did you say, Vladimir?"
+
+"Margareta Ivanowna"--Margaret's father's name had been John--"Nicolai
+Alexandrewitch is here," said Vladimir, who seemed greatly surprised.
+His geographical studies having been purely experimental, the sudden
+appearance of a Russian gentleman led him to suppose his mistress had
+landed in some outlying part of Russia, or at least of Europe. So she
+bade the old servant conduct the gentleman to her sitting-room and ask
+him to wait. She was not long in finishing her toilet. Before she left
+the room a servant of the hotel brought another box of flowers from Mr.
+Barker. Clementine cut the string and opened the pasteboard shell.
+Margaret glanced indifferently at the profusion of roses and pink
+pond-lilies--a rare variety only found in two places in America, on Long
+Island and near Boston--and having looked, she turned to go.
+
+Clementine held up two or three flowers, as if to try the effect of them
+on Margaret's dress.
+
+"Madame would she not put some flowers in her dress?"
+
+No. Madame would not. Madame detested flowers. Whereat the intelligent
+Clementine carefully examined the name of the sender, inscribed on a
+card which lay in the top of the box. Mr. Barker knew better than to
+send flowers anonymously. He wanted all the credit he could get. The
+Countess swept out of the room.
+
+At the door of the sitting-room she was met by a young man, who bent low
+to kiss her extended hand, and greeted her with a manner which was
+respectful indeed, but which showed that he felt himself perfectly at
+ease in her society.
+
+Nicolai Alexandrewitch, whom we will call simply Count Nicholas, was the
+only brother of Margaret's dead husband. Like Alexis, he had been a
+soldier in a guard regiment; Alexis had been killed at Plevna, and
+Nicholas had succeeded to the title and the estates, from which,
+however, a considerable allowance was paid to the Countess as a
+jointure.
+
+Nicholas was a handsome man of five or six and twenty, of middle height,
+swarthy complexion, and compact figure. His beard was very black, and he
+wore it in a pointed shape. His eyes were small and deep-set, but full
+of intelligence. He had all the manner and appearance of a man of gentle
+birth, but there was something more; an indescribable, undefinable air
+that hung about him. Many Russians have it, and the French have embodied
+the idea it conveys in their proverb that if you scratch a Russian you
+will find the Tartar. It is rather a trait of Orientalism in the blood,
+and it is to be noticed as much in Servians, Bulgarians, Roumanians, and
+even Hungarians, as in Russians. It is the peculiarity of most of these
+races that under certain circumstances, if thoroughly roused, they will
+go to any length, with a scorn of consequence which seems to the Western
+mind both barbarous and incomprehensible. Margaret had always liked him.
+He was wild; but he was a courteous gentleman, and could always be
+depended upon.
+
+"Mon cher," said Margaret, "I need not tell you I am enchanted to see
+you, but what is the meaning of the things you wrote me this morning?
+Are you really in trouble?"
+
+"Helas, yes. I am in the worst kind of trouble that exists for a
+Russian. I am in political trouble--and that entails everything else."
+
+"Tell me all about it," said she. "Perhaps I may help you."
+
+"Ah no! you cannot help. It is not for that I am come. I have a
+confession to make that concerns you."
+
+"Well?" said she, with a smile. She did not suppose it could be anything
+very bad.
+
+"You will be angry, of course," he said, "but that is nothing. I have
+done you an injury that I cannot repair."
+
+"Enfin, my dear Nicholas, tell me. I do not believe anything bad of
+you."
+
+"You are kindness itself, and I thank you in advance. Wait till you have
+heard. I am 'suspect,'--they think I am a Nihilist I am exiled to the
+mines, and everything is confiscated. Voila! Could it be worse?"
+
+Margaret was taken off her guard. She had herself been in more than easy
+circumstances at the time of her marriage, but the financial crisis in
+America, which occurred soon after that event, had greatly crippled her
+resources. She had of late looked chiefly to her jointure for all the
+luxuries which were so necessary to her life. To find this suddenly
+gone, in a moment, without the slightest preparation, was extremely
+embarrassing. She covered her eyes with one hand for a moment to collect
+her thoughts and to try and realise the extent of the disaster. Nicholas
+mistook the gesture.
+
+"You will never forgive me, I know. I do not deserve that you should.
+But I will do all in my power to repair the evil. I will go to Siberia
+if they will consider your rights to the estate."
+
+Margaret withdrew her hand, and looked earnestly at the young man.
+
+"Forgive you?" said she. "My dear Nicholas, you do not suppose I
+seriously think there is anything to forgive?"
+
+"But it is true," he said piteously; "in ruining me they have ruined
+you. Mon Dieu, mon Dieu! If I only had a friend--"
+
+"Taisez vous donc, mon ami. It is everything most bete what you say. You
+have many friends, and as for me, I do not care a straw for the money.
+Only if I had known I would not have left Europe. Voila tout."
+
+"Ah, that is it," said Nicholas. "I escaped the police and hurried to
+Baden. But you were gone. So I took the first steamer and came here. But
+I have waited ten days, and it was only last night I saw in the papers
+that you had arrived yesterday morning. And here I am."
+
+Margaret rose, from a feeling that she must move about--the restless
+fiend that seizes energetic people in their trouble. Nicholas thought it
+was a sign for him to go. He took his hat.
+
+"Believe me--" he began, about to take his leave.
+
+"You are not going?" said Margaret. "Oh no. Wait, and we will think of
+some expedient. Besides you have not told me half what I want to know.
+The money is of no consequence; but what had you done to lead to such a
+sentence? Are you really a Nihilist?"
+
+"Dieu m'en garde!" said the Count devoutly. "I am a Republican, that is
+all. Seulement, our Holy Russia does not distinguish."
+
+"Is not the distinction very subtle?"
+
+"The difference between salvation by education and salvation by
+dynamite; the difference between building up and tearing down, between
+Robespierre and Monsieur Washington."
+
+"You must have been indiscreet. How could they have found it out?"
+
+"I was bete enough to write an article in the _Russki Mir_--the mildest
+of articles. And then some of the Nihilist agents thought I was in their
+interests and wanted to see me, and the police observed them, and I was
+at once classed as a Nihilist myself, and there was a perquisition in my
+house. They found some notes and a few manuscripts of mine, quite enough
+to suit their purpose, and so the game was up."
+
+"But they did not arrest you?"
+
+"No. As luck would have it, I was in Berlin at the time, on leave from
+my regiment, for I was never suspected before in the least. And the
+Nihilists, who, to tell the truth, are well organised and take good care
+of their brethren, succeeded in passing word to me not to come back. A
+few days afterwards the Russian Embassy were hunting for me in Berlin.
+But I had got away. Sentence was passed in contempt, and I read the news
+in the papers on my way to Paris. There is the whole history."
+
+"Have you any money?" inquired Margaret after a pause.
+
+"Mon Dieu! I have still a hundred napoleons. After that the deluge."
+
+"By that time we shall be ready for the deluge," said Margaret
+cheerfully. "I have many friends, and something may yet be done.
+Meanwhile do not distress yourself about me; you know I have something
+of my own."
+
+"How can I thank you for your kindness? You ought to hate me, and
+instead you console!"
+
+"My dear friend, if I did not like you for your own sake, I would help
+you because you are poor Alexis's brother." There was no emotion in her
+voice at the mention of her dead husband, only a certain reverence. She
+had honoured him more than she had loved him.
+
+"Princesse, quand meme," said Nicholas in a low voice, as he raised her
+fingers to his lips.
+
+"Leave me your address before you go. I will write as soon as I have
+decided what to do." Nicholas scratched the name of a hotel on his card.
+
+When he was gone Margaret sank into a chair. She would have sent for
+Claudius--Claudius was a friend--but she recollected his note, and
+thought with some impatience that just when she needed him most he was
+away. Then she thought of Lady Victoria, and she rang the bell. But Lady
+Victoria had gone out with her brother, and they had taken Miss Skeat.
+Margaret was left alone in the great hotel. Far off she could hear a
+door shut or the clatter of the silver covers of some belated breakfast
+service finding its way up or down stairs. And in the street the eternal
+clatter and hum and crunch, and crunch and hum and clatter of men and
+wheels; the ceaseless ring of the tram-cars stopping every few steps to
+pick up a passenger, and the jingle of the horses' bells as they moved
+on. It was hot--it was very hot. Clementine was right, it was
+_hebetant_, as it can be in New York in September. She bethought herself
+that she might go out and buy things, that last resource of a rich woman
+who is tired and bored.
+
+Buy things! She had forgotten that she was ruined. Well, not quite that,
+but it seemed like it. It would be long before she would feel justified
+in buying anything more for the mere amusement of the thing. She tried
+to realise what it would be like to be poor. But she failed entirely, as
+women of her sort always do. She was brave enough if need be; if it must
+come, she had the courage to be poor. But she had not the skill to paint
+to herself what it would be like. She could not help thinking of
+Claudius. It would be so pleasant just now to have him sitting there by
+her side, reading some one of those wise books he was so fond of.
+
+It was so hot. She wished something would happen. Poor Nicholas! He need
+not have been so terribly cut up about the money. Who is there? It was
+Vladimir. Vladimir brought a card. Yes, she would see the gentleman.
+Vladimir disappeared, and a moment after ushered in Mr. Horace
+Bellingham, commonly known as "Uncle Horace."
+
+"I am so glad to see you, Mr. Bellingham," said Margaret, who had
+conceived a great liking for the old gentleman on the previous evening,
+and who would have welcomed anybody this morning.
+
+Mr. Bellingham made a bow of the courtliest, most _ancien-regime_ kind.
+He had ventured to bring her a few flowers. Would she accept them? They
+were only three white roses, but there was more beauty in them than in
+all Mr. Barker's profusion. Margaret took them, and smelled them, and
+fastened them at her waist, and smiled a divine smile on the bearer.
+
+"Thank you, so much," said she.
+
+"No thanks," said he; "I am more than repaid by your appreciation;" and
+he rubbed his hands together and bowed again, his head a little on one
+side, as if deprecating any further acknowledgment. Then he at once
+began to talk a little, to give her time to select her subject if she
+would; for he belonged to a class of men who believe it their duty to
+talk to women, and who do not expect to sit with folded hands and be
+amused. To such men America is a revelation of social rest. In America
+the women amuse the men, and the men excuse themselves by saying that
+they work hard all day, and cannot be expected to work hard all the
+evening. It is evidently a state of advanced civilisation,
+incomprehensible to the grosser European mind--a state where talking to
+a woman is considered to be hard work. Or--in fear and trembling it is
+suggested--is it because they are not able to amuse their womankind? Is
+their refusal a _testimonium paupertatis ingenii_? No--perish the
+thought! It may have been so a long time ago, in the Golden Age. This is
+not the Golden Age; it is the Age of Gold. Messieurs! faites votre jeu!
+
+By degrees it became evident that Margaret wanted to talk about Russia,
+and Mr. Bellingham humoured her, and gave her a good view of the
+situation, and told anecdotes of the Princess Dolgorouki, and drew the
+same distinction between Nihilists and Republicans that Count Nicholas
+had made an hour earlier in the same room. Seeing she was so much
+interested, Mr. Bellingham took courage to ask a question that had
+puzzled him for some time. He stroked his snowy beard, and hesitated
+slightly.
+
+"Pardon me, if I am indiscreet, Madam," he said at last, "but I read in
+the papers the other day that a nobleman of your name--a Count Nicholas,
+I think--had landed in New York, having escaped the clutches of the
+Petersburg police, who wanted to arrest him as a Nihilist. Was he--was
+he any relation of yours?"
+
+"He is my brother-in-law," said Margaret, rather startled at seeing the
+point to which she had led the conversation. But she felt a strong
+sympathy for Mr. Bellingham, and she was glad to be able to speak on the
+subject to any one. She stood so much in need of advice; and, after all,
+if the story was in the papers it was public property by this time. Mr.
+Bellingham was a perfect diplomatist, and, being deeply interested, he
+had soon learned all the details of the case by heart.
+
+"It is very distressing," he said gravely. But that was all. Margaret
+had had some faint idea that he might offer to help her--it was absurd,
+of course--or at least that he might give her some good advice. But that
+was not Mr. Bellingham's way of doing things. If he intended to do
+anything, the last thing he would think of would be to tell her of his
+intention. He led the conversation away, and having rounded it neatly
+with a couple of anecdotes of her grandmother, he rose to go, pleading
+an engagement. He really had so many appointments in a day that he
+seldom kept more than half of them, and his excuse was no polite
+invention. He bowed himself out, and when he was gone Margaret felt as
+though she had lost a friend.
+
+She wearied of the day--so long, so hot, and so unfortunate. She tried a
+book, and then she tried to write a letter, and then she tried to think
+again. It seemed to her that there was so little to think about, for she
+had a hopeless helpless consciousness that there was nothing to be done
+that she could do. She might have written to her friends in
+Petersburg--of course she would do that, and make every possible
+representation. But all that seemed infinitely far off, and could be
+done as well to-morrow as to-day. At last Lady Victoria came back, and
+at sight of her Margaret resolved to confide in her likewise. She had so
+much common sense, and always seemed able to get at the truth.
+Therefore, in the afternoon Margaret monopolised Lady Victoria and
+carried her off, and they sat together with their work by the open
+window, and the Countess was "not at home."
+
+In truth, a woman of the world in trouble of any kind could not do
+better than confide in Lady Victoria. She is so frank and honest that
+when you talk to her your trouble seems to grow small and your heart
+big. She has not a great deal of intellect; but, then, she has a great
+deal of common sense. Common sense is, generally speaking, merely a
+dislike of complications, and a consequent refusal on the part of the
+individual to discover them. People of vivid imagination delight in
+magnifying the difficulties of life by supposing themselves the centre
+of much scheming, plotting, and cheap fiction. They cheerfully give
+their time and their powers to the study of social diplomacy. It is
+reserved for people intellectually very high or very low in the scale to
+lead a really simple life. The average mind of the world is terribly
+muddled on most points, and altogether beside itself as regards its
+individual existence; for a union of much imagination, unbounded vanity,
+and unfathomable ignorance can never take the place of an intellect,
+while such a combination cannot fail to destroy the blessed _vis
+inertiae_ of the primitive fool, who only sees what is visible, instead
+of evolving the phantoms of an airy unreality from the bottomless abyss
+of his own so-called consciousness. Fortunately for humanity, the
+low-class unimaginative mind predominates in the world, as far as
+numbers are concerned; and there are enough true intellects among men to
+leaven the whole. The middle class of mind is a small class, congregated
+together chiefly within the boundaries of a very amusing institution
+calling itself "society." These people have scraped and varnished the
+aforesaid composition of imagination, ignorance, and vanity, into a
+certain conventional thing which they mendaciously term their
+"intelligence," from a Latin verb _intelligo_, said to mean "I
+understand." It is a poor thing, after all the varnishing. It is neither
+hammer nor anvil; it cannot strike, and, if you strike it, dissolution
+instantly takes place, after which the poor driveller is erroneously
+said to have "lost his mind," and is removed to an asylum. It is curious
+that the great majority of lunatics should be found in "society."
+Society says that all men of genius are more or less mad; but it is a
+notable fact that very few men of genius have ever been put in
+madhouses, whereas the society that calls those men crazy is always
+finding its way there. It takes but little to make a lunatic of poor
+Lady Smith-Tompkins. Poor thing! you know she is so very "high-strung,"
+such delicate sensibilities! She has an _idee fixe_--so very sad. Ah
+yes! that is it. She never had an idea before, and now that she has one
+she cannot get rid of it, and it will kill her in time.
+
+Now people whose intellect is of a low class are not disturbed with
+visions of all that there is to be known, nor with a foolish desire to
+appear to know it. On the other hand, they are perfectly capable of
+understanding what is honourable or dishonourable, mean or generous, and
+they are very tenacious of these principles, believing that in the
+letter of the law is salvation. They are not vain of qualities and
+powers not theirs; and, consequently, when they promise, they promise
+what they are able to perform. Occasionally such characters appear in
+"society,"--rare creatures, in whom a pernicious education has not
+spoiled the simplicity and honesty which is their only virtue. They fall
+naturally into the position of confessors to the community, for the
+community requires confessors of some sort. In them confides the
+hardened sinner bursting with evil deeds and the accumulation of petty
+naughtiness. To them comes the beardless ass, simpering from his first
+adventure, and generally "afraid he has compromised" the mature woman of
+the world, whom he has elected to serve, desiring to know what he ought
+to do about it. To them, too, comes sometimes the real sufferer with his
+or her little tale of woe, hesitatingly told, half hinted, hoping to be
+wholly understood. They are good people, these social confessors, though
+they seldom give much advice. Nevertheless, it is such a help to tell
+one's story and hear how it sounds!
+
+Lady Victoria was not a woman of surpassing intellect; perhaps she had
+no intellect at all. She belonged to the confessors above referred to.
+She was the soul of honour, of faith, and of secrecy. People were always
+making confidences to her, and they always felt the better for
+it--though she herself could not imagine why. And so even Margaret came
+and told her troubles. Only, as Margaret was really intelligent, she did
+not hesitate or make any fuss about telling, when once she had made up
+her mind. The story was, indeed, public property by this time, and Lady
+Victoria was sure to know it all before long from other people. When
+Margaret had finished, she laid down her work and looked out of the
+window, waiting.
+
+"I need not tell you I am sorry," said Lady Victoria. "You know that, my
+dear. But what will you do? It will be so very awkward for you, you
+know."
+
+"I hardly can tell yet--what would you do in my place?"
+
+"Let me see," said the English girl. "What would I do? You must have a
+Russian minister here somewhere. I think I would send for him, if I were
+you."
+
+"But it takes so long--so dreadfully long, to get anything done in that
+way," said Margaret. And they discussed the point in a desultory
+fashion. Of course Lady Victoria's suggestion was the simplest and most
+direct one. She was quite certain that Margaret would get her rights
+very soon.
+
+"Of course," said she, "they must do it. It would be so unjust not to."
+She looked at Margaret with a bright smile, as if there was no such
+thing as injustice in the world. But the Countess looked grave; and as
+she leaned back in her deep arm-chair by the window, with half-closed
+eyes, it was easy to see she was in trouble. She needed help and
+sympathy and comfort. She had never needed help before, and it was not a
+pleasant sensation to her; perhaps she was dissatisfied when she
+realised whose help of all others she would most gladly accept. At least
+it would be most pleasant that he should offer it. "He"--has it come to
+that? Poor Margaret! If "he" represented a sorrow instead of a
+happiness, would you confide that too to Lady Victoria? Or would you
+feel the least shadow of annoyance because you miss him to-day? Perhaps
+it is only habit. You have schooled yourself to believe you ought to do
+without him, and you fancy you ought to be angry with yourself for
+transgressing your rule. But what avails your schooling against the
+little god? He will teach you a lesson you will not forget. The day is
+sinking. The warm earth is drinking out its cup of sunlight to the
+purple dregs thereof. There is great colour in the air, and the clouds
+are as a trodden wine-press in the west. The old sun, the golden bowl of
+life, is touching earth's lips, and soon there will be none of the wine
+of light left in him. She will drink it all. Yet your lover tarries,
+Margaret, and comes not.
+
+Margaret and Lady Victoria agreed they would dine together. Indeed,
+Margaret had a little headache, for she was weary. They would dine
+together, and then read something in the evening--quite alone; and so
+they did. It was nearly nine o'clock when the servant announced Claudius
+and the Duke. The latter, of course, knew nothing about Margaret's
+troubles, and was in high spirits. As for Claudius, his momentary
+excitement, caused by Mr. Screw's insinuations, had long since passed
+away, and he was as calm as ever, meditating a graphic description of
+his day's excursion to Greenwood Cemetery for Margaret's benefit. It was
+a lugubrious subject, but he well knew how to make his talk interesting.
+It is the individual, not the topic, that makes the conversation; if a
+man can talk well, graveyards are as good a subject as the last novel,
+and he will make tombstones more attractive than scandal.
+
+No one could have told from Claudius's appearance or conversation that
+night that there was anything in the world to cloud his happiness. He
+talked to the woman he loved with a serene contempt for everything else
+in the world--a contempt, too, which was not assumed. He was perfectly
+happy for the nonce, and doubly so in that such a happy termination to a
+very long day was wholly unexpected. He had thought that he should find
+the party gone from New York on his return from Greenwood, and this bit
+of good luck seemed to have fallen to him out of a clear sky. Margaret
+was glad to see him too; she was just now in that intermediate frame of
+mind during which a woman only reasons about a man in his absence. The
+moment he appears, the electric circuit is closed and the quiescent
+state ceases. She was at the point when his coming made a difference
+that she could feel; when she heard his step her blood beat faster, and
+she could feel herself turning a shade paler. Then the heavy lids would
+droop a little to hide what was in her dark eyes, and there were many
+voices in her ear, as though the very air cried _gloria_, while her
+heart answered _in excelsis_. But when he was come the gentle tale
+seemed carried on, as from the hour of his last going; and while he
+stayed life seemed one long day.
+
+She had struggled hard, but in her deepest thoughts she had foreseen the
+termination. It is the instinct of good women to fight against love--he
+comes in such a questionable shape. A good woman sees a difference
+between being in love and loving--well knowing that there is passion
+without love, but no love without passion. She feels bound in faith to
+set up a tribunal in her heart, whereby to judge between the two; but
+very often judge and jury and prisoner at the bar join hands, and swear
+eternal friendship on the spot. Margaret had feared lest this Northern
+wooer, with his mighty strength and his bold eyes, should lead her
+feelings whither her heart would not. Sooner than suffer that, she would
+die. And yet there is a whole unspoken prophecy of love in every human
+soul, and his witness is true.
+
+All this evening they sat side by side, welding their bonds. Each had a
+secret care, but each forgot it utterly. Claudius would not have deigned
+to think of his own troubles when he was with her; and she never once
+remembered how, during that morning, she had longed to tell him all
+about her brother-in-law. They talked of all sorts of things, and they
+made up their minds to go to Newport the next day.
+
+Miss Skeat asked whether Newport was as romantic as Scarborough.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+There were odours of Russian cigarettes in Mr. Horace Bellingham's room,
+and two smokers were industriously adding to the fragrant cloud. One was
+the owner of the dwelling himself, and the other was Claudius. He sat
+upon the sofa that stood between the two windows of the room, which was
+on the ground floor, and looked out on the street. The walls were
+covered with pictures wherever they were not covered with books, and
+there was not an available nook or corner unfilled with scraps of
+bric-a-brac, photographs, odds and ends of reminiscence, and all manner
+of things characteristic to the denizen of the apartment. The furniture
+was evidently calculated more for comfort than display, and if there was
+an air of luxury pervading the bachelor's quiet _rez-de-chaussee_, it
+was due to the rare volumes on the shelves and the good pictures on the
+walls, rather than to the silk or satin of the high-art upholsterer, or
+the gilding and tile work of the modern decorator, who ravages upon
+beauty as a fungus upon a fruit tree. Whatever there was in Mr.
+Bellingham's rooms was good; much of it was unique, and the whole was
+harmonious. Rare editions were bound by famous binders, and if the
+twopenny-halfpenny productions of some little would-be modern poet,
+resplendent with vellum and aesthetic greenliness of paper, occasionally
+found their way to the table, they never travelled as far as the
+shelves. Mr. Bellingham had fools enough about him to absorb his spare
+trash.
+
+On this particular occasion the old gentleman was seated in an arm-chair
+at his table, and Claudius, as aforesaid, had established himself upon
+the sofa. He looked very grave and smoked thoughtfully.
+
+"I wish I knew what to do," he said. "Mr. Bellingham, do you think I
+could be of any use?"
+
+"If I had not thought so, I would not have told you--I could have let
+you find it out for yourself from the papers. You can be of a great deal
+of use."
+
+"Do you advise me to go to St. Petersburg and see about it then?"
+
+"Of course I do. Start at once. You can get the necessary steps taken in
+no time, if you go now."
+
+"I am ready. But how in the world can I get the thing done?"
+
+"Letters. Your English friend over there will give you letters to the
+English Ambassador; he is Lord Fitzdoggin--cousin of the Duke's. And I
+will give you some papers that will be of use. I know lots of people in
+Petersburg. Why, it's as plain as a pikestaff. Besides, you know the
+proverb, _mitte sapientem et nihil dicas._ That means then when you send
+a wise man you must not dictate to him."
+
+"You flatter me. But I would rather have your advice, if that is what
+you call 'dictating.' I am not exactly a fool, but then, I am not very
+wise either."
+
+"No one is very wise, and we are all fools compared to some people,"
+said Mr. Bellingham. "If anybody wanted a figurehead for a new Ship of
+Fools, I sometimes think a portrait of myself would be singularly
+appropriate. There are times when I should fix upon a friend for the
+purpose. Mermaid--half fish--figurehead, half man, half fool. That's a
+very good idea."
+
+"Very good--for the friend. Meanwhile, you know, it is I who am going on
+the errand. If you do not make it clear to me it will be a fool's
+errand."
+
+"It is perfectly clear, my dear sir," insisted Mr. Bellingham. "You go
+to St. Petersburg; you get an audience--you can do that by means of the
+letters; you lay the matter before the Czar, and request justice. Either
+you get it or you do not. That is the beauty of an autocratic country."
+
+"How about a free country?" asked Claudius.
+
+"You don't get it," replied his host grimly. Claudius laughed a cloud of
+smoke into the air.
+
+"Why is that?" he asked idly, hoping to launch Mr. Bellingham into
+further aphorisms and paradoxes.
+
+"Men are everywhere born free, but they--"
+
+"Oh," said Claudius, "I want to know your own opinion about it."
+
+"I have no opinion; I only have experience," answered the other. "At any
+rate in an autocratic country there is a visible, tangible repository of
+power to whom you can apply. If the repository is in the humour you will
+get whatever you want done, in the way of justice or injustice. Now in a
+free country justice is absorbed into the great cosmic forces, and it is
+apt to be an expensive incantation that wakes the lost elementary
+spirit. In Russia justice shines by contrast with the surrounding
+corruption, but there is no mistake about it when you get it. In America
+it is taken for granted everywhere, and the consequence is that, like
+most things that are taken for granted, it is a myth. Rousseau thought
+that in a republic like ours there would be no more of the 'chains' he
+was so fond of talking about. He did not anticipate a stagnation of the
+national moral sense. An Englishman who has made a study of these things
+said lately that the Americans had retained the forms of freedom, but
+that the substance had suffered considerably."
+
+"Who said that?" asked Claudius.
+
+"Mr. Herbert Spencer. He said it to a newspaper reporter in New York,
+and so it was put into the papers. It is the truest thing he ever said,
+but no one took any more notice of it than if he had told the reporter
+it was a very fine day. They don't care. Tell the first man you meet
+down town that he is a liar; he will tell you he knows it. He will
+probably tell you you are another. We are all alike here. I'm a liar
+myself in a small way--there's a club of us, two Americans and one
+Englishman."
+
+"You are the frankest person I ever met, Mr. Bellingham," said Claudius,
+laughing.
+
+"Some day I will write a book," said Mr. Bellingham, rising and
+beginning to tramp round the room. "I will call it--by the way, we were
+talking about Petersburg. You had better be off."
+
+"I am going, but tell me the name of the book before I go."
+
+"No, I won't; you would go and write it yourself, and steal my thunder."
+Uncle Horace's eyes twinkled, and a corruscation of laugh-wrinkles shot
+like sheet-lightning over his face. He disappeared into a neighbouring
+room, leaving a trail of white smoke in his wake, like a locomotive.
+Presently he returned with a _Bullinger Guide_ in his hand.
+
+"You can sail on Wednesday at two o'clock by the Cunarder," he said.
+"You can go to Newport to-day, and come back by the boat on Tuesday
+night, and be ready to start in the morning." Mr. Bellingham prided
+himself greatly on his faculty for making combinations of times and
+places.
+
+"How about those letters, Mr. Bellingham?" inquired Claudius, who had no
+idea of going upon his expedition without proper preparations.
+
+"I will write them," said Uncle Horace, "I will write them at once," and
+he dived into an address-book and set to work. His pen was that of the
+traditional ready-writer, for he wrote endless letters, and his
+correspondence was typical of himself--the scholar, the wanderer, and
+the Priest of Buddha by turns, and sometimes all at once. For Mr.
+Bellingham was a professed Buddhist and a profound student of Eastern
+moralities, and he was a thorough scholar in certain branches of the
+classics. The combination of these qualities, with the tact and
+versatile fluency of a man of the world, was a rare one, and was a
+source of unceasing surprise to his intimates. At the present moment he
+was a diplomatist, since he could not be a diplomat, and to his
+energetic suggestion and furtherance of the plan he had devised the
+results which this tale will set forth are mainly due.
+
+Claudius sat upon the sofa watching the old gentleman, and wondering how
+it was that a stranger should so soon have assumed the position of an
+adviser, and with an energy and good sense, too, which not only disarmed
+resistance, but assubjugated the consent of the advised. Life is full of
+such things. Man lives quietly like a fattening carp in some old pond
+for years, until some idle disturber comes and pokes up the mud with a
+stick, and the poor fish is in the dark. Presently comes another
+destroyer of peace, less idle and more enterprising, and drains away
+the water, carp and all, and makes a potato-garden of his old haunts. So
+the carp makes a new study of life under altered circumstances in other
+waters; and to pass the time he wonders about it all. It happens even to
+men of masterful character, accustomed to directing events. An illness
+takes such a man out of his sphere for a few months. He comes back and
+finds his pond turned into a vegetable-garden and his ploughed field
+into a swamp; and then for a time he is fain to ask advice and take it,
+like any other mortal. So Claudius, who felt himself in an atmosphere
+new to him, and had tumbled into a very burning bush of complications,
+had fallen in with Mr. Horace Bellingham, a kind of professional
+bone-setter, whose province was the reduction of society fractures,
+speaking medically. And Mr. Bellingham, scenting a patient, and moreover
+being strongly attracted to him on his own merits, had immediately
+broached the subject of the Nihilist Nicholas, drawing the conclusion
+that the man of the emergency was Claudius, and Claudius only. And the
+bold Doctor weighed the old gentleman's words, and by the light of what
+he felt he knew that Uncle Horace was right. That if he loved Margaret
+his first duty was to her, and that first duty was her welfare. No
+messenger could or would be so active in her interests as himself; and
+in his anxiety to serve her he had not thought it strange that Mr.
+Bellingham should take it for granted he was ready to embark on the
+expedition. He thought of that later, and wondered at the boldness of
+the stranger's assumption, no less than at the keenness of his wit. Poor
+Claudius! anybody might see he was in love.
+
+"There; I think that will draw sparks," said Mr. Bellingham, as he
+folded the last of his letters and put them all in a great square
+envelope. "Put those in your pocket and keep your powder dry."
+
+"I am really very grateful to you," said Claudius. Uncle Horace began to
+tramp round the room again, emitting smoky ejaculations of satisfaction.
+Presently he stopped in front of his guest and turned his eyes up to
+Claudius's face without raising his head. It gave him a peculiar
+expression.
+
+"It is a very strange thing," he said, "but I knew at once that you had
+a destiny, the first time I saw you. I am very superstitious; I believe
+in destiny."
+
+"So would I if I thought one could know anything about it. I mean in a
+general way," answered Claudius, smiling.
+
+"Is generalisation everything?" asked Mr. Bellingham sharply, still
+looking at the young man. "Is experience to be dismissed as empiricism,
+with a sneer, because the wider rule is lacking?"
+
+"No. But so long as only a few occupy themselves in reducing empiric
+knowledge to a scientific shape they will not succeed, at least in this
+department. To begin with, they have not enough experience among them to
+make rules from."
+
+"But they contribute. One man will come who will find the rule. Was
+Tycho Brahe a nonentity because he was not Kepler? Was Van Helmont
+nothing because he was not Lavoisier? Yet Tycho Brahe was an empiric--he
+was the last of the observers of the concrete, if you will allow me the
+phrase. He was scientifically the father of Kepler."
+
+"That is very well put," said Claudius. "But we were talking of destiny.
+You are an observer."
+
+"I have very fine senses," replied Mr. Bellingham. "I always know when
+anybody I meet is going to do something out of the common run. You are."
+
+"I hope so," said Claudius, laughing. "Indeed I think I am beginning
+already."
+
+"Well, good luck to you," said Mr. Bellingham, remembering that he had
+missed one engagement, and was on the point of missing another. He
+suddenly felt that he must send Claudius away, and he held out his hand.
+There was nothing rough in his abruptness. He would have liked to talk
+with Claudius for an hour longer had his time permitted. Claudius
+understood perfectly. He put the letters in his pocket, and with a
+parting shake of the hand he bade Mr. Horace Bellingham good-morning,
+and good-bye; he would not trouble him again, he said, before sailing.
+But Mr. Bellingham went to the door with him.
+
+"Come and see me before you go--Wednesday morning; I am up at six, you
+know. I shall be very glad to see you. I am like the Mexican donkey that
+died of _congojas ajenas_--died of other people's troubles. People
+always come to me when they are in difficulties." The old gentleman
+stood looking after Claudius as he strode away. Then he screwed up his
+eyes at the sun, sneezed with evident satisfaction, and disappeared
+within, closing the street door behind him.
+
+"Some day I will write my memoirs," he said to himself, as he sat down.
+
+Claudius was in a frame of mind which he would have found it hard to
+describe. The long conversation with Mr. Bellingham had been the first
+intimation he had received of Margaret's disaster, and the same
+interview had decided him to act at once in her behalf--in other words,
+to return to Europe immediately, after a week's stay in New York,
+leaving behind all that was most dear to him. This resolution had
+formed itself instantaneously in his mind, and it never occurred to him,
+either then or later, that he could have done anything else in the
+world. It certainly did not occur to him that he was doing anything
+especially praiseworthy in sacrificing his love to its object, in
+leaving Margaret for a couple of months, and enduring all that such a
+separation meant, in order to serve her interests more effectually. He
+knew well enough what he was undertaking--the sleepless nights, the
+endless days, the soul-compelling heaviness of solitude, and the deadly
+sinking at the heart, all which he should endure daily for sixty
+days--he could not be back before that. He knew it all, for he had
+suffered it all, during those four and twenty hours on the yacht that
+followed his first wild speech of love. But Claudius's was a knightly
+soul, and when he served he served wholly, without reservation. Had the
+dark-browed Countess guessed half the nobleness of purpose her tall
+lover carried in his breast, who knows but she might have been sooner
+moved herself. But how could she know? She suspected, indeed, that he
+was above his fellows, and she never attributed bad motives to his
+actions, as she would unhesitatingly have done with most men; for she
+had learned lessons of caution in her life. Who steals hearts steals
+souls, wherefore it behoves woman to look that the lock be strong and
+the key hung high. Claudius thought so too, and he showed it in every
+action, though unconsciously enough, for it was a knowledge natural and
+not acquired, an instinctive determination to honour where honour was
+due. Call it Quixotism if need be. There is nothing ridiculous in the
+word, for there breathes no truer knight or gentler soul than
+Cervantes's hero in all the pages of history or romance. Why cannot all
+men see it? Why must an infamous world be ever sneering at the sight,
+and smacking its filthy lips over some fresh gorge of martyrs? Society
+has non-suited hell to-day, lest peradventure it should not sleep o'
+nights.
+
+Thomas Carlyle, late of Chelsea, knew that. How he hit and hammered and
+churned in his wrath, with his great cast-iron words. How the world
+shrieked when he wound his tenacious fingers in the glory of her golden
+hair and twisted and wrenched and twisted till she yelled for mercy,
+promising to be good, like a whipped child. There is a story told of him
+which might be true.
+
+It was at a dinner-party, and Carlyle sat silent, listening to the talk
+of lesser men, the snow on his hair and the fire in his amber eyes. A
+young Liberal was talking theory to a beefy old Conservative, who
+despised youth and reason in an equal degree.
+
+"The British people, sir," said he of the beef, "can afford to laugh at
+theories."
+
+"Sir," said Carlyle, speaking for the first time during dinner, "the
+French nobility of a hundred years ago said they could afford to laugh
+at theories. Then came a man and wrote a book called the _Social
+Contract_. The man was called Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and his book was a
+theory, and nothing but a theory. The nobles could laugh at his theory;
+_but their skins went to bind the second edition of his book_[1]."
+
+[Footnote 1: There was a tannery of human skins at Meudon during the
+Revolution.]
+
+Look to your skin, world, lest it be dressed to morocco and cunningly
+tooled with gold. There is much binding yet to be done.
+
+Claudius thought neither of the world nor of Mr. Carlyle as he walked
+back to the hotel; for he was thinking of the Countess Margaret, to the
+exclusion of every other earthly or unearthly consideration. But his
+thoughts were sad, for he knew that he was to leave her, and he knew
+also that he must tell her so. It was no easy matter, and his walk
+slackened, till, at the corner of the great thoroughfare, he stood
+still, looking at a poor woman who ground a tuneless hand-organ. The
+instrument of tympanum torture was on wheels, and to the back of it was
+attached a cradle. In the cradle was a dirty little baby, licking its
+fist and listening with conscientious attention to the perpetual
+trangle-tringle-jangle of the maternal music. In truth the little thing
+could not well listen to anything else, considering the position in
+which it was placed. Claudius stood staring at the little caravan,
+halted at the corner of the most aristocratic street in New York, and
+his attention was gradually roused to comprehend what he saw. He
+reflected that next to being bound on the back of a wild horse, like
+Mazeppa, the most horrible fate conceivable must be that of this dirty
+baby, put to bed in perpetuity on the back of a crazy grind-organ. He
+smiled at the idea, and the woman held out a battered tin dish with one
+hand, while the other in its revolution ground out the final palpitating
+squeaks of "_Ah, che la morte ognora_." Claudius put his hand into his
+pocket and gave the poor creature a coin.
+
+"You are encouraging a public nuisance," said a thin gentlemanly voice
+at his elbow. Claudius looked down and saw Mr. Barker.
+
+"Yes," said the Doctor, "I remember a remark you once made to me about
+the deserving poor in New York--it was the day before yesterday, I
+think. You said they went to the West."
+
+"Talking of the West, I suppose you will be going there yourself one of
+these days to take a look at our 'park'--eh?"
+
+"No, I am going East."
+
+"To Boston, I suppose?" inquired the inquisitive Barker. "You will be
+very much amused with Boston. It is the largest village in the United
+States."
+
+"I am not going to Boston," said Claudius calmly.
+
+"Oh! I thought when you said you were going East you meant--"
+
+"I am going to sail for Europe on Wednesday," said the Doctor, who had
+had time to reflect that he might as well inform Barker of his
+intention. Mr. Barker smiled grimly under his moustache.
+
+"You don't mean that?" he said, trying to feign astonishment and
+disguise his satisfaction. It seemed too good to be true. "Going so
+soon? Why, I thought you meant to spend some time."
+
+"Yes, I am going immediately," and Claudius looked Barker straight in
+the face. "I find it is necessary that I should procure certain papers
+connected with my inheritance."
+
+"Well," said Barker turning his eyes another way, for he did not like
+the Doctor's look, "I am very sorry, any way. I suppose you mean to come
+back soon?"
+
+"Very soon," answered Claudius. "Good-morning, Barker."
+
+"Good morning. I will call and see you before you sail. You have quite
+taken my breath away with this news." Mr. Barker walked quickly away in
+the direction of Elevated Road. He was evidently going down town.
+
+"Strange," thought Claudius, "that Barker should take the news so
+quietly. I think it ought to have astonished him more." Leaving the
+organ-grinder, the dirty baby, and the horse-cars to their fate,
+Claudius entered the hotel. He found the Duke over a late breakfast,
+eating cantelopes voraciously. Cantelopes are American melons, small and
+of sickly appearance, but of good vitality and unearthly freshness
+within, a joy to the hot-stomached foreigner. Behold also, his Grace
+eateth the cantelope and hath a cheerful countenance. Claudius sat down
+at the table, looking rather gloomy.
+
+"I want you to give me an introduction to the English Ambassador in
+Petersburg. Lord Fitzdoggin, I believe he is."
+
+"Good gracious!" exclaimed the peer; "what for?"
+
+"I am going there," answered Claudius with his habitual calm, "and I
+want to know somebody in power."
+
+"Oh! are _you_ going?" asked the Duke, suddenly grasping the situation.
+He afterwards took some credit to himself for having been so quick to
+catch Claudius's meaning.
+
+"Yes. I sail on Wednesday."
+
+"Tell me all about it," said the Duke, who recovered his equanimity, and
+plunged a knife into a fresh cantelope at the same moment.
+
+"Very well. I saw your friend, Mr. Horace Bellingham, this morning, and
+he told me all about the Countess's troubles. In fact, they are in the
+newspapers by this time, but I had not read about them. He suggested
+that some personal friend of the Countess had better proceed to
+headquarters at once, and see about it; so I said I would go; and he
+gave me some introductions. They are probably good ones; but he advised
+me to come to you and get one for your ambassador."
+
+"Anything Uncle Horace advises is right, you know," said his Grace,
+speaking with his mouth full. "He knows no end of people everywhere," he
+added pensively, when he had swallowed.
+
+"Very well, I will go; but I am glad you approve."
+
+"But what the deuce are you going to do about that fortune of yours?"
+asked the other suddenly. "Don't you think we had better go down and
+swear to you at once? I may not be here when you get back, you know."
+
+"No; that would not suit my arrangements," answered Claudius. "I would
+rather not let it be known for what purpose I had gone. Do you
+understand? I am going ostensibly to Heidelberg to get my papers from
+the University, and so, with all thanks, I need not trouble you." The
+Duke looked at him for a moment.
+
+"What a queer fellow you are, Claudius," he said at last. "I should
+think you would like her to know."
+
+"Why? Suppose that I failed, what a figure I should cut, to be sure."
+Claudius preferred to attribute to his vanity an action which was the
+natural outcome of his love.
+
+"Well, that is true," said the Duke; "but I think you are pretty safe
+for all that. Have some breakfast--I forgot all about it."
+
+"No, thanks. Are you going to Newport to-day? I would like to see
+something outside of New York before I go back."
+
+"By all means. Better go at once--all of us in a body. I know the
+Countess is ready, and I am sure I am."
+
+"Very good. I will get my things together. One word--please do not tell
+them I am going; I will do it myself.
+
+"All right," answered the Duke; and Claudius vanished. "He says 'them,'"
+soliloquised the Englishman, "but he means 'her.'"
+
+Claudius found on his table a note from Mr. Screw. This missive was
+couched in formal terms, and emitted a kind of phosphorescent wrath. Mr.
+Screw's dignity was seriously offended by the summary ejectment he had
+suffered at the Doctor's hands on the previous day. He gave the Doctor
+formal notice that his drafts would not be honoured until the executors
+were satisfied concerning his identity; and he solemnly and legally
+"regretted the position Dr. Claudius had assumed towards those whose
+sacred duty it was to protect the interests of Dr. Claudius." The
+cunning repetition of name conveyed the idea of two personages, the
+claimant and the real heir, in a manner that did not escape the Doctor.
+Since yesterday he had half regretted having lost his temper; and had he
+known that Screw had been completely duped by Mr. Barker, Claudius would
+probably have apologised to the lawyer. Indeed, he had a vague
+suspicion, as the shadow of a distant event, that Barker was not
+altogether clear of the business; and the fact that the latter had shown
+so little surprise on hearing of his friend's sudden return to Europe
+had aroused the Doctor's imagination, so that he found himself piecing
+together everything he could remember to show that Barker had an
+interest of some kind in removing him from the scene. Nevertheless, the
+burden of responsibility for the annoyance he was now suffering seemed
+to rest with Screw, and Screw should be taught a great lesson; and to
+that end Claudius would write a letter. It was clear he was still angry.
+
+The Doctor sat down to write; and his strong, white fingers held the pen
+with unrelenting determination to be disagreeable. His face was set like
+a mask, and ever and anon his blue eyes gleamed scornfully. And this is
+what he said--
+
+     "SIR--Having enjoyed the advantage of your society, somewhat longer
+     than I could have wished, during yesterday afternoon, I had
+     certainly not hoped for so early a mark of your favour and interest
+     as a letter from you of to-day's date. As for your formal notice to
+     me that my drafts will not be honoured in future, I regard it as a
+     deliberate repetition of the insulting insinuation conveyed to me
+     by your remarks during your visit. You are well aware that I have
+     not drawn upon the estate in spite of your written authorisation to
+     do so. I consider your conduct in this matter unworthy of a person
+     professing the law, and your impertinence is in my opinion only
+     second to the phenomenal clumsiness you have displayed throughout.
+     As I fear that your ignorance of your profession may lead you into
+     some act of folly disastrous to yourself, I will go so far as to
+     inform you that on my return from Europe, two months hence, your
+     proceedings as executor for the estate of the late Gustavus
+     Lindstrand will be subjected to the severest scrutiny. In the
+     meantime, I desire no further communications from you.
+
+     CLAUDIUS."
+
+This remarkable epistle was immediately despatched by messenger to Pine
+Street; and if Mr. Screw had felt himself injured before, he was on the
+verge of desperation when he read Claudius's polemic. He repeated to
+himself the several sentences, which seemed to breathe war and carnage
+in their trenchant brevity; and he thought that even if he had been
+guilty of any breach of trust, he could hardly have felt worse. He ran
+his fingers through his thick yellow-gray hair, and hooked his legs in
+and out of each other as he sat, and bullied his clerks within an inch
+of their lives. Then, to get consolation, he said to himself that
+Claudius was certainly an impostor, or he would not be so angry, or go
+to Europe, or refuse any more communications. In the midst of his rage,
+Mr. Barker the younger opportunely appeared in the office of Messrs.
+Screw and Scratch, prepared to throw any amount of oil upon the flames.
+
+"Well?" said Mr. Barker interrogatively, as he settled the flower in his
+gray coat, and let the paper ribband of the "ticker" run through his
+other hand, with its tale of the tide of stocks. Yellow Mr. Screw shot a
+lurid glance from his brassy little eyes.
+
+"You're right, sir--the man's a humbug."
+
+"Who?" asked Barker, in well-feigned innocence.
+
+"Claudius. It's my belief he's a liar and a thief and a damned impostor,
+sir. That's my belief, sir." He waxed warm as he vented his anger.
+
+"Well, I only suggested taking precautions. I never said any of these
+things," answered Barker, who had no idea of playing a prominent part in
+his own plot. "Don't give me any credit, Mr. Screw."
+
+"Now, see here, Mr. Barker; I'm talking to you. You're as clever a young
+man as there is in New York. Now, listen to me; I'm talking to you,"
+said Mr. Screw excitedly. "That man turned me out of his house--turned
+me out of doors, sir, yesterday afternoon; and now he writes me this
+letter; look here, look at it; read it for yourself, can't you? And so
+he makes tracks for Europe, and leaves no address behind. An honest man
+isn't going to act like that, sir--is he, now?"
+
+"Not much," said Barker, as he took the letter. He read it through
+twice, and gave it back. "Not much," he repeated. "Is it true that he
+has drawn no money?"
+
+"Well, yes, I suppose it is," answered Screw reluctantly, for this was
+the weak point in his argument. "However, it would be just like such a
+leg to make everything sure in playing a big game. You see he has left
+himself the rear platform, so he can jump off when his car is boarded."
+
+"However," said Barker sententiously, "I must say it is in his favour.
+What we want are facts, you know, Mr. Screw. Besides, if he had taken
+anything, I should have been responsible, because I accepted him abroad
+as the right man."
+
+"Well, as you say, there is nothing gone--not a red. So if he likes to
+get away, he can; I'm well rid of him."
+
+"Now that's the way to look at it. Don't be so down in the mouth, sir;
+it will all come straight enough." Barker smiled benignly, knowing it
+was all crooked enough at present.
+
+"Well, I'm damned anyhow," said Mr. Screw, which was not fair to
+himself, for he was an honest man, acting very properly according to his
+lights. It was not his fault if Barker deceived him, and if that
+hot-livered Swede was angry.
+
+"Never mind," answered Barker, rather irrelevantly; "I will see him
+before he sails, and tell you what I think about it. He is dead sure to
+give himself away, somehow, before he gets off."
+
+"Well, sail in, young man," said Screw, biting off the end of a cigar.
+"_I_ don't want to see him again, you can take your oath."
+
+"All right; that settles it. I came about something else, though. I know
+you can tell me all about this suit against the Western Union, can't
+you?"
+
+So the two men sat in their arm-chairs and talked steadily, as only
+Americans can talk, without showing any more signs of fatigue than if
+they were snoring; and it cost them nothing. If the Greeks of the time
+of Pericles could be brought to life in America, they would be very like
+modern Americans in respect of their love of talking and of their
+politics. Terrible chatterers in the market-place, and great wranglers
+in the council--the greatest talkers living, but also on occasion the
+greatest orators, with a redundant vivacity of public life in their
+political veins, that magnifies and inflames the diseases of the parts,
+even while it gives an unparalleled harmony to the whole. The Greeks had
+more, for their activity, hampered by the narrow limits of their
+political sphere, broke out in every variety of intellectual effort,
+carried into every branch of science and art. In spite of the whole
+modern school of impressionists, aesthetes, and aphrodisiac poets, the
+most prominent features of Greek art are its intellectuality, its
+well-reasoned science, and its accurate conception of the ideal. The
+resemblance between Americans of to-day and Greeks of the age of
+Pericles does not extend to matters of art as yet, though America bids
+fair to surpass all earlier and contemporary nations in the progressive
+departments of science. But as talkers they are pre-eminent, these rapid
+business men with their quick tongues and their sharp eyes and their
+millions.
+
+When Barker left Screw he had learned a great deal about the suit of
+which he inquired, but Screw had learned nothing whatever about
+Claudius.
+
+As for the Doctor, as soon as he had despatched his letter he sent to
+secure a passage in Wednesday's steamer, and set himself to prepare his
+effects for the voyage, as he only intended returning from Newport in
+time to go on board. He was provided with money enough, for before
+leaving Germany he had realised the whole of his own little fortune, not
+wishing to draw upon his larger inheritance until he should feel some
+necessity for doing so. He now felt no small satisfaction in the thought
+that he was independent of Mr. Screw and of every one else. It would
+have been an easy matter, he knew, to clear up the whole difficulty in
+twenty-four hours, by simply asking the Duke to vouch for him; and
+before hearing of Margaret's trouble he had had every intention of
+pursuing that course. But now that he was determined to go to Russia in
+her behalf, his own difficulty, if he did not take steps for removing
+it, furnished him with an excellent excuse for the journey, without
+telling the Countess that he was going for the sole purpose of
+recovering her fortune, as he otherwise must have told her. Had he known
+the full extent of Barker's intentions he might have acted differently,
+but as yet his instinct against that ingenious young gentleman was
+undefined and vague.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+The cliff at Newport--the long winding path that follows it from the
+great beach to the point of the island, always just above the sea,
+hardly once descending to it, as the evenly-gravelled path, too narrow
+for three, though far too broad for two, winds by easy curves through
+the grounds, and skirts the lawns of the million-getters who have their
+tents and their houses therein--it is a pretty place. There the rich men
+come and seethe in their gold all summer; and Lazarus comes to see
+whether he cannot marry Dives's daughter. And the choleric architect,
+dissatisfied with the face of Nature, strikes her many a dread blow, and
+produces an unhealthy eruption wherever he strikes, and calls the things
+he makes houses. Here also, on Sunday afternoon, young gentlemen and
+younger ladies patrol in pairs, and discourse of the most saccharine
+inanities, not knowing what they shall say, and taking no thought, for
+obvious reasons. And gardeners sally forth in the morning and trim the
+paths with strange-looking instruments--the earth-barbers, who lather
+and shave and clip Nature into patterns, and the world into a quincunx.
+
+It is a pretty place. There is nothing grand, not even anything natural
+in Newport, but it is very pretty for all that. For an artificial place,
+destined to house the most artificial people in the world during three
+months of the year, it is as pleasing as it can be in a
+light-comedy-scenery style. Besides, the scenery in Newport is very
+expensive, and it is impossible to spend so much money without producing
+some result. It cost a hundred thousand to level that lawn there, and
+Dives paid the money cheerfully. Then there is Croesus, his neighbour,
+who can draw a cheque for a hundred millions if he likes. His house cost
+him a pot of money. And so they build themselves a landscape, and pare
+off the rough edges of the island, and construct elegant landing-stages,
+and keep yachts, and make to themselves a fashionable watering-place;
+until by dint of putting money into it, they have made it remarkable
+among the watering-places of the world, perhaps the most remarkable of
+all.
+
+But there are times when the cliff at Newport is not an altogether
+flippant bit of expensive scene-painting, laid out for the sole purpose
+of "effect." Sometimes in the warm summer nights the venerable moon
+rises stately and white out of the water; the old moon, that is the
+hoariest sinner of us all, with her spells and enchantments and her
+breathing love-beams, that look so gently on such evil works. And the
+artist-spirits of the night sky take of her silver as much as they will,
+and coat with it many things of most humble composition, so that they
+are fair to look upon. And they play strange pranks with faces of living
+and dead. So when the ruler of the darkness shines over poor,
+commonplace Newport, the aspect of it is changed, and the gingerbread
+abominations wherein the people dwell are magnified into lofty palaces
+of silver, and the close-trimmed lawns are great carpets of soft dark
+velvet; and the smug-faced philistine sea, that the ocean would be
+ashamed to own for a relation by day, breaks out into broken flashes of
+silver and long paths of light. All this the moonlight does, rejoicing
+in its deception.
+
+There is another time, too, when Newport is no longer commonplace, when
+that same sea, which never seems to have any life of its own, disgorges
+its foggy soul over the land. There is an ugly odour as of musty
+salt-water in men's nostrils, and the mist is heavy and thick to the
+touch. It creeps up to the edge of the cliff, and greedily clings to the
+wet grass, and climbs higher and over the lawns, and in at the windows
+of Dives's dining-room, and of Croesus's library, with its burden of
+insiduous mould. The pair of trim-built flirtlings, walking so daintily
+down the gravel path, becomes indistinct, and their forms are seen but
+as the shadows of things dead--treading on air, between three worlds.
+The few feet of bank above the sea, dignified by the name of cliff, fall
+back to a gaping chasm, a sheer horror of depths, misty and
+unfathomable. Onward slides the thick cloud, and soon the deep-mouthed
+monotone of the fog-horns in the distance tells it is in the bay. There
+is nothing commonplace about the Newport cliff in a fog; it is wild
+enough and dreary enough then, for the scene of a bad deed. You might
+meet the souls of the lost in such a fog, hiding before the wrath to
+come.
+
+Late on Tuesday afternoon Claudius and Margaret had taken their way
+towards the cliff, a solitary couple at that hour on a week-day. Even at
+a distance there was something about their appearance that distinguished
+them from ordinary couples. Claudius's great height seemed still more
+imposing now that he affected the garb of civilisation, and Margaret had
+the air of a woman of the great world in every movement of her graceful
+body, and in every fold of her perfect dress. American women, when they
+dress well, dress better than any other women in the world; but an
+American woman who has lived at the foreign courts is unapproachable. If
+there had been any one to see these two together on Tuesday afternoon,
+there would have been words of envy, malice, and hatred. As it was, they
+were quite alone on the cliff walk.
+
+Margaret was happy; there was light in her eyes, and a faint warm flush
+on her dark cheek. A closed parasol hung from her hand, having an ivory
+handle carved with an "M" and a crown--the very one that three months
+ago had struck the first spark of their acquaintance from the stones of
+the old Schloss at Heidelberg--perhaps she had brought it on purpose.
+She was happy still, for she did not know that Claudius was going away,
+though he had brought her out here, away from every one, that he might
+tell her. But they had reached the cliff and had walked some distance in
+the direction of the point, and yet he spoke not. Something tied his
+tongue, and he would have spoken if he could, but his words seemed too
+big to come out. At last they came to a place where a quick descent
+leads from the path down to the sea. A little sheltered nook of sand and
+stones is there, all irregular and rough, like the lumps in brown sugar,
+and the lazy sea splashed a little against some old pebbles it had known
+for a long time, never having found the energy to wash them away. The
+rocks above overhung the spot, so that it was entirely shielded from the
+path, and the rocks below spread themselves into a kind of seat. Here
+they sat them down, facing the water--towards evening--not too near to
+each other, not too far,--Margaret on the right, Claudius on the left.
+And Claudius punched the little pebbles with his stick after he had sat
+down, wondering how he should begin. Indeed it did not seem easy. It
+would have been easier if he had been less advanced, or further
+advanced, in his suit. Most people never jump without feeling, at the
+moment of jumping, that they could leap a little better if they could
+"take off" an inch nearer or further away.
+
+"Countess," said the Doctor at last, turning towards her with a very
+grave look in his face, "I have something to tell you, and I do not know
+how to say it." He paused, and Margaret looked at the sea, without
+noticing him, for she half fancied he was on the point of repeating his
+former indiscretion and saying he loved her. Would it be an indiscretion
+now? She wondered what she should say, what she would say, if he
+did--venture. Would she say "it was not right" of him now? In a moment
+Claudius had resolved to plunge boldly at the truth.
+
+"I am obliged to go away very suddenly," he said; and his voice trembled
+violently.
+
+Margaret's face lost colour in answer, and she resisted an impulse to
+turn and meet his eyes. She would have liked to, but she felt his look
+on her, and she feared lest, looking once, she should look too long.
+
+"Must you go away?" she asked with a good deal of self-possession.
+
+"Yes, I fear I must. I know I must, if I mean to remain here afterwards.
+I would rather go at once and be done with it." He still spoke
+uncertainly, as if struggling with some violent hoarseness in his
+throat.
+
+"Tell me why you must go," she said imperiously. Claudius hesitated a
+moment.
+
+"I will tell you one of the principal reasons of my going," he said.
+"You know I came here to take possession of my fortune, and I very
+naturally relied upon doing so. Obviously, if I do not obtain it I
+cannot continue to live in the way I am now doing, on the slender
+resources which have been enough for me until now."
+
+"Et puis?" said the Countess, raising her eyebrows a little.
+
+"Et puis," continued the Doctor, "these legal gentlemen find difficulty
+in persuading themselves that I am myself--that I am really the nephew
+of Gustavus Lindstrand, deceased."
+
+"What nonsense!" exclaimed Margaret. "And so to please them you are
+going away. And who will get your money, pray?"
+
+"I will get it," answered Claudius, "for I will come back as soon as I
+have obtained the necessary proofs of my identity from Heidelberg."
+
+"I never heard of anything so ridiculous," said Margaret hotly. "To go
+all that distance for a few papers. As if we did not all know you! If
+you are not Dr. Claudius, who are you? Why, Mr. Barker went to
+Heidelberg on purpose to find you."
+
+"Nevertheless, Messrs. Screw and Scratch doubt me. Here is their
+letter--the last one. Will you look at it?" and Claudius took an
+envelope from his pocket-book. He was glad to have come over to the
+argumentative tack, for his heart was very sore, and he knew what the
+end must be.
+
+"No." The Countess turned to him for the first time, with an
+indescribable look in her face, between anger and pain. "No, I will not
+read it."
+
+"I wish you would," said Claudius, "you would understand better."
+Something in his voice touched a sympathetic chord.
+
+"I think I understand," said the Countess, looking back at the sea,
+which was growing dim and indistinct before her. "I think you ought to
+go."
+
+The indistinctness of her vision was not due to any defect in her sight.
+The wet fog was rising like a shapeless evil genius out of the sluggish
+sea, rolling heavily across the little bay to the lovers' beach, with
+its swollen arms full of blight and mildew. Margaret shivered at the
+sight of it, and drew the lace thing she wore closer to her throat. But
+she did not rise, or make any sign that she would go.
+
+"What is the other reason for your going?" she asked at length.
+
+"What other reason?"
+
+"You said your inheritance, or the evidence you require in order to
+obtain it, was one of the principal reasons for your going. I suppose
+there is another?"
+
+"Yes, Countess, there is another reason, but I cannot tell you now what
+it is."
+
+"I have no right to ask, of course," said Margaret,--"unless I can help
+you," she added, in her soft, deep voice.
+
+"You have more right than you think, far more right," answered Claudius.
+"And I thank you for the kind thought of help. It is very good of you."
+He turned towards her, and leaned upon his hand as he sat. Still the fog
+rolled up, and the lifeless sea seemed overshed with an unctuous calm.
+They were almost in the dark on their strip of beach, and the moisture
+was already clinging in great, thick drops to their clothes, and to the
+rocks where they sat. Still Claudius looked at Margaret, and Margaret
+looked at the narrow band of oily water still uncovered by the mist.
+
+"When are you going?" she asked slowly, as if hating to meet the answer.
+
+"To-night," said Claudius, still looking earnestly at her. The light was
+gone from her eyes, and the flush had long sunk away to the heart whence
+it had come.
+
+"To-night?" she repeated, a little vaguely.
+
+"Yes," he said, and waited; then after a moment, "Shall you mind when I
+am gone?" He leaned towards her, earnestly looking into her face.
+
+"Yes," said Margaret, "I shall be sorry." Her voice was kind, and very
+gentle. Still she did not look at him. Claudius held out his right hand,
+palm upward, to meet hers.
+
+"Shall you mind much?" he asked earnestly, with intent eyes. She met his
+hand and took it.
+
+"Yes, I shall be very sorry." Claudius slipped from the rock where he
+was sitting, and fell upon one knee before her, kissing the hand she
+gave as though it had been the holy cross. He looked up, his face near
+hers, and at last he met her eyes, burning with a startled light under
+the black brows, contrasting with the white of her forehead, and face,
+and throat. He looked one moment.
+
+"Shall you really mind very much?" he asked a third time, in a strange,
+lost voice. There was no answer, only the wet fog all around, and those
+two beautiful faces ashy pale in the mist, and very near together. One
+instant so--and then--ah, God! they have cast the die at last, for he
+has wound his mighty arms about her, and is passionately kissing the
+marble of her cheek.
+
+"My beloved, my beloved, I love you--with all my heart, and with all my
+soul, and with all my strength"--but she speaks no word, only her arms
+pass his and hang about his neck, and her dark head lies on his breast;
+and could you but see her eyes, you would see also the fair pearls that
+the little god has formed deep down in the ocean of love--the lashes
+thereof are wet with sudden weeping. And all around them the deep, deaf
+fog, thick and muffled as darkness, and yet not dark.
+
+"Ugh!" muttered the evil genius of the sea, "I hate lovers; an' they
+drown not, they shall have a wet wooing." And he came and touched them
+all over with the clamminess of his deathly hand, and breathed upon them
+the thick, cold breath of his damp old soul. But he could do nothing
+against such love as that, and the lovers burned him and laughed him to
+scorn.
+
+She was very silent as she kissed him and laid her head on his breast.
+And he could only repeat what was nearest, the credo of his love, and
+while his arms were about her they were strong, but when he tried to
+take them away, they were as tremulous as the veriest aspen.
+
+The great tidal wave comes rolling in, once in every lifetime that
+deserves to be called a lifetime, and sweeps away every one of our
+landmarks, and changes all our coast-line. But though the waters do not
+subside, yet the crest of them falls rippling away into smoothness after
+the first mad rush, else should we all be but shipwrecked mariners in
+the sea of love. And so, after a time, Margaret drew away from Claudius
+gently, finding his hands with hers as she moved, and holding them.
+
+"Come," said she, "let us go." They were her first words, and Claudius
+thought the deep voice had never sounded so musical before. But the
+words, the word "go," sounded like a knell on his heart. He had
+forgotten that he must sail on the morrow. He had forgotten that it was
+so soon over.
+
+They went away, out of the drizzling fog and the mist, and the evil
+sea-breath, up to the cliff walk and so by the wet lanes homewards, two
+loving, sorrowing hearts, not realising what had come to them, nor
+knowing what should come hereafter, but only big with love fresh spoken,
+and hot with tears half shed.
+
+"Beloved," said Claudius as they stood together for the last time in the
+desolation of the great, dreary, hotel drawing-room--for Claudius was
+going--"beloved, will you promise me something?"
+
+Margaret looked down as she stood with her clasped hands on his arm.
+
+"What is it I should promise you--Claudius?" she asked, half hesitating.
+
+Claudius laid his hand tenderly--tenderly, as giants only can be tender,
+on the thick black hair, as hardly daring, yet loving, to let it linger
+there.
+
+"Will you promise that if you doubt me when I am gone, you will ask of
+the Duke the 'other reason' of my going?"
+
+"I shall not doubt you," answered Margaret, looking proudly up.
+
+"God bless you, my beloved!"--and so he went to sea again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+
+When Mr. Barker, who had followed the party to Newport, called on the
+Countess the following morning, she was not visible, so he was fain to
+content himself with scribbling a very pressing invitation to drive in
+the afternoon, which he sent up with some flowers, not waiting for an
+answer. The fact was that Margaret had sent for the Duke at an early
+hour--for her--and was talking with him on matters of importance at the
+time Barker called. Otherwise she would very likely not have refused to
+see the latter.
+
+"I want you to explain to me what they are trying to do to make Dr.
+Claudius give up his property," said Margaret, who looked pale and
+beautiful in a morning garment of nondescript shape and of white silken
+material. The Duke was sitting by the window, watching a couple of men
+preparing to get into a trim dogcart. To tell the truth, the dogcart and
+the horse were the objects of interest. His Grace was not aware that the
+young men were no less personages than young Mr. Hannibal Q. Sniggins
+and young Mr. Orlando Van Sueindell, both of New York, sons of the
+"great roads." Either of these young gentlemen could have bought out his
+Grace; either of them would have joyfully licked his boots; and either
+of them would have protested, within the sacred precincts of their
+gorgeous club in New York, that he was a conceited ass of an Englishman.
+But his Grace did not know this, or he would certainly have regarded
+them with more interest. He was profoundly indifferent to the character
+of the people with whom he had to do, whether they were catalogued in
+the "book of snobs" or not. It is generally people who are themselves
+snobs who call their intimates by that offensive epithet, attributing to
+them the sin they fall into themselves. The Duke distinguished between
+gentlemen and cads, when it was a question of dining at the same table,
+but in matters of business he believed the distinction of no importance.
+He came to America for business purposes, and he took Americans as he
+found them. He thought they were very good men of business, and when it
+came to associating with them on any other footing, he thought some of
+them were gentlemen and some were not--pretty much as it is everywhere
+else. So he watched the young men getting into their dogcart, and he
+thought the whole turn-out looked "very fit."
+
+"Really," he began, in answer to the Countess's question, "--upon my
+word, I don't know much about it. At least, I suppose not."
+
+"Oh, I thought you did," said Margaret, taking up a book and a
+paper-cutter. "I thought it must be something rather serious, or he
+would not have been obliged to go abroad to get papers about it."
+
+"Well, you know, after all, he--aw--" the Duke reddened--"he--well yes,
+exactly so."
+
+"Yes?" said Margaret interrogatively, expecting something more.
+
+"Exactly," said the Duke, still red, but determined not to say anything.
+He had not promised Claudius not to say he could have vouched for him,
+had the Doctor stayed; but he feared that in telling Margaret this, he
+might be risking the betrayal of Claudius's actual destination. It would
+not do, however.
+
+"I really do not understand just what you said," said Margaret, looking
+at him.
+
+"Ah! well, no. I daresay I did not express myself very clearly. What was
+your question, Countess?"
+
+"I asked who it was who was making so much trouble for the Doctor;" said
+Margaret calmly.
+
+"Oh, I was sure I could not have understood you. It's the executors and
+lawyer people, who are not satisfied about his identity. It's all right,
+though."
+
+"Of course. But could no one here save him the trouble of going all the
+way back to Germany?"
+
+The Duke grew desperate. He was in a corner where he must either tell a
+lie of some sort or let the cat out of the bag. The Duke was a cynical
+and worldly man enough, perhaps, as the times go, but he did not tell
+lies. He plunged.
+
+"My dear Countess," he said, facing towards her and stroking his
+whiskers, "I really know something about Dr. Claudius, and I will tell
+you all I am at liberty to tell; please do not ask me anything else.
+Claudius is really gone to obtain papers from Heidelberg as well as for
+another purpose which I cannot divulge. The papers might have been
+dispensed with, for I could have sworn to him."
+
+"Then the other object is the important one," said the Countess
+pensively. The Duke was silent. "I am greatly obliged to you," Margaret
+continued, "for what you have told me."
+
+"I will tell you what I can do," said the Englishman after a pause,
+during which an unusual expression in his face seemed to betoken
+thought. "I am going to the West for a couple of months to look after
+things, and of course accidents may happen. Claudius may have difficulty
+in getting what he wants, and I am the only man here who knows all about
+him. He satisfied me of his identity. I will, if you like, sign a
+statement vouching for him, and leave it in your hands in case of need.
+It is all I can do."
+
+"In my hands?" exclaimed Margaret, drawing herself up a little. "And why
+in _my_ hands, Duke?" The Duke got very red indeed this time, and
+hesitated. He had put his foot into it through sheer goodness of heart
+and a desire to help everybody.
+
+"Aw--a--the--the fact is, Countess," he got out at last, "the fact is,
+you know, Claudius has not many friends here, and I thought you were one
+of them. My only desire is--a--to serve him."
+
+Margaret had quickly grasped the advantage to Claudius, if such a
+voucher as the Duke offered were kept in pickle as a rod for his
+enemies.
+
+"You are right," said she, "I am a good friend of Dr. Claudius, and I
+will keep the paper in case of need."
+
+The Duke recovered his equanimity.
+
+"Thank you," said he. "I am a very good friend of his, and I thank you
+on his behalf, as I am sure he will himself. There's one of our Foreign
+Office clerks here for his holiday; I will get him to draw up the paper
+as he is an old friend of mine--in fact, some relation, I believe. By
+Jove! there goes Barker." The latter exclamation was caused by the
+sudden appearance of the man he named on the opposite side of the
+avenue, in conversation with the two young gentlemen whom the Duke had
+already noticed as preparing to mount their dogcart.
+
+"Oh," said Margaret indifferently, in response to the exclamation.
+
+"Yes," said the Duke, "it is he. I thought he was in New York."
+
+"No," said the Countess, "he has just called. It was his card they
+brought me just as you came. He wants me to drive with him this
+afternoon."
+
+"Indeed. Shall you go?"
+
+"I think so--yes," said she.
+
+"Very well. I will take my sister with me," said the Duke. "I have got
+something very decent to drive in." Margaret laughed at the implied
+invitation.
+
+"How you take things for granted," said she. "Did you really think I
+would have gone with you?"
+
+"Such things have happened," said the Duke good-humouredly, and went
+away. Not being in the least a ladies' man, he was very apt to make such
+speeches occasionally. He had a habit of taking it for granted that no
+one refused his invitations.
+
+At four o'clock that afternoon Silas B. Barker junior drew up to the
+steps of the hotel in a very gorgeous conveyance, called in America a
+T-cart, and resembling a mail phaeton in build. From the high double box
+Mr. Barker commanded and guided a pair of showy brown horses, harnessed
+in the most approved philanthropic, or rather philozooic style; no
+check-rein, no breeching, no nothing apparently, except a pole and Mr.
+Barker's crest. For Mr. Barker had a crest, since he came from Salem,
+Massachusetts, and the bearings were a witch pendant, gules, on a
+gallows sinister, sable. Behind him sat the regulation clock-work groom,
+brought over at considerable expense from the establishment of Viscount
+Plungham, and who sprang to the ground and took his place at the horses'
+heads as soon as Barker had brought them to a stand. Then Barker,
+arrayed in a new hat, patent-leather boots, a very long frock-coat, and
+a very expensive rose, descended lightly from his chariot and swiftly
+ascended the steps, seeming to tread half on air and half on egg-shells.
+And a few minutes later he again appeared, accompanied by the Countess
+Margaret, looking dark and pale and queenly. A proud man was dandy Silas
+as he helped her to her place, and going to the other side, got in and
+took the ribbands. Many were the glances that shot from the two edges of
+the road at the unknown beauty whom Silas drove by his side, and
+obsequious were the bows of Silas's friends as they passed. Even the
+groggy old man who drives the water-cart on Bellevue Avenue could scarce
+forbear to cheer as she went by.
+
+And so they drove away, side by side. Barker knew very well that
+Claudius had taken his leave the day before, and to tell the truth, he
+was a good deal surprised that Margaret should be willing to accept this
+invitation. He had called to ask her, because he was not the man to let
+the grass grow under his feet at any time, much less when he was laying
+siege to a woman. For with women time is sometimes everything. And being
+of a reasonable mind, when Mr. Barker observed that he was surprised, he
+concluded that there must be some good reason for his astonishment, and
+still more that there must be some very good reason why Margaret should
+accept his first invitation to a _tete-a-tete_ afternoon. From one
+reflection to another, he came at last to the conclusion that she must
+be anxious to learn some details concerning the Doctor's departure, from
+which again he argued that Claudius had not taken her into his
+confidence. The hypothesis that she might be willing to make an effort
+with him for Claudius's justification Mr. Barker dismissed as
+improbable. And he was right. He waited, therefore, for her to broach
+the subject, and confined himself, as they drove along, to remarks about
+the people they passed, the doings of the Newport summer, concerning
+which he had heard all the gossip during the last few hours, the
+prospect of Madame Patti in opera during the coming season, horses,
+dogs, and mutual friends--all the motley array of subjects permissible,
+desultory, and amusing. Suddenly, as they bowled out on an open road by
+the sea, Margaret began.
+
+"Why has Dr. Claudius gone abroad," she asked, glancing at Barker's
+face, which remained impenetrable as ever. Barker changed his hold on
+the reins, and stuck the whip into the bucket by his side before he
+answered.
+
+"They say he has gone to get himself sworn to," he said rather slowly,
+and with a good show of indifference.
+
+"I cannot see why that was necessary," answered Margaret calmly "It
+seems to me we all knew him very well."
+
+"Oh, nobody can understand lawyers," said Barker, and was silent,
+knowing how strong a position silence was, for she could know nothing
+more about Claudius without committing herself to a direct question.
+Barker was in a difficult position. He fully intended later to hint that
+Claudius might never return at all. But he knew too much to do anything
+of the kind at present, when the memory of the Doctor was fresh in the
+Countess's mind, and when, as he guessed, he himself was not too high in
+her favour. He therefore told a bit of the plain truth which could not
+be cast in his teeth afterwards, and was silent.
+
+It was a good move, and Margaret was fain to take to some other subject
+of conversation, lest the pause should seem long. They had not gone far
+before the society kaleidoscope was once more in motion, and Barker was
+talking his best. They rolled along, passing most things on the road,
+and when they came to a bit of hill, he walked his horses, on pretence
+of keeping them cool, but in reality to lengthen the drive and increase
+his advantage, if only by a minute and a hairbreadth. He could see he
+was amusing her, as he drew her away from the thing that made her heavy,
+and sketched, and crayoned, and photographed from memory all manner of
+harmless gossip--he took care that it should be harmless--and such
+book-talk as he could command, with such a general sprinkling of
+sentimentalism, ready made and easy to handle, as American young men
+affect in talking to women.
+
+Making allowance for the customs of the country, they were passing a
+very innocently diverting afternoon; and Margaret, though secretly
+annoyed at finding that Barker would not talk about Claudius, or add in
+any way to her information, was nevertheless congratulating herself upon
+the smooth termination of the interview. She had indeed only accepted
+the invitation in the hope of learning something more about Claudius and
+his "other reason." But she also recognised that, though Barker were
+unwilling to speak of the Doctor, he might have made himself very
+disagreeable by taking advantage of the confession of interest she had
+volunteered in asking so direct a question. But Barker had taken no such
+lead, and never referred to Claudius in all the ramblings of his polite
+conversation.
+
+He was in the midst of a description of Mrs. Orlando Van Sueindell's
+last dinner-party, which he had unfortunately missed, when his browns,
+less peaceably disposed than most of the lazy bean-fed cattle one sees
+on the Newport avenue, took it into their heads that it would be a
+joyous thing to canter down a steep place into the sea. The road turned,
+with a sudden dip, across a little neck of land separating the bay from
+the harbour, and the descent was, for a few yards, very abrupt. At this
+point, then, the intelligent animals conceived the ingenious scheme of
+bolting, with that eccentricity of device which seems to characterise
+overfed carriage-horses. In an instant they were off, and it was clear
+there would be no stopping them--from a trot to a break, from
+a canter to a gallop, from a gallop to a tearing, breakneck,
+leave-your-bones-behind-you race, all in a moment, down to the sea.
+
+Barker was not afraid, and he did what he could. He was not a strong
+man, and he knew himself no match for the two horses, but he hoped by a
+sudden effort, repeated once or twice, to scare the runaways into a
+standstill, as is sometimes possible. Acting immediately on his
+determination, as he always did, he wound one hand in each rein, and
+half rising from his high seat, jerked with all his might. Margaret held
+her breath.
+
+But alas for the rarity of strength in saddlers' work! The off-rein
+snapped away like a thread just where the buckle leads half of it over
+to the near horse, and the strain on the right hand being thus suddenly
+removed, the horses' heads were jerked violently to the left, and they
+became wholly unmanageable. Barker was silent, and instantly dropped the
+unbroken rein. As for Margaret, she sat quite still, holding to the low
+rail-back of her seat, and preparing for a jump. They were by this time
+nearly at the bottom of the descent, and rapidly approaching a corner
+where a great heap of rocks made the prospect hideous. To haul the
+horses over to the left would have been destruction, as the ground fell
+away on that side to a considerable depth down to the rocks below. Then
+Barker did a brave thing.
+
+"If I miss him, jump off to the right," he cried; and in a moment,
+before Margaret could answer or prevent him, he had got over the
+dashboard, and was in mid-air, a strange figure, in his long frock-coat
+and shiny hat. With a bold leap--and the Countess shivered as she saw
+him flying in front of her--he alighted on the back of the off horse,
+almost on his face, but well across the beast for all that. Light and
+wiry, a mere bundle of nerves dressed up, Mr. Barker was not to be
+shaken off, and, while the animal was still plunging, he had caught the
+flying bits of bridle, and was sawing away, right and left, with the
+energy of despair. Between its terror at being suddenly mounted by some
+one out of a clear sky, so to say, and the violent wrenching it was
+getting from Barker's bony little hands, the beast decided to stop at
+last, and its companion, who was coming in for some of the pulling too,
+stopped by sympathy, with a series of snorts and plunges. Barker still
+clung to the broken rein, leaning far over the horse's neck so as to
+wind it round his wrist; and he shouted to Margaret to get out, which
+she immediately did; but, instead of fainting away, she came to the
+horses' heads and stood before them, a commanding figure that even a
+dumb animal would not dare to slight--too much excited to speak yet, but
+ready to face anything.
+
+A few moments later the groom, whose existence they had both forgotten,
+came running down to them, with a red face, and dusting his battered hat
+on his arm as he came. He had quietly slipped off behind, and had been
+rolled head over heels for his pains, but had suffered no injury. Then
+Barker got off. He was covered with dust, but his hat was still on his
+head, and he did not look as though he had been jumping for his life.
+Margaret turned to him with genuine gratitude and admiration, for he had
+borne himself as few men could or would have done.
+
+"You have saved my life," she said, "and I am very grateful. It was very
+brave of you." And she held out her hand to meet his, now trembling
+violently from the fierce strain.
+
+"Oh, not at all; it was really nothing," he said, bowing low. But the
+deep wrinkle that scored Barker's successes in life showed plainly round
+his mouth. He knew what his advantage was, and he had no thought of the
+danger when he reflected on what he had gained. Not he! His heart, or
+the organ which served him in place of one, was full of triumph. Had he
+planned the whole thing with the utmost skill and foresight he could not
+have succeeded better. Such a victory! and the very first day after
+Claudius's departure--Ye gods! what luck!
+
+And so it came to pass that by the time the harness had been tied
+together and the conveyance got without accident as far as the first
+stable on the outskirts of the town, where it was left with the groom,
+Barker had received a goodly meed of thanks and praise. And when
+Margaret proposed that they should walk as far as the hotel, Barker
+tried a few steps and found he was too lame for such exercise, his left
+leg having been badly bruised by the pole of the carriage in his late
+exploit; which injury elicited a further show of sympathy from
+Margaret. And when at last he left her with a cab at the door of her
+hotel, he protested that he had enjoyed a very delightful drive, and
+went away in high spirits. Margaret, in her gratitude for such an
+escape, and in unfeigned admiration of Barker's daring and coolness, was
+certainly inclined to think better of him than she had done for a long
+time. Or perhaps it would be truer to say that he was more in her
+thoughts than he had been; for, in the reign of Claudius, Barker had
+dwindled to a nearly insignificant speck in the landscape, dwarfed away
+to nothing by the larger mould and stronger character of the Swede.
+
+Margaret saw the Duke in the evening. He gave her a document, unsealed,
+in a huge envelope, bidding her keep it in a safe place, for the use of
+their mutual friend, in case he should need it. She said she would give
+it to Claudius when he came back; and then she told the Duke about her
+drive with Barker and the accident. The Duke looked grave.
+
+"Of course," he said, "I introduced Barker to you, and it would seem
+very odd if I were to warn you against him now. All the same, Countess,
+I have had the honour of being your friend for some time, and I must say
+I have sometimes regretted that I brought him to your house." He
+reddened a little after he had spoken, fearing she might have
+misunderstood him. "I wish," he added, to make things clearer, "that I
+could have brought you Claudius without Barker." Then he reddened still
+more, and wished he had said nothing. Margaret raised her eyebrows.
+Perhaps she could have wished as much herself, but she dropped the
+subject.
+
+"When are you coming back from the West, Duke," she asked, busying
+herself in arranging some books on her table. The hotel sitting-room was
+so deadly dreary to the eye that she was trying to make it look as if it
+had not been lately used as a place of burial.
+
+"It may be two months before I am here again. A--about the time Claudius
+comes over, I should think."
+
+"And when do you go?"
+
+"Next week, I think."
+
+"I wish you were going to stay," said Margaret simply, "or Lady
+Victoria. I shall be so lonely."
+
+"You will have Miss Skeat," suggested his Grace.
+
+"Oh, it's not that," said she. "I shall not be alone altogether, for
+there is poor Nicholas, you know. I must take care of him; and then I
+suppose some of these people will want to amuse me, or entertain me--not
+that they are very entertaining; but they mean well. Besides, my being
+mixed up in a Nihilist persecution adds to my social value." The Duke,
+however, was not listening, his mind being full of other things--what
+there was of it, and his heart had long determined to sympathise with
+Margaret in her troubles; so there was nothing more to be said.
+
+"Dear me," thought Miss Skeat, "what a pity! They say she might have had
+the Duke when she was a mere child--and to think that she should have
+refused him! So admirably suited to each other!" But Miss Skeat, as she
+sat at the other end of the room trying to find "what it was that people
+saw so funny" in the _Tramp Abroad_, was mistaken about her patroness
+and the very high and mighty personage from the aristocracy. The Duke
+was much older than Margaret, and had been married before he had ever
+seen her. It was only because they were such good friends that the
+busybodies said they had just missed being man and wife.
+
+But when the Duke was gone, Margaret and Miss Skeat were left alone, and
+they drew near each other and sat by the table, the elder lady reading
+aloud from a very modern novel. The Countess paid little attention to
+what she heard, for she was weary, and it seemed as though the evening
+would never end. Miss Skeat's even and somewhat monotonous voice
+produced no sensation of drowsiness to-night, as it often did, though
+Margaret's eyes were half-closed and her fingers idle. She needed rest,
+but it would not come, and still her brain went whirling through the
+scenes of the past twenty-four hours, again and again recurring to the
+question "Why is he gone?" unanswered and yet ever repeated, as the
+dreadful wake-song of the wild Irish, the "Why did he die?" that haunts
+the ear that has once heard it for weeks afterwards.
+
+She tried to reason, but there was no reason. Why, why, why? He was gone
+with her kiss on his lips and her breath in his. She should have waited
+till he came back from over the sea before giving him what was so very
+precious. More than once, as she repeated the words he had spoken at
+parting, she asked herself whether she doubted him after all, and
+whether it would not be wiser to speak to the Duke. But then, the latter
+so evidently believed in Claudius that it comforted her to think of his
+honest faith, and she would dismiss every doubt again as vain and
+wearying. But still the eternal question rang loudly in her soul's ears,
+and the din of the inquisitive devil that would not be satisfied
+deafened her so that she could not hear Miss Skeat. Once or twice she
+moved her head nervously from side to side, as it rested on the back of
+the chair, and her face was drawn and pale, so that Miss Skeat
+anxiously asked whether she were in any pain, but Margaret merely
+motioned to her companion to continue reading, and was silent. But Miss
+Skeat grew uneasy, feeling sure that something was the matter.
+
+"Dear Countess," she said, "will you not retire to rest? I fear that
+this horrid accident has shaken you. Do go to bed, and I will come and
+read you to sleep." Her voice sounded kindly, and Margaret's fingers
+stole out till they covered Miss Skeat's bony white ones, with the green
+veins and the yellowish lights between the knuckles.
+
+Miss Skeat, at this unusual manifestation of feeling, laid down the book
+she held in her other hand, and settled her gold-rimmed glasses over her
+long nose. Then her eyes beamed across at Margaret, and a kindly,
+old-fashioned smile came into her face that was good to see, and as she
+pressed the hot young hand in hers there was a suspicion of motherliness
+in her expression that would have surprised a stranger. For Miss Skeat
+did not look motherly at ordinary times.
+
+"Poor child!" said she softly. Margaret's other hand went to her eyes
+and hid them from sight, and her head sank forward until it touched her
+fingers, where they joined Miss Skeat's.
+
+"I am so unhappy to-night," murmured Margaret, finding at last, in the
+evening hours, the sympathy she had longed for all day. Miss Skeat
+changed her own position a little so as to be nearer to her.
+
+"Poor child!" repeated Miss Skeat almost in a whisper, as she bent down
+to the regal head that lay against her hand, smoothing the thick hair
+with her worn fingers. "Poor child, do you love him so very dearly?" She
+spoke almost inaudibly, and her wrinkled eyelids were wet. But low as
+was her voice, Margaret heard, and moved her head in assent, without
+lifting it from the table.
+
+Ah yes--she loved him very, very much. But she could not bear to confess
+it, for all that, and a moment afterwards she was sitting upright again
+in her chair, feeling that she had weathered the first storm. Her
+companion, who was not ignorant of her ways, contented herself then with
+patting Margaret's hand caressingly during the instant it remained in
+her own, before it was drawn away. There was a world of kindness and of
+gentle humanity in the gaunt gentlewoman's manner, showing that the
+heart within was not withered yet. Then Miss Skeat flattened the book
+before her with the paper-cutter, and began to read. Reading aloud had
+become to her a second nature, and whether she had liked it or not at
+first, she had learned to do it with perfect ease and indifference,
+neither letting her voice drag languidly and hesitatingly when she was
+tired, nor falling into that nerve-rending fault of readers who vainly
+endeavour to personate the characters in dialogue, and to give
+impressiveness in the descriptive portions. She never made a remark, or
+asked her hearer's opinion. If the Countess was in the humour to sleep,
+the reading was soporific; if she desired to listen, she felt that her
+companion was not trying to bias her judgment by the introduction of
+dramatic intonation and effect. With an even, untiring correctness of
+utterance, Miss Skeat read one book just as she read another--M. Thiers
+or Mr. Henry James, Mark Twain or a Parliamentary Report--it was all one
+to her. Poor Miss Skeat!
+
+But to Margaret the evening seemed long and the night longer, and many
+days and evenings and nights afterwards. Not that she doubted, but that
+she thought--well--perhaps she thought she ought to doubt. Some cunning
+reader of face and character, laughing and making love by turns, had
+once told her she had more heart than head. Every woman knows she ought
+to seem flattered at being considered a "person of heart," and yet every
+woman cordially hates to be told so. And, at last, Margaret began to
+wonder whether it were true. Should she have admitted she loved a man
+who left her a moment afterwards in order to make a voyage of two months
+for the mere furthering of his worldly interest? But then--he told her
+he was going before he kissed her. What could be the "other reason"?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+
+It is not to be supposed that a man of Barker's character would neglect
+the signal advantage he had gained in being injured, or at least badly
+bruised, while attempting to save Margaret from destruction. That he had
+really saved her was a less point in his favour than that he had barked
+his shins in so doing. The proverbial relationship between pity and love
+is so exceedingly well known that many professional love-makers
+systematically begin their campaigns by endeavouring to move the
+compassion of the woman they are attacking. Occasionally they find a
+woman with whom pity is akin to scorn instead of to love--and then their
+policy is a failure.
+
+The dark Countess was no soft-hearted Saxon maiden, any more than she
+was a cold-blooded, cut-throat American girl, calculating her romance by
+the yard, booking her flirtations by double-entry and marrying at
+compound interest, with the head of a railway president and the heart of
+an Esquimaux. She was rather one of those women who are ever ready to
+sympathise from a naturally generous and noble nature, but who rarely
+give their friendship and still more seldom their love. They marry,
+sometimes, where there is neither. They marry--ye gods! why do people
+marry, and what reasons will they not find for marrying? But such
+women, if they are wedded where their heart is not, are generally very
+young; far too young to know what they are doing; and though there be
+little inclination to the step, it always turns out that they had at
+least a respect for the man. Margaret had been married to Count Alexis
+because it was in every way such a plausible match, and she was only
+eighteen then, poor thing. But Alexis was such an uncommonly good fellow
+that she had honestly tried to love him, and had not altogether failed.
+At least she had never had any domestic troubles, and when he was shot
+at Plevna, in 1876, she shed some very genuine tears and shut herself
+away from the world for a long time. But though her sorrow was sincere,
+it was not profound, and she knew it from the first, never deceiving
+herself with the idea that she could not marry again. She had sustained
+many a siege, however, both before her husband's untimely death and
+since; and though a stranger to love, she was no novice in love-making.
+Indeed few women are; certainly no beautiful women.
+
+Margaret, then, though a pure-hearted and brave lady, was of the world,
+understanding the wiles thereof; and so, when Mr. Barker began to come
+regularly to see her, and when she noticed how very long the slight
+lameness he had incurred from the runaway accident seemed to last, and
+when she observed how cunningly he endeavoured to excite her sympathy
+towards him, she began to suspect that he meant something more than a
+mere diversion for himself. He spoke so feelingly of his lonely position
+in the world; to accentuate which, he spoke of his father without any
+feeling whatever. He represented himself as so drearily lonely and
+friendless in this hard-hearted, thorny world. Quite a little lamb was
+Silas, leaving shreds of his pure white wool rent off and clinging to
+the briars of his solitary life-journey. He was very patient in his
+sufferings, he said, for he so keenly felt that coarser natures could
+not suffer as he did; that troubles glided from their backs like water
+from the feathers of the draggled but happy goose, whereas on his tender
+heart they struck deep like a fiery rain. Was it not Danty who told of
+those poor people who were exposed to the molten drizzle? Ah yes! Danty
+knew, of course, for he had been a great sufferer. What a beautiful, yet
+sad, word is that, "to suffer"! How gentle and lovely to suffer without
+complaint! Had the Countess ever thought of it? To suffer silently--and
+long--(here Silas cast a love-sick glance out of his small dark
+eyes)--with the hope of gaining an object infinitely far removed,
+but--(another glance)--infinitely beautiful and worth obtaining. Oh!
+Silas would suffer for ever in such a hope! There was nothing Silas
+would not do that was saintly that he might gain heaven.
+
+After a time, Margaret, who disliked this kind of talk intensely, began
+to look grave, an omen which Barker did not fail to interpret to his
+advantage, for it is a step gained when a woman begins to be serious.
+Only a man ignorant of Margaret's real character, and incapable of
+appreciating it, could have been so deceived in this case. She had felt
+strongly that Barker had saved her life, and that he had acted with a
+boldness and determination on that occasion which would have merited her
+admiration even had it not commanded her gratitude. But she was really
+grateful, and, wishing to show it, could devise no better plan than to
+receive his visits and to listen politely to his conversation.
+
+One day, late in the afternoon, they were sitting together over a cup of
+tea, and Barker was pouring out his experiences, or what he was pleased
+to call by that name, for they were not genuine. Not that his own
+existence would have been a dull or uninteresting chapter for a rainy
+afternoon, for Barker had led a stirring life of its kind. But as it was
+necessary to strike the pathetic key, seeing that Claudius had the
+heroic symphony to himself, Barker embroidered skilfully a little
+picture in which he appeared more sinned against than sinning, inasmuch
+as he had been called upon to play the avenging angel. He had succeeded,
+he admitted, in accomplishing his object, which in his opinion had been
+a justifiable one, but it had left a sore place in his heart, and he had
+never quite recovered from the pain it had given him to give so much
+pain--wholesome pain indeed, but what of that?--to another.
+
+"It was in New York, some years ago," he said. "A friend of mine, such a
+dear good fellow, was very much in love with a reigning beauty, a
+Miss--; well, you will guess the name. She threw him over, after a three
+months' engagement, in the most heartless manner, and he was so
+broken-hearted that he drank himself to death in six months at the club.
+He died there one winter's evening under very painful circumstances."
+
+"A noble end," said Margaret, scornfully. "What a proud race we
+Americans are!" Barker sighed skilfully and looked reproachfully at
+Margaret.
+
+"Poor chap!" he ejaculated, "I saw him die. And that night," continued
+Mr. Barker, with a mournful impressiveness, "I determined that the woman
+who had caused so much unhappiness should be made to know what
+unhappiness is. I made up my mind that she should suffer what my friend
+had suffered. I knew her very well,--in fact she was a distant
+connection; so I went to her at a ball at the Van Sueindells'. I had
+engaged her to dance the German[2], and had sent her some very handsome
+roses. I had laid my plan already, and after a little chaff and a few
+turns I challenged her to a set flirtation. 'Let us swear,' I said, 'to
+be honest, and let us make a bet of a dozen pairs of gloves. If one of
+us really falls in love, he or she must acknowledge it and pay the
+gloves.' It was agreed, for she was in great spirits that night, and
+laughed at the idea that she could ever fall in love with _me_--poor me!
+who have so little that is attractive. At first she thought it was only
+a joke, but as I began to visit her regularly and to go through all the
+formalities of love-making, she became interested. We were soon the talk
+of the town, and everybody said we were going to be married. Still the
+engagement did not come out, and people waited, open-mouthed, wondering
+what next. At last I thought I was safe, and so, the first chance I had
+at a party in Newport, I made a dead set at a new beauty just arrived
+from the South--I forget where. The other--the one with whom I was
+betting--was there, and I watched her. She lost her temper completely,
+and turned all sorts of colours. Then I knew I had won, and so I went
+back to her and talked to her for the rest of the evening, explaining
+that the other young lady was a sister of a very dear friend of mine.
+
+[Footnote 2: American for the _cotillon_.]
+
+"The next day I called on my beauty, and throwing myself at her feet, I
+declared myself vanquished. The result was just as I expected. She burst
+into tears and put her arms round my neck, and said it was she who
+lost, for she really loved me though she had been too proud to
+acknowledge it. Then I calmly rose and laughed. 'I do not care for you
+in the least,' I said; 'I only said so to make you speak. I have won the
+gloves.' She broke down completely, and went abroad a few days
+afterwards. And so I avenged my friend."
+
+There was a pause when Barker had finished his tale. He sipped his tea,
+and Margaret rose slowly and went to the window.
+
+"Don't you think that is a very good story, Countess?" he asked. "Don't
+you think I was quite right?" Still no answer. Margaret rang the bell,
+and old Vladimir appeared.
+
+"Mr. Barker's carriage," said she; then, recollecting herself, she
+repeated the order in Russian, and swept out of the room without
+deigning to look at the astonished young man, standing on the hearthrug
+with his tea-cup in his hand. How it is that Vladimir succeeds in
+interpreting his mistress's orders to the domestics of the various
+countries in which she travels is a mystery not fathomed, for in her
+presence he understands only the Slav tongue. But however that may be, a
+minute had not elapsed before Mr. Barker was informed by another servant
+that his carriage was at the door. He turned pale as he descended the
+steps.
+
+You have carried it too far, Mr. Barker. That is not the kind of story
+that a lady of Countess Margaret's temper will listen to; for when you
+did the thing you have told her--if indeed you ever did it, which is
+doubtful--you did a very base and unmanly thing. It may not be very nice
+to act as that young lady did to your friend; but then, just think how
+very much worse it would have been if she had married him from a sense
+of duty, and made him feel it afterwards. Worse? Ay, worse than a
+hundred deaths. You are an ass, Barker, with your complicated
+calculations, as the Duke has often told you; and now it is a thousand
+to one that you have ruined yourself with the Countess. She will never
+take your view that it was a justifiable piece of revenge; she will only
+see in it a cruel and dastardly deception, practised on a woman whose
+only fault was that, not loving, she discovered her mistake in time. A
+man should rejoice when a woman draws back from an engagement,
+reflecting what his life might have been had she not done so.
+
+But Barker's face was sickly with disappointment as he drove away, and
+he could hardly collect himself enough to determine what was best to be
+done. However, after a time he came to the conclusion that a letter must
+be written of humble apology, accompanied by a few very expensive
+flowers, and followed after a week's interval by a visit. She could not
+mean to break off all acquaintance with him for so slight a cause. She
+would relent and see him again, and then he would put over on the other
+tack. He had made a mistake--very naturally, too--because she was always
+so reluctant to give her own individual views about anything. A mistake
+could be repaired, he thought, without any serious difficulty.
+
+And so the next morning Margaret received some flowers and a note, a
+very gentlemanly note, expressive of profound regret that anything he
+could have said, and so forth, and so forth. And Margaret, whose strong
+temper sometimes made her act hastily, even when acting rightly, said to
+herself that she had maltreated the poor little beast, and would see him
+if he called again. That was how she expressed it, showing that to some
+extent Barker had succeeded in producing a feeling of pity in her
+mind--though it was a very different sort of pity from what he would
+have wished. Meanwhile Margaret returned to New York, where she saw her
+brother-in-law occasionally, and comforted him with the assurance that
+when his hundred napoleons were at an end, she would take care of him.
+And Nicholas, who was a gentleman, like his dead brother, proud and
+fierce, lived economically in a small hotel, and wrote magazine articles
+describing the state of his unhappy country.
+
+Then Barker called and was admitted, Miss Skeat being present, and his
+face expressed a whole volume of apology, while he talked briskly of
+current topics; and so he gradually regained the footing he had lost. At
+all events he thought so, not knowing that though Margaret might forgive
+she could never forget; and that she was now forewarned and forearmed in
+perpetuity against any advance Barker might ever make.
+
+One day the mail brought a large envelope with an English postage stamp,
+addressed in a strong, masculine hand, even and regular, and utterly
+without adornment, but yet of a strikingly peculiar expression, if a
+handwriting may be said to have an expression.
+
+     "CUNARD S.S. _Servia, Sept. 15th_.
+
+     "My Beloved Lady--Were it not for the possibility of writing to
+     you, this voyage would be an impossible task to me; and even as it
+     is, the feeling that what I write must travel away from you for
+     many days before it travels towards you again makes me half suspect
+     it is a mockery after all. After these wonderful months of converse
+     it seems incredible that I should be thus taken out of your hearing
+     and out of the power of seeing you. That I long for a sight of
+     your dear face, that I hunger for your touch and for your sweet
+     voice, I need not tell you or further asseverate. I am constantly
+     looking curiously at the passengers, vainly thinking that you must
+     appear among them. The sea without you is not the sea, any more
+     than heaven would be heaven were you not there.
+
+     "I cannot describe to you, my dear lady, how detestable the life on
+     board is to me. I loathe the people with their inane chatter, and
+     the idiotic children, and the highly-correct and gentlemanly
+     captain, all equally. The philistine father, the sea-sick mother,
+     the highly-cultured daughter, and the pipe-smoking son, are equally
+     objects of disgust. When I go on deck the little children make a
+     circle round me, because I am so big, and the sailors will not let
+     me go on to forecastle under three shillings--which I paid
+     cheerfully, however, because I can be alone there and think of you,
+     without being contemplated as an object of wonder by about two
+     hundred idiots. I have managed to rig a sort of table in my cabin
+     at last, and here I sit, under the dubious light of the port-hole,
+     wishing it would blow, or that we might meet an iceberg, or
+     anything, to scare the people into their dens and leave me a little
+     open-air solitude.
+
+     "It seems so strange to be writing to you. I never wrote anything
+     but little notes in the old days at Baden, and now I am writing
+     what promises to be a long letter, for we cannot be in under six
+     days, and in all that time there is nothing else I can do--nothing
+     else I would do, if I could. And yet it is so different. Perhaps I
+     am incoherent, and you will say, different from what? It is
+     different from what it used to be, before that thrice-blessed
+     afternoon in the Newport fog.
+
+     "The gray mist came down like a curtain, shutting off the past and
+     marking where the present begins. It seems to me that I never lived
+     before that moment, and yet those months were happy while they
+     lasted, so that it sometimes seemed as though no greater happiness
+     could be possible. How did it all happen, most blessed lady?
+
+     "The lazy, good-natured sea, that loves us well, washes up and
+     glances through my port-hole as I write, as if in answer to my
+     question. The sea knows how it happened, for he saw us, and bore
+     us, and heard all the tale; and even in Newport he was there,
+     hidden under the fog and listening, and he is rejoicing that those
+     who loved are now lovers. It is not hard to see how it happened.
+     They all worship you, every human being that comes near you falls
+     down and acknowledges you to be the queen. For they must. There is
+     no salvation from that, and it is meet and right that it should be
+     so. And I came, like the others, to do homage to the great queen,
+     and you deigned to raise me up and bid me stand beside you.
+
+     "You are my first allegiance and my first love. I thank Heaven that
+     I can say it honestly and truly, without fear of my conscience
+     pricking. You know too, for I have told you, how my boyhood and
+     manhood have been passed, and if there is anything you do not know
+     I will tell you hereafter, for I would always hate to feel that
+     there was anything about me you did not know--I could not feel it.
+     But then, say you, he should have told me what he was going to do
+     abroad. And so I have, dear lady; for though I have not explained
+     it all to you, I have placed all needful knowledge in safe hands,
+     where you can obtain it for the asking, if ever the least shadow of
+     doubt should cross your mind. Only I pray you, as suing a great
+     boon, not to doubt--that is all, for I would rather you did not
+     know yet.
+
+     "This letter is being written by degrees. I have not written all
+     this at once, for I find it as hard to express my thoughts to you
+     on paper as I find it easy by word of mouth. It seems a formal
+     thing to write, and yet there should be nothing less marred by
+     formality than such a letter as mine. It is only that the choice is
+     too great. I have too much to say, and so say nothing. I would ask,
+     if I were so honoured by Heaven, the tongues of men and of angels,
+     and all the mighty word-music of sage and prophet, that I might
+     tell you how I love you, my heart's own. I would ask that for one
+     hour I might hold in my hand the baton of heaven's choir. Then
+     would I lead those celestial musicians through such a grand plain
+     chant as time has never dreamt of, nor has eternity yet heard it;
+     so that rank on rank of angels and saints should take up the song,
+     until the arches of the outer firmament rang again, and the stars
+     chimed together; and all the untold hierarchy of archangelic voice
+     and heavenly instrument should cry, as with one soul, the
+     confession of this heart of mine--'I love.'
+
+     "Another day has passed, and I think I have heard in my dreams the
+     bursts of music that I would fain have wafted to your waking ears.
+     Verily the lawyers in New York say well, that I am not Claudius.
+     Claudius was a thing of angles and books, mathematical and earthy,
+     believing indeed in the greatness of things supernal, but not
+     having tasted thereof. My beloved, God has given me a new soul to
+     love you with, so great that it seems as though it would break
+     through the walls of my heart and cry aloud to you. This new
+     Claudius is a man of infinite power to rise above earthly things,
+     above everything that is below you--and what things that are in
+     earth are not below you, lady mine?
+
+     "Again the time has passed, in a dull reluctant fashion, as if he
+     delighted to torment, like the common bore of society. He lingers
+     and dawdles through his round of hours as though it joyed him to be
+     sluggish. It has blown a little, and most of the people are
+     sea-sick. Thank goodness! I suppose that is a very inhuman
+     sentiment, but the masses of cheerful humanity, gluttonously
+     fattening on the ship's fare and the smooth sea, were becoming
+     intolerable. There is not one person on board who looks as though
+     he or she had left a human being behind who had any claim to be
+     regretted. Did any one of these people ever love? I suppose so. I
+     suppose at one time or another most of them have thought they loved
+     some one. I will not be uncharitable, for they are receiving their
+     just punishment. Lovers are never sea-sick, but now a hoarse
+     chorus, indescribable and hideous, rises from hidden recesses of
+     the ship. They are not in love, they are sea-sick. May it do them
+     all possible good!
+
+     "Here we are at last. I hasten to finish this rambling letter that
+     it may catch the steamer, which, I am told, leaves to-day. Nine
+     days we have been at sea, and the general impression seems to be
+     that the last part of the passage has been rough. And now I shall
+     be some weeks in Europe--I cannot tell how long, but I think the
+     least possible will be three weeks, and the longest six. I shall
+     know, however, in a fortnight. My beloved, it hurts me to stop
+     writing--unreasonable animal that I am, for a letter must be
+     finished in order to be posted. I pray you, sweetheart, write me a
+     word of comfort and strength in my journeying. Anything sent to
+     Baring's will reach me; you cannot know what a line from you would
+     be to me, how I would treasure it as the most sacred of things and
+     the most precious, until we meet. And so, a bientot, for we must
+     never say 'goodbye,' even in jest. I feel as though I were
+     launching this letter at a venture, as sailors throw a bottle
+     overboard when they fear they are lost. I have not yet tested the
+     post-office, and I feel a kind of uncertainty as to whether this
+     will reach you.
+
+     "But they are clamouring at my door, and I must go. Once more, my
+     own queen, I love you, ever and only and always. May all peace and
+     rest be with you, and may Heaven keep you from all harm!"
+
+This letter was not signed, for what signature could it possibly need?
+Margaret read it, and read it again, wondering--for she had never had
+such a letter in her life. The men who had made love to her had never
+been privileged to speak plainly, for she would have none of them, and
+so they had been obliged to confine themselves to such cunning use of
+permissible words and phrases as they could command, together with
+copious quotations from more or less erotic poets. Moreover, Claudius
+had never been in a position to speak his heart's fill to her until that
+last day, when words had played so small a part.
+
+It was a love-letter, at least in part, such as a man might have written
+a hundred years ago--not such as men write nowadays, thought Margaret;
+certainly not such as Mr. Barker would write--or could. But she was glad
+he had written; and written so, for it was like him, who was utterly
+unlike any one else. The letter had come in the morning while Clementine
+was dressing her, and she laid it on her writing-desk. But when the
+maid was gone, she read it once again, sitting by her window, and when
+she had done she unconsciously held it in her hand and rested her cheek
+against it. A man kisses a letter received from the woman he loves, but
+a woman rarely does. She thinks when he is away that she would hardly
+kiss _him_, were he present, much less will she so honour his
+handwriting. But when he himself comes the colour of things is changed.
+Nevertheless, Margaret put the folded letter in her bosom and wore it
+there unseen all through that day; and when Mr. Barker came to offer to
+take her to drive she said she would not go, making some libellous
+remark about the weather, which was exceeding glad and sunshiny in spite
+of her refusal to face it. And Mr. Barker, seeing that he was less
+welcome than usual, went away, for he was mortally afraid of annoying
+her.
+
+Margaret was debating within herself whether she should answer, and if
+so, what she should say. In truth, it was not easy. She felt herself
+unable to write in the way he did, had she wished to. Besides, there was
+that feminine feeling still lurking in her heart, which said, "Do not
+trust him till he comes back." It seemed to her it must be so easy to
+write like that--and yet, she had not thought so at the first reading.
+But she loved him, not yet as she would some day, but still she loved,
+and it was her first love, as it was his.
+
+She had settled herself in the hotel for the present, and to make it
+more like home--like her pretty home at Baden--she had ordered a few
+plants and growing flowers, very simple and inexpensive, for she felt
+herself terribly pinched, although she had not yet begun actually to
+feel the restrictions laid on her by her financial troubles. When
+Barker was gone, she amused herself with picking off the dried leaves
+and brushing away the little cobwebs and spiders that always accumulate
+about growing things. In the midst of this occupation she made up her
+mind, and rang the bell.
+
+"Vladimir, I am not at home," she said solemnly, and the gray-haired,
+gray-whiskered functionary bowed in acknowledgment of the fact, which
+was far from evident. When he was gone she sat down to her desk and
+wrote to Dr. Claudius. She wrote rapidly in her large hand, and before
+long she had covered four pages of notepaper. Then she read it over, and
+tore it up. The word "dear" occurred once too often for her taste. Again
+the white fingers flew rapidly along the page, but soon she stopped.
+
+"That is too utterly frigid," she said half aloud, with a smile. Then
+she tried again.
+
+     "DEAR DR. CLAUDIUS--So many thanks for your charming letter, which
+     I received this morning. Tell me a great deal more, please, and
+     write _at once_. Tell me everything you do and say and see, for I
+     want to feel just as though you were here to talk everything over.
+
+     "Mr. Barker has been here a good deal lately, and the other day he
+     told me a story I did not like. But I forgave him, for he seemed so
+     penitent. Please burn my letters.
+
+     "It is very cold and disagreeable, and I really half wish I were in
+     Europe. Europe is much pleasanter. I have not read a word of
+     Spencer since you left, but I have thought a great deal about what
+     you said the last time we did any work together.
+
+     "Let me know _positively_ when you are coming back, and let it be
+     as soon as possible, for I must see you. I am going to see
+     Salvini, in _Othello_, to-night, with Miss Skeat. He sent me a box,
+     in memory of a little dinner years ago, and I expect him to call.
+     He _did_ call, but I could not see him.
+
+     "I cannot write any more, for it is dinner-time. Thanks, dear, for
+     your loving letter. It was sweet of you to post it the same day,
+     for it caught the steamer.
+
+     --In tearing haste, yours, M.
+
+     "_P.S._--Answer all my questions, please."
+
+There was an indistinctness about the last word; it might have been
+"your," or "yours." The "tearing haste" resolved itself into ringing the
+bell to know what time it was, for Margaret had banished the hideous
+hotel clock from the room. On finding it was yet early, she sat down in
+a deep chair, and warmed her toes at the small wood fire, which was just
+enough to be enjoyable and not enough to be hot. It was now the
+beginning of October, for Claudius's letter, begun on the 15th of
+September, had not been posted until the 21st, and had been a long time
+on the way. She wondered when he would get the letter she had just
+written. It was not much of a letter, but she remembered the last
+paragraph, and thought it was quite affectionate enough. As for
+Claudius, when he received it he was as much delighted as though it had
+been six times as long and a hundred times more expansive. "Thanks,
+dear, for your loving letter,"--that phrase alone acknowledged
+everything, accepted everything, and sanctioned everything.
+
+In the evening, as she had said in writing to the Doctor, she went with
+Miss Skeat and sat in the front box of the theatre, which the great
+actor had placed at her disposal. The play was _Othello_. Mr. Barker had
+ascertained that she was going, and had accordingly procured himself a
+seat in the front of the orchestra. He endeavoured to catch a look from
+Margaret all through the first part of the performance, but she was too
+entirely absorbed in the tragedy to notice him. At length, in the
+interval before the last act, Mr. Barker took courage, and, leaving his
+chair, threaded his way out of the lines of seats to the entrance. Then
+he presented himself at the door of the Countess's box.
+
+"May I come in for a little while?" he inquired with an affectation of
+doubt and delicacy that was unnatural to him.
+
+"Certainly," said Margaret indifferently, but smiling a little withal.
+
+"I have ventured to bring you some _marrons glaces_," said Barker, when
+he was seated, producing at the same time a neat _bonbonniere_ in the
+shape of a turban. "I thought they would remind you of Baden. You used
+to be very fond of them."
+
+"Thanks," said she, "I am still." And she took one. The curtain rose,
+and Barker was obliged to be silent, much against his will. Margaret
+immediately became absorbed in the doings on the stage. She had
+witnessed that terrible last act twenty times before, but she never
+wearied of it. Neither would she have consented to see it acted by any
+other than the great Italian. Whatever be the merits of the play, there
+can be no question as to its supremacy of horror in the hands of
+Salvini. To us of the latter half of this century it appears to stand
+alone; it seems as if there could never have been such a scene or such
+an actor in the history of the drama. Horrible--yes! beyond all
+description, but, being horrible, of a depth of horror unrealised
+before. Perhaps no one who has not lived in the East can understand
+that such a character as Salvini's _Othello_ is a possible, living
+reality. It is certain that American audiences, even while giving their
+admiration, withhold their belief. They go to see _Othello_, that they
+may shudder luxuriously at the sight of so much suffering; for it is the
+moral suffering of the Moor that most impresses an intelligent beholder,
+but it is doubtful whether Americans or English, who have not lived in
+Southern or Eastern lands, are capable of appreciating that the
+character is drawn from the life.
+
+The great criticism to which all modern tragedy, and a great deal of
+modern drama, are open is the undue and illegitimate use of horror.
+Horror is not terror. They are two entirely distinct affections. A man
+hurled from a desperate precipice, in the living act to fall, is
+properly an object of terror, sudden and quaking. But the same man,
+reduced to a mangled mass of lifeless humanity, broken to pieces, and
+ghastly with the gaping of dead wounds--the same man, when his last leap
+is over and hope is fled, is an object of horror, and as such would not
+in early times have been regarded as a legitimate subject for artistic
+representation, either on the stage or in the plastic or pictorial arts.
+
+It may be that in earlier ages, when men were personally familiar with
+the horrors of a barbarous ethical system, while at the same time they
+had the culture and refinement belonging to a high development of
+aesthetic civilisation, the presentation of a great terror immediately
+suggested the concomitant horror; and suggested it so vividly that the
+visible definition of the result--the bloodshed, the agony, and the
+death-rattle--would have produced an impression too dreadful to be
+associated with any pleasure to the beholder. There was no curiosity to
+behold violent death among a people accustomed to see it often enough in
+the course of their lives, and not yet brutalised into a love of blood
+for its own sake. The Romans presented an example of the latter state;
+they loved horror so well that they demanded real horror and real
+victims. And that is the state of the populations of England and America
+at the present day. Were it not for the tremendous power of modern law,
+there is not the slightest doubt that the mass of Londoners or New
+Yorkers would flock to-day to see a gladiatorial show, or to watch a
+pack of lions tearing, limb from limb, a dozen unarmed convicts. Not the
+"cultured" classes--some of them would be ashamed, and some would really
+feel a moral incapacity for witnessing so much pain--but the masses
+would go, and would pay handsomely for the sport; and, moreover, if they
+once tasted blood they would be strong enough to legislate in favour of
+tasting more. It is not to the discredit of the Anglo-Saxon race that it
+loves savage sports. The blood is naturally fierce, and has not been
+cowed by the tyranny endured by European races. There have been more
+free men under England's worst tyrants than under France's most liberal
+kings.
+
+But, failing gladiators and wild beasts, the people must have horrors on
+the stage, in literature, in art, and, above all, in the daily press.
+Shakspere knew that, and Michelangelo, who is the Shakspere of brush and
+chisel, knew it also, as those two unrivalled men seem to have known
+everything else. And so when Michelangelo painted the _Last Judgment_,
+and Shakspere wrote _Othello_ (for instance), they both made use of
+horror in a way the Greeks would not have tolerated. Since we no longer
+see daily enacted before us scenes of murder, torture, and public
+execution, our curiosity makes us desire to see those scenes represented
+as accurately as possible. The Greeks, in their tragedies, did their
+slaughter behind the scenes, and occasionally the cries of the supposed
+victims were heard. But theatre-goers of to-day would feel cheated if
+the last act of Othello were left to their imagination. When Salvini
+thrusts the crooked knife into his throat, with that ghastly sound of
+death that one never forgets, the modern spectator would not understand
+what the death-rattle meant, did he not see the action that accompanies
+it.
+
+"It is too realistic," said Mr. Barker in his high thin voice when it
+was over, and he was helping Margaret with her silken wrappings.
+
+"It is not realistic," said she, "it is real. It may be an unhealthy
+excitement, but if we are to have it, it is the most perfect of its
+kind."
+
+"It is very horrible," said Miss Skeat; and they drove away.
+
+Margaret would not stay to see the great man after the curtain fell. The
+disillusion of such a meeting is too great to be pleasurable. Othello is
+dead, and the idea of meeting Othello in the flesh ten minutes later,
+smiling and triumphant, is a death-blow to that very reality which
+Margaret so much enjoyed. Besides, she wanted to be alone with her own
+thoughts, which were not entirely confined to the stage, that night.
+Writing to Claudius had brought him vividly into her life again, and she
+had caught herself more than once during the evening wondering how her
+fair Northern lover would have acted in Othello's place. Whether, when
+the furious general takes Iago by the throat in his wrath, the Swede's
+grip would have relaxed so easily on one who should dare to whisper a
+breath against the Countess Margaret. She so lived in the thought for a
+moment that her whole face glowed in the shade of the box, and her dark
+eyes shot out fire. Ah me! Margaret, will he come back to stand by your
+side and face the world for you? Who knows. Men are deceivers ever, says
+the old song.
+
+Home through the long streets, lighted with the pale electric flame that
+gives so deathly a tinge to everything that comes within the circling of
+its discolour; home to her rooms with the pleasant little fire
+smouldering on the hearth, and flowers--Barker's flowers--scenting the
+room; home to the cares of Clementine, to lean back with half-closed
+eyes, thinking, while the deft French fingers uncoil and smooth and coil
+again the jet-black tresses; home to the luxury of sleep unbroken by ill
+ease of body, though visited by the dreams of a far-away lover--dreams
+not always hopeful, but ever sweet; home to a hotel! Can a hostelry be
+dignified with that great name? Yes. Wherever we are at rest and at
+peace, wherever the thought of love or dream of lover visits us,
+wherever we look forward to meeting that lover again--that is home. For
+since the cold steel-tipped fingers of science have crushed space into a
+nut-shell, and since the deep-mouthed capacious present has swallowed
+time out of sight, there is no landmark left but love, no hour but the
+hour of loving, no home but where our lover is.
+
+The little god who has survived ages of sword-play and centuries of
+peace-time, survives also science the leveller, and death the destroyer.
+
+And in the night, when all are asleep, and the chimes are muffled with
+the thick darkness, and the wings of the dream-spirits caress the air,
+then the little Red Mouse comes out and meditates on all these things,
+and wonders how it is that men can think there is any originality in
+their lives or persons or doings. The body may have changed a little,
+men may have grown stronger and fairer, as some say, or weaker and more
+puny, as others would have it, but the soul of man is even as it was
+from the beginning.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+
+A month has passed since Margaret went to see _Othello_, and New York is
+beginning to wake to its winter round of amusements. There are dinners
+and dances and much leaving of little pasteboard chips with names and
+addresses.
+
+Mr. Barker had made progress, in his own opinion, since the day when he
+so unfortunately roused Margaret's anger by his story. He bethought him
+one day that Claudius's influence had begun with the reading of books,
+and he determined to try something of the kind himself. He was no
+scholar as Claudius was, but he knew men who were. He cultivated the
+acquaintance of Mr. Horace Bellingham, and spent studious hours in
+ascertaining the names of quaint and curious volumes, which he spared no
+expense in procuring. He read books he had never heard of before, and
+then talked about them to Margaret; and when he hit upon anything she
+did not know he was swift to bring it to her, and sometimes she would
+even listen while he read a few pages aloud.
+
+Margaret encouraged Barker in this new fancy unconsciously enough, for
+she thought it an admirable thing that a man whose whole life was
+devoted to business pursuits should develop a taste for letters; and
+when he had broken the ice on the sea of literature she talked more
+freely with him than she had ever done before. It was not Barker who
+interested her, but the books he brought, which were indeed rare and
+beautiful. He, on the other hand, quick to assimilate any knowledge that
+might be of use to him, and cautious of exposing the weaker points of
+his ignorance, succeeded in producing an impression of considerable
+learning, so that by and by he began to think he was taking Claudius's
+place in her daily pursuits, as he hoped to take it in her heart.
+
+Meanwhile no one had heard from the Doctor, for his correspondence with
+Margaret was unknown to Barker, and the latter began to cherish a hope
+that, after all, there might be overwhelming difficulties in the way of
+proving Claudius's right to the estate. He had more than once talked
+over the matter with Mr. Screw, and they came to the conclusion that
+this silence was prognostic of the Doctor's defeat. Screw thought it
+probable that, had Claudius immediately obtained from Heidelberg the
+necessary papers, he would have sent a triumphant telegram over the
+cable, announcing his return at the shortest possible interval. But the
+time was long. It was now the first week in November and nearly two
+months had passed since he had sailed. Mr. Barker had avoided speaking
+of him to the Countess, at first because he did not wish to recall him
+to her memory, and later because he observed that she never mentioned
+the Doctor's name. Barker had inquired of Mr. Bellingham whether he knew
+anything of his friend's movements, to which Uncle Horace had replied,
+with a grim laugh, that he had quite enough to do with taking care of
+distinguished foreigners when they were in New York, without looking
+after them when they had gone elsewhere.
+
+One evening before dinner Vladimir brought Margaret a telegram. She was
+seated by the fire as usual and Miss Skeat, who had been reading aloud
+until it grew too dark, was by her side warming her thin hands, which
+always looked cold, and bending forward towards the fire as she listened
+to Margaret's somewhat random remarks about the book in hand. Margaret
+had long since talked with Miss Skeat about her disturbed affairs, and
+concerning the prospect that was before her of being comparatively poor.
+And Miss Skeat, in her high-bred old-fashioned way, had laid her hand
+gently on the Countess's arm in token of sympathy.
+
+"Dear Countess," she had said, "please remember that it will not make
+any difference to me, and that I will never leave you. Poverty is not a
+new thing to me, my dear." The tears came into Margaret's eyes as she
+pressed the elder lady's hand in silence. These passages of feeling were
+rare between them, but they understood each other, for all that. And now
+Margaret was speaking despondently of the future. A few days before she
+had made up her mind at last to write the necessary letters to Russia,
+and she had now despatched them on their errand. Not that she had any
+real hope of bettering things, but a visit from Nicholas had roused her
+to the fact that it was a duty she owed to him as well as to herself to
+endeavour to recover what was possible of her jointure.
+
+At last she opened the telegram and uttered an exclamation of surprise.
+
+"What in the world does it mean?" she cried, and gave it to Miss Skeat,
+who held it close to the firelight.
+
+The message was from Lord Fitzdoggin, Her British Majesty's Ambassador
+at St. Petersburg, and was an informal statement to the effect that his
+Excellency was happy to communicate to the Countess Margaret the
+intelligence that, by the untiring efforts and great skill of a personal
+friend, the full payment of her jointure was now secured to her in
+perpetuity. It stated, moreover, that she would shortly receive official
+information of the fact through the usual channels.
+
+Miss Skeat beamed with pleasure; for though she had been willing to make
+any sacrifice for Margaret, it would not have been an agreeable thing to
+be so very poor again.
+
+"I never met Lord Fitzdoggin," said Margaret, "and I do not understand
+in the least. Why should he, of all people, inform me of this, if it is
+really true?"
+
+"The Duke must have written to him," said Miss Skeat, still beaming, and
+reading the message over again.
+
+Margaret paused a moment in thought, then lighting the gas herself, she
+wrote a note and despatched Vladimir in hot haste.
+
+"I have asked Mr. Bellingham to dine," she said, in answer to Miss
+Skeat's inquiring look. "He will go to the party with me afterwards, if
+he is free."
+
+It chanced that Mr. Bellingham was in his rooms when Margaret's note
+came, and he immediately threw over an engagement he had previously
+made, and sent word he would be at the Countess's disposal. Punctual to
+the minute he appeared. Margaret showed him the telegram.
+
+"What does this mean, Mr. Bellingham?" she asked, smiling, but
+scrutinising his face closely.
+
+"My dear Countess," cried the old gentleman, delighted beyond measure at
+the result of his policy, and corruscating with smiles and twinkles,
+"my dear Countess, allow me to congratulate you."
+
+"But who is the 'personal friend' mentioned? Is it the Duke? He is in
+the far West at this moment."
+
+"No," answered Mr. Bellingham, "it is not the Duke. I am inclined to
+think it is a manifestation of some great cosmic force, working silently
+for your welfare. The lovely spirits," continued the old gentleman,
+looking up from under his brows, and gesticulating as though he would
+call down the mystic presence he invoked--"the lovely spirits that guard
+you would be loth to allow anything so fair to suffer annoyance from the
+rude world. You are well taken care of, Countess, believe me."
+
+Margaret smiled at Uncle Horace's way of getting out of the difficulty,
+for she suspected him of knowing more than he would acknowledge. But all
+she could extract from him was that he knew Lord Fitzdoggin slightly,
+and that he believed the telegram to be perfectly genuine. He had played
+his part in the matter, and rubbed his hands as though washing them of
+any further responsibility. Indeed he had nothing to tell, save that he
+had advised Claudius to get an introduction from the Duke. He well knew
+that the letters he had given Claudius had been the real means of his
+success; but as Margaret only asked about the telegram, he was perfectly
+safe in denying any knowledge of it. Not that such a consideration would
+have prevented his meeting her question with a little fib, just to keep
+the secret.
+
+"Will you not go to this dance with me this evening?" asked Margaret
+after dinner, as they sat round the fireplace.
+
+"What ball is that?" inquired Mr. Bellingham.
+
+"I hardly know what it is. It is a party at the Van Sueindell's and
+there is 'dancing' on the card. Please go with me; I should have to go
+alone."
+
+"I detest the pomp and circumstance of pleasure," said Uncle Horace,
+"the Persian appurtenances, as my favourite poet calls them; but I
+cannot resist so charming an invitation. It will give me the greatest
+pleasure. I will send word to put off another engagement."
+
+"Do you really not mind at all?"
+
+"Not a bit of it. Only three or four old fogies at the club. _Est mihi
+nonum superantis annum plenus Albani cadus_," continued Mr. Bellingham,
+who never quoted Horace once without quoting him again in the next five
+minutes. "I had sent a couple of bottles of my grandfather's madeira to
+the club, 1796, but those old boys will enjoy it without me. They would
+talk me to death if I went."
+
+"It is too bad," said Margaret, "you must go to the club. I would not
+let you break an engagement on my account."
+
+"No, no. Permit me to do a good deed without having to bear the infernal
+consequences in this life, at all events. The chatter of those people is
+like the diabolical screaming of the peacock on the terrace of the
+Emir's chief wife, made memorable by Thackeray the prophet." He paused a
+moment, and stroked his snowy pointed beard. "Forgive my strong
+language," he added; "really, they are grand adjectives those,
+'diabolical' and 'infernal.' They call up the whole of Dante to my
+mind." Margaret laughed.
+
+"Are you fond of Dante?" asked she.
+
+"Very. I sometimes buy a cheap copy and substitute the names of my pet
+enemies all through the _Inferno_ wherever they will suit the foot. In
+that way I get all the satisfaction the author got by putting his
+friends in hell, without the labour of writing, or the ability to
+compose, the poem." The Countess laughed again.
+
+"Do you ever do the same thing with the _Paradiso_?"
+
+"No," answered Uncle Horace, with a smile. "Purgatory belonged to an age
+when people were capable of being made better by suffering, and as for
+paradise, my heaven admits none but the fair sex. They are all
+beautiful, and many of them are young."
+
+"Will you admit me, Mr. Bellingham?"
+
+"St. Margaret has forestalled me," said he gallantly, "for she has a
+paradise of her own, it seems, to which she has admitted me."
+
+And so they passed the evening pleasantly until the hour warned them
+that it was time to go to the great Van Sueindell house. That mansion,
+like all private houses in America, and the majority of modern dwellings
+in other parts of the world, is built in that depraved style of
+architecture which makes this age pre-eminent in the ugliness of brick
+and stone. There is no possibility of criticism for such monstrosity, as
+there also seems to be no immediate prospect of reform. Time, the
+iron-fisted Nihilist, will knock them all down some day and bid mankind
+begin anew. Meanwhile let us ignore what we cannot improve. Night, the
+all-merciful, sometimes hides these excrescences from our sight, and
+sometimes the moon, Nature's bravest liar, paints and moulds them into a
+fugitive harmony. But in the broad day let us fix our eyes modestly on
+the pavement beneath us, or turn them boldly to the sky, for if we look
+to the right or the left we must see that which sickens the sense of
+sight.
+
+On the present occasion, however, nothing was to be seen of the house,
+for the long striped canvas tent, stretching from the door to the
+carriage, and lined with plants and servants, hid everything else from
+view. There is probably no city in the world where the _business_ of
+"entertaining" is so thoroughly done as in New York. There are many
+places where it is more agreeable to be "entertained;" many where it is
+done on a larger scale, for there is nothing in America so imposing as
+the receptions at Embassies and other great houses in England and
+abroad. To bring the matter into business form, since it is a matter of
+business, let us say that nowhere do guests cost so much by the cubic
+foot as in New York. Abroad, owing to the peculiar conditions of
+court-life, many people are obliged to open their houses at stated
+intervals. In America no one is under this necessity. If people begin to
+"entertain" they do it because they have money, or because they have
+something to gain by it, and they do it with an absolute regardlessness
+of cost which is enough to startle the sober foreigner.
+
+It may be in bad taste, but if we are to define what is good taste in
+these days, and abide by it, we shall be terribly restricted. As an
+exhibition of power, this enormous expenditure is imposing in the
+extreme; though the imposing element, being strictly confined to the
+display of wealth, can never produce the impressions of durability,
+grandeur, and military pomp so dear to every European. Hence the
+Englishman turns up his nose at the gilded shows of American society,
+and the American sniffs when he finds that the door-scraper of some
+great London house is only silverplated instead of being solid, and that
+the carpets are at least two years old. They regard things from opposite
+points of view, and need never expect to agree.
+
+Margaret, however, was not so new to American life, seeing she was
+American born, as to bestow a thought or a glance on the appointments of
+Mr. and Mrs. Van Sueindell's establishment; and as for Mr. Bellingham,
+he had never cared much for what he called the pomp and circumstance of
+pleasure, for he carried pleasure with him in his brilliant conversation
+and his ready tact. All places were more or less alike to Mr.
+Bellingham. At the present moment, however, he was thinking principally
+of his fair charge, and was wondering inwardly what time he would get
+home, for he rose early and was fond of a nap in the late evening. He
+therefore gave Margaret his arm, and kept a lookout for some amusing man
+to introduce to her. He had really enjoyed his dinner and the pleasant
+chat afterwards, but the prospect of piloting this magnificent beauty
+about till morning, or till she should take it into her head to go home,
+was exhausting. Besides, he went little into society of this kind, and
+was not over-familiar with the faces he saw.
+
+He need not have been disturbed, however, for they had not been many
+minutes in the rooms before a score of men had applied for the "pleasure
+of a turn." But still she held Mr. Bellingham's arm, obdurately refusing
+to dance. As Barker came up a moment later, willing, perhaps, to show
+his triumph to the rejected suitors, Margaret thanked Mr. Bellingham,
+and offered to take him home if he would stay until one o'clock; then
+she glided away, not to dance but to sit in a quieter room, near the
+door of which couples would hover for a quarter of an hour at a time
+waiting to seize the next pair of vacant seats. Mr. Bellingham moved
+away, amused by the music and the crowd and the fair young faces, until
+he found a seat in a corner, shaded from the flare of light by an open
+door close by, and there, in five minutes, he was fast asleep in the
+midst of the gaiety and noise and heat--unnoticed, a gray old man amid
+so much youth.
+
+But Barker knew the house better than the most of the guests, and
+passing through the little room for which every one seemed fighting, he
+drew aside a heavy curtain and showed a small boudoir beyond, lighted
+with a solitary branch of candles, and occupied by a solitary couple.
+Barker had hoped to find this sanctum empty, and as he pushed two chairs
+together he eyed the other pair savagely.
+
+"What a charming little room," said Margaret, sinking into the soft
+chair and glancing at the walls and ceiling, which were elaborately
+adorned in the Japanese fashion. The chairs also were framed of bamboo,
+and the table was of an unusual shape. It was the "Japanese parlour[3],"
+as Mrs. Van Sueindell would have called it. Every great house in New
+York has a Japanese or a Chinese room. The entire contents of the
+apartment having been brought direct from Yokohama, the effect was
+harmonious, and Margaret's artistic sense was pleased.
+
+[Footnote 3: Parlour or parlor, American for "sitting-room."]
+
+"Is it not?" said Barker, glad to have brought her to a place she liked.
+"I thought you would like it, and I hoped," lowering his voice, "that we
+should find it empty. Only people who come here a great deal know about
+it."
+
+"Then you come here often?" asked Margaret, to say something. She was
+glad to be out of the din, for though she had anticipated some pleasure
+from the party, she discovered too late that she had made a mistake, and
+would rather be at home. She had so much to think of, since receiving
+that telegram; and so, forgetting Barker and everything else, she
+followed her own train of thought. Barker talked on, and Margaret seemed
+to be listening--but it was not the music, muffled through the heavy
+curtains, nor the small voice of Mr. Barker that she heard. It was the
+washing of the sea and the creaking of cordage that were in her
+ears--the rush of the ship that was to bring him back--that was perhaps
+bringing him back already. When would he come? How soon? If it could
+only be to-morrow, she would so like to--what in the world is Mr. Barker
+saying so earnestly? Really, she ought to listen. It was very rude.
+"Conscious of my many defects of character--" Oh yes, he was always
+talking about his defects; what next? "--conscious of my many defects of
+character," Mr. Barker was saying, in an even, determined voice, "and
+feeling deeply how far behind you I am in those cultivated pursuits you
+most enjoy, I would nevertheless scorn to enlarge upon my advantages,
+the more so as I believe you are acquainted with my circumstances."
+
+Good gracious! thought Margaret, suddenly recovering the acutest use of
+her hearing, what is the man going to say? And she looked fixedly at him
+with an expression of some astonishment.
+
+"Considering, as I was saying," he continued steadily, "those advantages
+upon which I will not enlarge, may I ask you to listen to what I am
+going to say?"
+
+Margaret, having lost the first part of Barker's speech completely, in
+her fit of abstraction, had some vague idea that he was asking her
+advice about marrying some other woman.
+
+"Certainly," she said indifferently; "pray go on." At the moment of
+attack, however, Barker's heart failed him for an instant. He thought he
+would make one more attempt to ascertain what position Claudius held
+towards Margaret.
+
+"Of course," he said, smiling and looking down, "we all knew about Dr.
+Claudius on board the _Streak_."
+
+"What did you know about him?" asked Margaret calmly, but her face
+flushed for an instant. That might have happened even if she had not
+cared for Claudius; she was so proud that the idea of being thought to
+care might well bring the colour to her cheek. Barker hardly noticed the
+blush, for he was getting into very deep water, and was on the point of
+losing his head.
+
+"That he proposed to you, and you refused him," he said, still smiling.
+
+"Take care, sir," she said quickly, "when Dr. Claudius comes back he--"
+Barker interrupted her with a laugh.
+
+"Claudius coming back?" he answered, "ha! ha! good indeed!"
+
+He looked at Margaret. She was very quiet, and she was naturally so dark
+that, in the shadow of the fan she held carelessly against the light, he
+could not see how pale she turned. She was intensely angry, and her
+anger took the form of a preternatural calm of manner, by no means
+indicative of indifferent reflection. She was simply unable to speak for
+the moment. Barker, however, whose reason was in abeyance for the
+moment, merely saw that she did not answer; and, taking her silence for
+consent to his slighting mention of Claudius, he at once proceeded with
+his main proposition. At this juncture the other couple slowly left the
+room, having arranged their own affairs to their satisfaction.
+
+"That being the case," he said, "and now that I am assured that I have
+no rivals to dread, will you permit me to offer you my heart and my
+hand? Countess Margaret, will you marry me, and make me the happiest of
+men? Oh, do not be silent, do not look as if you did not hear! I have
+loved you since I first saw you--will you, will you marry me?" Here Mr.
+Barker, who was really as much in love as his nature allowed him to be,
+moved to the very edge of his chair and tried to take her hand.
+
+"Margaret!" he said, as he touched her fingers.
+
+At the touch she recovered her self-possession, too long lost for such a
+case. She had tried to control her anger, had tried to remember whether
+by any word she could have encouraged him to so much boldness. Now she
+rose to all her haughty height, and though she tried hard to control
+herself, there was scorn in her voice.
+
+"Mr. Barker," she said, dropping her hands before her and standing
+straight as a statue, "you have made a mistake, and if through any
+carelessness I have led you into this error I am sorry for it. I cannot
+listen to you, I cannot marry you. As for Dr. Claudius, I will not
+permit you to use any slighting words about him. I hold in my possession
+documents that could prove his identity as well as any he can obtain in
+Germany. But I need not produce them, for I am sure it will be enough
+for you to know that I am engaged to be married to him--I am engaged to
+be married to Dr. Claudius," she repeated very distinctly in her deep
+musical tones; and before Barker could recover himself, she had passed
+from the room into the lights and the sound of music beyond.
+
+What do you think, reader? Was it not a brave and noble action of hers
+to vindicate Claudius by taking upon herself the whole responsibility of
+his love rather than by going home and sending Mr. Barker documentary
+evidence of the Doctor's personality? Claudius had never asked her to
+marry him, the very word had never been mentioned. But he had told her
+he loved her and she had trusted him.
+
+Start not at the infinity of social crime that such a doubt defines. It
+is there. It is one thing for a woman to love a man at arm's length
+conditionally; it is another for her to take him to her heart and trust
+him. Does every millionaire who makes love to a penniless widow mean to
+marry her? for Margaret was poor on that Tuesday in Newport. Or reverse
+the case; if Claudius were an adventurer, as Barker hinted, what were
+the consequences she assumed in declaring herself engaged to marry him?
+
+In spite of her excitement, Margaret was far too much a woman of the
+world to create a sensation by walking through the rooms alone. In a
+moment or two she saw a man she knew, and calling him to her by a look,
+took his arm. She chatted pleasantly to this young fellow, as proud as
+need be of being selected to conduct the beauty whither she would, and
+after some searching she discovered Mr. Bellingham, still asleep behind
+the swinging door.
+
+"Thanks," she said to her escort. "I have promised to take Mr.
+Bellingham home." And she dropped the young man's arm with a nod and a
+smile.
+
+"But he is asleep," objected the gallant.
+
+"I will wake him," she answered. And laying her hand on Mr.
+Bellingham's, she leaned down and spoke his name. Instantly he awoke, as
+fresh as from a night's rest, for he had the Napoleonic faculty for
+catching naps.
+
+"Winter awaking to greet the spring," he said without the slightest
+hesitation, as though he had prepared the little speech in his sleep.
+"Forgive me," he said, "it is a habit of mine learned long ago." He
+presented his arm and asked her what was her pleasure.
+
+"I am going home," she said, "and if you like I will drop you at your
+door."
+
+Mr. Bellingham glanced at a great enamelled clock, half-hidden among
+flowers and fans, as they passed, and he noticed that they had not been
+in the house much more than three quarters of an hour. But he wisely
+said nothing, and waited patiently while Margaret was wrapped in her
+cloaks, and till the butler had told the footman, and the footman had
+told the other footman, and the other footman had told the page, and the
+page had told the policeman to call the Countess Margaret's carriage.
+After which the carriage appeared, and they drove away.
+
+Uncle Horace chatted pleasantly about the party, admitting that he had
+dreamed more than he had seen of it. But Margaret said little, for the
+reaction was coming after the excitement she had passed through. Only
+when they reached Mr. Bellingham's rooms, and he was about to leave her,
+she held his hand a moment and looked earnestly in his face.
+
+"Mr. Bellingham," she said suddenly, "I trust you will always be my
+friend--will you not?" The old gentleman paused in his descent from the
+carriage, and took the hand she offered.
+
+"Indeed I will, my dear child," he said very seriously. Then he bent
+his knee to the sill of the door and kissed her fingers, and was gone.
+No one ever resented Mr. Bellingham's familiarity, for it was rare and
+honest of its kind. Besides, he was old enough to be her grandfather, in
+spite of his pretty speeches and his graceful actions.
+
+Margaret passed a sleepless night. Her anger with Mr. Barker had not
+been so much the mere result of the words he had spoken, though she
+would have resented his sneer about Claudius sharply enough under any
+circumstances. It was rather that to her keen intelligence, rendered
+still more acute by her love for the Doctor, the whole scene constituted
+a revelation. By that wonderful instinct which guides women in the most
+critical moments of their lives, she saw at last the meaning of Barker's
+doings, of his silence concerning Claudius, and of his coolness with the
+latter before he had got rid of him. She saw Barker at the bottom of the
+plot to send Claudius to Europe; she saw him in all the efforts made by
+the Duke and Barker to keep Claudius and herself apart on board the
+yacht; she saw his hand in it all, and she understood for the first time
+that this man, whom she had of late permitted to be so much with her,
+was her worst enemy, while aspiring to be her lover. The whole extent of
+his faithlessness to Claudius came before her, as she remembered that it
+had doubtless been to serve the Doctor that Barker had obtained an
+introduction to her at Baden; that he had done everything to throw them
+together, devoting himself to Miss Skeat, in a manner that drove that
+ancient virgin to the pinnacle of bliss and despair, while leaving
+Claudius free field to make love to herself. And then he had suddenly
+turned and made up his mind that he should have her for his own wife.
+And her anger rose higher and hotter as she thought of it.
+
+Then she went over the scene of the evening at Mrs. Van Sueindell's
+house--how she had not listened and not understood, until she was so
+suddenly roused to the consciousness of what he was saying--how she had
+faced him, and, in the inspiration of the moment, had boldly told him
+that she loved his rival. In that thought she found satisfaction, as
+well she might, for her love had been put to the test, and had not
+failed her.
+
+"I am glad I said it," she murmured to herself, and fell asleep. Poor
+Claudius, far away over the sea, what a leap his heart would have given
+could he have known what she had done, and that she was glad of it.
+
+And Mr. Barker? He felt a little crushed when she left him there alone
+in the Japanese boudoir, for he knew at once that he might as well throw
+up the game. There was not the least chance for him any longer. He might
+indeed suspect that the documents Margaret spoke of were a myth, and
+that her declaration of the engagement was in reality the only weapon
+she could use in Claudius's defence. But that did not change matters. No
+woman would "give herself away," as he expressed it, so recklessly,
+unless she were perfectly certain. Therefore Mr. Barker went into the
+supper-room, and took a little champagne to steady his nerves; after
+which he did his best to amuse himself, talking with unusual vivacity to
+any young lady of his acquaintance whom he could allure from her partner
+for a few minutes. For he had kept himself free of engagements that
+evening on Margaret's account, and now regretted it bitterly. But Mr.
+Barker was a great match, as has been said before, and he seldom had
+any difficulty in amusing himself when he felt so inclined. He had not
+witnessed Margaret's departure, for, not wishing to be seen coming out
+of the boudoir alone, a sure sign of defeat, and being perfectly
+familiar with the house, he had found his way by another door, and
+through circuitous passages to the pantry, and thence to the
+supper-room; so that by the time he had refreshed himself Margaret and
+Mr. Bellingham had gone.
+
+Do people of Mr. Barker's stamp feel? Probably not. It requires a strong
+organisation, either animal or intellectual, to suffer much from any
+shock to the affections. Englishmen, on those occasions when their
+passion gets the better of their caution, somewhat a rare occurrence
+nowadays, are capable of loving very strongly, and of suffering severely
+if thwarted, for they are among the most powerful races in the animal
+kingdom. Their whole history shows this, moulded as it has generally
+been by exceptional men, for the most part Irish and Scotch, in whom the
+highest animal and intellectual characteristics were united. Germans, in
+whom the intellectual faculties, and especially the imagination,
+predominate, are for the most part very love-sick for at least half
+their lives. But Americans seem to be differently organised; meaning, of
+course, the small class, who would like to be designated as the
+"aristocracy" of the country. The faculties are all awake, acute, and
+ready for use; but there is a lack of depth, which will rouse the
+perpetual wonder of future generations. While the mass of the people
+exhibits the strong characteristics of the Saxon, the Celtic, and the
+South German races, physical endurance and occasionally intellectual
+pre-eminence,--for, saving some peculiarities of speech, made defects
+merely by comparison, there are no such natural orators and statesmen
+in the world as are to be found in Congress; at the same time, the
+would-be aristocracy of the country is remarkable for nothing so much as
+for the very unaristocratic faculty of getting money--rarely mingling in
+public questions, still more rarely producing anything of merit,
+literary or artistic. Therefore, being so constituted that the almighty
+dollar crowns the edifice of their ambitions as with a coronet of milled
+silver, they are singularly inapt to suffer from such ills as prick the
+soul, which taketh no thought for the morrow, what it shall eat or what
+it shall drink.
+
+Truly, a happy people, these American aristocrats.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+
+When Margaret awoke the next morning her first impulse was to go away
+for a time. She was disgusted with New York, and desired nothing so much
+as the sensation of being free from Mr. Barker. A moment, however,
+sufficed to banish any such thoughts. In the first place, if she were
+away from the metropolis it would take just so many hours longer for the
+Doctor's letters to reach her. There had been a lacuna in the
+correspondence of late, and it seemed to her that the letters she had
+received were always dated some days before the time stamped on the
+Heidelberg postmark. He spoke always of leaving very soon; but though he
+said many loving and tender things, he was silent as to his own doings.
+She supposed he was occupied with the important matter he described as
+the "other reason," and so in the two or three short notes she wrote him
+she abstained from questioning any more.
+
+Furthermore, she reflected that however much she might wish to be away,
+it was most emphatically not the thing to do. On the whole, she would
+stay where she was.
+
+She was roused from her reverie by Clementine, who entered in a halo of
+smiles, as though she were the bearer of good news. In the first place
+she had a telegram, which proved to be from Claudius, dated Berlin, and
+simply announcing the fact that he would sail at once. Margaret could
+hardly conceal her great satisfaction, and the colour came so quickly to
+her face as she read the flimsy bit of paper from the cable office that
+Clementine made the most desperate efforts to get possession of it, or
+at least to see the signature. But Margaret kept it under her pillow for
+half an hour, and then burned it carefully by the taper, to Clementine's
+inexpressible chagrin.
+
+Meanwhile, however, there were other news in the wind, and when the
+artful Frenchwoman had succeeded in opening the window just so that a
+ray of light should fall on madam's face, she fired her second shot.
+
+"Monsieur le Duc is of return, Madame," she said, suddenly turning
+towards her mistress.
+
+"The Duke?" repeated Margaret innocently. "When did he come?"
+
+"Ah, Madame," said the maid, disappointed at having produced so little
+effect, "it is precisely what I do not know. I come from meeting
+Monsieur Veelees upon the carrefour. He has prayed me to present the
+compliments of Monsieur le Duc and to ask at what hour Madame la
+Comtesse would be in disposition to see him."
+
+"Ah, very well," said the Countess. "I will get up, Clementine."
+
+"Si tot, Madame? it is yet very morning," argued the girl with a little
+show of polite surprise.
+
+"That is indifferent. Go, Clementine, and tell Monsieur le Duc I will
+see him at once."
+
+"At once, Madame? I run," said Clementine, going slowly to the door.
+
+"Enfin--when I am dressed. Don't you understand?" said Margaret
+impatiently.
+
+"Parfaitement, Madame. I will speak with Monsieur Veelees." And she
+vanished.
+
+It was a bright November morning, and though there had been a slight
+frost daring the night, it was fast vanishing before the sun. Margaret
+went to the window and breathed the cool air. An indescribable longing
+seized her to be out, among trees and plants and fresh growing
+things--to blow away the dark dreams of the night, the visions of Barker
+and Screw, and of the ballroom, and of that detestable Japanese boudoir.
+She hurried her toilet in a manner that completely aroused Clementine's
+vigilant suspicion.
+
+"Helas," Clementine used to say to Willis the Duke's servant, "Je ne lui
+ai jamais connu d'amant. I had pourtant much hoped of Monsieur
+Clodiuse." But she never ventured such remarks when old Vladimir was at
+hand.
+
+When the Countess was dressed she went out into her little drawing-room,
+and found the Duke looking more sunburnt and healthy than ever, though a
+trifle thinner. The rough active Western life always agreed with him. He
+came forward with a bright smile to meet her.
+
+"Upon my word, how well you look!" he exclaimed as he shook hands; and
+indeed she was beautiful to see, for if the sleepless night had made her
+pale, the good news of Claudius's coming had brought the fire to her
+eyes.
+
+"Do I?" said she. "I am glad; and you look well too. Your run on the
+prairies has done you good. Come," said she, leading him to the window,
+"it is a beautiful day. Let us go out."
+
+"By all means: but first I have some good news for you. Fitzdoggin has
+telegraphed me that Claudius--I mean," he said, interrupting himself
+and blushing awkwardly, "I mean that it is all right, you know. They
+have arranged all your affairs beautifully." Margaret looked at him
+curiously a moment while he spoke. Then she recognised that the Duke
+must have had a hand in the matter, and spoke very gratefully to him,
+not mentioning that she had received news direct, for she did not wish
+to spoil his pleasure in being the first to tell her. To tell the truth,
+the impulsive Englishman was rather in doubt whether he had not betrayed
+the Doctor's secret, and seemed very little inclined to say anything
+more about it.
+
+"I wish," she said at last, "that we could ride this morning. I have not
+been on a horse for ever so long, and I want the air."
+
+"By Jove," cried the Duke, overjoyed at the prospect of breaking an
+interview which seemed likely to lead him too far, "I should think so. I
+will send and get some horses directly. The very thing, by Jove!" And he
+went to the door.
+
+"How are you going to get anything fit to ride in New York, at such
+short notice?" asked Margaret, laughing at his impetuosity.
+
+"There's a fellow here lends me anything in his stable when I am in New
+York," he answered, half out of the room. "I'll go myself," he called
+back from the landing, and shut the door behind him. "Upon my word," he
+said to himself as he lighted a cigarette in the cab, and drove away to
+his friend's stable, "she is the most beautiful thing I ever saw. I
+almost let the cat out of the bag, just to please her. I don't wonder
+Claudius is crazy about her. I will talk about the West when we are
+riding, and avoid the subject." With which sage resolution his Grace
+seemed well satisfied. When he returned, he found Margaret clad in a
+marvellous habit, that reminded him of home.
+
+"The horses will be at the Park by the time we have driven there," he
+said. "We will drive up." He made no toilet himself, for being English
+and to the saddle born, he cared not a jot how he looked on horseback.
+In half an hour they were mounted, and walking their horses down the
+broad bend of the road where it enters the Central Park. Margaret asked
+about Lady Victoria, and the Duke, to make sure of not getting off the
+track, immediately began talking about the journey they had just made.
+But Margaret was not listening.
+
+"Do you know?" she said, "it is very pleasant to feel I am not poor any
+longer. I suppose it is a very low sentiment."
+
+"Of course," said the Duke. "Beastly thing to have no money."
+
+"Do you know--" she began again, but stopped.
+
+"Well," said the Duke, following her first train of thought, "it always
+seems to me that I have no money myself. I don't suppose I am exactly
+poor, though."
+
+"No," laughed Margaret, "I was not thinking of that."
+
+"What is it?" he asked.
+
+"I think I will confide in you a little, for you have always been such a
+good friend to me. What do you know of Mr. Barker?"
+
+"I am sure I don't know," said the Englishman, taken off his guard by
+the question. "I have known him some time--in this sort of way," he
+added vaguely.
+
+"I believe," said the Countess bluntly, "that it was Mr. Barker who made
+all this trouble for Dr. Claudius."
+
+"I believe you are right," answered the Duke suddenly turning in his
+saddle and facing her. "I wonder how he could be such a brute?"
+
+Margaret was silent. She was astonished at the readiness with which her
+companion assented to her proposition. He must have known it all along,
+she thought.
+
+"What makes you think so?" he asked presently.
+
+"What are your reasons for believing it?" she asked, with a smile.
+
+"Really," he began; then shortly, "I believe I don't like his eyes."
+
+"Last night," said Margaret, "I was talking with him at a party. I
+chanced to speak of the Doctor's coming back, and Mr. Barker laughed and
+sneered, and said it was ridiculous."
+
+The Duke moved angrily in his saddle, making the horse he rode shake his
+head and plunge a little.
+
+"He is a brute," he said at last.
+
+"Your horse?" inquired Margaret sweetly.
+
+"No--Barker. And pray what did you answer him? I hope you gave him a
+lesson for his impertinence."
+
+"I told him," said she, "that I had documents in my possession that
+would establish his right as well as any he could get in Germany."
+
+"Barker must have been rather taken aback," said the other in high glee.
+"I am glad you said that."
+
+"So am I. I do not imagine I shall see much of Mr. Barker in future,"
+she added demurely.
+
+"Um! As bad as that?" The Duke was beginning to catch the drift of what
+Margaret was saying. She had no intention of telling him any more,
+however. Bitterly as she felt towards Barker, she would not allow
+herself the triumph of telling her friend she had refused to marry him.
+
+"I know it is a very womanly fancy," she said, "but I want to ride fast,
+please. I want exercise."
+
+"All right," said the Duke, and they put their horses into a canter. The
+Countess felt safe now that her friends had returned and that Claudius
+had telegraphed he was about to sail. She felt as though her troubles
+were over, and as if the world were again at her feet. And as they
+galloped along the roads, soft in the warm sun to the horses' feet,
+breathing in great draughts of good clean air, the past two months
+seemed to dwindle away to a mere speck in the far distance of her life,
+instead of being entangled with all the yesterdays of the dark season
+just over.
+
+And Claudius--the man who made all this change in her life, who had
+opened a new future for her--how had he passed these months, she
+wondered? To tell the truth, Claudius had been so desperately busy that
+the time had not seemed so long. If he had been labouring in any other
+cause than hers it would have been insupportable. But the constant
+feeling that all he did was for her, and to her advantage, and that at
+the same time she was ignorant of it all, gave him strength and courage.
+He had been obliged to think much, to travel far, and to act promptly;
+and for his own satisfaction he had kept up the illusion that he was in
+Heidelberg by a cunning device. He wrote constantly, and enclosed the
+letters to the old notary at the University, who, with Teutonic
+regularity, stamped and posted them. And so it was that the date of the
+letter, written in St. Petersburg, was always two or three days older
+than that of the postmark. For Claudius would not put a false date at
+the head of what he wrote, any more than, if Margaret had written to
+ask him whether he were really in Heidelberg or not, he would have
+deceived her in his answer. Probably he would not have answered the
+question at all. The letters were merely posted in Heidelberg; and
+Margaret had trusted him enough not to notice or be willing to comment
+upon the discrepancy.
+
+And, by dint of activity and the assistance of the persons to whom he
+had letters, he had succeeded in bringing the Countess's business to a
+satisfactory conclusion. He found it just as Mr. Bellingham had told
+him. In an autocratic country, if you are to have justice at all, you
+will have it quickly. Moreover, it was evident to the authorities that a
+man coming all the way from America, and presenting such credentials as
+Claudius brought, deserved to be attended to at once--the more so when
+his whole appearance and manner were such as to create a small _furore_,
+in the Embassy circles. Claudius went everywhere, saw every one, and
+used every particle of influence he could obtain to further the object
+of his visit. And so it was that, at the end of a month or so, a special
+_ukase_ provided for the payment in perpetuity to herself and her heirs
+for ever of the jointure-money first decreed to the Countess Margaret
+for life only from the estates of her late husband, Count Alexis of the
+Guards. This was even more than Claudius had hoped for--certainly more
+than Margaret had dreamt of. As for Nicholas, Claudius cared nothing
+what became of him, for he probably thought him a foolish Nihilist, and
+he knew enough of the Countess's character to be sure she would never
+let her brother suffer want, whatever his faults.
+
+So when he had concluded the affair he hastened to Berlin, telegraphing
+from thence the news of his immediate return. In less than a fortnight,
+at all events, he ought to be in New York. The thought gave him infinite
+relief; for, since he had finished his business in Petersburg, the
+reaction which in strong natures is very sure to follow a great effort,
+for the very reason that strong natures tax their powers to the utmost,
+recklessly, began to make itself felt. It seemed to him, as he looked
+back, that he had heard so little from her. Not that he complained; for
+he was fully sensible of her goodness in writing at all, and he
+treasured her letters as things sacred, even to the envelopes, and
+whatsoever had touched her hand. But he felt keenly that he was in total
+ignorance of her doings; and one or two references to Barker troubled
+him. He too had his suspicions that the scheming American had been
+concerned in the sudden fit of caution developed by Messrs. Screw and
+Scratch. He too had suspected that his quondam friend had been
+insincere, and that everything was not as it should be. But he was
+neither so wise as Margaret, who would have told him not to soil his
+hands with pitch, nor so supremely indifferent as the Duke, who would
+have said that since he had got the money it didn't matter in the least
+if Barker were a brute or not. On the contrary, Claudius promised
+himself to sift the evidence; and if he discovered that Barker was
+guilty of any double-dealing, he would simply break his neck. And as
+Claudius thought of it, his teeth set, and he looked capable of breaking
+any number of necks, then and there.
+
+But for all his wrath and his suspicions, the real cause of Barker's
+strange behaviour never presented itself to his mind. It never struck
+him that Barker could aspire to Margaret's hand; and he merely
+concluded that the young man had laid a plot for getting his money. If
+any one had related to Claudius the scene which took place at Mrs. Van
+Sueindell's the very night when he sent his telegram, he would have
+laughed the story to scorn in perfect good faith, for he could not have
+believed it possible. Nor, believing it, would he have cared. And so he
+rushed across Europe, and never paused till he had locked himself into
+his stateroom on board the steamer, and had begun a long letter to
+Margaret. He knew that he would see her as soon as a letter could reach
+her, but that made no difference. He felt impelled to write, and he
+wrote--a letter so tender and loving and rejoicing that were it to
+appear in these pages no lover would ever dare write to his lady again,
+lest she chide him for being less eloquent than Claudius, Phil.D. of
+Heidelberg. And he wrote on and on for many days, spending most of his
+time in that way.
+
+Meanwhile, the Duke and Margaret cantered in the Park, and talked of all
+kinds of things; or rather, the Duke talked, and Margaret thought of
+Claudius. Before they returned, however, she had managed to let the Duke
+know that the Doctor was on his way back; whereat the Englishman
+rejoiced loudly. Perhaps he would have given a great deal to know
+whether they were engaged, to be married; but still Margaret gave no
+sign. It was far from her thoughts; and the fact had only presented
+itself in that form to her on the spur of the moment, the preceding
+evening, as likely to prove a crushing blow at once to Mr. Barker's
+plotting and Mr. Barker's matrimonial views. But while the Duke talked,
+she was thinking. And as the situation slowly unfolded its well-known
+pictures to her mind, she suddenly saw it all in a different light.
+
+"I must be mad," she thought. "Barker will tell every one; and the Duke
+ought not to know it except from me!"
+
+"Speaking of Dr. Claudius--" she began; the Duke was at that moment
+talking earnestly about the Pueblo Indians, but that was of no
+importance. "Speaking of the Doctor, you ought to know--I would rather
+that no one else told you--we are going to be married."
+
+The Duke was so much surprised--not so much at the information as at her
+manner of imparting it--that he pulled up short. Seeing him stop, she
+stopped also.
+
+"Are you very much astonished?" she asked, pushing the gray veil up to
+her hat, and looking at him smilingly out of her deep, dark eyes. The
+Duke spoke no word, but leapt from his horse, which he left standing in
+the middle of the path, surprised into docility by the sudden desertion.
+There were a few wild-flowers growing by the road, which here led
+through a wooded glade of the Park; they were the flowers called
+Michaelmas daisies, which bloom until November in America. He picked a
+great handful of them, and came running back.
+
+"Let me be the first to congratulate you, my dear friend," he said,
+standing bareheaded at her stirrup, and offering the flowers with a
+half-bashful smile that sat strangely on a man of his years. It was a
+quick, impulsive action, such as no one could have expected from him who
+did not know him intimately well--and few could boast that they did.
+Margaret was touched by his look and manner.
+
+"Thanks," she said, bending over her saddle-bow, and taking the daisies
+as he held them up to her. "Yes, you are the first--to congratulate me,"
+which was true. He still stood looking at her, and his hand would
+hardly let go the flowers where his fingers touched hers. His face grew
+pale, then ashy-white and he steadied himself against her horse's neck.
+
+"What is the matter? are you ill? have you hurt yourself?" asked
+Margaret in real alarm, for he looked as though he were going to faint,
+and it was a full minute since he had come back to her from the
+roadside. Then he made a great effort and collected himself, and the
+next instant he had dashed after his horse, which was wandering away
+towards the trees.
+
+"I did feel queer for a minute," he said when he was once more in the
+saddle and by her side. "I dare say it is the heat. It's a very hot day,
+now I think of it. Would you allow me a cigarette? I hate to smoke in
+public, you know, but it will make me all right again." Margaret
+assented, of course, to the request; it was morning, in the recesses of
+the Park, and nobody would see. But she looked strangely at him for a
+minute, wondering what could have produced his sudden dizziness.
+
+They rode more slowly towards the entrance of the Park, and the
+Countess's thoughts did not wander again. She talked to her companion on
+every subject he broached, showing interest in all he said, and asking
+questions that she knew would please him. But the latter part of the
+ride seemed long, and the drive home interminable, for Margaret was in
+haste to be alone. She was not sure that the Duke's manner had changed
+since he had turned so strangely pale, but she fancied he spoke as if
+making an effort. However, they reached the hotel at last, and
+separated.
+
+"Thanks, so much," she said; "it has been such a delightful morning."
+
+"It has indeed," said he, "and--let me congratulate you once more.
+Claudius is a gentleman in every way, and--I suppose he is as worthy of
+you as any one could be," he added quickly, in a discontented voice, and
+turned away, hat in hand. She stood looking after him a moment.
+
+"I wonder," she said to herself as she entered her room and closed the
+door. "Poor man! it is not possible, though. I must be dreaming. Ah me!
+I am always dreaming now, it seems to me;" and she sank down in a chair
+to wait for Clementine.
+
+And so it is that some women go through life making far more victims
+than they know of. There are some honest men who will not speak, unless
+they have a right to, and who are noble enough to help those who have a
+right. The Duke had known Margaret ever since she had married Alexis, as
+has been said. Whether he had loved her or not is a question not so
+easily answered. Certain it is that when she told him she was going to
+be married to Claudius he turned very pale, and did not recover the
+entire use of his mind for a whole day.
+
+Nevertheless, during the succeeding fortnight he devoted himself
+sedulously to Margaret's amusement, and many were the things that he and
+she and Lady Victoria, and the incomparable Miss Skeat, who always
+enjoyed everything, planned and carried out together. Margaret did not
+shun society or shut herself up, and more than once she saw Barker in
+the street and in the crowds at parties. The houses in America are so
+small that parties are always crowded. But he had the good sense to
+avoid her, and she was not troubled by any communication from him.
+Clementine, indeed, wondered that so few flowers came, for a day or two,
+and old Vladimir pondered on the probable fate of Mr. Barker, who, he
+supposed, had been sent to Canada in chains for some political offence,
+seeing that he called no longer. But these faithful servitors could not
+ask questions, and sources of information they had none. Barker,
+however, as Margaret had anticipated, had been active in spreading the
+news of her engagement; for, before very long, callers were plenty, and
+flowers too, and many were the congratulations that poured in. Then she
+saw the wisdom of having informed the Duke of her position before any
+officious acquaintance could do it for her. The Duke, indeed, saw very
+few people in New York, for he hated to be "entertained," but he knew a
+great many men slightly, and some one of them would probably have
+obliged him with the information.
+
+One morning as he and the Countess were about to drive up to the Park
+for their daily ride, which had become an institution, the servant
+presented a card, saying the gentleman was anxious to see her ladyship
+at once, if possible. The card was that of Mr. Screw, of Screw and
+Scratch.
+
+"Very well," said the Countess, who was pulling on her gloves, and
+holding her riding-stick under one arm as she did so. "Ask him to come
+up." The Duke moved to withdraw.
+
+"Don't go, please," said Margaret; and so he remained. A moment later
+Mr. Screw's yellow head and small eyes appeared at the door.
+
+"The Countess Margaret?" he inquired deferentially.
+
+"Yes. Mr. Screw, I believe?"
+
+"The same, Madam. A--pardon me, but--I desired to speak with you alone,"
+stammered the lawyer, seeing that the Duke did not move.
+
+"I have asked the--this gentleman, who is my friend, to remain," said
+Margaret calmly. "You may speak freely. What is your business with me,
+sir?" She motioned him to a chair, and he sat down opposite her, hat in
+hand. He would have liked to hook his legs into each other and put his
+hands into his pockets, but he was too well bred for that. At last he
+took courage.
+
+"Frankly, Madam, I have come to discharge a moral duty, and I will speak
+plainly. I am informed on credible authority that you are engaged to
+marry a gentleman, calling himself Dr. Claudius--a--a tall man--fair
+beard?"
+
+"Your information is correct, Mr. Screw," said Margaret haughtily, "I am
+engaged to be married to Dr. Claudius."
+
+"As one of the executors of the late Mr. Gustavus Lindstrand, deceased,"
+proceeded Mr. Screw slowly, "I feel it my duty, as an honest man, to
+inform you that there are serious doubts as to whether the gentleman who
+calls himself Dr. Claudius is Dr. Claudius at all. The person in
+question disappeared two months ago, and has not been heard of since, as
+far as I can make out. I have no interest in the matter as far as it
+concerns yourself, as you may well imagine, but I have thought it right
+to warn you that the gentleman whom you have honoured with a promise of
+marriage has not established his claim to be the person he represents
+himself."
+
+Margaret, who, after the first words, had foreseen what Mr. Screw had
+come to say, and who believed that very respectable and honest man to be
+concerned in the plot against Claudius, was naturally angry, but she had
+the good sense to do the right thing.
+
+"Mr. Screw," she said in her commanding voice, icily, "I am deeply
+indebted to you for your interference. Nevertheless, I am persuaded that
+the gentleman to whom I am engaged is very really and truly the person
+he represents himself to be. A fact of which my friend here will
+probably be able to persuade you without difficulty." And she forthwith
+left the room. The Duke turned upon the lawyer.
+
+"Look here, Mr. Screw," he said sharply, "I am the--well, never mind my
+name, you can find out from the people downstairs. I am an English
+gentleman, and I know who Dr. Claudius is. I knew his father; I brought
+him to this country in my yacht. I am prepared to go into court this
+minute and swear to the identity of the gentleman you are slandering.
+Slandering, sir! Do you hear me?" The ducal anger was hot. "And except
+for the fact that Dr. Claudius will be here to speak for himself the day
+after to-morrow morning, I would take you into court now by main force
+and make you hear me swear to him. Do you hear me, sir?"
+
+"My dear sir," began Mr. Screw, who was somewhat taken aback by this
+burst of wrath.
+
+"Don't call me 'your dear sir,'" said the nobleman, moving towards
+Screw.
+
+"Sir, then," continued the other, who had not an idea to whom he was
+speaking, and perhaps would not have cared had he known, being such an
+honest man, "I cannot conceive why, if you are so certain, you have not
+come forward before, instead of allowing your friend to go to Europe in
+order to procure evidence he might have obtained here."
+
+"I am not going to argue with you," said the Duke. "Dr. Claudius would
+have gone to Europe in any case, if that is any satisfaction to you.
+What did you come here for?"
+
+"Because I thought it right to warn an unsuspecting lady of her danger,"
+answered Mr. Screw boldly.
+
+"Is that true? Do you really believe Claudius is not Claudius?" asked
+the Duke, coming close to the lawyer and looking him in the eyes.
+
+"Certainly, I believe him to be an impostor," said the other returning
+his gaze fearlessly.
+
+"I suppose you do," said the Duke, tolerably satisfied. "Now then, who
+sent you here?"
+
+"No one sent me," answered Screw with some pride. "I am not in the habit
+of being sent, as you call it. It was in the course of a conversation I
+had with Mr. Barker, the other day--"
+
+"I thought so," interrupted the Englishman. "I thought Mr. Barker was at
+the bottom of it. Will you please to deliver a message to Mr. Barker,
+with my compliments?" Screw nodded solemnly, as under protest.
+
+"Then be kind enough to tell him from me that he is a most infernal
+blackguard. That if he attempts to carry this abominable plot any
+further I will post him at every one of his clubs as a liar and a cheat,
+and--and that he had better keep out of my way. As for you, sir, I would
+advise you to look into his character, for I perceive that you are an
+honest man."
+
+"I am obliged to you, sir," said Mr. Screw, with something of a sneer.
+"But who are you, pray, that ventures to call my clients by such ugly
+names?"
+
+"There is my card--you can see for yourself," said the Duke. Screw read
+it. His anger was well roused by this time.
+
+"We have small respect for titles in this country, my Lord Duke," said
+he stiffly. "The best thing I can say is what you said to me, that you
+impress me as being an honest man. Nevertheless you may be mistaken."
+
+"That is a matter which will be decided the day after to-morrow," said
+the other. "Meanwhile, in pursuance of what I said, I thank you very
+sincerely indeed"--Mr. Screw smiled grimly--"no, I am in earnest, I
+really thank you, on behalf of the Countess Margaret, for the honourable
+part you have endeavoured to perform towards her; and I beg your pardon
+for having mistaken you, and supposed you were in the plot. But give my
+message to Mr. Barker--it is actionable, of course, and he may take
+action upon it, if he likes. Good-morning, sir."
+
+"Good-morning," said Screw shortly, somewhat pacified by the Duke's
+frank apology.
+
+"I think I settled him," said the peer to Margaret, as they got into the
+cab that was to drive them to the Park. And they cantered away in royal
+spirits.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+
+Whatever reason may say, whatever certainty we may feel, the last hours
+of waiting for an ocean steamer are anxious ones. The people at the
+office may assure us twenty times that they feel "no anxiety
+whatever"--that is their stock phrase; our friends who have crossed the
+ocean twice a year for a score of years may tell us that any vessel may
+be a few hours, nay, a few days, behind her reckoning; it may seem
+madness to entertain the least shadow of a doubt--and yet, until the
+feet we love are on the wharf and the dear glad hands in ours, the
+shadow of an awful possibility is over us, the dreadful consciousness of
+the capacity of the sea.
+
+The Duke, who, but for his anxiety to see the end, would have long since
+been on his way to England, had taken every precaution to ascertain the
+date of the ship's arrival. He took it for granted that Claudius would
+sail in the Cunard steamer, and he found out the vessel which sailed
+next after the Doctor had telegraphed. Then he made arrangements to be
+informed so soon as she was sighted, determined to go down in the
+Custom-House tug and board her at the Quarantine, that he might have the
+satisfaction of being first to tell Claudius all there was to be told.
+
+"The day after to-morrow," he had said to Margaret, "we may safely
+expect him," and he watched, with a sort of dull pleasure, the light
+that came into her eyes when she heard the time was so near.
+
+The first disappointment--alas, it was only the first--came on the
+evening before the appointed day. The Duke received a note from the
+office to the effect that late arrivals having reported very heavy
+weather, it was feared that the steamer might be delayed some hours. He
+at once inquired for the Countess, but found to his annoyance that both
+she and his sister had gone to the theatre. He had been out when they
+went, and so they had taken Miss Skeat as a sort of escort, and were
+doubtless enjoying themselves mightily. It was necessary, however, that
+Margaret should know the news of the delay before she went to bed, for
+it would have been cruel to allow her to wake in the morning with the
+assurance that Claudius might arrive at any moment.
+
+"If I wait for them, and make a fuss, she will think it is something
+serious," reflected the Duke with more than usual tact. So he wrote a
+note, simply stating that he had news of a delay in the arrival of some
+hours,--perhaps a whole day, he added, wishing to be on the safe side.
+He gave the note to Vladimir, and went away to his rooms.
+
+Margaret and Lady Victoria came home together in great spirits, laughing
+and rustling in their silk cloaks as they entered the little
+drawing-room, and sat down by the fire for a chat. Then Vladimir brought
+the Duke's note. Margaret read it by the firelight, and her face fell
+suddenly.
+
+"What is it, dear?" asked Lady Victoria affectionately, as she noticed
+her companion's distressed look.
+
+"Nothing--I suppose I ought not to be anxious. The steamer is delayed,
+that is all," and she gave the English girl her brother's note.
+
+"Oh, if it had been anything serious he would have sat up for us. It
+will probably be in in the afternoon instead of in the morning." But
+Margaret's eyes were heavy and her gladness was gone from her.
+
+"Do you ever have presentiments?" she asked, as they separated half an
+hour later.
+
+"Never," answered Lady Victoria cheerily, "and if I ever do they never
+come true."
+
+"I do," said Margaret, "I have a feeling that I shall never see him
+again." Poor Countess! She looked very miserable, with her white face
+and weary eyes.
+
+Early the next morning Lady Victoria told her brother what had been the
+effect of his note. He was very angry with himself for not having put it
+into better shape, and he determined to repair his error by devoting
+himself entirely to watching for the steamer. With this object, he went
+down to the Cunard office and established himself with a novel and a box
+of cigarettes, to pass the day. He refused to move, and sent out in the
+afternoon for something to eat. The people in the office did not know
+him, and he felt free to be as Bohemian as he pleased. Once in the
+course of the day he was told that a French steamer had come in and had
+met with very heavy weather, losing a boat or two. It was possible, they
+said, that the Cunarder, which had sailed on the day following this
+vessel's departure, though from a nearer point, might be delayed another
+twenty-four hours. For his part, he felt no fear of the safe arrival of
+the ship, in due time. The odds are a thousand to one that a company
+which has never lost a vessel at sea will not lose any particular one
+you name. Nevertheless, he arranged to be called up in the night, if her
+lights were sighted, and he returned somewhat disconsolately to the
+hotel. Again he bethought him that if he told the Countess he had passed
+the day in the steamer office she would overrate his anxiety and so
+increase her own.
+
+Margaret was really very unreasonable. There was not the slightest doubt
+that the steamer was safe, but she had become possessed, as Lady
+Victoria expressed it, by this unaccountable presentiment, that her
+fair-haired lover was gone from her for ever. Hideous things came up
+before her, poor drowned faces in the green swirl of the waves, men
+dead, and dying men grasping frantically at the white water-crests
+breaking over them, as though the rushing foam were a firm thing and
+could save them. She heard the wild thin wind screeching across the
+ocean furrows, breathless in his race with death. And then all seemed
+quiet, and she could see a grand form of a man, stiff-limbed and stark,
+the yellow hair all hanging down and the broad white throat turned up in
+death, floating solemnly through the deep green water, and seaweed, and
+ooze, far down below the angry waves.
+
+She struggled hard against these dark thoughts; but it was no use. They
+would come back, and all through the evening she sat by her fire, with
+eyes wide, and parted lips, staring at the embers and straining her
+hearing to catch the sound of some one coming to the door--some one
+bearing the welcome news that the good ship was sighted at last. But no
+sound came, all through that weary evening, nor any message of comfort.
+Lady Victoria sat with her, and Miss Skeat, pretending not to notice her
+distressed mood; and once or twice the Duke came in and spoke cheerfully
+of what they would do "when Claudius came back." But Margaret went to
+her room at last with a heavy heart, and would not be comforted.
+
+To tell the truth, the Duke firmly expected to receive the news of the
+ship's arrival during the night, and so great was his anxiety to relieve
+Margaret that he insisted upon Willis and Vladimir sitting up all night,
+so as to be sure of having the message delivered the moment it arrived.
+The Russian and the English servants hated each other, and he was
+certain they would not give each other any rest. But the Duke slept
+soundly, and waking at daybreak yelled viciously for Willis.
+
+"Well?" he said, "I suppose you went to sleep. Where is the telegram?"
+
+"There's no telegraph been yet, your Grace;" said the gray man-servant,
+who looked as though he had been up several nights instead of one.
+
+"Oh!" said the Duke with a change of voice. He was not given to bullying
+his servants, and always regretted being hasty with them, but his
+conviction had been strong that the message ought to have come in the
+night.
+
+Having spent the day previous in the office, he felt in duty bound not
+to relinquish his post until the Countess's doubts were set at rest. So
+he got into a cab; for, like many foreigners, he hated the Elevated
+Road, and was driven down town to the Bowling-Green.
+
+It rained heavily all the morning, and the Duke, who, as may be
+imagined, was not generally given to spending his days in steamboat
+offices, was wonderfully and horribly bored. He smoked and kicked the
+chairs and read his novel, and was generally extremely uneasy, so that
+the clerks began to find him a nuisance, not having any idea that he
+was a real living swell. And still it rained, and the newspaper vendors
+looked in, all drizzly and wet, and the gay feathers of New York
+business seemed draggled.
+
+Suddenly--it might have been at two o'clock--there was a stir in the
+office, a rattling of feet on the board floor, and a sort of general
+revival.
+
+"She's in sight," a clerk called out to the Duke. His Grace stretched
+himself and departed. He had ascertained that the Custom-House tug did
+not start for two hours after the ship was sighted. So he sent a
+telegram to Margaret to announce that her waiting was over, and then, to
+pass the time, he went, and got something to eat. In due season he was
+seated in the single cabin of the little high-pressure boat, as it
+ploughed its way bravely through the waves and the rain to meet the
+great ocean monster. The Custom-House officials, cheery well-fed men,
+who know the green side of a XX[4], and are seldom troubled with gloomy
+forebodings, chatted and chaffed merrily together. One of them was very
+bald, and appeared to be a perpetual laughing-stock for the rest.
+
+[Footnote 4: Twenty dollars.]
+
+"Well, Ike," shouted one of his companions between two pulls of a small
+black bottle, "you _hev_ got a skatin' rink on to the top of _your_
+head, and no _mistake_". The other grinned, and retorted to the effect
+that it was better to have the outside smooth than the inside soft.
+
+"Well, I guess you got both, like a water-melon," returned the first
+speaker.
+
+There are seldom more than one or two passengers on the Custom-House
+tug, and on this occasion the Duke was alone. He could not stand the
+atmosphere of tobacco and whisky in the cabin, and made his way along
+the side to the engine-room, leaving the Custom-House men to their smoke
+and their repartee.
+
+It was almost five o'clock, and already nearly dark, when they came up
+with the great steamer. In five minutes the Duke was over the side,
+hurrying down to find his friend. Not seeing him anywhere, he found the
+bursar and inquired for Dr. Claudius. The officer replied that he had
+not made his acquaintance on the voyage, but offered the Duke a list of
+the passengers, remarking that the ship was unusually crowded for the
+time of year.
+
+The Duke ran his finger down the list, then thinking he had missed the
+name he sought, he held the paper close to the lamp. But there was no
+"Dr. Claudius" there. His face fell and his heart beat fast, for he had
+been so positively certain. Poor Margaret! What would she do? How
+foolish of Claudius not to telegraph the day he sailed!
+
+"You are quite sure there are no omissions here?" asked the Duke of the
+bursar.
+
+"Quite sure, sir," answered he. "Wait a minute, though," he said, as the
+Duke dropped the list, "there was a passenger taken ashore at Queenstown
+very ill. A tall man, I should say, though they carried him. He had not
+registered on board, and he was so ill he gave up the passage. I could
+not tell you his name."
+
+"Had he a light beard?" asked the Duke in great alarm.
+
+"Um! yes; a large beard at all events. I remember how he looked as they
+carried him past. He was awfully pale, and his eyes were closed."
+
+"My God!" exclaimed the Duke; "it must have been he! Does no one know
+his name?"
+
+"The captain may. He would not see you now, just going into port, but I
+will go and ask him," added the officer kindly, seeing how much
+distressed the other seemed to be.
+
+"Do--thanks--please ask him--yes!" he ejaculated, and sank into a chair.
+The bursar returned in a quarter of an hour.
+
+"I am sorry to say, sir," he said, "that no one seems to have known his
+name. It sometimes happens. I am very sorry."
+
+The Duke saw there was nothing to be done. It was clear that Claudius
+was not on board; but it was by no means clear that Claudius was not
+lying ill, perhaps dead, in Queenstown. The poor Englishman bit his lips
+in despair, and was silent. He could not decide how much he ought to
+tell Margaret, and how much he ought to keep to himself. The sick
+passenger seemed to answer the description, and yet he might not have
+been the Doctor for all that. Tall man--pale--he would be pale anyhow if
+he were ill--fair beard--yes, it sounded like him.
+
+"I wish Vick were here," said the Duke to himself; "she has so much
+sense." Immediately the idea of consulting with his sister developed
+itself in his mind. "How can I get ashore?" he asked suddenly.
+
+"I am afraid you will have to wait till we are in," said the friendly
+officer. "It will not be more than an hour now."
+
+Impelled by some faint hope that the Doctor's name might have been
+omitted by some accident, the Duke rose and threaded his way among the
+crowding passengers, as they got their traps together and moved about
+the great saloons. He pursued every tall man he saw, till he could catch
+a glimpse of his face. At last he met a towering figure in a darkened
+passage way.
+
+"My dear Claudius!" he cried, holding out his hand. But the stranger
+only paused, muttered something about a "mistake" and passed on. The
+excitement grew on the Duke, as it became certain that Claudius was not
+on board, and never in the whole of his very high and mighty life had he
+been in such a state of mind. Some of the passengers noted his uneasy
+movements and exchanged remarks in an undertone, as he passed and
+repassed.
+
+"He is probably crazy," said an Englishman.
+
+"He is probably drunk," said an American.
+
+"He is probably a defaulting bank cashier," said a Scotchman.
+
+"He looks very wild," said a New York mamma.
+
+"He looks very unhappy," said her daughter.
+
+"He is very well dressed," said her son, who got his clothes half yearly
+from Smallpage.
+
+But the time passed at last, and the great thing came up to her pier,
+and opened her jaws and disgorged her living freight down a steep plank
+on to dry earth again; and the Duke, with a final look at the stream of
+descending passengers, forced his way ashore, and jumped into the first
+cab he saw.
+
+"Drive to the nearest Elevated station," he shouted.
+
+"Which avenue?" inquired the driver with that placidity which cabmen
+assume whenever one is in a hurry.
+
+"Oh, any avenue--damn the avenue--Sixth Avenue of course!" cried the
+Duke in a stew.
+
+"Very good, sir--Sixth Avenue Elevated, did you say?" and he
+deliberately closed the door and mounted to his box.
+
+"What shall I tell her--what shall I say?" were the questions that
+repeated themselves with stunning force in his ear as he rattled through
+the streets, and slid over the smooth Elevated Road, swiftly towards his
+hotel. He had still some few hundred yards to walk from the station when
+he got out. His courage failed him, and he walked slowly, with bent head
+and heavy heart, the bearer of bad news.
+
+Leisurely he climbed the steps, and the few stairs to his room. There
+stood Lady Victoria under the gaslight, by the fire, looking at the
+clock.
+
+"At last," she cried, "how _did_ you miss him?"
+
+"Whom?" asked her brother dejectedly.
+
+"Why, Claudius, of course!"
+
+"Claudius is not come," he said in a low voice.
+
+"Not come?" cried Lady Victoria, "not come? Why he has been here these
+two hours, with Margaret!"
+
+The Duke was fairly overpowered and worn-out with excitement, and he
+fell back into a chair.
+
+"How the--" he began, but checked the expletive, which found vent
+elsewhere, as expletives will. "Where the devil did he come from?"
+
+"From Europe, I believe," said she. "Don't swear about it."
+
+"Excuse me, Vick, I am bowled out; I was never so taken aback in my
+life. Tell me all about it, Vick." And he slowly recovered his senses
+enough to appreciate that Claudius had really arrived, and that he, the
+friend who had taken so much trouble, had somehow missed him after all.
+But he was honestly glad.
+
+"I only saw him a moment, and I came in to your room to wait. Of course
+I let him go in there alone."
+
+"Of course," assented her brother gravely.
+
+"Margaret was waiting for him, for she got your telegram that the ship
+was in sight at three o'clock, and he got here at five; I thought it was
+very quick."
+
+"Devilish quick, indeed," said her profane brother under his breath.
+"Tell me all about it," he added aloud.
+
+It was easily enough explained, and before they went to bed that night
+every one understood it all. It was simply this--Claudius had come by
+another steamer, one of the German line, and had chanced to arrive a
+couple of hours before the Cunarder. Margaret had received the Duke's
+message, as Lady Victoria had said, and, as Claudius appeared soon
+afterwards, she saw no discrepancy.
+
+The tall Doctor left his slender luggage to the mercy of the Custom
+House, and, hailing a cab, paid the man double fare in advance to hurry
+to the hotel. He could hardly wait while the servant went through the
+formality of taking up his name to the Countess, and when the message
+came back that he would "please to step up upstairs," as the stereotyped
+American hotel phrase has it, he seemed indeed to make of the stairway
+but a single step.
+
+One moment more, and he was kneeling at her feet, trembling in every
+limb and speechless, but kissing the fair white hands again and again,
+while she bent down her flushed dark cheek till it touched his yellow
+hair. Then he stood up to his height and kissed her forehead and clasped
+his fingers about her waist and held her up to the length of his mighty
+arms before him, unconscious, in his overmastering happiness, of the
+strength he was exerting. But she laughed happily, and her eyes flashed
+in pride of such a man.
+
+"Forgive me, my beloved," he said at last. "I am beside myself with
+joy." She hid her face on his breast as they stood together.
+
+"Are you very glad to come back?" she asked at last, looking up to him
+with a smile that told the answer.
+
+"Glad is too poor a word, my dear, dear lady," he said simply.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Two hours later they were still seated side by side on the deep sofa.
+Claudius had told her everything, for, now that he had accomplished his
+mission, there were to be no more secrets; and there were tears in
+Margaret's dark eyes as she heard, for she knew what it had cost him to
+leave her, knowing how he loved. And then they talked on.
+
+"If it is to be so soon, dear," she said, "let it be on Christmas Day."
+
+"So be it. And, beloved, where shall we go?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, away--away from New York, and--and Mr. Barker and Mr. Screw and all
+these horrid people," she cried; for she too had confessed and told him
+all.
+
+"Yes," he said; and was silent for a moment. "Dear one," he began again,
+"there is one thing more that you ought to know--" he stopped.
+
+"Yes?" she said interrogatively.
+
+"My blessed lady, I have told you the story of my birth for the first
+time to-day. I thought you ought to know it."
+
+"That would never have made any difference, Claudius," she answered half
+reproachfully.
+
+"My uncle--my father's brother--died a week before I sailed."
+
+"I am sorry, dear," said she in ready sympathy; "were you fond of him?"
+She did not realise what he meant.
+
+"I never remember to have seen him," he replied; "but--he died
+childless. And I--I am no longer a _privat-docent_." Margaret turned
+quickly to him, comprehending suddenly.
+
+"Then you are the heir?" she asked.
+
+"Yes, darling," he said softly. "It is a great name, and you must help
+me to be worthy of it. I am no longer Dr. Claudius." He added the last
+sentence with a shade of regret.
+
+"And you need never have taken any trouble about this stupid money,
+after all? You are independent of all these people?"
+
+"Yes," he answered, with a smile, "entirely so."
+
+"I am so glad,--so glad, you do not know," said she, clasping her hands
+on his shoulder. "You know I hated to feel you were wrangling with those
+lawyers for money;" and she laughed a little scornfully.
+
+"We will have it, all the same," said Claudius, smiling, "and you shall
+do as you like with it, beloved. It was honestly got, and will bring no
+ill luck with it. And now I have told you, I say, let us go to my
+father's house and make it ours." He spoke proudly and fondly. "Let me
+welcome my dear lady where her match was never welcomed before."
+
+"Yes, dear, we will go there."
+
+"Perhaps the Duke will lend us the yacht?" said Claudius.
+
+"Yes," said Margaret, and there was a tinge of sadness in her voice,
+"yes, perhaps the Duke will lend us the yacht."
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Doctor Claudius, A True Story
+by F. Marion Crawford
+
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