initial commit of ebook 17084HEADmain

9 files changed, 29013 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/17084-8.txt b/17084-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7427e7e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17084-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,9590 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Guy Livingstone;, by George A. Lawrence
+
+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: Guy Livingstone;
+       or, 'Thorough'
+
+Author: George A. Lawrence
+
+Release Date: November 17, 2005 [EBook #17084]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GUY LIVINGSTONE; ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Garcia, Martin Pettit and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Kentuckiana Digital Library)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+GUY LIVINGSTONE;
+
+OR,
+
+"THOROUGH."
+
+BY
+
+GEORGE A. LAWRENCE.
+
+
+ICH HABE GELEBT UND GELIEBT.
+
+
+NEW YORK:
+HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
+FRANKLIN SQUARE.
+1868.
+
+
+
+
+GUY LIVINGSTONE.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+     "Neque imbellem feroces
+     Progenerant aquilæ columbam."
+
+
+It is not a pleasant epoch in one's life, the first forty-eight hours at
+a large public school. I have known strong-minded men of mature age
+confess that they never thought of it without a shiver. I don't count
+the home-sickness, which perhaps only affects seriously the most
+innocent of _débutants_, but there are other thousand and one little
+annoyances which make up a great trouble. If there were nothing else,
+for instance, the unceasing query, "What's your name?" makes you feel
+the possession of a cognomen at all a serious burden and bar to
+advancement in life.
+
+A dull afternoon toward the end of October; the sky a neutral tint of
+ashy gray; a bitter northeast wind tearing down the yellow leaves from
+the old elms that girdle the school-close of ----; a foul, clinging
+paste of mud and trampled grass-blades under foot, that chilled you to
+the marrow; a mob of two hundred lower boys, vicious with cold and the
+enforcement of keeping goal through the first football match of the
+season--in the midst, I, who speak to you, feeling myself in an
+eminently false position--there's the _mise en scène_.
+
+My small persecutors had surrounded me, but had hardly time to settle
+well to their work, when one of the players came by, and stopped for an
+instant to see what was going on. The match had not yet begun.
+
+There was nothing which interested him much apparently, for he was
+passing on, when my despondent answer to the everlasting question caught
+his ear. He turned round then--
+
+"Any relation to Hammond of Holt?"
+
+I replied, meekly but rather more cheerfully, that he was my uncle.
+
+"I know him very well," the new-comer said. "Don't bully him more than
+you can help, you fellows; I'll wait for you after calling over,
+Hammond. I should like to ask you about the squire."
+
+He had no time to say more, for just then the ball was kicked off, and
+the battle began. I saw him afterward often during that afternoon,
+always in the front of the rush or the thick of the scrimmage, and I
+saw, too, more than one player limp out of his path disconsolately,
+trying vainly to dissemble the pain of a vicious "hack."
+
+I'll try to sketch Guy Livingstone as he appeared to me then, at our
+first meeting.
+
+He was about fifteen, but looked fully a year older, not only from his
+height, but from a disproportionate length of limb and development of
+muscle, which ripened later into the rarest union of activity and
+strength that I have ever known. His features were very dark and pale,
+too strongly marked to be called handsome; about the lips and lower jaw
+especially there was a set sternness that one seldom sees before the
+beard is grown. The eyes were very dark gray, nearly black, and so
+deeply set under the thick eyebrows that they looked smaller than they
+really were; and I remember, even at that early age, their expression,
+when angered, was any thing but pleasant to meet. His dress was well
+adapted for displaying his deep square chest and sinewy arms--a
+close-fitting jersey, and white trowsers girt by a broad black belt; the
+cap, orange velvet, fronted with a silver Maltese cross.
+
+The few words he had spoken worked an immediate change in my favor. I
+heard one of my tormentors say, not without awe, "The Count knows his
+people at home;" and they not only left me in peace, but, a little
+later, some of them began to tell me of a recent exploit of Guy's, which
+had raised him high in their simple hero-worship, and which, I dare say,
+is still enumerated among the feats of the brave days of old by the fags
+over their evening small-beer.
+
+To appreciate it, you must understand that the highest form in the
+school--the sixth--were regarded by the fags and other subordinate
+classes with an inexpressible reverence and terror. They were considered
+as exempt from the common frailties of schoolboy nature: no one ventured
+to fix a limit to their power. Like the gods of the Lotus-eater, they
+lay beside their nectar, rarely communing with ordinary mortals except
+to give an order or set a punishment. On the form immediately below them
+part of their glory was reflected; these were a sort of hêmitheoi,
+awaiting their translation into the higher Olympus of perfected
+omnipotence.
+
+In this intermediate state flourished, at the time I speak of, one
+Joseph Baines, a fat, small-eyed youth, with immense pendent pallid
+cheeks, rejoicing in the _sobriquet_ of "Buttons," his father being
+eminent in that line in the Midland Metropolis. The son was Brummagem to
+the back-bone. He was intensely stupid; but, having been a fixture at
+---- beyond the memory of the oldest inhabitant, he had slowly
+gravitated on into his present position, on the old Ring principle,
+"weight must tell." I believe he had been bullied continuously for many
+years, and now, with a dull, pertinacious malignity, was biding his
+time, intending, on his accession to power, to inflict full reprisals on
+those below him; or, in his own expressive language, "to take it out of
+'em, like smoke." He was keeping his hand in by the perpetration of
+small tyrannies on all whom he was not afraid to meddle with; but
+hitherto, from a lingering suspicion, perhaps, that it was not quite
+safe, he had never annoyed Livingstone.
+
+It was on a Saturday night, the hebdomadal Saturnalia, when the week's
+work was over, and no one had any thing to do; the heart of Joseph was
+jocund with pork chops and mulled beer, and, his evil genius tempting
+him, he proposed to three of his intimates "to go and give the Count a
+turn." Nearly every one had a nickname, and this had been given to Guy,
+partly, I think, from his haughty demeanor, partly from a prevalent idea
+that this German dignity was dormant somewhere in his family. When the
+_quartette_ entered, Guy knew perfectly what they came for, but he sat
+quite still and silent, while two of them held him down by the arms in
+his chair.
+
+"I think you'd look very well with a cross on, Count," Baines said, "so
+keep steady while we decorate you."
+
+As he spoke he was mixing up a paste with tallow and candle-snuff, and,
+when it was ready, came near to daub the cross on Livingstone's
+forehead.
+
+The two who held him had been quite deceived by his unexpected
+tranquillity, and had somewhat relaxed their gripe as they leaned
+forward to witness the operation; but the fourth, standing idle, saw all
+at once the pupils of his eyes contract, and his lips set so ominously,
+that the words were in his mouth, "Hold him fast!" when Guy, exerting
+the full force of his arms, shook himself clear, and grasping a
+brass-candlestick within his reach, struck the executioner straight
+between the eyes. The effort of freeing himself to some extent broke the
+force of the blow, or the great Baines dynasty might have ended there
+and then; as it was, Buttons fell like a log, and, rolling once over on
+his face, lay there bleeding and motionless.
+
+While the assistants were too much astounded to detain him, Guy walked
+out without a glance at his prostrate enemy; and going straight to the
+head of the house, told him what had happened. The character of the
+aggressor was so well known, that, when they found he was not seriously
+hurt, they let Guy off easy with "two books of the _Iliad_ to write out
+in Greek." Buttons kept the sick-room for ten days, and came out looking
+more pasty than ever, with his pleasant propensities decidedly checked
+for the time.
+
+In his parish church at Birmingham, two tons of marble weighing him
+down, the old button-maker sleeps with his father (to pluralize his
+ancestors would be a grave historical error), and Joseph II. reigns in
+his stead, exercising, I doubt not, over his factory-people the same
+ingenuity of torture which in old times nearly drove the fags to
+rebellion. He is a Demosthenes, they say, at vestries, and a Draco at
+the Board of Guardians; but in the centre of his broad face, marring the
+platitude of its smooth-shaven respectability, still burns angrily a
+dark red scar--Guy's sign-manual--which he will carry to his grave.
+
+The exultation of the lower school over this exploit was boundless.
+Fifty energetic admirers contended for the honor of writing out the
+punishment inflicted on the avenger; and one sentimentalist, just in
+Herodotus, preserved the fatal candlestick as an inestimable relic,
+wreathing its stem with laurel and myrtle, in imitation of the honors
+paid by Athens to the sword that slew the Pisistratid.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+     "My only books
+     Were woman's looks,
+       And folly all they taught me."
+
+
+The Count bore his honors very calmly, though every week some fresh feat
+of bodily strength or daring kept adding to his popularity. It was no
+slight temptation to his vanity; for, as some one has said truly, no
+successful adventurer in after-life ever wins such undivided admiration
+and hearty partisans as a school hero. The _prestige_ of the liberator
+among the Irish peasantry comes nearest to it, I think; or the feeling
+of a clan, a hundred years ago, toward their chief. It must be very
+pleasant to be quoted so incessantly and believed in so implicitly, and
+to know that your decisions are so absolutely without appeal. From that
+first day when he interfered in my favor, Guy never ceased to accord me
+the ægis of his protection, and it served me well; for, then as now, I
+was strong neither in body nor nerve. Yet our tastes, save in one
+respect, were as dissimilar as can be imagined. The solitary conformity
+was, that we were both, in a desultory way, fond of reading, and our
+favorite books were the same. Neither would do more school-work than was
+absolutely necessary, but at light literature of a certain class we read
+hard.
+
+I don't think Guy's was what is usually called a poetical temperament,
+for his taste in this line was quite one-sided. He was no admirer of
+the picturesque, certainly. I have heard him say that his idea of a
+country to live in was where there was no hill steep enough to wind a
+horse in good condition, and no wood that hounds could not run through
+in fifteen minutes; therein following the fancy of that eminent French
+philosopher, who, being invited to climb Ben Lomond to enjoy the most
+magnificent of views, responded meekly, "_Aimez-vous les beautés de la
+Nature? Pour moi, je les abhorre_." Can you not fancy the strident
+emphasis on the last syllable, revealing how often the poor materialist
+had been victimized before he made a stand at last?
+
+All through Livingstone's life the real was to predominate over the
+ideal; and so it was at this period of it. He had a great dislike to
+purely sentimental or descriptive poetry, preferring to all others those
+battle-ballads, like the _Lays of Rome_, which stir the blood like a
+trumpet, or those love-songs which heat it like rough strong wine.
+
+He was very fond of Homer, too. He liked the diapason of those sonorous
+hexameters, that roll on, sinking and swelling with the ebb and flow of
+a stormy sea. I hear his voice--deep-toned and powerful even at that
+early age--finishing the story of Poseidon and his beautiful
+prize--their bridal-bed laid in the hollow of a curling wave--
+
+     _"Porphureon d' ara kuma peristathê, oureï ison,
+     Kurtôthen, krupsen de Theon thnêtên te gunaika."_
+
+And yet they say that the glorious old Sciote was a myth, and the
+Odyssey a magazine worked out by clever contributors. They might as well
+assert that all his marshals would have made up one Napoleon.
+
+I remember how we used to pass in review the beauties of old time, for
+whom "many drew swords and died," whose charms convulsed kingdoms and
+ruined cities, who called the stars after their own names.
+
+Ah! Gyneth and Ida, peerless queens of beauty, it was exciting,
+doubtless, to gaze down from your velveted gallery on the mad tilting
+below, to see ever and anon through the yellow dust a kind, handsome
+face looking up at you, pale but scarcely reproachful, just before the
+horse-hoofs trod it down; ah! fairest Ninons and Dianas--prizes that,
+like the Whip at Newmarket, were always to be challenged for--you were
+proud when your reckless lover came to woo, with the blood of last
+night's favorite not dry on his blade; but what were your fatal honors
+compared to those of a reigning toast in the rough, ancient days? The
+demigods and heroes that were suitors did not stand upon trifles, and
+the contest often ended in the extermination of all the lady's male
+relatives to the third and fourth generation. People then took it quite
+as a matter of course--rather a credit to the family than otherwise.
+
+Guy and I discussed, often and gravely, the relative merits of Evadne
+the violet-haired, Helen, Cleopatra, and a hundred others, just as, on
+the steps of White's, or in the smoking-room at the "Rag," men compare
+the points of the _débutantes_ of the season.
+
+His knowledge of feminine psychology--it _must_ have been theoretical,
+for he was not seventeen--implied a study and depth of research that was
+quite surprising; but I am bound to state that his estimate of the
+strength of character and principle inherent in the weaker sex was any
+thing but high; nearly, indeed, identical with that formed by the
+learned lady who, to the question, "Did she think the virtue of any
+single one of her sisterhood impregnable?" replied "_C'est selon_." He
+often used to astonish my weak mind by his observations on this head. I
+did not know till afterward that Sir Henry Fallowfield, the Bassompierre
+of his day, came for the Christmas pheasant-shooting every year into
+Guy's neighborhood, and that he had already imbibed lessons of
+questionable morality, sitting at the gouty feet of that evil Gamaliel.
+
+He spoke of and to women of every class readily whenever he got the
+chance, always with perfect _aplomb_ and self-possession; and I have
+heard older men remark since, that in him it did not appear the
+precocity of "the rising generation," but rather the confidence of one
+who knew his subject well. Perhaps the fact of his father having died
+when he was an infant, and his having always been suzerain among his
+women at home, may have had something to do with this. An absurd
+instance of what I have been saying happened just before Guy left.
+
+By time-honored custom, four or five of the Sixth were invited every
+week to dine with the head master. They were not, strictly speaking,
+convivial, those solemn banquets; where the host was condescendingly
+affable, and his guests cheerful, as it were, under protest; resembling
+somewhat the entertainments in the captain's cabin, where the chief is
+unpopular.
+
+Our Archididascalus was a kind-hearted, honest man, albeit, by virtue
+of his office, somewhat strict and stern. You could read the
+_Categories_ in the wrinkles of his colorless face, and contested
+passages of Thucydides in the crows'-feet round his eyes. The
+everlasting grind at the educational tread-mill had worn away all he
+might once have had of imagination; he translated with precisely the
+same intonations the Tusculan _Disputations_ and--_Erôs anikate machan._
+
+He had lately taken to himself a wife, his junior by a score of years.
+The academic atmosphere had not had time then to freeze her into the
+dignity befitting her position; when I met her ten years later, she was
+steady and staid enough, poor thing, to have been the wife of Grotius.
+
+Guy sat next to her that evening, and before the first course was over a
+decided flirtation was established. The pretty hostess, albeit wife of a
+doctor and daughter of a dean, had evidently a strong coquettish element
+in her composition, and a very slight spark was sufficient to relight
+the _veteris vestigia flammæ._
+
+For some time her husband did not seem to realize the position; but
+gradually his sentences grew rare and curt; he opened his mouth, no
+longer to let fall the pearls of his wisdom, but to stop it with savory
+meat; finally this last resource failed, and he sat, looking wrathfully
+but helplessly on the proceedings at the other end of the table--a
+lamentable instance of prostrated ecclesiastical dignity. His disgust,
+however, was far exceeded by the horror of one of the party, a meek,
+cadaverous-looking boy, whose parents lived in the town, and who was
+wont to regard the head master as the vicegerent of all powers, civil
+and sacerdotal--I am not sure he did not include military as well. I
+caught him looking several times at the door and the ceiling with a
+pale, guilty face, as if he expected some immediate visitation to punish
+the sacrilege. However, heaven, which did not interrupt the feast of
+Atreus or of Tereus (till the dessert), allowed us to finish our dinner
+in peace. During the interval when we sat alone over his claret, our
+host revived a little; but utterly relapsed in the drawing-room, where
+things went on worse than ever. Guy leaned over the fair Penelope (such
+was her classical and not inappropriate name) while she was singing, and
+over her sofa afterward, evidently considering himself her legitimate
+proprietor for the time, and regarding the husband, as he hovered round
+them, in the light of an unauthorized intruder. The latter would have
+given any thing, once or twice, to have interfered, I am sure; but,
+apart from, the extreme ridicule of the thing, he was in his own house,
+and as hospitable as Saladin.
+
+It was a great scene, when, at parting, she gave Guy the camellia that
+she wore at her breast; the doctor gasped thrice convulsively and said
+no word; but I wonder how she accounted afterward for the smile and
+blush which answered some whispered thanks? There are certain limits
+that even the historian dares not transgress; a veil falls between the
+profane and the thalamus of an LL.D.; but I rather imagine she had a
+hard time of it that night, the poor little woman! Let us hope, in
+charity, that she held her own.
+
+When the Count was questioned as to the conversation that had passed,
+he declined to give any particulars, merely remarking that "he had to
+thank Dr. ---- for for a very pleasant evening, and he hoped everyone
+had enjoyed themselves very much"--which was philanthropic, to say the
+least of it.
+
+I don't know if it was our imagination, but we fancied that when the
+head master called up Livingstone in form after this, he did so with an
+air of grave defiance, such as a duelist of the Old Régime may have worn
+when, doffing his plumed hat, he said to his adversary, "_En garde!_"
+
+There was little time to make observations, for shortly afterward Guy
+went up to Oxford, whither, six months later, I followed him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+     "Through many an hour of summer suns,
+       By many pleasant ways,
+     Like Hezekiah's, backward runs
+       The shadow of my days."
+
+
+When I came up, I found Guy quite established and at home. He was a
+general favorite with all the men he knew at college, though intimate
+with but very few. There was but one individual who hated him
+thoroughly, and I think the feeling was mutual--the senior tutor, a
+flaccid being, with a hand that felt like a fish two days out of water,
+a large nose, and a perpetual cold in his head. He consistently and
+impartially disbelieved every one on their word, requiring material
+proof of each assertion; an original mode of acquiring the confidence of
+his pupils, and precluding any thing like an attempt at deception on
+their part. I remember well a discussion on his merits that took place
+in the porter's lodge one night just after twelve. When several had
+given their opinions more or less strongly, some one asked the gate-ward
+what he thought of the individual in question, to which that eminent
+functionary thus replied: "Why, you see, sir, I'm only a servant, and,
+as such, can't speak freely, but I wish he was dead, I do."
+
+As I have said, Livingstone disliked Selkirk heartily, and did not take
+the trouble to conceal it. He used to look at him sometimes with a
+curious expression in his eyes, which made the tutor twirl and writhe
+uncomfortably in his chair. The latter annoyed him as much as he
+possibly could, but Guy held on the even tenor of his way, seldom
+contravening the statutes except in hunting three days a week, which he
+persisted in doing, all lectures and regulations notwithstanding. He
+rode little under fourteen stone even then; but the three horses he kept
+were well up to his weight, and he stood A 1 in Jem Hill's estimation as
+"the best heavy-weight that had come out of Oxford for many a day;" for
+he not only went straight as a die, but rode _to_ hounds instead of
+_over_ them. I suppose this latter practice is inherent in University
+sportsmen. I know, in my time, the way in which they pressed on hounds,
+for the first two fields out of cover or after a check, used to make the
+gray hairs, which were the brave old huntsman's crown of glory, stand on
+end with indignation and terror, so that he prayed devoutly for a big
+fence which, like the broken bridge at Leipsic, might prove a stopper to
+the pursuing army. There was the making of a good rider in many of them,
+too; they only wanted ballast, for they knew no more of fear than Nelson
+did, and would grind over the Vale of the Evenlode and the Marsh Gibbon
+double timber as gayly and undauntedly as over the accommodating
+Bullingdon hurdles. And what screws they rode! ancient animals bearing
+as many scars as a _vieux de la vieille_, that were considered short of
+work if they did not come out five days a fortnight. This was Guy's
+favorite pursuit; but he threw off the superfluity of his animal
+energies in all sorts of athletics: in sparring especially he attained a
+rare excellence; so well-known was it, indeed, that he passed his first
+year without striking a blow in anger, through default of an antagonist,
+except a chance one or two exchanged in the _melée_ which is imperative
+on the 5th of November.
+
+I did not hunt much myself, for my health was far from strong, and, I
+confess, my University recollections are not lively.
+
+After the first flush of novelty had worn off, they bored one
+intensely--those large wines and suppers where, night by night, a score
+of Nephelégeretæ sat shrouded in smoke, chanting the same equivocal
+ditties, drinking the same fiery liquors miscalled the juice of the
+grape, villainous enough to make the patriarch that planted the vine
+stir remorsefully in his grave under Ararat--each man all the while
+talking "shop," _à l'outrance_. The skeleton of ennui sat at these
+dreary feasts; and it was not even crowned with roses. I often used to
+wonder what the majority of my contemporaries conversed about, when in
+the bosom of their families, during the "long." They couldn't _always_
+have been inflicting Oxford on their miserable relatives; the weakest of
+human natures would have revolted against such tyranny; and yet the
+horizon of their ideas seemed as utterly bounded by Bagley and
+Headington Hill as if the great ocean-stream had flowed outside those
+limits. Some adventurous spirits, it is true, stretched away as far as
+Woodstock and Abingdon, but I doubt if they returned much improved by
+the grand tour.
+
+One of their most remarkable characteristics was the invincible terror
+and repugnance that they appeared to entertain to the society of women
+of their own class. When the visitation was inevitable, it is
+impossible to describe the great horror that fell on these unfortunate
+boys. The feeling of Zanoni's pupil, as the Watcher on the Threshold
+came floating and creeping toward him, was nothing to it.
+
+For example, at Commemoration--to which festival "lions" from all
+quarters of the earth resorted in vast droves--when one of this class
+was hard hit by the charms of some fair stranger, he never thought of
+expressing his admiration otherwise than by piteous looks, directed at
+her from an immense distance, out of shot for an opera-glass; when in
+her immediate vicinity his motto was that of the Breton baron--_mourir
+muet_. Claret-cup flowed and Champagne sparkled, powerless to raise him
+to the audacity of an avowal. Under the woods of Nuneham, in the gardens
+of Blenheim, amid the crowd of the Commemoration ball, the same deep
+river of diffidence flowed between him and his happiness. My own idea is
+that, after all was over, the silent ones, like Jacques' stricken deer,
+used to "go weep" over chances lost and opportunities neglected. With
+waitresses at wayside inns, _et id genus omne_, they were tolerably
+self-possessed and reliant; though even there "a thousand might well be
+stopped by three," and I would have backed an intelligent barmaid
+against the field at odds; indeed, I think I have seen a security nearly
+allied to contempt on the fine features of a certain "lone _star_" as
+she parried--so easily!--the compliments and repartees of a dozen
+assailants at once, accounted, in their own quadrangles, Millamours of
+the darkest dye.
+
+Guy accounted for this unfortunate peculiarity by saying that a cigar
+in the mouth was the normal state of many of these men; so that, when
+circumstances debarred them from the Havana courage, they lost all
+presence of mind, and, being unable to retreat under cover of the smoke,
+lapsed instantly into a sullen despair, suffering themselves to be shot
+down unresistingly. Perhaps some future philosopher will favor us with a
+better solution to this important problem in physics; I know of none.
+
+After all, the reading men did best, though we did not think so then,
+when we saw them creeping into morning chapel jaded and heavy-eyed,
+after a debauch over Herodotus or the Stagyrite. They had a purpose in
+view, at all events, and, I believe, were placidly content during the
+progress of its attainment--in the seventh heaven when their hopes were
+crowned by a First, or even a Second. True; the pace was too good for
+some of the half-bred ones, and such as could not stand the training,
+who departed, to fade away rapidly in the old house at home, or to pine,
+slowly, but very surely, in remote curacies.
+
+Some of these, I fancy, must have sympathized with Madame de Staël's
+consumptive niece, who answered to the question, "Why she was weeping
+all alone?" "_Je me regrette._" When, resting in their daily walk,
+shortened till it became a toil to reach the shady seat under the elms
+at the garden's end, they watched the stalwart plowmen and drovers go
+striding by, without a trouble behind their tanned foreheads except the
+thought that wages might fall a shilling a week, was there no envy, I
+wonder, as they looked down on the wan hands lying so listless across
+their knees? Would they not have given their First, and their fellowship
+in embryo to boot, to have had the morning appetite of Tom Chauntrell,
+the horse-breaker, after twelve pipes overnight, with gin and water to
+match, or to have been able, like Joe Springett, the under keeper, to
+breast the steepest brae in Cumberland with never a sob or a painful
+breath? Did they never murmur while thinking how brightly the blade
+might have flashed, how deftly have been wielded, if the worthless
+scabbard had only lasted out till, on some grand field-day, the word was
+given, "Draw swords?" Some felt this, doubtless; but the most part, I
+imagine, were possessed with a comfortable assurance that their short
+life had been useful, if not ornamental; and so, to a certain extent,
+they had their reward. At any rate, their ending was to the full as
+glorious as that of some other friends of ours, who crawl away from the
+battle-ground of the _Viveurs_ to die, or to linger on helpless
+hypochondriacs.
+
+If I have spoken depreciatingly or unfairly of the mass of my college
+coevals (and it may well be so), I do full justice, in thought at least,
+to some brilliant exceptions. I founded friendships there which, I
+trust, will outlive me.
+
+I do not forget Warrenne, too good for the men he lived with, a David in
+our camp of Kedar--always going on straight in the path he thought
+right--though ever and anon his hot Irish blood would chafe fiercely
+under the curb self-imposed--and laboring incessantly, with all
+gentleness, to induce others to follow; a Launcelot in his devotion to
+womankind; a Galahad in purity of thought and purpose. I have never
+known a man of the world so single-hearted, or a saint with so much
+_savoir vivre_.
+
+I see before me now Lovell, with his frank look and cheery laugh, the
+model of a stalwart English squirehood; and Petre, equal to either
+fortune; in reverse or success calm and impassible as Athos the
+mousquetaire; regarding money simply as a circulating medium, with the
+profoundest contempt for its actual value--_se ruinant en prince_. He
+edified us greatly, on one occasion, by meeting his justly offended
+father with a stern politeness, declining to hold any communication with
+him by word or letter till he (the sire) "could express himself in a
+more Christian spirit."
+
+Then there was Barlowe, the pearl of gentlemen riders, the very apple of
+Charles Symond's eye; unspoiled by a hundred triumphs, and never
+degenerating into the professional, though I believe his idea of earthly
+felicity was,
+
+A match for £50, 10 st. 7 lb. each. Owners up. Over 4 miles of a fair
+hunting country.
+
+I see him, too, with his pleasant face, round, rosy, and beardless as a
+child-cherub of Rubens, tempting pale men with splitting heads to throw
+boots at him in the bitterness of their envy as he entered their rooms
+on the morning after a heavy drink, his eyes so clear and guileless that
+you would never guess how sharp they could be at times when a dangerous
+horse was coming up on his quarter. A strange compound his character was
+of cool calculation and sentimental simplicity. The most astute of
+trainers never got the better of him in making a match; and I am sure,
+to this day, he believes in ----'s poetry, and in the immutability of
+feminine affection.
+
+How agreeable he was about the small hours, chirping over his grog;
+alternating between reminiscences of "My tutor's daughter" and recitals
+of choice morsels in verse and prose; misquoting, to the utter
+annihilation of rhythm and sense, but all with perfect gravity, good
+faith, and satisfaction!
+
+_Nec te, memorande, relinquam_--true Tom Lynton! not clever, not even
+high-bred, but loved by every one for the honestest and kindest heart
+that ever was the kernel of a rough rind.
+
+Do we not remember that supper where the Fathers of England were being
+discussed? Every one, drawn on by the current, had a stone to throw at
+his relieving officer, the complaint, of course, being a general
+tightness in the supplies. At last, Tom, who, though his own sire was an
+austere man, could not bear to hear the absent run down, broke in,
+gravely remonstrating,
+
+"Well, gentlemen," he said, "remember they're our _fellow-creatures_, at
+all events."
+
+They drank "Lynton and the Governors" with a compound multiplication of
+cheers.
+
+I might mention more; but a face rises just now before me which makes me
+close the muster-roll--the face of one who united in himself many, very
+many of the best qualities of the others; of one whom I shrink from
+naming here, lest it should seem that I do so lightly--a face that I saw
+six hours before its features became set forever.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+     _"Dê tot' anaschomenô, ho men êlase dexion ômon
+     Iros, ho d' auchen' elassen hup' ouatos, ostea d' eisô
+     Ethlasen; autika d' êlthen ana stoma phoinion haima."_
+
+
+Toward the end of my second year an event came off in which we were all
+much interested--a steeplechase in which both Universities were to take
+part. The stakes were worth winning--twenty sovs. entrance, h.f., and a
+hundred sovs. added; besides, the _esprit de corps_ was strong, and men
+backed their opinions pretty freely. The venue was fixed at B----; the
+time, the beginning of the Easter vacation.
+
+The old town was crowded like Vanity Fair. There was a railway in
+progress near, and the navvies and other "roughs" came flocking in by
+hundreds, so that the municipal authorities, justly apprehensive of a
+row, concentrated the cohorts of their police, and swore in no end of
+specials as a reserve.
+
+The great event came off duly, a fair instance of the "glorious
+uncertainty" which backers of horses execrate and ring-men adore. All
+the favorites were out of the race early. Our best man, Barlowe, the
+centre of many hopes, and carrying a heavy investment of Oxford money,
+was floored at the second double post-and-rail. The Cambridge cracks,
+too, by divers casualties, were soon disposed of. At the last fence, an
+Oxford man was leading by sixty yards; but it was his maiden race, and
+he lost his head when he found himself looking like a winner so near
+home. Instead of taking the stake-and-bound at the weakest place, he
+rode at the strongest; his horse swerved to the gap, took the fence
+sideways, and came down heavily into the ditch of the winning field. The
+representative of Cambridge, who came next, riding a good steady hunter,
+not fast, but safe at his fences, cantered in by himself. I remember he
+was so bewildered by his unexpected victory that one of his backers had
+to hold him fast in the saddle, or he would have dismounted before
+riding to scale, and so lost the stakes.
+
+Well, the race was over and the laurels lost, so we had nothing to do
+but pay and look pleasant, and then adjourn to the inevitable banquet at
+"The George." There was little to distinguish the proceedings from the
+routine of such festivals. The winners stood Champagne, and the losers
+drank it--to any amount. The accidents of flood and field were discussed
+over and over again; and, I believe, every man of the twenty-three who
+had ridden that day could and did prove, to his own entire satisfaction,
+that he must have won but for some freak of fortune totally unavoidable,
+and defying human calculation.
+
+About nine o'clock I went out with another man to get some fresh air,
+and something I wanted in the town. At the corner of every street there
+was a group of heavy, sullen faces, looking viciously ready for a row,
+while out of the windows of the frequent public houses gushed bursts of
+revelry hideously discordant, from the low-browed rooms where the wild
+Irish sat howling and wrangling over their liquor. However, we got what
+we wanted, and were returning, when, in a street on our left, we heard
+cries and a trampling of many feet. Two figures, looking like University
+men, passed us at speed, and, throwing something down before us, dived
+into an alley opposite, and were lost to sight. My companion picked up
+the object; and we had just time to make out that it was a bell-handle
+and name-plate, when the pursuers came up--six or seven "peelers" and
+specials, with a ruck of men and boys. We were collared on the instant.
+The fact of the property being found in our possession constituted a
+_flagrans delictum_--we were caught "red-handed." It was vain to argue
+that, had we been the delinquents, we should scarcely have been standing
+there still, awaiting discovery. The idea of arguing with a rural
+policeman, when, by a rare coincidence, popular feeling is with him! The
+mob regarded our capture, exulting like the Romans over Jugurtha in
+chains. It was decided "we were to go before the Inspector." We were
+placed in the centre of a phalanx of specials, each guarded by two
+regulars; and so the triumph, followed by a train that swelled at every
+turning, moved slowly along the Sacred Way toward the temple of the
+station-house, where the municipal Jupiter Capitolinus sat in his glory.
+
+Before we had proceeded three hundred yards there was a shout from the
+crowd, "Look out! here come the 'Varsity!" and down a cross street
+leading from the inn, two hundred gownsmen, wild with wrath and wassail,
+came leaping to the rescue.
+
+In the van of all I caught sight of two figures--one that I knew very
+well, towering, bareheaded, a hand's-breadth above the throng; the
+other, something below the middle height, but shaggy, vast-chested, and
+double-jointed as a red Highland steer--M'Diarmid of Trinity, glory of
+the Cambridge gymnasium, and "5" in the University eight. They were not
+shouting like the rest, but hitting out straight and remorselessly; and
+before those two strong Promachi, townsman and navvy, peeler and
+special, went down like blades of corn. Close at their shoulder I
+distinguished Lovell, his clear blue eyes lightening savagely; and stout
+Tom Lynton, a deeper flush on his honest face, hewing away with all the
+unscientific strength of his nervous arm.
+
+But my two guards, very Abdiels in their duty, never let me go; on the
+contrary, one tightened his gripe on my throat suffocatingly, while the
+other, though I remained perfectly quiescent, kept giving me gentle
+hints to keep the peace with the end of his staff. I was getting sick
+and dizzy, when something passed my cheek like the wind of a ball; there
+was a dull, crashing sound close at my ear; the grasp on my neck relaxed
+all at once; I felt something across my feet, and saw a dark blue mass,
+topped by the ruin of a shiny hat, lying there quite still; an arm was
+round my waist like the coil of a cable, and I heard Guy's voice
+laughing loud,
+
+"My dear Frank," he said, as he dragged me away toward the inn, "the
+centre of a row, as usual. _Que, diable, allait il faire dans cette
+bagarre?_"
+
+I hardly heard him, for my senses were still confused; but in thirty
+seconds I was under the archway of "The George." As the heroines of the
+Radcliffe romances say, "I turned to thank my preserver, but he was
+gone."
+
+When I recovered my breath, I went up to a balcony on the first floor
+and looked out. The tide of the affray was surging gradually back into
+the wide open space before the inn, and very shortly this was filled
+with a chaos of furious faces and struggling arms. The University were
+evidently recoiling, pressed back by the sheer weight of their
+opponents; but soon came a re-enforcement of grooms and stable-men,
+lightweights, active and wiry; and these, with their hunting-crops and
+heavy cutting-whips used remorselessly--like Cæsar's legionaries, they
+struck only at the face--once more re-established the balance of the
+battle.
+
+Suddenly the _melée_ seemed to converge to one point--the mid-eddy, as
+it were, of the whirlpool; then came a lull, almost a hush; and then
+fifty strong arms, indiscriminately of town and gownsmen, were locked to
+keep the ground, while a storm of voices shouted for "A ring!"
+
+In that impromptu arena two men stood face to face under the full glare
+of the gas-lamps--one was Guy Livingstone; the other a denizen of the
+Potteries, yclept "Burn's Big 'un," who had selected B---- as his
+training quarters, in preparation for his fight to come off in the
+ensuing week with the third best man in England for £100 a side.
+
+They made a magnificent contrast. Guy, apparently quite composed, but
+the lower part of his face set stern and pitiless; an evil light in his
+eyes, showing how all the gladiator in his nature was roused; his left
+hand swaying level with his hip; all the weight of his body resting on
+the right foot; his lofty head thrown back haughtily; his guard low. The
+professional, three inches shorter than his adversary, but a rare model
+of brute strength; his arms and neck, where the short jersey left them
+exposed, clear-skinned and white as a woman's, through the perfection of
+his training; his hair cropped close round a low, retreating forehead;
+his thick lips parted in a savage grin, meant to represent a smile of
+confidence. So they stood there--fitting champions of the races that
+have been antagonistic for four thousand years--Patrician and
+Proletarian.
+
+Suddenly there was a commotion at one corner of the ring, and I saw a
+small, bullet-headed man, with a voice like a fractious child, striving
+frantically to force his way through. "Don't let 'em fight!" he
+screamed: "it's robbery, I tell you. There's hundreds of pounds on him
+for Thursday next, I'm his trainer; and I daren't show him with a
+scratch on him."
+
+A great roar of laughter answered his entreaties, and twenty arms thrust
+the little man back; but his interesting charge seemed to ponder and
+hesitate, when a drawling nasal voice spoke from the opposite corner:
+"Ah! you're right; take him away; don't show his white feather till
+you're druv to it." That turned the wavering scale. The Big 'un ground
+his teeth with blasphemy, and set-to.
+
+I need not go through the minutiæ of the fight; it was all one way. The
+professional did his best, and took his punishment like a glutton; but
+he could do nothing against the long reach of his adversary, who stopped
+and countered as coolly as if he had only the gloves on.
+
+It was the beginning of the sixth round; our champion bore only one
+mark, showing where a tremendous right-hander had almost come home--a
+cut on his lower lip, whence the bright Norman blood was flowing freely.
+I will not attempt to describe the hideous changes that ten minutes had
+wrought in his opponent's countenance; but I think I was not the only
+spectator who felt a thrill of fear mingling with disgust as the Big 'un
+made his despairing effort, and fought his way in to the terrible
+"half-arm rally." In truth, there was something unearthly and awful in
+the sight of the maimed and mangled Colossus; his huge breast heaving
+with wrath and pain; his one unblinded eye glaring unutterably; his
+crushed lips churning the crimson foam. It was the last rash of the
+Cordovan bull goaded to madness by picador and chulo; but Guy's fatal
+left met him, straight, unyielding as the blade of the matador; twice he
+reeled back wellnigh stunned; the third time he dropped his head
+cleverly, so as to avoid the blow, and grappled. For some seconds the
+two were locked together, undistinguishably; then we saw Guy's right
+hand, never used till then save as a guard, rise and fall twice with a
+dull, smashing sound, which was bad to hear; then the huge form of the
+prize-fighter was whirled up unresistingly over his antagonist's hip,
+and fell crashing down at his feet, a heap of blind, senseless, bleeding
+humanity.
+
+"Time!" You must call louder yet before he will hear, and lance a vein
+in the throat before he will answer.
+
+Then, in the old market-place of B----, there went up such a shout as I
+think it has never heard since Vikings and Berserkyr caroused there
+after storming the town. The gownsmen, as they will do on slighter
+provocation, screamed themselves hoarse and voiceless with delight; and
+their late opponents--the honest Saxon's love of a fair fight overcoming
+the spirit of the partisan--echoed and prolonged the cheer.
+
+There was no more thought of battle or broil; and there were as many
+navvies as University men among the enthusiasts who bore the champion on
+their shoulders into "The George."
+
+How we reveled on that night of victory, especially when Guy, after
+necessary ablutions and change of raiment, joined us, calm and
+self-possessed as ever, only slightly swelled about the lower lip, and a
+dark red flush on his forehead! He had satisfactory accounts of his
+adversary, the said amiable individual having so far recovered, under
+the surgeon's hands, as to swear thrice--"quite like hisself," the
+messenger said--and to call for cold brandy and water.
+
+Livingstone's health was proposed twice--the first time by a fellow of
+King's, with a neat talent for classical allusions, who remarked that,
+"if the olive-crown of the Hippodrome had fallen to the lot of
+Cambridge, none would deny her sister's claim to the parsley of the
+cæstus." The second time was very late in the evening, by M'Diarmid. It
+must be confessed that gallant chieftain was somewhat incoherent, and
+amid protestations of admiration and eternal friendship, much to our
+astonishment, wept profusely. Still later, he got very maudlin indeed,
+and was heard to murmur, looking at his scarred knuckles, that "he was
+afraid he must have hurt some one that night," with an accent of
+heartfelt sorrow and contrition which was inimitable.
+
+We heard afterward that the taunt which made the fight a certainty came
+from the commissioner of the party who stood heavily against the Big
+'un, sent down to watch him in his training, and spy out the joints in
+his harness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+     "As he rode down the sanctified bends of the Bow,
+     Each carline was flyting and shaking her pow;
+     But the young Plants of Grace they looked couthie and slee,
+     Saying, 'Luck to thy bonnet, thou bonnie Dundee.'"
+
+
+In the autumn of that year my chest became so troublesome that I was
+obliged to try Italy. Thither I went; and, about the same time, Guy was
+gazetted to the ---- Life Guards. The struggle between climate and
+constitution was protracted, and for a long time doubtful; but winters
+without fog, and springs without cold winds, worked wonders, and at last
+carried the day. In the fourth year they told me I might risk England
+again. Moving homeward slowly, I reached London about the beginning of
+December--a most unfavorable season, it is true; but I was weary of
+foreign wandering, and wanted to spend Christmas somewhere in the
+fatherland, though where I had not yet determined.
+
+I had heard tolerably often from Livingstone during my absence. His
+letters were very amusing, containing all sorts of news, and remarks on
+men and manners. They would have pleased me more if they had not
+indicated a vein of sarcasm deepening into cynicism.
+
+I stand very much alone in this world, and had few family visits to
+detain me; so, on the morning after my arrival, I went down to the
+Knightsbridge barracks, where Guy's regiment happened to be quartered.
+
+It was a field-day, his servant said, and his master was out with his
+troop; but he expected him in very shortly. Captain Forrester was
+waiting breakfast for him up stairs.
+
+As I entered the room, its occupant turned his head languidly on the
+sofa-cushion which supported it; but when he saw it was a stranger, sat
+up, and, on hearing my name, actually rose and came toward me.
+
+"Livingstone will be charmed to find you here, Mr. Hammond," he said, in
+a voice that, though slightly affected and _traînante_, was very
+musical. "I don't know if he ever mentioned Charley Forrester to you,
+who must do the honors of the barrack-room in his absence?"
+
+I had heard of him very often; and, though my expectations as to his
+personal appearance had been raised, I own the first glance did not
+disappoint them. He was about three-and-twenty then, rather tall, but
+very slightly built; his eyes long, sleepy, of a violet blue; features
+small and delicately cut, with a complexion so soft and bright that his
+silky, chestnut mustache hardly saved the face from effeminacy; his
+hands and feet would have satisfied the Pacha of Tebelen at once as to
+his purity of race; indeed, though Charley was not disposed to
+undervalue any of his own bodily advantages, I imagine he considered his
+extremities as his strong point. His manner was very fascinating, and,
+with women, had a sort of caress in it which is hard to describe, though
+even with _them_ he seldom excited himself much, preferring,
+consistently, the passive to the active part in the conversation.
+Indeed, his golden rule was the Arabic maxim, _Agitel lil
+Shaitan_--Hurry is the Devil's--so, in the flirtations which were the
+serious business of his life, he always let his fish hook themselves,
+just exerting himself enough to play them afterward.
+
+In ten minutes we were very good friends, talking pleasantly of all
+sorts of things, though Forrester had resumed his recumbent posture, and
+I could not help fearing it was only a strong effort of politeness or
+sense of duty which enabled him always to answer at the right time.
+
+Before long we heard the clatter of horses' hoofs and the rattle of
+steel scabbards, and I looked out at the squadrons defiling into the
+barrack-yard. My eye fell upon Livingstone at once: it was not difficult
+to distinguish him, for few, if any, among those troopers, picked from
+the flower of all the counties north of the Humber, could compare with
+him for length of limb and breadth of shoulder. I felt proud of him, as
+the hero of my boyhood, looking at him there, on his great black
+charger, square and steadfast as the keep of a castle.
+
+His servant spoke to him as he dismounted. I saw his features soften and
+brighten in an instant; in five seconds he was in the room, and the
+light was on his face still--I like to think of it--the light of a
+frank, cordial welcome, as he griped my hand.
+
+He was changed, certainly, but for the better. The features, which in
+early youth had been too rugged and strongly marked, harmonized
+perfectly with the vast proportions of a frame now fully developed,
+though still lean in the flanks as a wolf-hound. The stern expression
+about his mouth was more decided and unvarying than ever--an effect
+which was increased by the heavy mustache that, dense as a Cuirassier's
+of the Old Guard, fell over his lip in a black cascade. It was the face
+of one of those stone Crusaders who look up at us from their couches in
+the Round Church of the Temple.
+
+Before our first sentences were concluded, Forrester had nerved himself
+to the effort of rising, and turned to go.
+
+"You must have fifty things to say to each other," he said. "You'll find
+me in the mess-room. But, Guy, don't be long; I've no appetite myself
+this morning, and it will refresh me to see you eat your breakfast;" and
+so faded away gradually through the door.
+
+"How do you like him?" Livingstone called out from the inner room, where
+he was donning the "mufti." "He's not so conceited as he might be,
+considering how the women spoil him; and, lazy as he looks, he is a very
+fair officer, and goes across country like a bird. Did I ever tell you
+what first made him famous?"
+
+"No; I should like to hear."
+
+"Well, it was at a picnic at Cliefden. Charley was hardly nineteen then,
+and had just joined the ----th Lancers at Hounslow; he wandered away,
+and got lost with Kate Harcourt, a self-possessed beauty in high
+condition for flirting, for she had had three seasons of hard training.
+When they had been away from their party about two hours, she felt, or
+pretended to feel, the awkwardness of the situation, and asked her
+cavalier, in a charmingly helpless and confiding way, what they were to
+do. 'Well, I hardly know,' Forrester answered, languidly; 'but I don't
+mind proposing to you, if that will do you any good.' A fair performance
+for an untried colt, was it not? Miss Harcourt thought so, and said so,
+and Charley woke next morning with an established renown. Shall we go
+and find him?"
+
+After breakfast we went with Guy to his room, to do the regulation
+cigar.
+
+"I know you've made no plans, Frank," Livingstone said, "so I have
+settled every thing for you already. You are coming down to Kerton with
+us. We have just got our long leave, and our horses went down three days
+ago."
+
+"It's very nice of him to say 'our horses,'" interrupted Forrester.
+"Mine consist of one young one, that has been over about eight fences in
+his life, and a mare, that I call the Wandering Jewess, for I don't
+think she will ever die, and I am sure she will never rest till she
+does: what with being park-hack in the summer and cover-hack in the
+winter, with a by-day now and then when the country's light, she's the
+best instance of perpetual motion I know. Well, it's not my fault the
+chief won't let us hunt our second chargers--that's the charm of being
+in a crack regiment--I always have one lame at least, and no one will
+sell me hunters on tick."
+
+"Don't be so plaintive, Charley; you've nearly all mine to ride: it's a
+treat to them, poor things, to feel your light weight and hand, after
+carrying my enormous carcass. That's settled, then, Frank; you come with
+us?" Guy said.
+
+"I shall be very glad. I only want a day to get my traps together." So
+two days afterward we three came down to Kerton Manor. It was not my
+first visit to Livingstone's home, but I have not described it before.
+
+Fancy a very large, low house, built in two quadrangles--the offices and
+stables forming the smaller one farthermost from the main entrance--of
+the light gray stone common in Northamptonshire, darkened at the angles
+and buttresses into purple, and green, and bistre by the storms of three
+hundred years; on the south side, smooth turf, with islands in it of
+bright flower-beds, sloped down to a broad, slow stream, where grave,
+stately swans were always sailing to and fro, and moor-hens diving among
+the rushes; on the other sides, a park, extensive, but somewhat
+rough-looking, stretched away, and, all round, lines of tall avenue
+radiated--the bones of a dead giant's skeleton--for Kerton once stood in
+the centre of a royal forest.
+
+You entered into a wide, low hall, the oak ceiling resting on broad
+square pillars of the same dark wood; all round hung countless memorials
+of chase and war, for the Livingstones had been hunters and soldiers
+beyond the memory of man.
+
+Often, passing through of a winter's evening, I have stopped to watch
+the fitful effects of the great logs burning on the andirons, as their
+light died away, deadened among brown bear-skins and shadowy antlers, or
+played, redly reflected, on the mail-shirt and corslet of Crusader or
+Cavalier.
+
+There were many portraits too; one, the most remarkable, fronted you as
+you came through the great doorway, the likeness of a very handsome man
+in the uniform of a Light Dragoon; under this hung a cavalry sword, and
+a brass helmet shaded with black horse-hair. The portrait and sword were
+those of Guy's father; the helmet belonged to the Cuirassier who slew
+him.
+
+It was in a skirmish with part of Kellermann's brigade, near the end of
+the Peninsular war; Colonel Livingstone was engaged with an adversary in
+his front, when a trooper, delivering point from behind, ran him through
+the body. He had got his death-wound, and knew it; but he came of a race
+that ever died hard and dangerously; he only ground his teeth, and,
+turning short in his saddle, cut the last assailant down. Look at the
+helmet, with the clean, even gap in it, cloven down to the
+cheek-strap--the stout old Laird of Colonsay struck no fairer blow.
+
+It was curious to mark how the same expression of sternness and decision
+about the lips and lower part of the face, which was so remarkable in
+their descendants, ran through the long row of ancestral portraits. You
+saw it--now, beneath the half-raised visor of Sir Malise, surnamed
+_Poing-de-fer_, who went up the breach at Ascalon shoulder to shoulder
+with strong King Richard--now, yet more grimly shadowed forth, under the
+cowl of Prior Bernard, the ambitious ascetic, whom, they say, the great
+Earl of Warwick trusted as his own right hand--now, softened a little,
+but still distinctly visible, under the long love-locks of Prince
+Rupert's aid-de-camp, who died at Naseby manfully in his harness--now,
+contrasting strangely with the elaborately powdered peruke and delicate
+lace ruffles of Beau Livingstone, the gallant, with the whitest hand,
+the softest voice, the neatest knack at a sonnet, and the deadliest
+rapier at the court of good Queen Anne. Nay, you could trace it in the
+features of many a fair Edith and Alice, half counteracting the magnetic
+attraction of their melting eyes.
+
+On the sunny south side, looking across the flower-garden, were Lady
+Catharine Livingstone's rooms, where, diligent as Matilda and her
+maidens, in summer by the window, in winter by the fire; the pale
+châtelaine sat over her embroidery. What rivers of tapestry must have
+flowed from under those slender white fingers during their ceaseless
+toil of twenty years!
+
+The good that she did in her neighborhood can not be told. She was kind
+and hospitable, too, to her female guests, in her own haughty,
+undemonstrative way; nevertheless, the wives and daughters of the
+squirearchy regarded her with great awe and fear. Perhaps she felt this,
+though she could not alter it, and the sense of isolation may have
+deepened the shades on her sad face. She had only one thing on earth to
+centre her affections on, and that one she worshiped with a love
+stronger than her sense of duty; for, since his father died, she had
+never been able to check Guy in a single whim.
+
+When he had a hunting-party in the house, she sometimes would not appear
+for days; but, however early he might start for the meet, I do not think
+he ever left his dressing-room without his mother's kiss on his cheek.
+She knew, as well as any one, how recklessly her son rode; nothing but
+his science, coolness, and great strength in the saddle could often have
+saved him from some terrible accident. Many times, in the middle of the
+day's sport, the thought has come across me piteously of that poor lady,
+in her lonely rooms, trembling, and I am very sure praying, for her
+darling.
+
+On the opposite side of the court were Guy's own apartments: first, what
+was called by courtesy his study--an armory of guns and other weapons, a
+chaos _e rebus omnibus et quibusdam aliis_, for he never had the
+faintest conception of the beauty of order; then came the smoking-room,
+with its great divans and scattered card-tables; then Livingstone's
+bed-room and dressing-room.
+
+Did the distance and the doors always deaden the sounds of late revels,
+so as not to break Lady Catharine's slumbers? I fear not.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+     "Thou art not steeped in golden languors;
+     No tranced summer calm is thine,
+     Ever-varying Madeline."
+
+
+
+It was a woodland meet, a long way off, the morning after we arrived, so
+we staid at home; and, after breakfast, Guy having to give audience to
+keepers and other retainers, I strolled out with Forrester to smoke in
+the stables. I have seldom seen a lot which united so perfectly bone and
+blood. Livingstone gave any price for his horses; the only thing he was
+not particular about was their temper; more than one looked eminently
+unsuited to a nervous rider, and a swinging bar behind them warned the
+stranger against incautious approach.
+
+After duly discussing and admiring the stud, we established ourselves on
+the sunniest stone bench in the garden, and I asked my companion to tell
+me something of what Guy had been doing during my absence.
+
+"Well, it's rather hard to say," answered Charley. "He never takes the
+trouble to conceal any thing; but then, you see, he never tells one any
+thing either; so it's only guess work, after all. He lives very much
+like other men in the Household Brigade; plays heavily, though not
+regularly; but he always has two _affaires de coeur_, at least, on
+hand at once; that's his stint."
+
+"So he still persecutes the weaker sex unremittingly?" I asked,
+laughing.
+
+"In a way peculiar to himself," said Forrester; "he is always strictly
+courteous, but decidedly sarcastic. Poor things, they are easily imposed
+upon; he very soon has them well in hand, and they can never get their
+heads up afterward. I suppose they like it, for it seems to answer
+admirably. Last season he divided himself pretty equally between
+Constance Brandon and Flora Bellasys--quite the two best things out,
+though as opposite to each other in every way as the poles. To do Miss
+Brandon justice, I don't think she knew much of the other flirtation;
+she always went away early, and he used to take up her rival for the
+rest of the evening."
+
+"But the said rival--how did she like the divided homage?"
+
+"Not at all at first; at least, she used to look revolvers at Guy from
+time to time--(ah! you should see the Bellasys' eyes when they begin to
+lighten)--but he always brought her back to the lure, and at last she
+seemed to take it quite as a matter of course, keeping all her
+after-supper waltzes for him religiously, though half the men in town
+were trying to cut in. I can't make out how he does it. Do you think his
+size and sinews can have any thing to do with it?" He said this gravely
+and reflectively.
+
+"Not unlikely," I replied; "the _fortiter in re_ goes a long way with
+women apparently, even where there is not a tongue like his to back it.
+Don't you remember Juvenal's strong-minded heroine, who left husband and
+home to follow the scarred, maimed gladiator? I doubt if the Mirmillo
+was a pleasant or intellectual companion. Now I want you to tell me
+something about Guy's cousin and her father; they are coming here
+to-day, and I have never met them."
+
+"Mr. Raymond is very like most calm, comfortable old men with a life
+interest in £2000 a year," Charley said; "rather more cold and
+impassible than the generality, perhaps. He _must_ be clever, for he
+plays whist better than any one I know; but not brilliant, certainly.
+His daughter is"--the color deepened on his cheek perceptibly--"very
+charming, most people think; but I hate describing people. I always
+caricature the likeness. You'll form your own judgment at dinner. Shall
+we go in? We shoot an outlying cover after luncheon, and the blackthorns
+involve gaiters."
+
+We had very fair sport, and were returning across the park, picking up a
+stray rabbit every now and then in the tufts of long grass and patches
+of brake. One had just started before Forrester, and he was in the act
+of pulling the trigger, when Livingstone said suddenly,
+
+"There's my uncle's carriage coming down the north avenue."
+
+It was an easy shot in the open, but Charley missed it clean.
+
+"What eyes you have, Guy," he said, pettishly; "but I wish you wouldn't
+speak to a man on his shot."
+
+Guy's great Lancaster rang out with the roar of a small field-piece, and
+the rabbit was rolling over, riddled through the head, before he
+answered,
+
+"Yea, my eyes _are_ good, and I see a good many things, but I _don't_
+see why you should have muffled that shot, particularly as my
+intelligence was meant for the world in general, and it was not such an
+astounding remark, after all."
+
+Charley did not seem ready with a reply, so he retained his look of
+injured innocence, and walked on, sucking silently at his cigar. The
+Raymonds reached the house before us; but, not being in a presentable
+state, I did not see them before dinner.
+
+Forrester was right; there was nothing startling about Mr. Raymond. He
+had one of those thin, high-bred looking faces that one always fancies
+would have suited admirably the powder and ruffles of the last century.
+It expressed little except perfect repose, and when he spoke, which was
+but seldom, no additional light came into his hard blue eyes. His
+daughter was his absolute contrast--a lovely, delicate little creature,
+with silky dark-brown hair, and eyes _en suite_, and color that deepened
+and faded twenty times in an hour, without ever losing the softness of
+its tints. She had the ways of a child petted all its life through, that
+a harsh word would frighten to annihilation. She seemed very fond of
+Guy, though evidently rather afraid of him at times.
+
+Nothing passed at dinner worth mentioning; but soon after the ladies
+left us, Mr. Raymond turned lazily to his nephew to inquire,
+
+"If he would mind asking Bruce to come and stay at Kerton, as he was to
+be in the neighborhood soon after Christmas."
+
+He did not seem to feel the faintest interest in the reply.
+
+"I shall be too glad, Uncle Henry," answered Guy (he did not look
+particularly charmed though), "if it will give you or Bella any
+pleasure. Need he be written to immediately?"
+
+"Thank you very much," said Raymond, languidly. "I know he bores you,
+and I am sure I don't wonder at it; but one must be civil to one's
+son-in-law that is to be. No, you need not trouble yourself to invite
+him yet. Bella can do it when she writes. I suppose she _does_ write to
+him sometimes."
+
+I looked across the table at Forrester. This was the first time I had
+heard of Miss Raymond's engagement. He met my eye quite unconcernedly,
+pursuing with great interest his occupation of peeling walnuts and
+dropping them into Sherry. It did not often happen to him to blush
+_twice_ in the twenty-four hours. Directly afterward we began to talk
+about pheasants and other things.
+
+After coffee in the drawing-room Guy sat down to piquet with his uncle.
+Raymond liked to utilize his evenings, and never played for nominal
+stakes. He was the _beau ideal_ of a card-player, certainly; no
+revolution or persistence of luck could ruffle the dead calm of his
+courteous face. He would win the money of his nearest and dearest
+friend, or lose his own to an utter stranger with the same placidity. To
+be sure, to a certain extent, he had enslaved Fortune; though he always
+played most loyally, and sometimes would forego an advantage he might
+fairly have claimed, his rare science made ultimate success scarcely
+doubtful. He never touched a game of mere chance.
+
+I heard a good story of him in Paris. They were playing a game like
+Brag; the principle being that the players increase the stakes without
+seeing each other's cards, till one refuses to go on and throws up, or
+shows his point. Raymond was left in at last with one adversary; the
+stakes had mounted up to a sum that was fearful, and it was his choice
+to double or _abattre_. Of course, it was of the last importance to
+discover whether the antagonist was strong or not; but the Frenchman's
+face gave not the slightest sign. He was _beau joueur s'il en fût_, and
+had lost two fair fortunes at play. Raymond hesitated, looking steadily
+into his opponent's eyes. All at once he smiled and doubled instantly.
+The other dared not go on; he showed his point, and lost. They asked
+Raymond afterward how he could have detected any want of confidence to
+guide him in a face that looked like marble.
+
+"I saw three drops of perspiration on his forehead," he said; "and I
+knew my own hand was strong."
+
+Lady Catharine was resting on a sofa: she looked tired and paler than
+usual, not in the least available for conversation. Miss Raymond had
+nestled herself into the recesses of a huge arm-chair close to the
+fire--she was as fond of warmth, when she could not get sunshine, as a
+tropical bird--and Forrester was lounging on an ottoman behind her, so
+that his head almost touched her elbow. When I caught scraps of their
+conversation it seemed to be turning on the most ordinary subjects; but
+even in these I should have felt lost--I had been so long away from
+England--so I contented myself with watching them, and wondering why
+discussions as to the merits of operas and inquiries after mutual
+acquaintances should make the fair cheeks hang out signals of distress
+so often as they did that evening.
+
+I lingered in the smoking-room about midnight for a moment after
+Forrester left us.
+
+"So your cousin is really engaged?" I asked Guy.
+
+"_Tout ce qu'il y a du plus fiancé_," was the answer. "It was one of the
+last affairs of state that my poor aunt concluded before she died. Bruce
+is a very good match. I don't think Bella worships him, though I have
+scarcely ever seen them together, and I am sure he is not a favorite
+with Uncle Henry; but nothing on earth would make him break it off;
+indeed, I know no one who would propose such a thing to him--not his
+daughter, certainly. There's no such hopeless obstacle as the passive
+resistance of a thoroughly lazy man. Good-night, Frank. I've sent the
+Baron on for you to-morrow. We must start about nine, mind, for we've
+fifteen miles to go to cover."
+
+I went to bed, and dreamed that Raymond was playing _ecarté_ with
+Forrester for his daughter, who stood by blushing beautifully--and never
+held a trump!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+     "She has two eyes so soft and brown;
+                     Take care!
+     She gives a side glance, and looks down;
+                     Beware! beware!
+     Trust her not; she is fooling thee."
+
+
+So the days went on. The stream of visitors usual in a country house
+during the hunting season flowed in and out of Kerton Manor without any
+remarkable specimen showing itself above the surface. One individual,
+perhaps, I ought to except, the curate of the parish, who was a very
+constant visitor.
+
+His appearance was not fascinating: he had a long, narrow head, thatched
+with straight, scanty hair; little, protruding eyes, and a complexion of
+a bright unvarying red--in fact, he was very like a prawn.
+
+It was soon evident that the Rev. Samuel Foster was helplessly smitten
+by Miss Raymond, or, as Forrester elegantly expressed it, "hard hit in
+the wings, and crippled for flying!" Helplessly, I say, but not
+hopelessly; for that wicked little creature, acting perhaps under
+private orders, gave him all sorts of treacherous encouragement. I never
+saw any human being evolve so much caloric under excitement as he did,
+except one young woman whom I met ages ago--(a most estimable person;
+her Sunday-school was a model)--whose only way of evincing any emotion,
+either of anger, fear, pain, or pleasure, was--a profuse perspiration.
+Mr. Foster not only got awfully hot, but electrical into the bargain.
+His thin hairs used to stand out distinctly and in relief from his head
+and face, just like a person on the glass tripod. Charley suggested
+insulating him unawares, and getting a flash out of his knuckles, if not
+out of his brain. In truth, it was piteous to see the struggle between
+passion and nervousness that raged perpetually within him. He would
+stand for some time casting _lamb's_-eyes at the object of his
+affections--to the amorous audacity of the full-grown sheep he never
+soared--then suddenly, without the slightest provocation, he would
+discharge at her a compliment, elaborate, long-winded, Grandisonian, as
+a raw recruit fires his musket, shutting his eyes, and incontinently
+take to flight, without waiting to see the effect of his shot. If he had
+spent half the time and pains on his sermons that he did on his
+small-talk (I believe he used to write out three or four foul copies of
+each sentence previously at home), what a boon it would have been to his
+unlucky audience on Sundays!
+
+Why is it that the great proportion of our pastors seem to conspire
+together with one consent to make the periodical duty of listening to
+them as hard as possible? Can they imagine there is profit or pleasure
+in a discourse wandering wearily round in a circle, or dragging a slow
+length along of truisms and trivialities? In the best of congregations
+there can be but few alchemists; and, without that science, who is to
+extract the essence of Truth from the _moles incongesta_ of crass
+moralities?
+
+To persuade or dissuade you must interest the head or the heart. I
+admire those who can do either successfully, but I do protest against
+those clerical tyrants who shelter themselves behind their license to
+fire at us their ruthless platitudes. If such could only struggle
+against that strong temptation of our fallen nature--the delight of
+hearing one's own sweet voice--so as to concentrate now and then! The
+best orators, spiritual and mundane, have been brief sometimes.
+
+I am no theologian, but I take leave to doubt if, in the elaborate
+divinity of fourteen epistles, the apostle of the Gentiles ever went so
+straight to his hearer's heart as in that farewell charge, when the
+elders of Ephesus gathered round him on the sea-sand, "Sorrowing most of
+all for the words that he spake, that they should see his face no more."
+
+Do you remember Canning and the clergyman? When the latter asked him,
+"How did you like my sermon? I endeavored not to be tedious;" I always
+fancy the statesman's weary, wistful look, which would have been
+compassionate but for a sense of personal injury, as he answered, in his
+mild voice, "And yet--_you were_."
+
+Well, the flirtation went on its way rejoicing, to the intense amusement
+of all of us, especially of Forrester, till one day his cousin came into
+Guy's study, who had just returned from hunting, looking rather
+frightened, like a child who has let fall a valuable piece of china--it
+was only an honest man's heart that she had broken. Slowly the truth
+came out; Mr. Foster had proposed to her that afternoon in the park.
+
+We, far off in the drawing-room, heard the shrill whistle with which
+Livingstone greeted the intelligence.
+
+"You accepted him, of course?" he said.
+
+"O Guy!" Miss Raymond answered, blushing more than ever. (I'll back a
+woman against the world for expressing half a chapter by a simple
+interjection; Lord Burleigh's nod is nothing to it.) "But, indeed," she
+went on, "I'm very sorry about it; I never saw any one look so unhappy
+before. Do you know I think I saw the tears standing in his eyes; and I
+only guessed at the words when he said 'God bless you!'"
+
+"Ah bah!" replied Guy, with his most cynical smile on his lip; "he'll
+recover. Who breaks his heart in these days, especially for such little
+dots of things as you? But, Bella mia, how do you think Mr. Bruce would
+approve of all these innocent amusements?"
+
+It was no blush now, but a dead waxen whiteness, that came over the
+beautiful face, even down to the chin. The soft brown eyes grew fixed
+and wild with an imploring terror. "You won't tell him?" she gasped out;
+and then stood quivering and shuddering. Guy was very much surprised: he
+had never believed greatly in his cousin's affection for her betrothed;
+but here there were signs, not only of the absence of love, but of the
+presence of physical fear.
+
+"My dear child," he said, very kindly, "don't alarm yourself so
+absurdly. I have not the honor of Mr. Bruce's confidence; and if I had,
+how could I tell him of an affair where _I_ have been most to blame?
+I'll speak to Foster; he must not show his disappointment even before
+Uncle Henry. You will be quite safe, you see. But, mind, I won't allow
+_any one_ to frighten or vex my pet cousin." His countenance lowered as
+he spoke, and there was a threat in his eyes.
+
+As the cloud darkened on his face, the light came back on Isabel
+Raymond's. She took his hand--all fibre and sinew, like an
+oak-bough--into her slender fingers and pressed it hard. In good truth,
+a woman at her need could ask no better defender than he who stood by
+her side then, tall, strong, black-browed, and terrible as Saul. "Thank
+you so much, dear Guy," she whispered. "If you speak to Mr. Foster, you
+will tell him how _very_ sorry I am!" and then she left him.
+
+Guy did speak to the curate, I hope gently. At all events, we never
+laughed at him again. How could we, when we saw him going about his
+daily duties, honestly and bravely, and always, when in presence,
+struggling with his great sorrow, so as not by word or look to
+compromise the thoughtless child who had won his heart for her
+amusement, and thrown it away for her convenience?
+
+I have been disciplined since by what I have felt and seen, and I see
+now how ungenerous we had been.
+
+What right had we to make of that man a puppet for our amusement,
+because he was shy, and stupid, and slow? He was as true in his
+devotion, as honorable in all his wishes, as confident in his hopes till
+they were blasted, as any one that has gone a wooing since the first
+whisper of love was heard in Eden. If his despair was less crushing than
+that of other men, it was because his principles were stronger to
+endure, and perhaps because his temperament was more tranquil and cold.
+As I have said, he did his day's work thoroughly, and that helped him
+through a good deal. But, to the utmost of his nature, I believe he did
+suffer. And could the long train of those whom disappointment has made
+maniacs or suicides do more?
+
+Let us not trust too much to the absence of feeling in these seemingly
+impassive organizations.
+
+I wonder how often the executors of old college fellows, or of
+hard-faced bankers and bureaucrats, have been aggravated by finding in
+that most secret drawer, which ought to have held a codicil or a jewel,
+a tress, a glove, or a flower? The searcher looks at the object for a
+moment, and then throws it into the rubbish-basket, with a laugh if he
+is good-natured, with a curse if he is vicious and disappointed. Let it
+lie there--though the dead miser valued it above all his bank-stock, and
+kissed it oftener than he did his living and lawful wife and
+children--what is it worth now? Say, as the grim Dean of St. Patrick
+wrote on _his_ love-token, "Only a woman's hair."
+
+Now these men, unknown to their best friend perhaps, had gone through
+the affliction which is so common that it is hard to speak of it without
+launching into truisms. This sorrow has made some men famous, by forcing
+them out into the world and shutting the door behind them. It has made
+the fortunes of some poets, who choose the world for their confidant,
+setting their bereavement to music, and bewailing Eurydice in charming
+volumes, that are cheap at "3_s._ 6_d._ in cloth, lettered." It has made
+some--I think the best and bravest--somewhat silent for the rest of
+their lives. I read some lines the other day wise enough to have sprung
+from an older brain than Owen Meredith's.
+
+     "They were pedants who could speak--
+     Grander souls have passed unheard;
+     Such as felt all language weak;
+     Choosing rather to record
+     Secrets before Heaven, than break
+     Faith with angels, by a word--"
+
+Yes, many men have their Rachel; but--there being a prejudice against
+bigamy--few have even the Patriarch's luck, to marry her at last; for
+the wife _de convenance_ generally outlives her younger sister; and so,
+one afternoon, we turn again from a grave in Ephrata-Green Cemetery,
+somewhat drearily, into our tent pitched in the plains of Belgravia,
+where Leah--(there was ever jealousy between those two)--meets us with a
+sharp glance of triumph in her "tender eyes."
+
+We have known pleasanter _tête-à-têtes_--have we not?--than that which
+we undergo that evening at dinner, though our companion seems disposed
+to be especially lively. We have not much appetite; but our _carissima
+sposa_ tells us "not to drink any more claret, or we shall never be fit
+to take her to Lady Shechem's _conversazione_." Of all nights in the
+year, would she let us off duty on this one? "There are to be some very
+pleasant people there," she says, "though none, perhaps, that _you
+particularly care about_." (Thank you, my love; I understand that
+good-natured allusion perfectly, and am proportionately grateful.) Her
+voice sounds shriller than usual as she says this, and leaves us to put
+some last touches to her toilette. So we order a fresh bottle,
+notwithstanding the warning, and fall to thinking. How low and soft
+_that other_ voice was, and, even when a little reproachful, how rarely
+sweet! _She_ would scarcely have invented that last taunt if matters
+had turned out differently. Then we think of our respected
+father-in-law, Sir Joseph Leyburn, of Harran Park--a mighty county
+magistrate and cattle-breeder. He got Ishmael Deadeye, the poacher,
+transported last year, and took the prize for Devons at the Great
+Mesopotamian Agricultural with a brindled bull. We remember his weeping
+at the wedding-breakfast over the loss of his eldest treasure, and
+wonder if he was an arrant humbug, or only a foolish, fond old man,
+inclining morosely toward the former opinion. We don't seem to care much
+about Sir Roland de Vaux, the celebrated geologist, whom we shall have
+the privilege of meeting this evening. What are strata to us, when our
+thoughts will not go lower than about _eight feet_ underground? We shall
+be rather bored than otherwise by Dr. Sternhold, that eminent Christian
+divine, who passes his leisure hours in proving St. Paul to have been an
+unsound theologian and a weak dialectician. Why should Mr. Planet, the
+intrepid traveler, be always inflicting Jerusalem upon us, as if no one
+had ever visited the Holy Land before him? Our ancestors did so five
+hundred years ago, and did not make half the fuss about it; and _they_
+had a skirmish or two there worth speaking of, while we don't believe a
+word of Planet's encounter with those three Arabs on the Hebron road.
+Pooh! there's no more peril in traversing the Wilderness of Cades than
+in going up to the Grands Mulets. We are not worthy of those
+distinguished men, and would prefer the society of hard-riding Dick
+Foley of the Blues. He had a few feelings in common with us once on a
+certain point (how we hated him then), and he won't wonder if we are
+duller than usual this evening. Perhaps his own nerve will scarcely be
+as iron as usual in the Grand Military, to come off in the course of the
+week.
+
+Well, the bottle is out, and Mademoiselle Zelpa comes to say that
+"Madame is ze raidèe." So one glass of Cognac neat, as a _chasse_ (to
+more things than good Claret), and then--let us put on our whitest tie
+and our most attractive smile, and "go forth, for she is gone."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+     "A man had given all other bliss
+     And all his worldly worth for this,
+     To waste his whole heart in one kiss
+       Upon her perfect lips."
+
+
+We were asked to dine and sleep at Brainswick, where the hounds met on
+the following morning. Mr. Raymond could not make up his mind to the
+exertion, so Forrester and I accompanied Guy alone.
+
+"By-the-by," the latter observed, as we were driving over in his
+mail-phaeton, "I wonder if we shall see the Bellasys to-night? I know
+they were to come down about this time. Steady, old wench! where are you
+off to?" (This was to the near wheeler, who was breaking her trot.) "I
+think you'll admire her, Frank; but, _gare à vous_, she's dangerous. Eh,
+Charley?"
+
+"Well, you ought to know," answered Forrester; "I never tried her much
+myself. She's two or three stone over my weight. I wonder what she has
+been doing lately? They sent her down to rusticate somewhere at the end
+of the season. She ought to be in great condition now, with a summer's
+run."
+
+Livingstone smiled, complacently I thought, as if some one had praised
+one of his favorite hunters, but did not pursue the subject.
+
+When I came down before dinner he was talking to a lady in dark blue
+silk, with black lace over it, a wreath curiously plaited of natural ivy
+in her hair. I guessed her at once to be Flora Bellasys.
+
+Let me try to paint--though abler artists have failed--the handsomest
+brunette I have ever seen.
+
+She was very tall; her figure magnificently developed, though
+slender-waisted and lithe as a serpent. She walked as if she had been
+bred in a _basquiña_, and her foot and ankle were hardly to be matched
+on this side of the Pyrenees; the nose slightly aquiline, with thin,
+transparent nostrils; and the forehead rather low--it looked more so,
+perhaps, from the thick masses of dark hair which framed and shaded her
+face. Under the clear, pale olive of the cheeks the rich blood mantled
+now and then like wine in a Venice glass; and her lips--the outline of
+the upper one just defined by a penciling of down, the lower one full
+and pouting--glistened with the brilliant smoothness of a pomegranate
+flower when the dew is clinging. Her eyes--the opium-eaters of Stamboul
+never dreamed of their peers among the bevies of hachis-houris. They
+were of the very darkest hazel; one moment sleeping lazily under their
+long lashes, like a river under leaves of water-lilies; the next,
+sparkling like the same stream when the sunlight is splintered on its
+ripples into carcanets of diamonds. When they chose to speak, not all
+the orators that have rounded periods since Isocrates could match their
+eloquence; when it was their will to guard a secret, they met you with
+the cold, impenetrable gaze that we attribute to the mighty mother,
+Cybèle. Even a philosopher might have been interested--on purely
+psychological grounds, of course--in watching the thoughts as they rose
+one by one to the surface of those deep, clear wells (was truth at the
+bottom of them?--I doubt), like the strange shapes of beauty that
+reveal themselves to seamen, coyly and slowly, through the purple calm
+of the Indian Sea.
+
+Twice I have chosen a watery simile; but I know no other element
+combining, as her glances did, liquid softness with lustre.
+
+When near her, you were sensible of a strange, subtle, intoxicating
+perfume, very fragrant, perfectly indefinable, which clung, not only to
+her dress, but to every thing belonging to her. From what flowers it was
+distilled no artist in essences alive could have told. I incline to
+think that, like the "birk" in the ghost's garland,
+
+     "They were not grown on earthly bank,
+     Nor yet on earthly sheugh."
+
+Guy took Miss Bellasys in to dinner, and I found myself placed on her
+other side. I had been introduced to her ten minutes before, but had
+little opportunity for "improving the occasion," as the Nonconformists
+have it, for she never once deigned a look in my direction.
+
+My right-hand neighbor was an elderly man of a full habit, whom it would
+have been cruel to disturb till the rage of hunger was appeased, so I
+was fain to seek amusement in the conversation going on on my left.
+There was no indiscretion in this, for I knew Guy would never touch
+secrets of state in mixed company.
+
+For some time they talked nothing but commonplaces, evidently feeling
+each other's foils. The real fencing began with a question from
+Flora--if he was not surprised at seeing her there that evening.
+
+"Not at all," was the reply; "I knew we must meet before long. It is
+only parallels that don't; and there is very little of the right line
+about either you or me."
+
+"Speak for yourself," Miss Bellasys said; "I consider that a very rude
+observation."
+
+"Pardon me," retorted Guy; "I seldom say rude things--never
+intentionally. I don't know which is in worst taste, that, or paying
+point-blank compliments. Without being mathematical, you may have heard
+that the line of beauty is a curve."
+
+Flora laughed.
+
+"It is difficult to catch you. What have you been doing since we
+parted?"
+
+"That is just the question that was on my lips, so nearly uttered that I
+consider I spoke first. Now, will you confess, or must I cross-question
+some one else? I _will_ know. It is easy to follow you, like an invading
+army, by the trail of devastation."
+
+"So you do care to know?" the soft voice said, that could make the
+nerves of even an indifferent hearer thrill and quiver strangely.
+
+After once listening to it, it was very easy to believe the weird
+stories of Norse sorceresses, and German wood-spirits and pixies, luring
+men to death with their fatally musical tones.
+
+"Simple curiosity," Guy replied, coolly, "and a little compassion for
+your victims. They might be friends of mine, you know."
+
+Miss Bellasys bit her lip, half provoked, half amused, apparently, as
+she answered, "The dead tell no tales."
+
+"No, but the wounded do, and they cry out pretty loudly sometimes. I
+suppose all the cases did not terminate fatally. Will you confess?"
+
+"I have nothing to tell you," Flora said, very demurely and meekly,
+only for once her eyes betrayed her. "Mamma took me down into
+Devonshire, where we have an aunt or two, for sea-breezes and seclusion.
+I rather liked at first having nothing on earth to do, and nothing--yes,
+I understand--really nothing to think about. I used to sleep a great
+deal, and then drive a little obstinate pony, to see views. But I don't
+care much about views--do you? Then mamma was always wanting me to help
+her look for shells and wild-flowers; and the rocks hurt my feet, and
+the bushes never would leave me alone in the woods." She shuddered
+slightly here.
+
+"The Bushes! a Devonshire family of that name, I presume?" Guy
+interrupted, with intense gravity. "How wrong of them! They are very
+ill-regulated young men down in those parts, I believe."
+
+"Don't be absurd; I never saw a creature for months between fifteen and
+fifty. Are not those ages safe?" (A shake of the head from Livingstone.)
+"I began to be very unhappy; I had no one to tease; my aunts are too
+good-natured, and mamma is used to it. At last I had the greatest mind
+to do something desperate--to write to you, for instance--merely to see
+the household's horror when your answer came. You would have answered,
+would you not? I should not have opened it, you know, but given it to
+mamma, like a good child."
+
+"Of course; I know you show all your letters to your mother. But that
+ruralizing must have been fearful for you, _poverina_! People were
+talking a good deal of agricultural distress, but this is the most
+piteous case I've heard of. So there were really no men to govern in
+that wood?"
+
+"Not even a little boy," said Flora, decisively. "There were two or
+three from Oxford in the neighborhood; I used to see them sitting
+outside their lodgings in the sun, like rabbits, but they always ran in
+before--"
+
+"Before you could get a shot at them, you mean?" broke in Guy; "you
+ought to have crept up, and stalked them cleverly."
+
+Flora threw hack her handsome head. "I don't war with children. It went
+on just as I tell you till we left for our round of winter visits, which
+have been very stupid and correct--till now."
+
+I hardly caught the two last words, she spoke them so low. There was
+silence for several minutes, and then Guy leaned back to address me.
+
+"Do you remember Arthur Darrell, of Christchurch, Frank, the man that
+used to speak at the Union, and was always raving about ebon locks and
+dark eyes?"
+
+"I remember him well. I have not seen him for years; but I heard he was
+getting on well in the law."
+
+"He'll have time to get tired of brunettes--if any one ever _does_ get
+tired of them--before he comes back," said Guy. "He's just gone out to
+try the Indian bar."
+
+"What could have put such an idea into his head?" I asked, very
+innocently.
+
+"I can't say," was the reply; "men do take such curious fancies. It was
+a sudden determination, I believe. The beauties of the Eastern
+hemisphere began to develop themselves to his weak mind last summer
+while he was down with his people in--Devonshire."
+
+Involuntarily I looked at Miss Bellasys. She saw she was detected; but,
+instead of betraying any embarrassment, she turned upon Guy a queer
+little imploring look, not indicative in the least of shame or
+repentance, but such as might be put on by one of those truly excellent
+people who do good by stealth and blush to find it known, when some of
+their benevolent acts have come to light, and they wish to deprecate
+praise.
+
+Livingstone gazed piercingly at her for several instants without moving
+a muscle of his face; suddenly its fixed and stern expression--you could
+not say softened, but--broke up all at once like a sheet of ice
+shivering.
+
+"Let there be peace," he said, sententiously. "We forgive all the errors
+of your long vacation in consideration of the good it has evidently done
+you. You are looking brilliantly!"
+
+There was an unusual softness, almost a tremor, in his deep voice as he
+spoke the last words, and a look in his bold eyes that many trained
+coquettes would have shrunk from--a look that I should be sorry and
+angry to see turned on any woman in whom I felt an interest--a look such
+as Selim Pasha might wear as the Arnauts defile into his harem-court,
+bringing the fair Georgians home.
+
+Flora Bellasys only smiled in saucy triumph.
+
+"You say you never pay compliments," she answered, "and I always _try_
+to believe you. We will suppose this one is only the truth extorted. My
+glove--thank you." The same smile was on her lip as she turned her head
+once in her haughty progress to the door.
+
+As Guy sat down again, and filled a huge glass with claret, I heard him
+mutter between his teeth, "_Royale, quand même_!"
+
+"Close up, gentlemen, close up!" broke in the cheery voice of our rare
+old host. "Livingstone, if you begin back-handing already, you'll never
+be able to hold that great raking chestnut I saw your groom leading this
+evening. The man looked as if he thought he would be eaten before he got
+in."
+
+"Whatever you do, drink fair," Guy answered, laughing; "so saith the
+immortal Gamp. The squire's beginning to tremble for his '22 wine."
+
+"I don't wonder," said Godfrey Parndon, the M.F.H. "I've always observed
+that, after flirting disgracefully at dinner, you drink harder
+afterward. It's to drown remorse, I suppose. So you ride that new horse
+of yours to-morrow? My poor hounds!"
+
+"Don't be alarmed," cried Guy; "he never kicks hounds, and I won't let
+him go over them; it's only human strangers the amiable animal can't
+endure: that's why I call him the Axeine. He is worth more than the £300
+I gave for him."
+
+"Well, he nearly spoiled two grooms for Hounscott," Parndon said. "The
+stablemen at Revesby had a great beer the day they got rid of him."
+
+"He wouldn't suit every one," remarked Livingstone--"not you, for
+instance, Godfrey, who always ride with a loose rein. I was obliged to
+give him his gallops myself at first; he's a devil to pull, and if he
+once gets away with you, you may 'write to your friends.' But I've
+nothing like him in my stable."
+
+Then the conversation became general, revolving in a circle of
+hound-and-horse talk, as it will do now and then in the shires.
+
+"Guy," whispered Forrester, as we went up stairs, "there's a little
+woman here who says she used to know you very well: won't you go and
+talk to her?"
+
+"Many little women say that," answered Guy; "it's a way they have. Which
+is it, now?"
+
+Charley pointed out a small, plump, rather pretty blonde, with long
+ringlets, and light, laughing blue eyes. It seemed the lady's
+reminiscences were well founded, for in five minutes Livingstone and she
+were talking like old friends.
+
+In the course of the evening I found myself near Miss Bellasys. This
+time she did me the honor to address me, and soon began asking me more
+questions than I could answer, even had she waited a reply. Did I like
+Kerton Manor? Had there been many agreeable people there yet? Not any
+remarkably so! She was surprised at that. Miss Raymond was there _en
+permanence_, of course? She was such a favorite with her (Flora), and
+with her cousin too, she thought. Was Mr. Livingstone always playing
+with his uncle, and always losing? She supposed he liked losing--at
+play. Did I know the lady in pink, with twenty-five flowers in her hair?
+She had counted them. Yes, that was her husband, the stout man looking
+uncomfortable, in the corner--an old friend of Mr. Livingstone's? He had
+so many old friends; but he did not always talk to them for a whole
+evening without intermission. Ah! she was going to sing; that is, if
+Mr. Livingstone had quite finished with her, and would let her go.
+Little women with pink cheeks and dresses always _did_ sing, and never
+had any voice.
+
+I don't know how many more questions she put to me in the same quiet,
+clear tones; but just then I happened to look down on the handkerchief
+she held in her hand, and I saw a long rent in its broad Valenciennes
+border that I am very sure was not there an hour ago; for Flora's
+toilette, morning and evening, was faultless to a degree.
+
+I had hardly time to remark this when Guy lounged up to us. My
+companion's dark eyes were more eloquent than her lips, which quivered
+slightly as she said,
+
+"I wonder you have not more consideration. A new arrival in the county,
+and compromised irretrievably! Look at Mr. Stafford now."
+
+"The husband?" Guy said, with intense disdain; "the husband's helpless.
+He may sharpen his--tusks, but he'll never come to battle. How good and
+great you are! It is quite refreshing to hear your strictures on
+innocent amusements. But I beg you will speak of that lady with due
+respect; she is the first--yes, positively the first--woman I ever
+loved."
+
+"_Monseigneur, que d'honneur!_" Flora said, curling her haughty lip.
+
+"It is true," Guy went on. "At a children's ball, about fifteen years
+ago, I met my fate. She was in white muslin, with a velvet bodice (Flora
+shuddered visibly); for a year after I pictured to myself the angels in
+no other attire, and now--years vitiate one's tastes so--I can fancy
+nothing but a jockey in 'black body and white sleeves.' I suppose she
+was very pretty; let us hope so; it is my only excuse for being
+enchanted in ten minutes, and stupidly enslaved in half an hour. The
+thing would not have been complete without a rival; he came--a plump,
+circular-faced boy, with severely flaxen hair. No, you need not look
+across the room--not the least like what she is now! Great jealousy may
+make me unjust, but I don't think he had any advantage over me save one,
+and he used that mercilessly. He wore collars boldly erect under his fat
+checks, while those of the rest of us lay prostrate, after the simple
+fashion of my childhood. The _prestige_ was too much for Ellen's weak
+mind. (Did I tell you her name was Ellen?) Bottom monopolized Titania
+for the rest of the evening. I could have beaten him with ease and
+satisfaction to myself, but I refrained; and, rushing into the
+supper-room, drained three glasses of weak negus with the energy of
+despair.
+
+"I have never suffered any thing since like the torment of the next two
+hours. I saw her several times afterward, and might have made play,
+perhaps, but the phantom of a round red face, with collars starched _à
+l'outrance_, always came between us. It is only a slight satisfaction to
+hear that she has utterly lost sight of my rival, and promises to cut
+him dead the first time they meet. There's the history of a young heart
+blighted--of a crushed affection! I am not aware if there is any moral
+in it; if there is, you are very welcome to it, I am sure. You might
+look a little more sympathizing, though, even if I _have_ bored you."
+
+Flora tried to look grave, but the dancing light in her rebellious eyes
+betrayed her, even before her merry musical laugh broke in.
+
+"It is far the most touching thing I ever heard. Poor child, how you
+must have suffered! I wonder you ever smiled again. How well she sings,
+does she not? when she does not try to go too high."
+
+"Don't be severe," Guy retorted; "you may have to sing yourself some
+day. You prefer talking, though? Well, with a well-managed _contralto_,
+it comes nearly to the same thing, and I suppose you consider the world
+in general is not worthy of it?"
+
+Almost imperceptibly, but very meaningly, her glance turned to where I
+sat close beside her.
+
+"How absurd! you know why I don't sing often. To-night it would be--too
+cruel. (Flora's idea of modest merit was peculiar.) Now tell me, what
+are you going to ride to-morrow? We shall all go and see them throw
+off."
+
+Without answering her question, he leaned over her, and said something
+too low for me to hear, which made her color brighten.
+
+From a distant corner two ancient virgins, long past "mark of mouth,"
+surveyed the proceedings with faces like moulds of lemon-ice. Flora
+glanced toward them this time, and said demurely, making a gesture of
+crossing her arms a _à la Napoléon I._, "Take care; from the summit of
+yonder sofa forty ages behold you."
+
+The caution was a challenge; and so her hearer interpreted it as he sank
+down beside her.
+
+I seemed to be lapsing rapidly into the terrible _third_ that spoils
+sport, so I left them; but not all the adjurations of Godfrey Parndon
+invoking his favorite antagonist to the whist-table could draw Guy from
+his post again that evening.
+
+I know men who would have given five years of life for the whisper that
+glided into his ear as he gave Miss Bellasys her candle on retiring, ten
+for the Parthian glance that shot its arrow home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+     "I know the purple vestment;
+       I know the crest of flame;
+     So ever _rides_ Mamilius,
+       Prince of the Latian name."
+
+
+The next was a perfect hunting morning; a light breeze, steady from the
+southwest, and not too much sun; the very day when a scent, in and out
+of cover, would be a certainty, if there were any calculation on this
+contingency. Let us do our sisters justice--there is _one_ thing in
+nature more uncertain and capricious than the whims of womankind.
+
+The hounds had come up with their usual train of officials, and of those
+steady-going sportsmen who love the pack better than their own children,
+and can call each individual in it by his name. Godfrey Parndon was
+doing the civil to the "great men in Israel," his heaviest subscribers;
+pinks were gleaming in every direction through the clumps and belts of
+plantation, as the men came up at a hard gallop on their cover-hacks, or
+opened the pipes of their hunters by a stretch over the turf of the
+park.
+
+On the hall steps stood Flora Bellasys--Penthesilea in a wide-awake and
+plume; a dozen men were round her, striving emulously for a word or a
+smile, and she held her own gallantly with them all. She was waiting
+patiently till Guy had lighted an obstinate cigar, and was ready to
+mount her. He understood putting her up better than any one else, she
+said. Perhaps he did; but, though he swung her into the saddle with one
+wave of his mighty arm as lightly as Lochinvar could have done, the
+arrangement of the skirt and stirrup seemed a problem hardly to be
+solved.
+
+If there was any truth in the old Courland superstition that the display
+of a lady's ankle to the hunters before they started brought them luck,
+we ought to have had the run of the season that day.
+
+He rode by her side, too, as near as the plunges of the chestnut would
+allow, till we reached the gorse that we were to draw; once there, the
+stronger passion prevailed. Aphroditè hid her face, and the great
+goddess Artemis claimed her own. As the first hound whimpered, he drew
+off toward a corner, where a big fence would give a chance of shaking
+off the crowd, and I do not think he turned his head till the fox went
+away.
+
+The last thing I remember there was the anxious look in two beautiful
+hazel eyes as they gazed after the Axeine, charging his second fence
+with the rush of an express train.
+
+The _fétiche_ did not fail us; we had a wonderful run, of which only
+five men saw the end. I confess, the second brook stopped me and many
+others. Forrester got over with a fall; but they were preparing to break
+up the fox, when he came up first of the second flight.
+
+Guy came home in great spirits; he had been admirably carried. He and
+the first whip, a ten-stone man, were head and head at the last fence,
+while the hounds were rolling over their fox, a hundred yards farther,
+in the open.
+
+After dinner he amused himself with teasing his cousin. At last he
+asked her if she would lend him Bella Donna to hack to cover, as his own
+favorite was rather lame.
+
+Miss Raymond's indignation was superb; for, be it known, she was prouder
+of the said animal than of any thing else in the world.
+
+She (the mare, not the lady) was a bright bay, with black points, quite
+thorough-bred, and as handsome as a picture. Livingstone had bought her
+out of a training-stable, and had given her to his cousin, after having
+broken her into a perfect light-weight hunter.
+
+One of the few extravagances in which Mr. Raymond indulged his daughter
+was allowing her to take Bella Donna wherever she went.
+
+"Don't excite yourself, you small Amazon!" replied Guy to her indignant
+refusal. "How you do believe in that mare! I wonder you don't put her
+into some of the great Spring Handicaps! You would get her in light, and
+might win enough to keep you in gloves for half a century."
+
+"Well, I don't know," Forester's slow, languid voice suggested; "I think
+she's faster, for three miles, than any thing in your stable. I should
+like to run the best you have for £50, weight for inches."
+
+"I am not surprised at your supporting Bella's opinion," said Guy, with
+a shade of sarcasm in his voice, "but I did not expect you would back
+it. Come, I'll make this match, if you like; you shall ride
+catch-weight, which will be about 11 st. 7 lb., and I'll ride the Axeine
+at 14 st. 7 lb.: I must take a 7 lb. saddle to do that. They are both in
+hard condition, so it can come off in ten days; and I'll give the
+farmers a cup to run for at the same time. Is it a match?"
+
+"Certainly, if Miss Raymond will trust me with Bella Donna."
+
+Isabel's eyes sparkled--so brilliantly! as she answered, "I should like
+it, of all things."
+
+"Now, Puss," Guy went on, "you ought to have something on it. There is a
+certain set of turquoises and pearls that I meant to give you whenever
+you had been good for three weeks consecutively; it is no use waiting
+for such a miracle, so I'll bet you these against that sapphire and
+diamond ring you have taken to wearing lately."
+
+His cousin looked distressed and confused. "Any thing else, Guy," she
+said. "I can not risk that; it was a present from--from Mrs. Molyneux."
+
+"I don't think," Charley suggested, very quietly, "Mrs.--Molyneux, was
+it not?--could object to your investing her present on such a certainty.
+I really believe we shall bring it off; and if not--" He checked himself
+with a smile.
+
+"Oh, if you think so," answered Isabel, blushing more than ever, "I will
+venture my ring. But you _must_ win; I don't know what I should do if I
+lost it." So it was settled.
+
+"You seem confident," I remarked to Livingstone, later in the evening. I
+remember the peculiar expression of his face, though I did not then
+understand it, as he answered gravely,
+
+"Bella ought to be; for--she has laid long odds."
+
+There was great excitement in the neighborhood when the match, and the
+farmers' race to follow, became known. Half the county was assembled on
+the appointed morning, an off-day with the Pytchley. Godfrey Parndon was
+judge, and had picked the ground--a figure of 8, with 17 fences, large
+but fair for the most part; the horses were to traverse it twice,
+missing the brook (16 feet of clear water) the second time.
+
+I wish they were not getting so rare, those purely country meetings,
+where three wagons with an awning make the grant stand; where there are
+no ring-men to force the betting and deafen you with their blatant
+proffers--"to lay agin any thing in the race;" where the bold yeomen, in
+full confidence that their favorite will not be "roped," back their
+opinions manfully for crowns.
+
+Livingstone's great local renown, and the reputation of the Axeine for
+strength and speed (though no one knew how fast he _could_ go), made the
+betting 5 to 4 on him; but takers were not wanting, calculating on the
+horse's truly Satanic temper. Miss Bellasys, who, with her mother, had
+arrived at Kerton the night before, laid half a point more--_not_ in
+gloves--on the heavy-weight.
+
+The bell for saddling rang, and the horses came out. The mare stripped
+beautifully, as fine as a star--no wonder her mistress was proud of her;
+and I think she had, to the full, as many admirers as the Axeine.
+
+The latter was a dark chestnut with a white fetlock, standing full 16
+hands (while the mare scarcely topped 15), well ribbed up, with a good
+sloping shoulder, immense flat hocks, and sinewy thighs; his crest and
+forehand were like a stallion's; and, when you looked at his quarters,
+it was easy to believe what the Revesby stablemen said, "They could
+shoot a man into the next county."
+
+He was "orkarder than usual that morning," the groom remarked; perhaps
+he did not fancy the crowd without the hounds, for he kept lashing out
+perpetually, with vicious backward glances from his red eyes.
+
+Then the riders showed: Livingstone in his own colors, purple and
+scarlet cap, workmanlike and weather-stained; Forrester in the fresh
+glories of light blue with white sleeves, his cap quartered with the
+same.
+
+Charley lingered a minute by Miss Raymond's side, taking her last
+instructions, I suppose. She looked very nervous and pale, her jockey
+pleasantly languid as ever.
+
+The instant the chestnut was mounted he reared, and indulged in two or
+three "buck-jumps" that would have made a weaker man tremble for his
+back-bone, and then kicked furiously; but Guy seemed to take it all as a
+matter of course, sitting square and erect; all he did was to drive the
+sharp rowels in repeatedly, bringing a dark blood-spot out with each
+stroke. It was not by love certainly that he ruled the Axeine. Then came
+the preliminary gallops, the mare going easily on her bit, gliding over
+the ground smoothly and springily; the horse shaking his head, and every
+now and then tearing madly at the reins, without being able to gain a
+hair's breadth on the iron hands that never moved from his withers.
+
+"They're off!" Guy taking the lead; well over the first two fences, fair
+hunting ones; the third is a teaser--an ugly black bulfinch, with a
+ditch on the landing side, and a drop into a plowed field. The
+chestnut's devil is thoroughly roused by this time. When within sixty
+yards of the fence, he puts on a rush that even his rider's mighty
+muscles can not check: his impetus would send him through a castle wall;
+but he hardly rises at the leap, taking it, too, where there is a
+network of growers--a crash that might be heard in the grand stand--and
+horse and man are rolling in the field beyond.
+
+Flora Bellasys strikes her foot angrily with her riding-whip, and turns
+very pale.
+
+Ten lengths behind, the mare comes up, well in hand, and slips through
+the bulfinch without a mistake--hardly with an effort--just at the only
+place where you can see daylight through the blackthorn.
+
+What is Guy doing? Even in that thundering fall he has never let the
+reins go. Horse and rider struggle up together. A dozen arms are ready
+to lift him into the saddle, and a cheery voice says in his ear, "Hold
+up, squire; keep him a going, and you'll catch the captain yet!" He
+hardly hears the words though, for his head is whirling, and he feels
+strangely sick and faint; but before he has gone a hundred yards his
+face has settled into its habitual resolute calmness, only there is a
+thin thread of blood creeping from under his cap, and his brow is bent
+and lowering.
+
+A fall, which would have taken the fight out of most horses, has only
+steadied the Axeine; and, as we watch him striding through the deep
+ground, casting the dirt behind him like a catapult we think and say,
+"The race is not over yet."
+
+They are over the brook without a scramble. Forrester still leads,
+riding patiently and well. He knows better than to force the running,
+even with the difference in weight, for the going is too heavy quite to
+suit his mare.
+
+As Livingstone passed the spot where Miss Raymond was stationed, he
+turned half round in his saddle, and looked curiously in her face. She
+did not even know he was near. All her soul was in her eyes, that were
+gazing after Forrester with an anxiety so disproportioned to the
+occasion that her cousin fairly started.
+
+"Poor child," he said to himself, all his angry feelings changing, "she
+seems to have set her heart so upon winning, it would be sad if she were
+disappointed. No one has much on it; shall I try 'Captain Armstrong' for
+once? It would make her very happy. Bar accidents, I must win. They do
+not know that the chestnut has not extended himself yet."
+
+We lose sight of the horses for a little. When we see them a gain, the
+mare has decidedly gained ground; and, to our astonishment, the Axeine
+swerves, and refuses at rather an easy fence.
+
+Miss Bellasys' cheek flushes this time. She goes off at a sharp canter
+through a gate that takes her into a field where the horses must pass
+her close; several of her attendants follow. Charley comes up, looking
+rather more excited and happy than usual. He has made the pace better
+for the last half mile, and still seems going at his ease. More than a
+distance behind is the chestnut, evidently on bad terms with his jockey;
+he is in a white lather of foam, and changes his leg twice as he
+approaches. Guy has his face turned slightly aside as he nears the spot
+where Miss Bellasys waits for him, in the midst of her body-guard. For
+the first time since the race began, her voice was heard, cutting the
+air with its clear mocking tones, like the edge of a Damascus sabre,
+"The chestnut wins--hard held!"
+
+Guy's kindly impulses vanished instantly before the sarcasm latent in
+those last two words. He could sacrifice his own victory and the hopes
+of his backers, but he would not give a chance to Flora's merciless
+tongue. We saw him change his hold on the reins, and, with a shake and a
+fierce thrust of the spurs, he set the Axeine fairly going.
+
+Every man on the ground, including his late owner [who hated himself
+bitterly at that moment for parting with him], was taken by surprise by
+the extraordinary speed the horse displayed. He raced up to Bella Donna
+just before the last fence, at which she hangs ever so little, while he
+takes it in his swing, covering good nine yards from hoof to hoof.
+Nothing but hurdles now between them and home. The down-hill run-in
+favors his vast stride. A thousand voices echo Flora's words, "The
+chestnut wins!" Charley made his effort exactly at the right time, and
+the brave little mare answered gallantly; but it was not to be. He shook
+his head, and never touched her with whip or spur again.
+
+The race was over. No one disputed the judge's fiat: "The Axeine by six
+lengths."
+
+Up to the skies went the hats and the shouts of the sturdy yeomen, who
+"know'd he couldn't be beat," exulting in the success of their
+favorite. Round winner and loser crowded their friends, congratulating
+the one, condoling with the other, praising both for their riding. At
+that moment I do not think any one except myself remarked Isabel
+Raymond, who sat somewhat apart, her tears falling fast under her veil
+as she looked upon her lost ring.
+
+Just then Forrester rode up. "Woe to the vanquished!" he said. "All is
+lost but honor. Will you say something kind to me after my defeat, Miss
+Raymond? You will find your pet not punished in the least, and without a
+scratch on her."
+
+Without answering, she held out her hand. As he bent over it, and
+whispered, what I could not hear, I saw her eyes sparkle, and a happy
+consciousness flush her cheeks, till they glowed like a sky at sunset
+when a storm is passing away in the west. Then I knew that he had won a
+richer prize than ever was set on a race since the first Great
+Metropolitan was run for at Olympia.
+
+Livingstone had washed away the traces of his fall (his wound was only a
+cut under the hair, above the temple), and was going to get the horses
+in line to start them for the farmers' cup. As he passed Miss Bellasys
+he checked his horse for an instant, and said, very coldly,
+
+"You are satisfied, I trust?"
+
+"All's well that ends well," answered Flora; "but I began to tremble for
+my bets. I thought you were waiting too long."
+
+Guy did not wish to pursue the subject apparently, for he rode on
+without reply. Flora made no attempt to detain him. She had studied the
+signs of the times in his countenance long enough to be weather-wise,
+and to know that the better part of valor was advisable when the
+quicksilver had sunk to Stormy.
+
+The cup was a great success. Eleven started, and three made a most
+artistic finish--scarcely a length between first and third. The farmers
+of the present day ride very differently from their ancestors of fifty
+years ago, whose highest ambition was to pound along after the slow,
+sure "currant-jelly dogs."
+
+Go down into the Vale of Belvoir; watch one of the duke's tenants
+handing a five-year old over the Smite, and say if the modern
+agriculturists might not boast with Tydides,
+
+     _"hêmeis dê paterôn meg' ameinones euchometh' einai."_
+
+They are getting so erudite, too, that I dare say they would quote it in
+the original.
+
+When all was over, and they were returning to Kerton, Guy ranged up to
+his cousin's side. He looked rather embarrassed and penitent--an
+expression which sat upon his stern, resolute face very strangely. But
+Isabel was radiant with happiness, and did not even sigh as she held out
+the forfeited ring. He put it back with a decided gesture of his hand,
+and, leaning over her, whispered something in her ear. I don't know how
+they arranged it; but Miss Raymond wore the turquoises at the next
+county ball--the ring, to her dying day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+     "Souvent femme varie;
+     Bien fol est, qui s'y fie."
+
+
+We sat by the firelight in the old library of Kerton Manor. The dreary
+January evening was closing in, with a sharp sleet lashing the windows
+and rattling on their diamond panes, but the gleams from the great
+burning logs lighted up the dark crimson cushions of Utrecht and the
+polished walnut panels so changefully and enticingly that no one had the
+heart to think of candles.
+
+All the younger members of the party were assembled there, with Mrs.
+Bellasys to play propriety. It was her mission to be chaperon in
+ordinary to her daughter and her daughter's friends, and she went
+through with it, admirable in her patient self-denial. May they be
+reckoned to her credit hereafter--those long hours, when she sat sleepy,
+weary, uncomplaining, with an aching head but a stereotyped smile.
+
+Let us speak gently of these maternal martyrs, manoeuvring though they
+be. If they have erred, they have suffered. I knew once a lady with a
+lot of six, nubile, but not attractive, all with a decided bias toward
+Terpsichore and Hymen. Fancy what she must have endured, with those
+plain young women round her, always clamoring for partners, temporary or
+permanent, like fledglings in a nest for food. Clever and unscrupulous
+as she was--they called her the "judicious Hooker"--she must have been
+conscious of her utter inability to satisfy them. She knew, too, that
+if, by any dispensation, one were removed, five daughters of the
+horse-leech would still remain, with ravenous appetites unappeased. Yet
+the poor old bird was cheerful, and sometimes, after supper, would chirp
+quite merrily. _Honneur au courage malheureux._ Let us stand aside in
+the cloak-room, and salute her as she passes out with all the honors of
+war.
+
+Mrs. Bellasys was a little woman, who always reminded me of a certain
+tropical monkey--name unknown. She wore her hair bushily on each side of
+her small face, just like the said intelligent animal, and had the same
+eager, rather frightened way of glancing out of her beady black eyes,
+accompanied by a quick turning of the head when addressed. She had her
+full share of troubles in her time, but she took them all
+contentedly--not to say complacently--as part of the day's work. Her
+husband was not a model of fidelity, nor, indeed, of any of the conjugal
+or cardinal virtues. He was a sort of Maëlstrom, into which fair
+fortunes and names were sucked down, only emerging in unrecognizable
+fragments. His own would have gone too, doubtless; but he had been lucky
+at play for a long time--too constantly so, some said--and a pistol
+bullet cut him short before he had half spent his wife's money, so that
+she was left comfortably off, and her daughter was a fair average
+heiress. She had long ago abdicated the government in favor of Flora,
+who treated her well on the whole, _en bonne princesse_.
+
+It is an invariable rule that, if there is a delicate subject which we
+determine beforehand to avoid, this particular one is sure
+imperceptibly to creep into the conversation.
+
+Mr. Bruce was to arrive before dinner, an event which we guessed would
+not add materially to the comfort of two of our party (how silent those
+two were in their remote corner where the firelight never came), so of
+course we found ourselves talking of ill-assorted marriages.
+
+"You count _mésalliances_ among such?" Guy asked, at length. "Yes, you
+are right; but I know a case where 'a man's being balked in his
+intention to degrade himself' ruined him for life. Ralph Mohun told me
+of it. It was a nine-days' wonder in Vienna soon after he joined the
+Imperial Cuirassiers. A Bohemian count flourished there then--a great
+favorite with every one, for he was frank and generous, like most boys
+well-born and of great possessions, who have only seen things in general
+on the sunny side. While down at his castle for the shooting, he fell in
+love with the daughter of one of his foresters. The man was a dull,
+brutal cur, and, when drunk, especially savage. His daughter was rarely
+beautiful; at all events, the count, a good judge, thought her peerless.
+
+"He meant fairly by the girl from the first, and promised her marriage,
+actually intending to keep his word. Still there were arrangements to be
+made before he could introduce such a novel element into blood that for
+centuries had been pure as the _sangue azzura_. He went up to Vienna for
+that purpose, leaving his design a profound secret to all his
+dependents. If these thought about it at all, they probably believed
+their master's intentions to be--like Dick Harcourt's toward the Irish
+lady--'strictly dishonorable.'
+
+"One night during his absence shrieks came from the cottage where the
+forester lived alone with his daughter. Those who heard them made haste;
+but it was a desolate spot, far from any other dwelling, and they came
+too late.
+
+"They found the girl lying in her blood, not a feature of her pretty
+face recognizable. Near her were the butt of a gun shivered, and her
+father senselessly drunk. He had evidently finished the bottle after
+beating her to death.
+
+"Whether it was merely an outbreak of his stupid ferocity, or if she had
+exasperated him by her threats and taunts, for she was of a haughty
+spirit, poor child! and perhaps rather elevated by the thought of the
+coming coronet, will never be known. The murderer was in no state to
+make a confession, and he remained obstinately silent in prison till his
+lord's return."
+
+"How very horrible!" Mrs. Bellasys cried out, shuddering; "was not the
+count very angry?"
+
+"Well, he _was_ rather vexed," replied Guy, coolly. "They are high
+justiciaries on their own lands, those great Bohemian barons, and so he
+gave the forester a fair trial. It was soon over; the man denied
+nothing, only whining out, in excuse, that he thought his daughter was
+dishonored. The shadow of death was closing round him, and he was nearly
+mad with fear.
+
+"The old steward saw a strange sort of smile twist his master's white,
+quivering lips when he heard this, but he never said a word. I imagine
+he thought to reveal his purpose now that it was crushed too great a
+sacrifice even to clear the dead girl's fair fame; perhaps, though, he
+could not trust his voice, for he did not announce the sentence in
+words, but wrote it down: his hand shook very much, and it never carried
+a full glass unspilled to his mouth again.
+
+"The court broke up at midday, and the man went straight, unconfessed,
+to the place of his punishment. They tied him to the tree nearest his
+own door, and the count sat by while he howled his life out under the
+lash. He was hardly dead by sundown."
+
+"It was revenge, not justice," Mrs. Bellasys said, more firmly than was
+her wont. I saw the quick, impatient movement of her daughter's little
+foot; she did not appreciate her mother's moralities.
+
+The answer came in the deepest of Livingstone's deep, stern tones.
+
+"He was no saint, but a man, and a very miserable one; he acted
+according to his light, and in his despair caught at the weapon that was
+nearest to his hand. After all, the blood of a base, brutal hound, take
+it in what fashion you will, is a poor compensation for one life cut
+short in agony, and another blasted utterly.
+
+"Mohun knew the count's family. Some of them, maiden aunts I suppose,
+were devotees of the first order: these came in person, or sent their
+pet priests, to argue with him on his unchristian habits of sullen
+solitude. The men of his old set came too, to laugh him out of the
+horrors. Saint and sinner got the same answer--a shake of the head, a
+curse, a threat if he were not left alone, growled out between deep
+draughts of strong Moldavian wine. They went, and were wise; for his
+pistols lay always beside him--in case his servants offended him, or if
+he should take a sudden fancy to suicide--and the shaking finger could
+have pulled a trigger still.
+
+"After a little he left Vienna, shut himself up in his castle, and would
+see no one.
+
+"In England they would have tried at the '_de lunatico_' statute; but
+his next of kin left him in peace, biding their time as patiently as
+they could. They had not to wait long; in four years a good constitution
+broke up, suddenly at last, and the count exchanged stupor for a sleep
+with his fathers, without benefit of clergy. Perhaps they would not have
+given him absolution, for he died certainly not in charity with all
+men."
+
+"I don't know," Mrs. Bellasys objected, with a timid obstinacy; "I can
+not argue with you; but I am sure it was very wrong."
+
+I struck in to the meek little woman's rescue.
+
+"That's right, Mrs. Bellasys, don't let him put you down with the high
+hand; it's always his way when truth is against him; but I never knew
+him break down a stubborn fact yet."
+
+Guy turned upon me directly.
+
+"Frank, I have often remarked in you, with pain, quite a feminine
+propensity to theorize. Women _will_ do it. My dear Mrs. Bellasys, don't
+look so dreadfully like an accusing angel about to bring me to book; you
+know I am a hopeless heretic. They get up a sort of _Memoria Technica_
+in early youth, and it clings to them all their life through. If they go
+astray, they never cease proclaiming aloud that 'they know it's very
+wrong;' though eminently unpractical, they think it due to themselves to
+pet certain abstract truths (circumstances don't affect them in the
+least), like that priestess of Cotytto, who said to the magistrate,
+through her tears, 'I may have been unfortunate, but I've always been
+respectable!' Sometimes principle gets the pull over passion, but, in
+such a case, regrets come as often afterward as remorse does in the
+reverse. I was reading a French story the other day--" He checked
+himself with a laugh. "Bah! I am in the prosaic vein, it seems,
+anecdoting like the old knave of clubs."
+
+"Will you go on?" Flora said, leaning over toward him, her eyes
+glittering in the firelight.
+
+The thrill in her voice--strangely contagious it was--told how much she
+was interested. I do not wonder at it. There was only one man on earth
+for whom she had ever really cared--he sat beside her then--and, I
+believe, what attracted her most in him was the daring disregard of
+opinions, conventionalities, and more sacred things yet, which carried
+him on straight to the accomplishment of his thought or purpose. In
+those days, if either were an obstacle, he flinched no more before a
+great moral law than at a big fence.
+
+"Well," Guy went on, "it is the simple history of Fernande, an _ange
+déchue_ of the Quartier Brèda. She had formed a connection with a man
+who suited her perfectly in every way, and they went on in happy
+immorality, till she found out that Maurice had a wife somewhere, a very
+charming person, who loved him dearly; perhaps she thought that the
+possession of two such affections by one man was _de luxe_; at all
+events, she cut him at once, refusing consistently to see him again.
+Maurice, after trying all other means to move her in vain, resorted to
+the expedient of a brain fever. When his wife and mother saw him very
+near his end, they sent for Fernande as a last resource. They ought to
+have preferred death to dishonor, of course; but, my dear Mrs. Bellasys,
+they were not strong-minded. What would you have? There are women and
+women.
+
+"She came and nursed him faithfully; when he got better, though still
+very weak, she took advantage of his unprotected position to inflict on
+him the longest lectures, replete with good sense and good feeling, as
+to his conjugal duties, proprieties, and so forth. He gave in at last,
+on the principle of 'any thing for a quiet life,' and promised to behave
+himself like a decent head of a family. When the balance of power was
+thoroughly re-established, she left him, first entreating him, when he
+found himself really in love with his wife, and happy, to write and tell
+her so. This was to be her reward, you know. The others went to Italy,
+Fernande to a place she had in Brittany, where she put herself on a
+strict _régime_ of penitence, attending matins regularly, and doing as
+much good in her neighborhood as Lady Bountiful, or--my mother. In about
+a twelvemonth the letter came; Maurice was devoted to his wife, and
+great on the point of domestic felicity. Then Fernande went into her
+oratory and prayed. What do you think was the substance of her prayer?"
+
+"That she might go mad or die," was the quick answer: it came from Flora
+Bellasys.
+
+"How good of you," Guy said, "to let me finish that long story, when you
+knew it by heart."
+
+I think no ear but his and mine caught the whisper--"I never read or
+heard of it till now."
+
+He bent his head in assent, as if the intelligence did not surprise him
+much, and then spoke suddenly,
+
+"Charley, will you make an observation? You have been displaying that
+incontestable talent of yours for silence long enough."
+
+Very seldom was Forrester taken by surprise, but this time his reply was
+not ready. There was an embarrassing pause, broken by a _Deus ex
+machinâ_,--the butler announcing that Mr. Bruce had arrived, and was in
+the drawing-room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+     "And now thou knowest thy father's will,
+       All that thy sex hath need to know:
+     'Twas mine to teach obedience still--
+       The way to love thy lord may show."
+
+
+From that dark distant corner I heard a sigh, ending in a nervous
+catching of the breath, and then a muttered word unpleasantly like an
+oath, as Forrester sprang to his feet.
+
+Livingstone rose slowly.
+
+"I'll go and receive him. Let Mr. Raymond know, Wise. I suppose he will
+not care to see any one else before dressing-time; it must be near that
+now."
+
+As he passed his cousin, he whispered something inaudible to us; and I
+saw his heavy hand fall on Charley's shoulder, crushing him down again
+like a child.
+
+Then Flora went to Miss Raymond, and asked her, with more kindness in
+her manner than usual, to come to her rooms for some tea; they always
+seriously inclined to the consumption of that cheerful herb about this
+hour. Isabel clung to her companion as they went out with a meek
+helplessness which was sad to see.
+
+Charley had vanished before them. After that first involuntary movement
+he had become _nonchalant_ as ever, so I remained alone to ruminate. I
+confess, after some thought, I was still in the dark as to where things
+would end.
+
+The meeting had been got over somehow, for, when I came down before
+dinner, Bruce was sitting on a sofa by Miss Raymond's side.
+
+Why does a man in such a position invariably look as if he were on the
+stool of repentance, expiating some misdeed of unutterable shame? He has
+sat by the same woman before, when it was only a strong flirtation; more
+eyes, curious and spiteful, were upon him then, and he met them with
+perfect self-possession. Now that he is in his right, why does he look
+blushingly uneasy, as if he would call on the curtains to hide him, and
+the cushions to cover him? Have any mortals existed so good, or great,
+or wise, as to be exempt from that dreadful poll-tax levied on all males
+unprivileged to woo by proxy--the necessity of looking ridiculous from
+the moment their engagement is announced to that when they leave the
+church as Benedicts? I should like to have watched Burke, or Herschel,
+or the Iron Duke, or _any_ Archbishop of Canterbury, through the ordeal
+of a recognized courtship. Would the dignity of the statesman, the sage,
+the soldier, or the saint have been sustained? I trow not.
+
+In truth, it is a sight full of sad warning, that ever-recurring
+spectacle of an engaged man (the lady is always provokingly at her ease)
+in general society. His friends turn away in compassion and charity; the
+girls, whom he ought to have married and--didn't, look on, exchanging
+smiles with their mothers; it is their hour of savage triumph. The
+French manage things more comfortably, I think. The promessi sposi meet
+so seldom before the contract is signed--between sentence and execution
+the time is so brief that there is little space for intermediate
+terrors.
+
+Nature had not been bountiful to Mr. Bruce in externals. He was very
+tall, with round shoulders, long, lean limbs, large feet and hands, and
+immense joints. There was a good deal of strength about him, but it
+wanted concentration and arrangement. His features were rather
+exaggerated and coarse in outline, with the high cheek-bones common on
+the north side of the Tweed; his hair of an unhappy vacillating color
+that could not make its mind up to be red; and his eyes, that rarely met
+you fairly, of a light cold gray. About the mouth, in particular, there
+was a very unpleasant expression, alternately vicious and cunning.
+
+I do not believe that his intimates, if he had any, in their wildest
+moments of conviviality, ever called him "Jack;" nor his mother, in his
+earliest childhood, "Johnnie." Plain "John Bruce" was written
+uncompromisingly in every line of his face; just the converse of
+Forrester, whom old maids of rigid virtue, after seeing him twice, were
+irresistibly impelled to speak of as "Charley."
+
+I wish some profound psychologist would give us his theory on the
+question of "The influence of nomenclature on disposition and destiny."
+It is all very well to ask, "What's in a name?" I think there is a great
+deal; and that our sponsors have much to answer for in indulging their
+baptismal fancies. Not to go into the subject (which some have already
+done without exhausting it), have you not remarked that Georgiana is
+always pretty and slightly sarcastic; that Isabella has large, soft,
+lustrous eyes--generally they are dark; that Fanny invariably flirts;
+and that Kate is decided in character, if not haughty?
+
+Tragedy and comedy both are forced to observe these nominal
+proprieties. Who was it that illuminated his house, and had the church
+bells rung, on finding a name for his hero? We should never have
+believed in Iago's treacheries if he had appeared before us as simple
+"James."
+
+The new arrival seemed to have chilled us all into stupidity. Dinner
+languished; and afterward, Guy, after trying at first to be laboriously
+civil--the sense of duty was painfully evident--lapsed into silence,
+passing the claret rather faster than usual, so that Mr. Raymond, to his
+intense disgust, had to make an effort and force the conversation.
+
+When we entered, Isabel was nestling under Miss Bellasys' wing, from
+which shelter she had to emerge at Bruce's request for some music. She
+went directly, and played several pieces that he asked for straight
+through, while he stood gravely behind her with a complacent air of
+proprietorship which was inexpressibly aggravating.
+
+When her task was done she went back to her sofa again; there she was
+safe, for all Bruce's devotion to his ladye-love and stubbornness of
+character could not give him courage enough to affront, at close
+quarters, the mingled dislike and scornful humor that played round
+Flora's lips, and gleamed in her eyes like summer lightning. He had to
+retreat upon Lady Catharine, who, thinking him hardly used, in her
+inextinguishable charity exerted herself to entertain him.
+
+We were all glad when that first evening was over, and we got into the
+smoking-room, whither Mr. Bruce was not entreated to follow. It was
+always an augury of foul weather in Livingstone's temper when, instead
+of the decent evening cigar, he smoked the short black _brule-gueule_,
+loaded to the muzzle with cavendish. He sat thus for some minutes,
+rolling out stormy puffs from under his mustache, and then broke out,
+
+"I haven't an idea what to do with him" (there was no need to name the
+object of his thoughts); "I made up my mind to risk a horse or two, for,
+of course, he would have broken their knees; but when I offered him a
+mount, he thanked me and said, 'He didn't hunt.' It would have got him
+away from home, at all events. Poor Bella! how heavy on hand she _will_
+find him."
+
+"Ah! and he might have come to a timely end over timber; Providence does
+interfere so benevolently sometimes." This was Forrester's pious
+reflection.
+
+"Well, that's over," Guy went on. "He must shoot, though; every one
+shoots, or thinks he does. We have all the pheasants to kill yet
+(by-the-by, Fallowfield comes over on Thursday for the Home Wood); that
+will keep him employed for some time; but it's only putting off the evil
+day. My match-making aunt, of blessed memory, how much she has to answer
+for! I hate to think of Bella's _mignonne_ face alongside of that
+flinty-cheeked Scotchman's."
+
+"Don't be angry, Guy," suggested Charley, with some diffidence; "but, if
+it's not an impertinent question, do you think he ever tries to kiss
+your cousin?"
+
+"I never thought of that," replied Livingstone, not without an oath;
+"there's another pleasant reflection. No, I should think not. He _is_
+ceremonious, to give the devil his due. I'll find out to-morrow, though,
+without making Bella blush. Miss Bellasys is sure to know. I saw them
+exchanging confidences all this evening, and I am certain there were
+instigations to rebellion. Flora would delight in an _émeute_; she's a
+perfect Red Republican, that girl."
+
+"The opposition seems organizing," I remarked; "ministers will find
+themselves soon, I fear, without a working majority."
+
+"Not unlikely," said Guy, filling another pipe; "but they won't resign.
+Some men never know when they are beaten. Well, he who lives will see.
+If this wind lasts, we shall have a cracker from Lilbourne to-morrow.
+You ride the young one, don't you, Charley?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+                            "A life whose waste
+     Ravaged each bloom by which its path was traced,
+     Sporting at will, and moulding sport to art,
+     With what sad holiness--the human heart."
+
+
+It is a bright, crisp morning, and there is a gathering round the hall
+door of Kerton Manor.
+
+To the right is Sir Henry Fallowfield, already established on the broad
+tack of his shooting pony, an invaluable animal, that can leap or creep
+wherever a man can go, and steady under fire as old Copenhagen. The
+baronet is very gouty. The whip made out of his favorite vices cuts him
+up sharply at times, and he does not like it alluded to. I never saw him
+look so savage at Guy as when the latter quoted, _"Raro antecedentem
+scelestum Deseruit pede poena claudo."_ Of course, he can not walk
+much; but, placed in a ride, or at the corner of a cover, he rolls over
+the hares and pulls down the pheasants unerringly as ever; when you come
+up, you will find him surrounded by a semicircle of slain, and not a
+runner among them.
+
+The battle of life has left its tokens on the face of the strong,
+skillful Protagonist. The features, once so finely cut, are somewhat
+full and bloated now; but it is a magnificent ruin, and there are traces
+yet of "the handsomest man of his day." Very expressive are his glances
+still; a little too much so, some people think, when he is criticising a
+figure or a face; but, to do him justice, _gourmandise_ is his pet
+weakness now, a comparatively harmless one; and a delicate _entremet_
+will bring the light into his eyes that only war or love could do in the
+old days.
+
+By Sir Henry's side, encouraging him with great prophecies of sport,
+stands Mallett, the head-keeper. What a contrast his fresh, honest face
+makes with the veteran _roué's_! He is the elder of the two by a good
+ten years, and there is scarcely a wrinkle on his ruddy cheeks and
+smooth forehead. Wind and weather have used him with a rough kindness,
+and his foot is almost as light, his hand quite as heavy, as when he
+entered the service of Guy's grandfather half a century ago. For
+generations his family have been devoted to the preservation of game;
+his six stalwart sons are all eminent in that line; and the "Kerton
+breed" of keepers is renowned throughout the Midland shires. He is a
+prime favorite with the village children and their mothers, for, in all
+respects save one, his heart is as soft as a woman's; to poachers it is
+as the nether millstone. There is the stain of a "justifiable homicide"
+on the old man's hands--the blood of an antagonist slain in fair fight,
+in those rough times when the forest was, and marauders came out by
+scores to strike its deer. I do not think the deed has weighed heavily
+on his conscience (though he never has spoken of it since), or troubled
+his healthy, honest slumbers.
+
+To the left is Guy, repressing the attentions of four couple of strong
+red and white spaniels, but _not_ those of Miss Bellasys, who, standing
+at the oriel window of the library, is good-natured enough to fasten the
+band of his wide-awake for him, which has come undone. As he stands
+with his towering head a little bent, murmuring the "more last words,"
+Sir Henry, contemplating the picture with much satisfaction, smacks his
+lips, and suggests "Omphale."
+
+Last of all, Mr. Raymond comes slowly down the staircase, followed by
+his son-in-law that is to be. Forrester and I have been ready long ago,
+so we start.
+
+Bruce did shoot, certainly, if discharging his gun on the slightest
+provocation constituted the fact; but he shot curiously ill. Indeed, he
+might have formed a pendant to that humane sportsman who, having taken
+to rural sports _sero sed serio_, said, in extreme old age, "that it was
+a satisfaction to him to reflect that he could not charge himself with
+having been, wittingly, the death of more than a dozen of his
+fellow-creatures."
+
+It was a problem whereon Mallett ruminated gravely long
+afterward--"Wherever Mr. Bruce's shot do go to?" He could not conceive
+so much lead being dispersed in the atmosphere without a more adequate
+result. This want of dexterity, too, was thrown into strong relief that
+day; for all the other men, putting myself out of the question, were
+rare masters of the art.
+
+Livingstone headed the list, though Fallowfield ran him hard. He got the
+most shots, indeed; for his knowledge of the woods and great strength
+enabled him always to keep close to the spaniels. He was a sight to
+marvel at, as he went crashing through bramble and blackthorn with a
+long even stride, just as if he had been walking through light springs.
+
+At the end of the day we were all assembled outside the cover, where the
+game was being counted, except Bruce, who was still in the wood. A stray
+shot every now and then gave notice of his approach.
+
+
+     "We heard but the distant and random gun
+     That the foe was sullenly firing,"
+
+
+Guy quoted, laughing.
+
+"Random! you may say that," remarked Fallowfield. "That man ought to be
+in a glass case, and ticketed; he's a natural curiosity. His bag to-day
+consists of one hare, one hen, and one--sex unknown, for no one saw it
+rise or tried to pick it up; it was blown into a cloud of feathers
+within six feet of his muzzle. Here he comes; don't ask him what he's
+done--it's cruelty."
+
+Bruce came up to us, looking rather more discontented than usual, but
+not nearly so savage as the keeper who had attended him all day, who
+immediately retreated among his fellows to relieve himself, by many
+oaths, of his suppressed disgust and scorn. They offered him beer, but
+it was no use. I heard him growl out, "That there muff's enough to spile
+one's taste for a fortnit."
+
+It was the hour of the wood-pigeons coming in to roost, and several were
+wheeling over our heads at a considerable height.
+
+"There's something for you to empty your gun at, Bruce," Sir. Raymond
+said, pointing to one that came rather nearer than the rest.
+
+He was leveling, when Forrester cried out, "Five-and-twenty to five on
+the bird!"
+
+"Done!" answered Bruce, as he pulled the trigger. It was a long and not
+very easy shot, but the pigeon came whirling down through the tranches
+with a broken pinion.
+
+"You are unlucky in your selection, Captain Forrester," the successful
+shot remarked, coolly. "You might have won a heavy stake by laying the
+same odds all day."
+
+"It serves you right," interposed Guy, "for speaking to a man on his
+shot. Don't you remember quarreling with me the other day for doing so,
+Charley?"
+
+Charley's face of perplexity and disgust was irresistible. We all
+laughed. "What a _guignon_ I have," he said. "Mr. Raymond, I believe you
+were in the robbery."
+
+"Not I," was the answer. "I was as much surprised as any one. I think,"
+he went on, lowering his tone, "Guy is right; he changed his aim, as you
+spoke, involuntarily, or he _must_ have missed."
+
+Then we turned homeward through the twilight.
+
+I do not know if the reminiscence of his lost "pony" was rankling in
+Forrester's mind, or if he was only affected by the presence of Sir
+Henry Fallowfield--an immoral Upas, under whose shadow the most
+flourishing of good resolutions were apt to wither and die; but
+certainly, after dinner, he broke through the cautious reserve which he
+had always in public maintained toward Miss Raymond since Bruce's
+arrival. He not only talked to her incessantly, but tempted her to sing
+with him, during which performance they seemed rapidly lapsing into the
+old confidential style.
+
+Bruce sat apart, the shades on his rugged face gradually deepening from
+sullenness into ferocity. He looked quite wolfish at last, for it was a
+habit he had to show his white teeth more when he was savage than when
+he smiled. But the music went on its way rejoicing,
+
+
+     "Unconscious of their doom,
+     The little victims played."
+
+
+Isabel was too happy, and Charley too careless to be prudent. Once I
+caught his glance as it crossed with Bruce's scowl. There was an
+expression on his pleasant face that few men had ever seen there,
+approaching nearly to an insolent defiance. Looking at those two, a
+child might have known that between them there was bitter hate.
+
+But what of that? Are not the laws of society and the amenities of
+civilized life supreme over such trifles as personal animosities? How
+many women are there who never meet without mingling in a close embrace,
+when each is to the other a Brinvilliers in heart? My gentle cousin
+Kate, only last night I saw you greet your intimate enemy. It was the
+moat gushing thing I ever imagined. The kisses were profuse and
+tantalizing in the extreme; yet I wish, if thoughts could kill, dearest
+Emma's neck would have been safer in the hug of a Norway bear than in
+the clasp of your white willowy arms.
+
+Are there not men, sitting constantly at each other's tables, who, in
+the Golden Age, when people spoke and acted as they felt, would only
+have encountered at the sword's point?
+
+If we hear that our mortal foe is ruined irretrievably, we betray no
+indecorous exultation, but smile complacently and say, "We are not
+surprised;" or, if we have the chance, give him a last push to send him
+over the precipice on whose brink he is staggering. But as for any
+violent demonstration--bah! the _Vendetta_ is going out of fashion, even
+in Corsica, nowadays; only on the boards of the "Princess's" does it
+have a run.
+
+It is better so. Is it not far more creditable and less ridiculous for
+two of our reverend seniors, between whom there exists a deadly feud, to
+comport themselves with decent reserve toward each other, than to go
+vaporing about on crutches, stamping the foot that is not gouty, and
+blaspheming in a weak, cracked treble, like Capulet and Montague? Hot
+rooms and cold draughts are dangerous, but not so fatal as the Aqua
+Tofana, and other pleasant beverages more revolting and rapid in their
+effects. Could any thing be more harrowing to a well regulated mind than
+to see, in the midst of a neatly-turned compliment, one's partner
+literally _look black_ at one, and expire incontinently in great
+torments?
+
+It is less romantic, but I prefer to be given an unmedicated rose. When
+I win a pair of gloves, it is a satisfaction to me to reflect that in
+Houbigant or Pivert there is no venom or guile.
+
+All these consoling thoughts, and more, passed through my mind that
+evening; yet I could not get rid of a strange, indistinct impression
+that it was only the presence of Livingstone which averted some great
+danger imminent over his cousin and Forrester.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+                                "This is all
+     The gain we reap, from all the wisdom sown
+     Through ages. Nothing doubted those first sons
+     Of time; while we, the schooled of centuries,
+     Nothing believe--"
+
+
+We were scattered round the smoking-room, about midnight, in different
+attitudes of repose. Bruce was of the party, decidedly out of his
+element. He did not like tobacco much, and only took a cigar as a
+sacrifice to the exigencies of the occasion, consuming the same with
+great toil and exertion of the lungs, and when he removed it from his
+lips, holding it at arm's length, like a viper or other venomous beast.
+
+"Charley," asked Fallowfield, at length, from the depths of his divan,
+"how is the regiment going on? Insolvent as ever?"
+
+"More so," was the reply. "When I came away they were thinking of
+framing a £5 note, and hanging it up in the ante-room, to show that we
+had _some_ money--just like the man who pitched loaves over the
+city-walls when they were dying of famine--but there was a difficulty
+about procuring one. However, we have been promised the son of an
+opulent brewer or distiller (I forget which, but I know he makes
+something to drink), who is to join before Easter. Perhaps he may set us
+afloat again."
+
+"Yes," Guy remarked; "fortunately, a martial spirit is abroad in the
+Third Estate. _Walbrook s'en va t'en guerre_. If there is one moneyed
+man in the lot, it seems sufficient to keep the others going. I often
+wonder how you manage; for, to do you justice, you don't plunder your
+Croesus. You deserve statues--as Sydney Smith would have said--_æris
+alieni_."
+
+"I am not the rose, but I have lived with her," responded Forrester,
+sententiously. "That's the principle of the thing. When a subaltern
+arrives laden with gold, the barrack-yard is a perfect garden of
+Bendemeer to the tradesmen."
+
+"I believe it is precisely such regiments," remarked Bruce, "that the
+political economists have in view when they attack the army estimates."
+
+The observation was aggressive; but Charley's countenance was unruffled
+as the Dead Sea as he answered, "Personal, but correct. You are intimate
+with Joseph Hume, probably? You look as if you were." (These last words
+were a stage aside, not quite so inaudible as could be wished.) "I think
+we should fight, if we had a chance, though."
+
+His lip wore a curious smile, and he raised himself on his arm to look
+the last speaker full in the face.
+
+"Of course you would," broke in Sir Henry; "that's not a peculiarity of
+crack regiments or second sons. It's only in their baptism of fire that
+the young ones shrink and start; after that, the meekest of men develop
+themselves wonderfully. I heard an old Indian, the other day, speak of a
+case in point.
+
+"There was an officer in his service, mild and stupid to a degree. He
+had been a butt all his life; bullied at school, at Addiscombe, and in
+his corps worst of all.
+
+"They were attacking a hill-fort, and the fire from wall-pieces and
+matchlocks was so heavy that the storming-party would not face it. Among
+those who retreated were two of his superior officers and chief
+tormentors. The junior lieutenant saw them cowering away to seek
+shelter, and laughed out loud; then he flung his shako before him into
+the fort, and led the sepoys back to the charge, and right over the
+breastwork--bareheaded and cheering. He was shot down inside, and lived
+only a few hours, all the time in horrible agony; but Western told us
+that Bayard or Sidney could have made no braver or calmer ending."
+
+"You are right," Livingstone said. "The Roundheads fought fully as well
+as the Cavaliers. I only know of two instances where the thoroughbreds
+had the advantage of a contrast. One was when the Scottish regiment took
+the island in the Rhine; the other was the exploit of the _Gants
+Glacés_. Don't you know it? It's worth hearing.
+
+"They were attacking some town in the wars of the Fronde. The breach was
+scarcely practicable, and the best of the besieging army had recoiled
+from it with great loss. The Black Mousquetaires stood by in all the
+coquetry of scarf, and plume, and fringed scented gloves, laughing
+louder at each repulse of the Linesmen. The soldiers heard them and
+gnashed their teeth. At last there was a murmur, and then a shout--_'En
+avant les Gants Glacés!'_ They wanted to see 'the swells' beaten too.
+Then the Household Brigade went up and carried the breach, leaving a
+third of their number on it. The general in command made the whole army
+defile past their _guidon_, and salute it with sloped standards.
+
+"No; very few men are physical cowards in battle, whatever they may be
+across country. I don't believe Paris was, when he ran from Menelaüs;
+and Helen did not think so, though she teased him about it, or she would
+never have spoken to him again. I rather imagine his feeling was that of
+a certain Guardsman of our acquaintance, who said, declining the ordeal
+of combat, that 'his first duty was to his partners, and this did not
+allow him to risk a black eye.'"
+
+"Might not remorse at the sight of the man he had injured have had
+something to do with his flight?" Bruce asked.
+
+He was full of moral sentiments--that man; only you could not look at
+him without fancying that they sprung more from an inclination to be
+contradictious and disagreeable than from any depth of principle.
+
+"Absurd," Guy retorted. "Wasn't he a heathen, and rather an immoral one?
+It was of profligates with far greater advantages of education that some
+one said, '_'Le remords nait de l'abandon, et non de la faute_.' The
+walls of Troy were strong then, and the Destroyer-of-ships safe behind
+them, 'getting herself up alarmingly' for his return. No wonder Menelaüs
+was eager for the duel: he was staking his loneliness against Paris's
+nine points of the law."
+
+Sir Henry Fallowfield smiled approvingly.
+
+"Yes," he observed, not answering what had been said, but evidently
+following out a train of his own thought. "Modern exquisites have
+courage, and self-possession, and conceit--great elements of success
+with women, I own--but they have not much more. I am certain Charley,
+who is a favorable specimen of the class, often affects silence because
+he has nothing on earth to say. There is a decadence since my younger
+days (I hope I speak dispassionately), and how very far we fell short of
+the _roués_ of the Régence! We could no more match them than a
+fighting-man in good training could stand up to one of the old Pict
+giants. Look at Richelieu: good at all points--in the battle, in the
+boudoir, in the Bastille--a dangerous rival at the two ages of ordinary
+men's first and second childhood."
+
+"He was a great man in his way," I assented. "Do you remember his answer
+to the Duchesse de Maine, when she asked him, for a political purpose,
+if he could remain faithful for one week to an intrigue then twenty-four
+hours old? '_Madame, quand une fois j'embrasse un parti, je suis capable
+des plus grandes sacrifices pour le soutenir._' The object of that
+heroic constancy was the Maréchale de Villars, one of the loveliest
+women in France. It was the sublime of fatuity--was it not?"
+
+"Well, I don't know," said Charley, settling himself comfortably in his
+cushions, and glancing almost imperceptibly at Bruce; "they seem to
+fancy us, notwithstanding. We have only one great obstacle--the mothers
+that _bore_ us."
+
+Be it known that "they," used simply, stood in his vocabulary for the
+fair sex in general.
+
+"Nonsense," replied Fallowfield; "don't be so ungrateful. You don't know
+what you owe to those anxious parents. It helps you enormously, being
+the objects of perpetual warnings from husbands and chaperons, the
+first considering you _mauvais sujets_, the last _mauvais partis_; for
+you _are_ 'detrimentals,' for the most part, you will own."
+
+"_Vetitum ergo cupitum_," interrupted Livingstone. "A good many
+moralists before and since old Rabelais have discoursed on that text.
+The Chief of Errington was probably much more agreeable, besides being a
+better match than Jock of Hazeldean, who clearly was what an old
+Frenchman lately described to me--'_un vaurien, mon cher, qui court les
+filles et qui n'a pas le son_.' But then poor Frank was the government
+candidate; so, of course, in a popular election, he went to the wall."
+
+Sir Henry's face grew more pensive and grave as he said, "It is very
+hard on the women, certainly, that our race should have degenerated so,
+for I believe in my conscience they are as clever and wicked, and
+appreciate temptation as much as ever." (The gusto with which he said
+this is indescribable.) "There is the Bellasys, for instance, with a
+calculating sensuality, an astuteness of stratagem, an utter contempt of
+truth, and a general aptitude for making fools of men, that poor Philip
+the Regent would have worshiped. When she had no one better to corrupt,
+I have seen her take in hand an older, sadder, wiser, uglier man than
+myself, and in three days bring him to the verge of insanity, so that he
+would scowl at his wife, his companion for forty years, the blameless
+mother of six grown-up children, with a hideous expression indicative of
+carving-knives and strychnine. Guy suits her best. His thews and sinews
+awe her a little sometimes; and he has a certain hardness of character
+and pitilessness of purpose, improved by my instructions, which will
+carry him far, but not far enough, I think. You're right not to look
+flattered" (Guy's face had moved no more than the marble Memnon's); "you
+are only a shade better than the rest. Our effete world is not worthy of
+that rare creature: she was born a century too late."
+
+"I quite differ with you," Bruce said, in his harshest voice; "I am
+certain the great plurality of the women of our day would resist any
+temptation, from fear of the consequences, if not from principle."
+
+Fancy the feelings of the Greek professor interrupted in his lecture by
+a controverting freshman, and you will have some idea of Fallowfield's.
+His eye lighted on the last speaker, glittering like a hooded snake's,
+as it were caressing him with a lambent scorn.
+
+I never guessed how much sneering provocation could reside in tones
+usually so very soft and musical till I heard him answer, "I suppose you
+_do_ differ with me. We probably both speak from experience. On one
+point you are scarcely practical, though. You think you can frighten a
+woman into propriety. Try it."
+
+"Are you not too general in your strictures or encomiums?" I suggested,
+wishing to relieve the awkwardness which ensued; "surely there are many
+instances to the contrary. Take Lady Clanronald, for instance, married
+to a man her elder by twenty years, and not very clever or agreeable, I
+should think. No one ever breathed a whisper against her, and it has not
+been through default of aspirants."
+
+An evil smile curled round the old _roué's_ sensual mouth, radiating
+even to the verge of the forest of his iron-gray whiskers.
+
+"Clanronald not clever?" he replied. "The cleverest man I know. He knew
+how his wife would be tempted, and he has taken the greatest pains to
+encourage a counteracting influence--family pride. Don't you know she is
+a Hautagne? It is a tradition with that race that their women never go
+wrong--under a prince of the blood. None of these are available just
+now, so she is still '_Une Madeleine, dans la puissance de son mari, et
+dans l'impuissance de se repentir_.'"
+
+It was worse than useless to argue with Fallowfield. All your own best
+hits were turned aside by the target of his cynicism and unbelief, while
+his sophistries and sarcasms often came home. Like old wounds, they
+would begin to shoot and rankle in after years, just when it was most
+important and profitable to forget them.
+
+We separated soon after this. Sir Henry's face wore an expression of
+placid self-congratulation. He thought the conversation had been rather
+improving, I believe, and that some of the ideas and illustrations had
+been rather neatly put; so he laid his head down that night with the
+calm, satisfied feeling of a good man who has done his duty and not lost
+a day.
+
+He was not more ingenious in overcoming the scruples of others than in
+silencing his own conscience, though of late years this last had
+probably ceased to give him much trouble. Finer feelings with him were
+only "sensations morbidly exaggerated," and he made no sort of
+allowance for such; among others, utterly ignoring remorse, I doubt if
+he ever looked forward; I am sure he never looked back. A parody on the
+"tag" which was given to Cambronne would sum up his terribly simple and
+consistent creed--_La femme se rend, mais ne meurt pas_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+     "I hold him but a fool, that would endanger
+     His body for a girl that loves him not."
+
+
+Fallowfield left us the next morning, the Bellasys later in the same
+day. They were to pay divers visits, and then return to Kerton. Lady
+Catharine pressed them to do so; though she liked the daughter less than
+the mother, she was so anxious Guy should marry some one that I think
+she would have accepted even Flora with thankfulness.
+
+It is a favorite delusion with the British parent that marriage will
+work a miracle, and steady their children for life, by casting forth the
+_lutins_ who beset them. A thousand failures have not convinced the good
+speculative matrons of the hazard of the experiment, nor will as many
+more do so; they will go on match-making and blundering to the end of
+time. For a very brief space the evil spirits are exorcised; but before
+the gloss is off the new-married couple's new furniture, one of the band
+creeps back and opens the door to his fellows. These hardly know their
+old quarters at first, but they soon begin to like them better than
+ever--are they not swept and garnished? "So they enter in and dwell
+there, and"--I need not finish the sentence; a thousand sweet though
+somewhat shrill voices will save me that trouble--a doleful music--an
+ancient tale of wrong--the Song of the Brides! They used to say that a
+man never went so hard to hounds after entering the holy estate. If
+this be so, I fear it is the only comforting result which follows of
+course.
+
+What Flora and Guy said to each other at parting I can not guess.
+Neither was of the sentimental order, and both might have taken for
+their motto, "Lightly won and lightly lost." Her hand lingered somewhat
+long in his as they said farewell, but she was smiling, if any thing,
+more saucily than ever. So she went, leaving behind her no tangible
+token, except a tiny pearl-colored glove, which Guy twisted rather
+pensively between his fingers as he stood on the hall steps, and watched
+the carriage disappear down the avenue. Mr. Bruce exulted after his
+saturnine fashion, and Isabel Raymond trembled; the one had lost a
+strong, unscrupulous ally, the other a formidable enemy.
+
+"Why don't you open those letters, Charley?" Livingstone asked at
+breakfast, next morning, pointing to a pile that lay unopened by the
+letters plate.
+
+"My dear boy, I haven't the heart to do it," was the reply. "They are
+all expressive, I know, of different phases of mercantile despair. I
+believe these men keep a supplicant, as Moses maintains a poet. The last
+appeal from my saddler was perfectly heartrending: he could not have
+written it himself, for he looks as tough as his own pig-skin. If he
+had, he would be _impayable_ in more ways than one. What can I do? I
+can't come down on the poor old man who has the misfortune to be my
+father for more supplies when rents are being reduced fifteen per cent.
+The tradesmen must learn to endure. They have a splendid chance of
+attaining the victory of suffering."
+
+Bruce smiled complacently to himself, and then superciliously at
+Charley. He had just received a letter from his banker, consulting him
+as to the disposal of a superfluous thousand or so, and he was
+hesitating between some dock shares and a promising railway.
+
+"Yes," Forrester went on, "it's very well for you to talk in that
+hardened way, as you did the other night, about detrimentals and second
+sons. I wonder how you would like to have an elder brother, a pillar of
+learned societies, and as tenacious of life as one of his pet zoophytes?
+He used to consume quantities of medicine, which was encouraging; but
+lately he has taken to homoeopathy, which was quite out of the match.
+He told me, lately, that 'four hundred a year and my pay was affluence.'
+Affluence!"
+
+It is impossible to describe the cadence of plaintive indignation which
+he gave to the last word. The recollection of his wrongs had made him
+almost energetic: we listened to his eloquence in respectful surprise.
+
+"It was adding insult to injury," answered Guy. "If Parliament does not
+do something for you all soon, there will be another exodus of the
+Parthenidæ."
+
+Charley looked at his friend admiringly, as he always did when Guy was
+classical in his allusions; but the unwonted effort had evidently
+exhausted him, and he lapsed into silence.
+
+We rode out that afternoon to make some calls in the neighborhood, and,
+in returning, Livingstone proposed a short cut through a line of gates,
+with a short interval of cross-country work.
+
+His cousin looked delighted, Bruce decidedly uncomfortable, though, of
+course, he could not refuse. He was riding Kathleen, an Irish mare, one
+of the quietest in the Kerton stable, where none were very steady. The
+fences were nothing at first; at last we came to a brook. It was not
+broad, but evidently deep, with high, rotten banks. However, as we were
+going at a fair hunting pace, all, including Bella Donna and her
+mistress, took it in their stride, but pulled up at once, seeing that
+Bruce was left behind, with the groom who was following us.
+
+The first time he came at it, it was a clear case of "craning." He was
+hauling nervously at the reins, and would not let the mare have it.
+
+Guy regarded him with intense contempt. "By G--d," he muttered, "I
+believe the man's afraid!"
+
+Forrester laughed so unrestrainedly that Isabel looked at him
+beseechingly, in evident dread of the consequences.
+
+"My dear Miss Raymond," he said, answering her frightened glance, "don't
+alarm yourself. Do you think I am a Quixote, to war with windmills?"
+
+No one could look at Bruce's long arms and legs, all working at once,
+without owning the aptness of the simile.
+
+For the third time he came down at the brook, and, I really believe,
+meant going; but Kathleen, unused to such vacillating measures, had got
+sulky, and swerved on the very brink, almost sliding over it. Her rider
+lost his seat, rolled over her shoulder, and for an instant disappeared
+in the water.
+
+Achelous or Tiber, emerging from his native waves, crowned with aquatic
+plants, presented, I doubt not, an appearance at once dignified and
+becoming, but I defy any ordinary non-amphibious mortal to look, under
+similar circumstances, any thing but supremely ridiculous. The wrathful
+face framed in dripping hair and plastered whiskers--the movements of
+the limbs, awkward and constrained--the rivulets distilling from every
+salient angle, turning the victim into a walking Lauterbrunnen--when we
+saw all these absurdities exaggerated before us, no wonder that from the
+whole party, including the groom, there broke "unnumbered laughters."
+
+"Curse the mare!" Bruce hissed out. The words came crushed and broken,
+as it were, through the white ranges of his grinding teeth.
+
+Livingstone's face hardened directly. "Swear as much as you think the
+circumstances require, or as my cousin will allow," he said, "but be
+just before you're generous: don't anathematize Kathleen. It was no
+fault of hers. I never saw her refuse before; but she is used to be put
+straight at her fences. Hold her still, Harry" (to the groom on the
+farther side, who had caught the mare's rein); "I'll ride her at it
+myself."
+
+He threw his bridle to Forrester, and, dismounting, cleared the brook at
+a bound. Then he went up to Kathleen, and began to coax her with voice
+and hand.
+
+"I'll bet an even fifty he takes her over the first time," said Charley.
+
+Bruce nodded his head, without speaking, to show that he took the bet. I
+thought he had the best of it, for the mare was so savage and sulky
+still that a refusal seemed a certainty.
+
+Guy had mounted by this time, and, after taking a wide sweep in the
+field, came down at the brook. Kathleen was curling her back up, and
+going short, with the most evident intention of balking; but swerving
+was next to impossible, for she was fairly held in a vice by her rider's
+hands and knees. The whip fell heavily twice on either shoulder, and,
+just at the water's edge, Livingstone drove his heels in and lifted her.
+It was almost a standing leap, and, as Kathleen landed, a fragment of
+the bank went crashing into the water from under her hind hoofs, and she
+went down on her head; but Guy recovered her cleverly, and, turning
+again, sent her over it twice, backward and forward. The first time the
+mare did not try to refuse again, but rushed at it, snorting wrathfully,
+with her head in the air; the second she was quite tamed, and took it
+evenly in her stride.
+
+"Give Mr. Bruce your horse, Harry, and take the Czar," Guy said. "I'll
+ride Kathleen home. Steady, old lady--don't fret. We are friends again
+now."
+
+"So you have got your pony back," I remarked to Forrester.
+
+"Yes, and with interest," was the quiet reply. "I don't think he will
+owe me much when I have done with him."
+
+Though I had nothing on earth to do with it, I felt something like
+compunction as I guessed what he meant.
+
+Bruce's was a hard, money-loving nature, unromantic to a degree; but I
+believe he would gladly have waked to find himself a houseless, landless
+beggar, if he could thus have regained what Charley, with his soft
+voice, and eyes, and manner, had stolen from him long ago.
+
+Am I right in saying "stolen?" Perhaps he never had it; at all events,
+he thought he had, which comes to nearly the same thing.
+
+It is true that, unraveling the cord of a man's existence, you will
+generally find the blackest hank in it twined by a woman's hand, but it
+is not less common to trace the golden thread to the same spindle.
+
+Great warrior, profound statesman, stanch champion of liberty as he was,
+without Edith of the Swan's-neck, Harold would scarcely have risen into
+a hero of romance. We do not quite despise Charles VII. when we think
+how faithfully, in loneliness and ruin, the Lady of Beauty loved her
+apathetic, senseless, discrowned king. Others never found it out, but
+there must have been something precious hid in a dark corner of his
+wayward heart near which Agnes nestled so long. We look leniently on
+Otho--parasite and profligate--when we see him lingering on his last
+march, on the very verge of the death-struggle, in the teeth of Galba's
+legions, to decorate Popæa's grave. More in pity than in scorn, be sure,
+did Tacitus, the historic epigrammatist, write "_Ne tum quidem veterum
+immemor amorum_."
+
+Was it in remorseful consciousness of having inflicted a deep,
+irreparable wrong, that Isabel rode so constantly by Bruce's side,
+striving, by all means of timid propitiation, to chase the cloud
+lowering on his sullen face as we returned slowly home?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+     _"To de prokluein,
+       Epei genoit' an êlusis, prochairetô;
+           Ison de tô prostenein,
+         Toron gar êxei sunorthron augais."_
+
+
+My stay at Kerton Manor was drawing to a close. I had lingered there too
+long already, and letters from neglected relatives and friends came,
+reproachful, with every post. The day before I went, Guy called me into
+his study.
+
+"Frank," he said, "I am in a great strait of perplexity; my uncle has
+been attacking me this morning about Isabel and Charley. Bruce puts him
+up to it, of course."
+
+"I thought it would come; but why on earth did not Bruce speak to you,
+if not to Forrester, himself? Perhaps it was from delicacy, though. Let
+us hope so."
+
+"How philanthropic we are!" Guy retorted. "I don't believe any other man
+would have spoken of delicacy and that rough-hewn log of Scotch-fir in
+the same breath. My dear boy, the thing is as simple as possible--the
+man is a coward. He is as careful of that precious person of his as if
+it were worth preserving, so he shoots his arrows from behind Uncle
+Henry's Telamonian shield. Nothing is so acute and right-judging as the
+instinct of fear. He knows that if he had a fancy for a quarrel, either
+Charley or I would be too happy to indulge him."
+
+"He can't be such a dastard," I said.
+
+"I am sure of it; but he is not the less dangerous for that. Such men
+are always the most unscrupulous in revenge. I have seen murder in his
+eyes a score of times in the last fortnight. If our lines had fallen in
+the pleasant Italian places, he would have invested twenty scudi long
+ago in hiring a dagger. As it is, civilization and the rural police
+stand our friends; but I have strongly advised Charley not to trust
+himself near him in cover. By G--d, I think, for once in his life, he
+would hold straight!"
+
+"You don't like him, that's evident."
+
+The pupils of Livingstone's eyes contracted ominously; a lurid flash
+shot out from under his black, bent brows, and there came on his lip
+that peculiar smile that we fancy on the face of Homeric heroes--more
+fell, and cruel, and terrible than even their own frown--just before
+they leveled the spear. He laid his broad hand, corded across with a
+net-work of tangled sinews, on the table before him, and the stout oak
+creaked and trembled.
+
+"If I were to strangle him," he said, "as I constantly feel tempted to
+do, I believe I should deserve well of the state. But, with all that, I
+don't like plotting against him under my own roof; it strikes me that is
+a phase of hospitality not strictly Arabian. My mother laments over him
+already as hardly dealt with. Then Uncle Henry is a great difficulty. He
+is not in the least one of the light comedy fathers who, during two
+acts, stamps about with many strange oaths and stormy denials, but in
+the last yields to fate and _soubrettes_, says 'Bless you, my children!'
+and hands out untold gold. There is no more appeal from his decisions
+than from Major A----'s. He dislikes Bruce, of course; but he would just
+as soon think of objecting to a partner at whist as to a son-in-law
+because he happened to be unprepossessing. When the poor little
+Iphigenia is sacrificed on the shrine of expediency, you will see him,
+not veiling his face but taking snuff with the calm grace that is
+peculiar to him. Arguing with such a man is a simple absurdity."
+
+"I can not advise you," I answered, sadly; "but it seems hard on Miss
+Raymond, too."
+
+"Of course it is," Livingstone broke in; "and the worst of it is, the
+poor child looks to me to help her. I can't bear to think of what her
+life would be if she married Bruce. He would be constantly retaliating
+on her for what he is suffering now--for he does suffer. A pleasant idea
+that she, who is only meant to be petted, should be set up as a target
+for his jealousy and ill-humor! She would never be able to stand it, and
+Charley wouldn't if she could; and then there would be a _dénouement_
+like that which ruined Ralph Mohun. If there _is_ to be a row, it had
+better come before than after marriage. It's more moral, and saves an
+infinity of trouble. I think Charley is better away, too, just now.
+Parndon wants us both to stay with him. We'll go; and so my conscience
+will stand at ease for the present. When we are on neutral ground I can
+help them, or, at all events, 'let the justice of the king pass by.'"
+
+"Have you spoken to Forrester yet?"
+
+"No; but he will do as I advise, and temporize, I am sure, though he
+would hardly give up Bella, even if I asked him. He means business for
+once, evidently. They will have plenty of time to concert their plans
+before the summer. Charley wants no help in that. As to carrying them
+out--we shall see. Well, you will go to-morrow. I am very sorry, for all
+reasons. I hope you have not been much bored here. Kerton counts on you
+for next winter."
+
+I need not give my answer. I felt really loth to go; but, fortunately
+for my peace of mind, I could not guess at the changes that would be
+wrought in the hopes, the intentions, the destinies of all of us before
+I should stand in the fine old manor-house again.
+
+If adieus are painful in reality, they ate intensely stupid on paper--a
+landscape without a foreground--so I spare you next morning's
+leave-takings.
+
+Guy had said nothing to his cousin then of the plan he had determined
+on. I was glad of it. I was glad not to see, at parting, her sweet face
+so sad as I am sure it became when she heard that she was to struggle
+against Brace's persecutions and her own antipathies unaided and alone.
+
+I wandered through many counties, and then went to Ireland. During the
+next few months I saw the faces I had left behind me many times, but
+only in my dreams.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+     "The only living thing he could not hate
+     Was reft at once--and he deserved his fate,
+     But did not feel it less; the good explore
+     For peace, these realms where guilt can never soar;
+     The proud--the wayward--who have fixed below
+     Their joy, and find this earth enough for woe,
+     Lose in that one their all--perchance a mite--
+     But who in patience parts with all delight?"
+
+
+Pleasant days they were when, through the soft spring weather, I
+wandered round the coasts of Kerry, Clare, and Galway, hooking salmon in
+broad pools, where the vexed water rests a while from its labors under
+wooded cliffs, and at the tail of roaring rapids, specked with white
+foam-clots, or sea-trout in the estuaries where the great rivers hurry
+down to their stormy meeting with the Atlantic rollers.
+
+Every where I met the frank, cheery welcome that you must cross the
+Channel to find in its perfection.
+
+It is sad to see how widely over that fair land the abomination of
+desolation has cast its shadow. Many halls are tenantless besides those
+of Tara. The ancient owners of the soil--where are they? Not a country
+in Europe but is conscious of these restless, careless, homeless
+Zingari. In distant provincial towns of France you hear their enormous
+blunders in grammar and musical Milesian brogue breaking the uniformity
+of dull legitimist _soirées_. Hombourg and Baden are irradiated with the
+glory of their whiskers. You find their blue eyes and open, handsome
+features diversifying the sameness of wooden-faced Austrian squadrons.
+Nay, has it not been whispered that the proudest name in Ireland
+attained a bad eminence in the Grecian Archipelago as the captain of the
+wickedest of those long low craft that, in the purple dawn or ivory
+moonlight, steal silently out from behind the headlands of the Cyclades?
+
+But let us do justice to those who remain behind.
+
+The sceptre of Connemara has passed away from the ancient dynasty. If
+the penultimate monarch could rise from his peaceful grave, his place
+would know him no more. If he traveled through all his thirty miles of
+seaboard, the Scotch laborers would doff their hats more respectfully to
+the steward of the "Law Life" than to the humane old homicide. The royal
+writ, which he defied from his place at St. Stephen's, might be served
+now, I imagine, without danger of the bailiff's breaking his fast on the
+same. Claret flows soberly from long-necked bottles whose corks bear the
+brand of the wine-merchant, high priced and legal, instead of from the
+cask of which the snug sandy cove and the roguish-looking hooker could
+have told tales. But, in spite of visionary rents, and poor-rates
+sternly real, the Irish squire still clings to the exercise of that
+hospitality which has been an heirloom with the tribes since the days of
+Strongbow.
+
+One of my longest halting-places was at Ralph Mohun's, by whom, though
+personally unknown to him, I was made very welcome as a friend of Guy's.
+My host deserves a more especial mention, for his history was a sad,
+though not an uncommon one.
+
+He began life in a Cavalry regiment, wherein he conducted himself with
+fair average propriety till he met Lady Caroline Desborough. He fell in
+love with her--most people did--but, unluckily, when she married Mr.
+Mannering, to whom she had been predestined since her _début_, he could
+not bring himself to wear the willow decently and in order, like her
+other disappointed admirers.
+
+It was the old unhappy story: her husband neglected Lady Caroline
+consistently--ill-treated her sometimes. Mohun pursued his purpose with
+the relentless obstinacy of his character. Eighteen months after her
+marriage they fled together.
+
+He was not rich, so that the trial which ensued, with its heavy damages,
+completely crippled him. The partner of his crime was absolutely
+penniless. They went to Vienna, and Ralph entered the Austrian
+Cuirassiers, where he had some interest to push him. He had lingered
+some time within reach of England, to give Mannering an opportunity of
+demanding satisfaction. But the injured husband knew his man too well to
+trust himself within fifteen paces of Mohun's pistol. He chose a surer,
+safer revenge in taking no steps to procure a divorce, and so debarring
+Ralph from his only means of atonement--marriage with his victim.
+
+He varied the dull routine of seducers, it is true, for he never wearied
+of, or behaved unkindly to, the woman he had ruined. Time brought many
+troubles on them, but never satiety or coldness. To the very last he
+worshiped her, and, to the utmost of his power, guarded her tenderly.
+Rough, and hard, and morose as he was to others, she never heard his
+lips utter one harsh word.
+
+But she was of a proud, sensitive spirit, and had miscalculated her
+strength when she thought she could bear dishonor. After that duel with
+which Austria rang, in which the best _schlager_ in his brigade fell,
+horribly mangled, the day after he had whispered a jest about Caroline
+Mannering, men were very cautious how they even looked askance at her;
+but the women--who could bridle their tongues or blunt their scornful
+glances? Briareus, armed to the teeth, would not affright our modern
+dowagers, or deter them from their prey. Wherever the carcass of a fair
+fame lies, thither they flock, screaming shrilly in triumph,
+vulture-eyed, sharp-taloned--the choosers of the slain.
+
+I pity from my heart the frailest, the most utterly fallen of her sex,
+when once the social Nemesis hands her over to the chorus of the
+Eumenides.
+
+We deride the _subsignanæ_ who line the wall; we make a mock at their
+old-fashioned whist; we risk jokes whereat our partners smile
+approvingly on their false fronts and wonderful head-gears; but may the
+wittiest of us never know by experience how much worse is the bite than
+the bark of the Veteran Battalion!
+
+Caroline Mannering had all this to contend with, for Vienna was a
+favorite resort in those days for the English, and she was constantly
+encountering some of her old set. She bore up bravely for a while, but
+it killed her. She never wearied her lover with her self-reproach, but
+crushed back her sorrows into her heart, and met him always with a
+gentle smile. That same smile contrasted so sadly, at last, with the
+wan, worn features, that it often made him bend his bushy brows to
+conceal the rising tears.
+
+If her destiny had been different--if she had died ripe in years, after
+a life spent in calm matronly happiness, with all that she loved best
+round her, would she have been nursed so tenderly or mourned so bitterly
+by the nearest and dearest of them all as she was by her tempter to sin?
+I think not. I believe that in all the world there never was a greater
+sorrow than that which Mohun endured as he saw his treasure slowly
+escaping him; never a desolation more complete and crushing than that
+which fell upon him as he stood by her corpse, with dry eyes, folded
+arms, and a heavy, frowning brow. It was not only that he felt her place
+could never be filled again--many feel that, and find it turn out
+so--but a part of his being was gone: all that was soft, and kind, and
+tender in his nature died with Caroline Mannering. He never could get
+rid of a certain chivalry which was inherent in him, so sometimes he
+would do a generous thing; but he did it so harshly as to deprive the
+act of the semblance of good-nature. I think he very seldom again felt
+sympathy or compassion for any living creature. Perhaps he thought the
+world had behaved hardly to his dead love, and so never forgave it. She
+passed away very stilly and painlessly. She was leaning on his breast
+when he saw death come into her eyes: he shivered then all over, as if a
+cold wind had struck him suddenly, but spoke no word. She understood
+him, though. Her last motion was to draw his cheek down to hers with her
+thin, shadowy arm, and her last breath went up to the God who would
+judge them both in an unselfish prayer.
+
+"She was rightly served," says Cornelia; "such women ought to be
+miserable."
+
+O rigid mother of the Gracchi! how we all respect you, _trônante_ in the
+comfortable cathedra of virtue inexpugnable, perhaps unassailed. Your
+dictum must stand for the present. The court is with you. But I believe
+other balances will weigh the strength of temptation, the weakness of
+human endurance, the sincerity of repentance, and the extent of suffered
+retribution, when the Father of all that have lived and erred since the
+world began shall make up His jewels. In that day, I think, the light of
+many orthodox virgins and dignified matrons will pale before the softer
+lustre of Magdalene the Saint.
+
+Mohun remained in the Austrian service some time after Caroline
+Mannering's death, and, by dint of good service and interest, rose
+rapidly; but, about eight years before I saw him, a distant relation
+left him the estate in the west of Ireland, where he had resided ever
+since, making occasional visits to the Continent, and beating up his old
+quarters, but rarely coming to England.
+
+He did not mix much with the county society, such as it was; and his
+visitors were chiefly friends from England who had not forgotten him
+yet, or the military quartered in his neighborhood.
+
+It was a dreary, desolate old house where he lived--massive, square, and
+gray. There were wooded banks and hollows just round it; but farther
+afield the chill, bare moorland stretched away toward the sea, broken
+here and there by sullen sedgy tarns.
+
+Here he spent his monotonous existence, riding hard and drinking
+obstinately, but never, even in the latter case, rising into
+conviviality. A long, bushy beard, and portentous mustache, grizzled,
+though he was scarcely past middle age, which could not conceal a deep
+sabre-scar, gave him a grim, sinister expression; and his voice had that
+brief imperious accent which is peculiar to men for many years used to
+give the word of command.
+
+That worn, haggard face told a real tale. The furrows there had been
+plowed by an enduring remorse, very different from that comfortable,
+half-complacent regret which some feel at the retrospect of their
+youthful _frèdaines_.
+
+They shake their solemn old heads as they hold themselves up to us as a
+warning; they sermonize with edifying gravity on the impropriety of such
+misdemeanors; but we can trace through all this an under-current of
+satisfaction tenderly fatuitous, as they go back to the days of their
+gipsyhood, when Plancus was consul.
+
+I have been amused with watching these eminent but somewhat sensual
+Christians on such occasions, and seeing the dull eyes begin to glisten,
+and the lips wrinkle themselves into a fat, unpleasant smile. _They_
+have prospered since, and certainly it would be most absurd to torment
+themselves now about the souls and bodies which they once sacrificed to
+a whim. Over those ruins and relics the River of Oblivion has rolled
+long ago--let them sleep on there and take their rest.
+
+Have we not the bright example of the prototype of this class--the
+pious Æneas? How creditable was his behavior when he looked back over
+the black water on the trail of flame stretching from the funeral pyre
+where Dido lay burning!
+
+"He knew," says his admiring biographer, "what the madness of women
+could do;" but the breeze was getting up astern, and favoring gods
+beckoned him on to Italy and fortune; so he sighed twice or
+thrice--perhaps he wept, for the amiable hero's tears were always ready
+on the shortest notice--and then, like the captain of the _Hesperus_,
+"steered for the open sea."
+
+Did he feel a pang of remorse or shame at that meeting in the twilight
+of Hades, when he called vainly on Elissa, and the dead queen, from
+where she stood by the side of Sychæus, who had forgiven her all, turned
+on him the disgust and horror of her imperial eyes? Who can tell? The
+greatest and best of men have their moments of weakness. If so, be sure
+he was soon comforted as he reviewed the shadowy procession of his
+posterity of kings. The episode of Byrsa would scarcely trouble his
+conjugal happiness, or make him more indulgent to the mildest flirtation
+of Lavinia.
+
+I fancy that poor princess--after listening to a long, intensely proper
+discourse from her immaculate husband, or when the young Iulus had been
+unusually disagreeable--gazing wistfully in the direction where, against
+the sky-line, rose the clump of plane-trees, under which hot-headed,
+warm-hearted Turnus was resting after his brief life of storms. Then she
+would think of that unhappy mother who, with every impulse of a willful
+nature, loved her child so dearly, till she would begin to doubt--it was
+very wrong of her--if Amata or the match-making gods were most right
+after all.
+
+The neighboring peasantry regarded Mohun with mingled dislike and
+terror--a feeling which was increased tenfold by an event which occurred
+about three years before my visit, in the height of the agrarian
+troubles. I can not do better than give it, as near as I can, in the
+words of one who was an actor in the scene.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+     "Now what wouldst thou do, good my squire,
+       That rides beside my rein,
+     Wert thou Glenallan's earl to-day,
+       And I were Roland Cheyne?
+
+            *       *       *       *       *
+
+     My horse should ride through their ranks sae rude,
+       As he would through the moorland fern,
+     And ne'er let the gentle Norman bluid
+       Grow cauld for the Highland kerne."
+
+
+It was in the beginning of December, 184-(said Fred. Carew); we were
+sitting down to dinner after a capital day's cock-shooting--besides
+myself there were Lord Clontarf, Mohun, and Kate, my wife--when we were
+disturbed by a perfect hail of knocks at the hall door. Old Dan Tucker,
+or the Spectre Horseman, never clamored more loudly for admittance.
+Fritz, Mohun's old Austrian servant, went down to see what was up, and,
+on opening the door, was instantly borne down by the tumultuous rush of
+Michael Kelly, gentleman, agent to half a dozen estates, and attorney at
+law. In the two last capacities be had given, it seems, great umbrage to
+the neighboring peasantry, and they had caught him that night as he
+returned home, intending to put him to death with that ingenuity of
+torture for which the fine, warm-hearted fellows are justly celebrated.
+
+They did not wish to hurry over the entertainment, so confined him in an
+upper chamber, while they called their friends and neighbors to rejoice
+with them, carousing meantime jovially below. The victim contrived to
+let himself down from the window, and ran for his life to the nearest
+house, which, unluckily, happened to be the Lodge. Two boys, however,
+saw and recognized him as he entered the demesne, and raised a whoop, to
+show that they knew where the fox had gone to ground.
+
+This we made out from a string of incoherent interjections; and then he
+lay panting and contorting himself in an agony of fear.
+
+Mohun sat on the hall table, swinging his foot and regarding the
+spectacle with the indolent curiosity that one might exhibit toward the
+gambols of some ugly new importation of the Zoological Society. When the
+story was told he pointed coolly to the door.
+
+The shriek that the miserable creature set up on seeing that gesture I
+shall never forget.
+
+"Do you think I shall turn my house into a refuge for destitute
+attorneys?" Ralph said, answering my look of inquiry. "If there were no
+other reason, I would not risk it, with your wife under my roof. A
+night-attack in the West is no child's play."
+
+Kate had come out, and was leaning over the gallery. She heard the last
+words, and spoke, flushing scarlet with anger.
+
+"If I thought that my presence prevented an act of common humanity, I
+would leave your house this instant, Colonel Mohun."
+
+Ralph smiled slightly as he bent his head in courteous acknowledgment of
+her interruption.
+
+"Don't be indignant, Mrs. Carew. If you have a fancy for such an
+excitement, I shall be too happy to indulge you. It is settled, then? We
+back the attorney. Don't lie there, sir, looking so like a whipped
+hound. You hear? You are safe for the present." He had hardly finished,
+when there came a rustling of feet outside, then hurried whispers, then
+a knock, and a summons.
+
+"We'd like to spake wid the curnel, av ye plase."
+
+"I am here; what do ye want?" Mohun growled.
+
+"We want the 'torney. We know he's widin."
+
+"Then I'm afraid you'll be disappointed. It's not my fancy to give him
+up. I wouldn't turn out a badger to you, let alone a man."
+
+You see, he took the high moral ground now.
+
+"Then we'll have him out in spite of yez," two or three voices cried out
+together.
+
+"Try it," Ralph said. "Meantime I am going to dine; good-night."
+
+A voice that had not spoken yet was heard, with a shrill, gibing accent.
+"Ah! thin the best of appetites to ye, curnel, and make haste over yer
+dinner. It's Pierce Delaney that'll give ye yer supper." Then they went
+off.
+
+"The said Delaney is a huge quarryman," Ralph observed. "He represents
+the physical element of terror hereabouts, as I believe I do the moral.
+We shall have warm work before morning. He does not like me. Fritz, send
+Connell up; he is below somewhere."
+
+The keeper came, looking very much surprised. He had been in the
+stables, and had only just heard of the disturbance.
+
+"Get the rifles and guns ready, with bullets and buckshot," his master
+said. "We are to be attacked, it seems."
+
+The man's bold face fell blankly.
+
+"By the powers, yer honor, I haven't the value of an ounce of poudther
+in the house. I meant to get some the morrow morning, afore ye were up."
+
+Mohun shrugged his shoulders, whistling softly.
+
+"Man proposes," he said. "It's almost a pity we found so many cocks in
+the lower copse this afternoon. I have fifteen charges or so in my
+pistol-case. We must make that do, loading the rifles light." Then he
+went to a window, whence he could see down the road; the moon was
+shining brightly.
+
+"I thought so; they have got scouts posted already. The barbarians know
+something of skirmishing, after all. Maddox, come here." (The groom was
+a strong English boy, very much afraid of his master, but of nothing
+else on earth.) "Saddle Sunbeam, and go out by the back gates, keeping
+well under the shadow of the trees. When you clear them, ride straight
+at the rails at the end of the paddock. You'll get over with a scramble,
+I think. Keep fast hold of his head--you _mustn't_ fall. Then make the
+best of your way to A----, and tell Colonel Harding, with my
+compliments, that I shall be glad if he will send over a troop as
+quickly as possible. They ought to be here in two hours. And, mind,
+don't spare the horse going, but bring him back easy. You will be of no
+use here, and I won't have him lamed if I can help it. You'll have to
+risk a bullet or two as you get into the road; but they can't shoot.
+It's odds against their hitting you. Now go."
+
+The groom pulled his forelock as if the most ordinary commission had
+been given him, and vanished.
+
+"Connell," Ralph went on, "go and saw the ladders that are in the yard
+half through. They will hardly try the barred windows; but it looks more
+workmanlike to take all precautions. Then come back, and help Fritz to
+pile chairs and furniture all up the staircase, and about the hall near
+it. Line the gallery with mattresses, two deep, leaving spaces to fire
+through. Light all the lamps, and get more candles to fix about; we
+shall not see very clearly after the smoke of the first dozen shots.
+When you have finished, come to me. Now, shall we go back to dinner?"
+
+I am not ashamed to own I had little appetite; nevertheless, I sat down.
+Kate had gone to her room. If her courage was failing, she did not wish
+to show it.
+
+Suddenly our host got up and went to the window. His practiced ear had
+caught the tread of the horse which Maddox was taking out as quietly as
+possible. We watched him stealing along under the trees till their
+shelter failed him. Then he put Sunbeam to speed, and rode boldly at the
+rails. A yell went up from the road, and we saw dark figures running;
+then came a shot, just as the horse was rising at the fence, he hit it
+hard, and the splinters flew up white in the moonlight, but he was over.
+We held our breath, while several flashes told of dropping shots after
+the fugitive. They did not stop him, though; and, to our great relief,
+we heard the wild rush of the frightened horse subside into a long
+stretching gallop, and the wind brought back a cheery hollo--"Forr'ard,
+forr'ard away!"
+
+"So far so good," said Ralph Mohun, as he sat down again, and went in
+steadily at a woodcock. "Don't hurry yourselves, gentlemen. We have
+three quarters of an hour yet; they will take that time to muster.
+Clontarf, some Hock?"
+
+The boy to whom he spoke held out his glass with a pleasant smile. The
+coming peril had not altered a tint on his fresh, beardless cheeks--rosy
+and clear as a page's in one of Boucher's pictures.
+
+A good contrast he made with the miserable attorney, who had followed us
+uninvited (it seemed he only felt safe in our presence), and who was
+crouching in a corner, his lank hair plastered round his livid convulsed
+face with the sweat of mortal fear.
+
+It struck Mohun, I think. He laid his hand on Clontarf's shoulder, and
+spoke with a kindliness of voice and manner most unusual with him--
+
+     "We'll quell the savage mountaineer,
+       As their Tinchell cows the game:
+     They come as fleet as forest deer;
+       We'll drive them back as tame."
+
+Even at that anxious moment I could not help laughing at the idea of
+Ralph quoting poetry--of that grim Saul among the prophets.
+
+I went in to keep up Kate's spirits. She bore up gallantly, poor child,
+and I left her tolerably calm. She believed in me as a "plunger" to an
+enormous extent, and in Mohun still more. When I returned my companions
+were in the gallery. This ran round two sides of the hall, which went up
+to the roof. The only access to the upper part of the house was by a
+stone staircase of a single flight. The kitchen and offices were on the
+ground floor, otherwise it was uninhabited.
+
+Ralph had his pistols by him, and his cavalry sword, long and heavy, but
+admirably poised, lay within his reach.
+
+"I have settled it," he said. "You and Connell are to take the guns.
+Smooth-bores are quickest loaded, and will do for this short distance.
+Clontarf, who is not quite so sure with the trigger, is to have the post
+of honor, and guard the staircase with his sabre. Throw another bucket
+of water over it, Connell--is it thoroughly drenched? And draw the
+windows up" (these did not reach to within ten feet of the floor); "we
+shall be stifled else. But there will be a thorough draft when the
+door's down, that's our comfort. One word with you, Carew."
+
+He drew me aside, and spoke almost in a whisper, while his face was very
+grave and stern.
+
+"You will do me this justice, whatever happens. Unless it had been
+forced upon me, I would not have risked a hair of your wife's head to
+save all the attorneys that are patronized by the father of lies. But,
+mark, me! if it comes to the worst, keep a bullet for _her_. Don't leave
+her to the mercy of those savage devils. I know them. She had better die
+ten times over than full into their brutal hands. You must use your own
+discretion, though. I shall not be able to advise you then. Not a man of
+them will be in this gallery till I am past praying for. Nevertheless, I
+hope and believe all will be right. Don't trouble yourself to reload;
+Fritz will do that for you. I have given him his orders. Aim very
+coolly, too; we must not waste a bullet. You can choose your own sword;
+there are several behind you. Ah! I hear them coming up. Now, men, to
+your posts."
+
+There was the tramp of many feet, and the surging of a crowd about and
+against the hall door. Then a harsh, loud voice spoke:
+
+"Onst for all, will ye give him up, or shall we take him, and serve the
+rest of yez as bad? Ye've got women there, too--"
+
+I will not add the rest of the threat for very shame. I know it made me
+more wolfish than ever I thought it possible to feel, for I am a
+good-natured man in the main. Mohun, who is _not_, bit his mustache
+furiously, and his voice shook a little as he answered,
+
+"Do you ever say a prayer, Pierce Delaney? You need one now. If you live
+to see to-morrow's sunset, I wish my right hand may wither at the
+wrist."
+
+A shrill howl pealed out from the assailants, and then the stout oak
+door cracked and quivered under the strokes of a heavy battering-beam;
+in a hundred seconds the hinges yielded, and it came clattering in; over
+it leaped three wild figures, bearing torches and pikes, but their
+chief, Delaney, was not one of them.
+
+"The left-hand man is yours, Carew; Connell, take the middle one," said
+Ralph, as coolly as if we had sprung a pack of grouse. While he spoke
+his pistol cracked, and the right-hand intruder dropped across the
+threshold without a cry or a stagger, shot right through the brain. The
+keeper and I were nearly as fortunate. Then there was a pause; then a
+rush from without, an irregular discharge of musketry, and the clear
+part of the hall was crowded with enemies.
+
+I can't tell exactly what ensued. I know they retreated several times,
+for the barricade was impassable; and while their shots fell harmlessly
+on the mattresses, every one of ours told--nothing makes a man shoot
+straight like being short of powder--but they came on again, each time
+with added ferocity.
+
+I heard Mohun mutter more than once, in a dissatisfied tone, "Why does
+not that scoundrel show himself? I can't make out Delaney." All at once
+I heard a stifled cry on my right, and, to my horror, I saw Clontarf
+dragged over the balustrade in the gripe of a giant, whom I guessed at
+once to be the man we had looked for so long. Under cover of the smoke,
+he had swung himself up by the balustrade of the staircase, and,
+grasping the poor boy's collar as he looked out incautiously from his
+shelter, dropped back into the hall, carrying his victim with him.
+
+With a roar of exultation the wild beasts closed round their prey.
+Before I had time to think what could be done, I heard, close to my ear,
+a blasphemy so awful that it made me start even at that critical moment:
+it was Ralph's voice, but I hardly knew it--hoarse and guttural, and
+indistinct with passion. Without hesitating an instant, he swung himself
+over the balustrade, and lighted on his feet in the midst of the crowd.
+They were half drunk with whisky, and maddened by the smell of blood;
+but--so great was the terror of Mohun's name--all recoiled when they saw
+him thus face to face, his sword bare and his eyes blazing. That
+momentary panic saved Clontarf. In a second Ralph had thrown him under
+the arch of a deep doorway, and placed himself between the senseless
+body and its assailants. Two or three shots were fired at him without
+effect; it was difficult to take aim in such a tossing chaos; then one
+man, Delaney, sprung out at him with a clubbed musket. "At last!" we
+heard Mohun say, laughing low and savagely in his beard as he stepped
+one pace forward to meet his enemy. A blow that looked as if it might
+have felled Behemoth was warded dexterously by the sabre, and, by a
+quick turn of the wrist, its edge laid the Rapparee's face open in a
+bright scarlet gash, extending from eyebrow to chin.
+
+His comrades rushed over his body, furious, though somewhat disheartened
+at seeing their champion come to grief; but they had to deal with a
+blade that had kept half a dozen Hungarian swordsmen at bay, and, with
+point or edge, it met them every where, magically. They were drawing
+back, when Delaney, recovering from the first effects of his fearful
+wound, crawled forward, gasping out curses that seemed floating on the
+torrent of his rushing blood, and tried to grasp Mohun by the knees and
+drag him down.
+
+Pah! it was a sight to haunt one's dreams. (You might have filled my
+glass, some of you, when you saw it was empty.)
+
+Ralph looked down on him, and laughed again; his sabre whirled round
+once, and cleared a wide circle; then, trampling down the wounded man by
+main force, he drove the point through his throat, and pinned him to the
+floor. I tell you I heard the steel plainly as it grated on the stone.
+There was an awful convulsion of all the limbs, and then the huge mass
+lay quite still.
+
+Then came a lull for several moments. The Irish cowered back to the door
+like penned sheep; their ammunition was exhausted, and none dared to
+cross the hideous barrier that now was between them and the terrible
+Cuirassier.
+
+All this took about half the time to act that it does to tell. I was
+hesitating whether to descend or to stay where my duty called me--near
+my wife. Fritz knelt behind me, silent and motionless; he had got his
+orders to stay by me to the last; but the sturdy keeper rose to his
+feet.
+
+"Faix," he said, "I'm but a poor hand at the swoording, but I must help
+my master, anyhow;" and he began to climb over the breastwork. The
+colonel's quick glance caught the movement, and his brief imperious
+tones rang over the hubbub of voices loud and clear,
+
+"Don't stir, Connell; stay where you are. I can finish with these hounds
+alone."
+
+As he spoke, he dashed in upon them with lowered head and uplifted
+sword.
+
+I don't wonder that they all recoiled; his whole face and form were
+fearfully transfigured; every hair in his bushy beard was bristling with
+rage, and the incarnate devil of murder was gleaming redly in his eyes.
+
+Just then there was a wild cry from without, answered by a shriek from
+my wife, who had been quiet till now. At first I thought that some
+fellows had scaled the window; but I soon distinguished the accents of a
+great joy. My poor Kate! She had roughed it in barracks too long not to
+know the rattle of the steel scabbards.
+
+When the dragoons came up at a hard gallop, there was nothing left in
+the court-yard but the dead and dying. Mohun had followed the flyers to
+get a last stroke at the hindmost. We clambered down into the hall, and,
+just as we reached the door, we saw a miserable crippled being clinging
+round his knees, crying for quarter. Poor wretch! he might as well have
+asked it from a famished jungle-tiger. The arm that had fallen so often
+that night, and never in vain, came down once more; the piteous appeal
+ended in a death-yell, and, as we reached him, Mohun was wiping coolly
+his dripping sabre: it had no more work to do.
+
+I could not help shuddering as I took his offered hand, and I saw
+Connell tremble for the first time as he made the sign of the cross.
+
+The Dragoons were returning from the pursuit; they had only made two
+prisoners; the darkness and broken ground prevented their doing more.
+Ralph went up to the officer in command.
+
+"How very good of you to come yourself, Harding, when I only asked you
+for a troop. Come in; you shall have some supper in half an hour, and
+Fritz will take care of your men. Throw all that carrion out," he went
+on, as we entered the hall, strewn with corpses. "We'll give them a
+truce to take up their dead."
+
+Clontarf came to meet us; he had only been stunned and bruised by the
+fall. His pale face flushed up as he said, "I shall never forget that I
+have to thank you for my life."
+
+"It's not worth mentioning," Mohun replied, carelessly. "I hope you are
+not much the worse for the tumble. Gad! it was a near thing, though. The
+quarryman's arms were a rough necklace."
+
+At that moment they were carrying by the disfigured remains of the dead
+Colossus. His slayer stopped them, and bent over the hideous face with a
+grim satisfaction.
+
+"My good friend Delaney," he muttered, "you will own that I have kept my
+word. If ever we meet again, I think I shall know you. _Au revoir_," and
+he passed on.
+
+I need not go through the congratulatory scene, nor describe how Kate
+blushed as they complimented her on her nerve. Fortunately for her, she
+had seen nothing, though she had heard all. Just as we were sitting down
+to supper, which Fritz prepared with his usual stolid coolness, and when
+Kate was about to leave us, for she needed rest, we remarked the
+attorney hovering about us with an exultation on his face yet more
+servile and repulsive than its late abject terror.
+
+"Mrs. Carew," said Mohun, "if you have quite done with your _protégé_, I
+think we'll send him down stairs. Give him something to eat, Fritz; not
+with the soldiers, though; and let some one take him home as soon as
+it's light. If you say one word, sir, I'll have you turned out _now_."
+
+Mr. Kelly crept out of the room, almost as frightened as he had been two
+hours before.
+
+The supper was more cheerful than the dinner, though there was a certain
+constraint on the party, who were not all so seasoned as their host.
+_He_ was in unusual spirits; so much so that Clontarf confided to a
+cornet, his particular friend, that "it was a pity the colonel could
+not have such a bear-fight once a fortnight, it put him into such a
+charming humor."
+
+We had nearly finished when, from the road outside, there came a
+prolonged ear-piercing wail, that made the window-panes tremble. I have
+never heard any earthly sound at once so expressive of utter despair,
+and appealing to heaven or hell for vengeance.
+
+We all started, and set down our glasses; but Mohun finished his slowly,
+savoring like a connoisseur the rich Burgundy.
+
+"It is the wild Irish women keening over their dead," he remarked, with
+perfect unconcern. "They'll have more to howl for before I have done
+with them. I shall go round with the police to-morrow and pick up the
+stragglers. Your men are too good for such work, Harding. There are
+several too hard hit to go far, and my hand-writing is pretty legible."
+
+The stout soldier to whom he spoke bent his head in assent, but with
+rather a queer expression on his honest face.
+
+"Gad!" he said, "you do your work cleanly, Mohun."
+
+"It is the best way, and the shortest in the end," was the reply; and so
+the matter dropped.
+
+The Dragoons left us before daybreak; their protection was not needed;
+we were as safe as in the Tower of London. The next morning, while I was
+sleeping heavily, Ralph was in the saddle scouring the country, with
+what success the next Assizes could tell.
+
+I go there again this winter for the cock-shooting, but I don't much
+think Kate will accompany me.
+
+Now who says "a rubber?" Don't all speak at once.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+     "He has mounted her on a milk-white steed,
+       Himself on a dappled gray;
+     And a bugelet-horn hung down by his side
+       As lightly they rode away."
+
+
+It is hard to describe the terrible _prestige_ which, after the event I
+have been speaking of, attached itself to Ralph Mohun. As for attempting
+a second attack on the fatal house, the peasantry would as soon have
+thought of storming the bottomless pit. They did not even try a shot at
+him from behind a wall; considering him perfectly invulnerable, they
+deemed it a pity to waste good powder and lead that might be usefully
+employed on an agent or process server. As his gaunt, erect figure went
+by, the men shrunk out of his path, and the women called their children
+in hastily, and shut their cabin doors; the very beggars, who are
+tolerably unscrupulous, gave his gate a wide berth, crossing themselves,
+with a muttered prayer, "God stand betwixt us and harm." If Ralph
+perceived this, I think he rather liked it; at all events, he made no
+attempt, either by softening his manner or by any act of benevolence, to
+win the popular favor.
+
+Before going to the Lodge I had heard from Livingstone. He said that his
+cousin's affair with Charley was progressing satisfactorily (I knew what
+that meant), and that he was going himself to sell out. I was not
+surprised at this; for some time past even the light restraint of
+service in the Household Brigade had begun to bore him. But the
+intelligence conveyed in a brief note from him during my stay with Mohun
+startled me very much. It announced, without any preface or explanation,
+that he was engaged to Constance Brandon.
+
+I had observed that lately he never mentioned or alluded to Miss
+Bellasys, but he had been equally silent about his present betrothed. I
+told my host of the news directly.
+
+"I am very glad to hear it," he said. "I never heard any thing but good
+of his _fiancée_. She is wonderfully beautiful, too, I believe, and her
+blood is unexceptionable. And yet," he went on musingly, "I should
+hardly have fancied that she would quite suit Guy. I don't know any one
+who would exactly. By-the-by, was there not a strong flirtation with a
+Miss Bellasys?"
+
+"Yes; so strong that I should have been less surprised to have seen her
+name in this letter."
+
+"Then he has not got out of that scrape yet," Mohun observed. "That girl
+comes of the wrong stock to give up any thing she has fancied without a
+struggle. I knew her father, Dick Bellasys, well. He contrived to
+compress as much mischief into his five-and-thirty years, before De
+Launy shot him, as most strong men can manage in double the time. He was
+like the Visconti--never sparing man in his anger, or woman in his
+love."
+
+I felt that he was right. I did not fancy the idea of Flora's state of
+mind when she heard that all her fascinations had failed, and that her
+rival had won the day.
+
+"I think I must leave you sooner than I had intended," I said; "I
+should like to be in England to see how things are going on."
+
+"You are right," answered Ralph, "though I shall be sorry to lose you.
+You have some influence with Livingstone, I know, though he is so hard
+to guide and self-reliant that advice is almost useless. If I had to
+give you a _consigne_, it would be--Distrust. If Miss Bellasys seems to
+take things pleasantly, be still more wary. I never saw a peculiarly
+frank, winning smile on her father's face without there being ruin to
+some one in the background. After all, you can do but little, I suppose.
+_Che sara, sara_." He said this drearily, and with something like a
+sigh.
+
+I had some business which detained me in Dublin, and it was nearly a
+fortnight after I received Guy's letter before I reached London.
+
+Early on the morning after my arrival I went down to his lodgings in
+Piccadilly. I found him at breakfast; after the first greetings, before
+I could say one word about his own affairs, he began to speak eagerly.
+
+"What a pity you should have come too late for the catastrophe, when you
+had seen all the preface! Five days ago Bella and Charley made their
+great _coup_, and were married in Paris."
+
+"And Bruce?" I said, recovering from the intelligence, which was not so
+unexpected, after all.
+
+"Ah! Bruce"--Guy replied; "I should be very glad if I knew what he _was_
+doing at this moment. I have been expecting him every day; but nothing
+has been heard of him since he left my mother's presence in a rabid
+state of fury. Did I tell you it was from Kerton they fled? I thought
+he must have come to me for an explanation, knowing that I was an
+accessory before the fact. Indeed, I lent Charley the sinews of war in
+the shape of a blank check, which I see this morning he has filled up
+for a thousand--just like his modesty. Well, I hope they'll amuse
+themselves! Bruce has never been near me. Suicide is the most charitable
+suggestion I've heard yet; but coroners are silent, and the Thames, if
+it is conscious of that unlucky though disagreeable man, keeps his
+secret so far!"
+
+Then he went on to give me more particulars of the _escapade_. It seems
+that Miss Raymond had gone out to walk alone, after luncheon, and that
+nothing more was heard of her till dinner-time, when a note was found on
+her dressing-table, addressed to her aunt, containing the intelligence
+of her flight with Forrester, and a little piece of ready-made
+penitence--the first for all whom it might concern, the second for her
+father.
+
+That placid Lord Ullin received the news by telegraph when he was well
+into his second rubber at the "Travelers;" he put the message into his
+pocket without remark, and won the rubber before he rose. It has been
+reported that he was somewhat absent during its progress, so much so as
+to rough his partner's strongest suit; but this I conceive to have been
+an after-thought of some one's, or a _canard_ of the club. Impavid as
+the Horatian model-man--(just in all his _dealings_, and tenacious of
+the odd trick)--I can not imagine the convulsion of nature which would
+have made him jeopardize by any sin of omission or commission the
+winning of the long odds.
+
+He found Bruce that night, and told him all. He never would give an
+account of that interview: it must have been a curious one.
+
+     _"xunômosan gar, ontes echtistoi to prin,
+     pur kai thalassa--"_
+
+Fancy the well-iced conventionalities of the one brought in contact with
+the other's savage temperament, maddened by baffled desires and the
+sense of shameful defeat.
+
+Before noon the next day it was announced to Lady Catharine, at Kerton
+Manor, that Bruce was waiting for her in the drawing-room. It was with a
+diffidence and sense of guilt very strange to her pure, straightforward
+nature that she obeyed the summons.
+
+His back was to the door as she entered.
+
+"I can not tell you how sorry I am," she began.
+
+Bruce turned toward her his ghastly face, ravaged and deformed by
+passion and sleeplessness, like a cane-brake in the Western Indies over
+which a tornado has passed. He did not appear to notice her words or her
+offered hand, but spoke in a strange, broken voice, after clearing his
+parched throat once or twice, huskily:
+
+"When did they go? At what hour?"
+
+She told him as well as she could.
+
+"Where have they gone to?"
+
+"I have not the least idea. Bella gave no hint of this. Would you like
+to see her note?" and she held it out to him.
+
+The name appeared to sting him like the cut of a whip, for he started
+convulsively as he took the scrap of paper. He read it through more than
+once, as if unable to comprehend it; the power of discrimination seemed
+blasted in his dry, red eyeballs; they could only glare.
+
+He made it out at last, and crumpled it up in his hand, clenching it
+till the knuckles became dead-white under the strain.
+
+"We were to have been married this day month," he said to himself, in a
+hoarse whisper; then raising his voice, "You can guess, at least, which
+route they have taken?"
+
+"Indeed I can not," she answered; "I would have done any thing to
+prevent this; but you must see that pursuit now would be worse than
+useless; it could only lead to fresh evils."
+
+Then the smouldering passion burst into a flame.
+
+"It is false," he cried out; "you would have done nothing. It is a plot.
+You are all in it; you, your son, and more that I will know soon. I saw
+it from the first moment I set foot in this cursed house. And you think
+I will not be revenged? Wait--wait and see!" He spoke rapidly, but it
+seemed as if the words could hardly force their way through his gnashing
+teeth.
+
+Good and kind-hearted as she was, there breathed no prouder woman than
+Lady Catharine Livingstone. Before he had ended her hand was on the
+bell.
+
+"Not even your disappointment can excuse your language," she said, in
+her clear, vibrating tones; "our interview is ended. I have pitied you
+hitherto, and blamed my niece; I do neither now: she knew you better
+than I. Not one word more. Mr. Bruce's carriage."
+
+Bruce glared at her savagely. He would have sold his soul, I believe,
+to have strangled her where she stood; but Guy's own peculiar look was
+in the cold, disdainful eyes, which met his without flinching or
+faltering. He knew that look very well, and quailed under it now, as he
+had done many times before.
+
+"A last piece of advice," Lady Catharine said, as he turned to go; "you
+had better curb your temper if you think of seeing my son. He may
+scarcely be so patient with you as I have been."
+
+If he heard it he did not notice the remark, but left the room slowly.
+He lifted his hand, but not his head, in a stealthy gesture of menace as
+he reached the door.
+
+Lady Catharine stood for some moments after his departure as if in
+thought, unconsciously retaining her somewhat haughty attitude and
+expression. Then she went to her room, and prayed, with many tears, that
+Isabel Raymond might never have to repent the step she had taken so
+rashly. I think a presentiment of danger made her pray for Guy too. But
+did she ever forget him when she was on her knees?
+
+Nevertheless, Bruce had not shown upon the scene since, so that they
+could not convey to him the intelligence when Isabel Forrester wrote
+from Paris to communicate her marriage.
+
+Guy went to Mr. Raymond as a plenipotentiary from the recently allied
+powers, to obtain, if possible, fair conditions of peace. His uncle was
+breakfasting alone, and received him with perfect good-temper.
+
+"My dear boy," he said, "it was a match of your poor aunt's making, not
+mine. If she had lived to see it broken off, I think she would have been
+very much provoked. (He gave a slight shudder of reminiscence here, and
+finished his chocolate.) But they say there is no marrying or giving in
+marriage where she is gone, so let us hope it will not seriously affect
+her now. As to me, I have never been angry since I was twenty-two.
+Personally, I very much prefer Forrester to Bruce as a connection. I
+should have allowed Bella £300 a year, and I suppose the necessary
+outfit and presents would have cost me about £500. I will do just the
+same now--neither more nor less. You can tell Charley he may draw for
+the last sum and for the first quarter when he pleases. They had better
+travel for a year or so, I think, till the people have stopped talking
+about them. Charley will sell out, of course?"
+
+"His papers are sent in," Guy replied.
+
+"Just so," Raymond went on. "If they are in a pleasant place, I may very
+likely go and see them this summer. Suggest Hombourg. I should like to
+try the waters. And tell Charley not to go about too much alone after
+nightfall. The deserted one is capable of laying a trap for him. I
+didn't like his look when I saw him last. That is all, I think. Do you
+go to Lady Featherstone's to-night?"
+
+Raymond appeared at his clubs and elsewhere with a face so impenetrably
+cheerful and complacent that his bitterest friend dared not venture on a
+condolence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+     "Tu mihi, tu certè (memini), Græcine, negabas,
+     Uno posse aliquem tempore amare duas."
+
+
+When I had heard all this, I questioned Guy about his own affairs. He
+was not very communicative, though he seemed perfectly happy and hopeful
+as to the future. He said that his marriage was not to take place till
+the autumn, when Miss Brandon's brother (they were orphans) was expected
+to return from India. I could not help asking what Flora Bellasys
+thought of it.
+
+Livingstone bit his lip and frowned slightly as he answered, "Well,
+there _was_ a scene--rather a tempestuous one, to speak the truth, but
+we are perfectly good friends now. I wonder if she ever really expected
+me to marry her? She is the most amusing person alive to flirt with, but
+as for serious measures--" He shrugged his shoulders expressively.
+"Perhaps she _has_ something to complain of; but if she has any
+conscience at all, she ought to recognize the _lex talionis_."
+
+I was not convinced or satisfied, but it was useless to pursue the
+subject then.
+
+"Will you ride to-day?" Guy asked. "There are always horses for you
+here. I should like to introduce you to Constance. We shall be in the
+Park about five."
+
+I accepted willingly, and left him soon afterward.
+
+A little after the hour he had named I saw Livingstone's tall figure
+turn the corner of Kensington Gardens, riding on Miss Brandon's right;
+on her left was her uncle, Mr. Vavasour, her usual escort.
+
+She was rarely lovely, certainly, as I was sure she would be, for Guy's
+taste in feminine beauty was undisputed. Her features were delicate, but
+very clearly cut; the nose and chin purely Grecian in their outline; the
+dark gray eyes met you with an earnest, true expression, as if they had
+nothing to conceal. Her broad Spanish hat suited her well, shading as it
+did cheeks slightly flushed by exercise, and shining tresses of that
+color which with us is nameless, and which across the Channel they
+call--_blond cendré_. Her hand was strikingly perfect, even in its
+gauntlet. It might have been modeled from that famous marble fragment of
+which the banker-poet was so proud, and which Canova kissed so often.
+
+There is a face which always reminds me of hers, though the figure in
+the portrait is far more matured and developed than Constance's willowy
+form--the picture of Queen Joanna of Naples in the Palazzo Doria.
+
+I have stood before it long, trying in vain to read the riddle of the
+haughty lineaments, and serene, untroubled eyes. Gazing at these, who
+could guess the story of that most guilty woman and astute
+conspirator--unbridled in sensuality--remorseless in statecraft--who
+counted her lovers by legions, and saw, unmoved, her chief favorite torn
+limb from limb on the rack?
+
+But this is no singular instance. Marble and canvas are more discreet
+than the mask of the best trained living features. Messalina and Julia
+look cold and correct enough since they have been turned into stone.
+Only by the magic of her smile and by the glory of her golden hair do we
+recognize her who, if all tales are true, might have given a tongue to
+the walls of the Vatican. We forget the Borgia, with her laboratory of
+philtres and poisons--we only think that never a duke of all his royal
+race brought home a lovelier bride than Alfonso of Ferrara.
+
+Perhaps it is best so. Why should a mark be set upon those whom, it may
+be, history has condemned unrighteously? Let us not be more uncharitable
+than the painter or the sculptor, but pass on without pausing to
+reflect--_Desinit in piscem_.
+
+If one had wanted to find a fault in Constance Brandon's beauty, I
+suppose it would have been that her forehead was too high, and her lips
+too thin and decided in their expression, especially when compressed
+under any strong feeling. But this defect it would have been hard to
+discover on this first occasion of our meeting. She looked so bright and
+joyous, and the light from her face seemed reflected on Guy's dark
+features, softening their stern outline, and making them radiant with a
+proud happiness. She received me very cordially, and I well remember the
+pleasant impression left on my ear by the first sound of her voice, soft
+and low as Cordelia's. In these two attributes it resembled that of
+Flora Bellasys, yet their tones were essentially different--as different
+as is to the taste a draft of pure sparkling water from one of strong
+sweet wine. We had taken two or three turns, when a large party
+approached us, in the centre of whom I recognized instantly Miss
+Bellasys. If possible, she looked handsomer than ever as she swept by at
+a sharp canter, sitting square and firmly, but yielding just enough to
+the stride of the horse--perfectly erect, but inimitably lithe and
+graceful.
+
+Nothing in her demeanor betrayed the faintest shade of emotion; but I
+remembered the old maxim of the fencing-school--"Watch your enemy's
+eyes, not his blade;" and I caught Flora's, as she raised her head after
+returning our salutation, before she had time to discipline them
+thoroughly. I saw them glitter with defiant hatred as they lighted on
+her rival. I saw them melt with passionate eagerness as for one brief
+moment they followed Guy's retreating figure and averted face. Half of
+Mohun's warning became superfluous after that. I was in no danger of
+being deceived by "Miss Bellasys taking things pleasantly."
+
+Yet, as time wore on, the idea forced itself on me more and more that
+Livingstone's choice was in some respects a mistake. They were _not_
+suited to each other. Constance was as unsuspicious and as free from
+commonplace jealousies as the merest child; but some of her lover's
+proceedings did not please her, and she told him so, perhaps without
+attending sufficiently to the "_suaviter in modo_"; for, when it was a
+question of duty, real or fancied, to herself and to others, she was
+rigid as steel. Besides this, she was a strict observer of all Church
+canons and rituals; and more than once, when Guy had proposed some plan,
+a vigil, or matins, or vespers came in the way. She did all for the
+best, I am certain, and judged herself far more severely than she did
+others, but she could not guess how any thing like an admonition or a
+lecture grated on the proud, self-willed nature that from childhood had
+been unused to the slightest control. To speak the truth, too, she was
+not exempt from that failing which brought ruin on the brightest of the
+angels, and punishment eternal on the Son of the Morning; so that pride
+may often have checked the evidence of the deep love she really felt,
+and made her manner seem constrained and cold.
+
+I only guess all this; for neither then, nor at any future time, did I
+ever hear from Guy the faintest whisper of accusation or complaint.
+
+I do not think he contradicted her often; I am quite sure it never came
+to a quarrel or even a dispute. They were not a couple likely to indulge
+in the _amantium iræ_; but sometimes, after quitting her, his brow was
+so ominously overcast that it would have gladdened the very heart of
+Flora Bellasys to have seen it. Once, I remember, after sitting some
+time in silence, his eyes turned toward a table, where, among other
+letters, lay a little triangular note unopened. He broke the seal and
+read it through, frowning still heavily; after a few moments of what
+looked like hesitation, he seemed to come to a decision, and burned it
+slowly at the flame of his spirit-lamp. Then he rose and shook all his
+mighty limbs--as the Danite Titan might have done before his locks were
+shorn--and sat down again with a long-drawn sigh, as of relief. I longed
+to interpose with a warning word, for in the handwriting I recognized
+the _griffe_ of the fatal Delilah. But I knew how dangerous it was to
+attempt interference with Guy; and besides, this time, I felt sure he
+had escaped the toils. Yet my heart sank as I thought of the seductions
+and temptations that the future might have in store. I could hardly
+keep my temper that evening when I saw at the Opera Flora
+Bellasys--triumphant, as if she could guess what the morning's work had
+been--and then thought of the single, guileless heart whose happiness
+she was plotting to overthrow.
+
+She and Guy met constantly, for he still went every where, often
+accompanied by his _fiancée_. They seemed to be on the most ordinary
+footing of old acquaintances, though it was remarked that no one could
+be said to have succeeded to the post of grand vizier at the Bellasys
+court, vacated by Livingstone. I can not trace the threads of the web of
+Circe. She concealed them well at the time; and since--between the
+knowledge of them and me is drawn the veil of a terrible remorse, which
+I have never tried to penetrate.
+
+I can only tell the end, which came very speedily.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+     "'Tis good to be merry and wise;
+       'Tis good to be honest and true;
+     'Tis good to be off with the old love
+       Before you are on with the new."
+
+
+There was a sound of revelry by night in Mrs. Wallace's villa at
+Richmond, and fair women and brave men mustered there strong. Every one
+liked those parties. The hostess was young and very charming, while her
+husband, a bald, inoffensive, elderly man, was equally eminent in his
+own department of the commissariat. His wines were things to dream of in
+after years, when, like Curran, "confined to the Port" of a remote
+country inn, one sacrifices one's self heroically on the altar of the
+landlord for the good of the house.
+
+The crowd was not so dense as at most London parties, and the
+temperature consequently something below that of a vapor-bath or of the
+_Piombi_, but the generality of the guests were either amusing, or
+pretty, or otherwise eligible. To be sure, it was rather an expedition
+and a question of passports to get down there, but the drive home
+through the cool dewy morning made you amends.
+
+Constance Brandon was present. I never saw her look so lovely as on
+this, her last appearance on the world's stage. No one could have
+guessed that, five hours later, the light was to die in her eyes and the
+color in her cheeks, never to return to either again till she shall
+wake on the Resurrection morning.
+
+Flora Bellasys was there too, in all the insolence of beauty, defying
+criticism, and challenging the admiration that was lavished on her. I
+should like to describe her dress; but I know how dangerous it is for
+the uninitiate to venture within the verge of those awful mysteries over
+which, as hierophants, Devy and Maradon-Carson preside. Conscious of my
+sex, I retire. Have we not read of Actæon?
+
+Still I may say that I have an impression of her being surrounded by a
+sort of cloud of pale blue _tulle_, over which bouquets of geranium were
+scattered here and there; and I remember perfectly a certain serpent of
+scarlet velvet and diamonds flashing amid the rolls and braids of her
+dark shining tresses.
+
+The evening began with private theatricals, which were most successful.
+There was a _soubrette_--provoking enough to have set all the
+parti-colored world by the ears--who traced her descent from a vavasor
+of Duke William the Norman, and an attorney's clerk, who had evidently
+mistaken his profession when he took a commission in the Coldstreams.
+
+Soon after the ball which followed had begun, Livingstone arrived. He
+had been dining at the mess of his old regiment. I never remember seeing
+him what is called the worse for liquor. His head was marble under the
+influence of wine and of yet stronger compounds; but the instant I met
+his eyes, I guessed from their unusual brilliancy, and from the slight
+additional flush on his brown cheeks, that the wassail had been deep.
+
+He paused for a moment to say a word or two to me, and I noticed that
+the first person whom his glance lighted on was, not his betrothed, but
+Flora Bellasys. The latter was resting after her first polka, with her
+usual staff of admirers round her. Guy watched the circle paying their
+homage, and I heard him mutter to himself the formula of the Roman
+arena--_Morituri te salutant_. Then he passed on; and, after retaining
+Constance for her first disengaged turn, he began talking to a lady,
+whom I have not noticed yet, but who merits to be sketched hastily.
+
+Rose Thornton was not clever. She was no longer in her first youth, and
+had never been pretty or very attractive. Her figure was neat, and her
+face had a sort of nervous deprecating expression, that made you look at
+it a second time. Nevertheless, she was always deeply engaged, and
+generally to the best goers in the room. She was a good performer
+herself, but this would not account for it; ninety-nine girls out of
+every hundred are that, after two seasons' practice. Those who were in
+the secret did not wonder at her luck. She was the _âme damnee_ of Flora
+Bellasys.
+
+Whenever the latter ventured on any unusually daring escapade, she was
+always really accompanied by Miss Thornton, or supposed to be so. How
+the influence was originally acquired I know not; at the time I speak of
+she had no more volition left than a Russian Grenadier. She had some
+principles of action once, I suppose, and considered herself as an
+accountable being; but all such vanities her "dashing white sergeant"
+had drilled out of her long ago. Poor thing! It was no wonder that the
+frightened look had become habitual to her face, and that she always
+spoke with reserve and constraint, as if to guard against the
+chance-betrayal of some terrible secret. It was no sinecure, her
+office--alternately scapegoat and _confidante_. My own idea is, that
+having still a little feeble remnant of a conscience remaining, she
+suffered agonies of remorse at times in the latter capacity. Dancing was
+her great--almost her only pleasure, and Flora certainly provided her
+regularly with partners. Indeed, some one had irreverently designated
+Miss Thornton as The Turnpike, inasmuch as, before securing a waltz with
+the beauty, it was necessary to pay toll in the shape of a duty-dance
+with her _protégée_. Rose's gratitude was boundless. She never wearied
+in rendering small services to her patroness. She would write her notes
+for her, as La Raffé did for Richelieu, and fetch and carry like the
+best of retrievers; venturing every now and then on a timid caress,
+which was permitted rather than accepted with an imperial nonchalance.
+The only subject on which she ever expanded into eloquence was the
+fascinations of her friend. She spent all her weak breath in blowing
+that laudatory trumpet, as if she expected the defenses of the best
+guarded heart to fall prostrate before it, like the walls of Jericho.
+And yet, if all the truth were known, I think she had as much reason to
+complain as the dwarf in the story who swore fellowship in arms with the
+giant.
+
+I was sorry to see Livingstone linger at her side, yet more sorry when,
+by an easy transition, he passed on to Flora's, and the circle around
+her, from old habit, made room for him to pass. He did not stay there
+long, though--only long enough to make future arrangements, I
+suppose--and then, for some time, I lost sight of him.
+
+I had been driving heavily through a quadrille in the society of a very
+foolish virgin, whose ideas of past, present, and future seemed bounded
+by the last Opera, which she had and I had not seen. A horror of great
+dullness had fallen upon me, and I went out to restore the tone of my
+depressed spirits by a libation, wherein I devoted, solemnly, my late
+partner to the infernal gods. When I returned they were playing "The
+Olga," and Flora was whirling round on Guy Livingstone's arm.
+
+Among her many perilous fascinations, have I ever mentioned her
+wonderful waltzing? She was as untiring as an Almè; and when once fairly
+launched with a steerer who could do her justice, had a sway with
+her--to use an Americanism--like that of a clipper three points off the
+wind.
+
+As I watched her, almost reclining in her partner's powerful grasp, her
+lips moving incessantly, though audibly only to him, as her head leaned
+against his shoulder, I thought of the old Rhineland tradition of the
+Wilis; then the daughter of Herodias came into my mind; and then that
+scarcely less murderous _danseuse_, at whose many-twinkling feet they
+say the second Napoleon cast his frail life down.
+
+If, in his assault on St. Anthony, the Evil One mingled no Terpsichorean
+temptation, be sure it was because the ancient man had no ear for music,
+I do not think that weapon was forgotten when Don Roderick, who had once
+been a courtly king, did battle through a long winter's night with the
+phantasm of fair, sinful La Cava.
+
+The waltz was over, and I saw Guy and Flora disappear through the
+curtained door of the conservatory. If there was one thing Mrs. Wallace
+was prouder of than another, it was the arrangement of this sanctum.
+Very justly so; for it had witnessed the commencement and happy
+termination of more flirtations than half the ball-rooms in London put
+together. When you got into one of those nooks, contrived in artful
+recesses, shaded by magnolias, camellias, and the broad, thick-leaved
+tropical plants, lighted dimly by lamps of many-colored glass, you felt
+the recitation of some chapter in "the old tale so often told" a
+necessity of the position, not a matter of choice. Against eyes you were
+tolerably safe, though not against ears; but this is of very secondary
+importance. The man who would not assist a woman in distress (as the
+stage sailor has it) by adhering to the whisper appropriate to the
+imparting of interesting information, deserves to be--overheard.
+
+Flora sank down on a convenient _causeuse_, still panting slightly--not
+from breathlessness, but past excitement--the ground-swell after the
+storm.
+
+"Ah! what a waltz!" she said, with a sigh. "And what a pity it is so
+nearly the last! I shall never find any one else who will understand my
+step and pace so well."
+
+"Why should it be nearly the last?" Guy asked, contemplating the varying
+expression of her face and the somewhat careless _pose_ of her
+magnificent figure with more than admiration in his eyes.
+
+"_On se range,_" Flora answered, demurely. "And the first step in the
+right direction will be to give up one's favorite partners."
+
+He sat down by her with a short laugh that was rather forced.
+
+"Bah! do you think, because we are virtuous, there shall be no more
+cakes and ale?"
+
+"Of course I do. I could sketch your future so easily. It will be so
+intensely respectable. You will become a model country squire. You will
+hunt a good deal, but never _ride_ any more. (You must sell the Axeine,
+you know.) You will go to magistrates' meetings regularly, and breed
+immense cattle; and you will grow very fat yourself. That's the worst of
+all. I don't like to fancy you stout and unwieldy, like Athelstan."
+
+She ended, pensively. The languor of reaction seemed stealing over her,
+but it only made her more charming as she leaned still farther back on
+the soft cushions, watching the point of her tiny foot tracing the
+pattern of the carpet.
+
+"What a brilliant horoscope!" said Guy; "and so benevolently sketched,
+too! Now your own, Improvisatrice."
+
+"I shall marry too," she answered, gravely. "I ought to have done so
+long ago. Perhaps I shall make up my mind soon. Evil examples are so
+contagious."
+
+"And who will draw the great prize?"
+
+"I have not the faintest idea. I suppose some fine old English
+gentleman, who has a great estate."
+
+"I only hope the said estate will be near Kerton," Livingstone
+suggested; and he drew closer to his companion.
+
+"Ah! dear old Kerton," she said, sighing again, "I shall never go there
+any more."
+
+"The reason?"
+
+"Perhaps because my husband, whoever he may be, will not choose to bring
+me."
+
+"Absurd!" Guy retorted, biting his lip hard. "As if that individual
+would have any will of his own. You want to provoke me, I see."
+
+The answer came in so low a whisper that, though he bent his ear down,
+he had almost to guess at the words.
+
+"No, I have never tried to do that, even during the last three months. I
+am not brave enough. Perhaps I should not come, because--I could not
+bear it."
+
+They were silent. She was so near him now that her quick breath stirred
+his hair, and he could feel the pulse of her heart beating against his
+own side. The fiery Livingstone blood, heated seven-fold by wine and
+passion, was surging through his veins like molten iron. Memory and
+foresight were both swept away like withered leaves by the strength of
+the terrible temptation.
+
+His arm stole round her waist, and he drew her toward him--close--closer
+yet; then she looked up in his face. The cloud of thoughtful gravity has
+passed away from hers, and the provocations of a myriad of coquettes and
+courtesans concentrated in her marvelous eyes.
+
+He bent down his lofty head, and instantly their lips met, and were set
+together fast.
+
+A kiss! Tibullus, Secundus, Moore, and a thousand other poets and
+poetasters, have rhymed on the word for centuries, decking it with the
+choicest and quaintest conceits. But, remember, it was with a kiss that
+the greatest of all criminals sealed the unpardonable sin--it was a kiss
+which brought on Francesca punishment so unutterably piteous that he
+swooned at the sight who endured to look on all other terrors of
+nine-circled hell.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+         "God help thee, then!
+       I'll see thy face no more.
+     Like water spilled upon the plain,
+     Not to be gathered up again,
+       Is the old love I bore."
+
+
+Before that long caress was ended, close behind them there broke forth a
+low, plaintive cry, such as might be wrung from the bravest of delicate
+women, in her extremity of pain, when stricken by a heavy brutal hand.
+
+The hot blood ebbed back in Guy Livingstone's veins, and froze at its
+fountain-head. His punishment had begun already. Before her face, white
+as the dress she wore, was revealed through a break in the dark green
+foliage of the camellias, he knew that he had trifled away his life's
+happiness, and lost Constance Brandon.
+
+She came forward slowly. With a valiant effort she had shaken off the
+first feeling of faintness that had crept over her, and there was
+scarcely a trace of emotion left on her features--calm and pale as the
+Angel of Death.
+
+Guy had risen, and stood still, with his head bent down on his breast.
+For the first time in his life he was unable to raise his eyes, weighed
+down by the heavy sense of bitter disgrace and forfeited honor.
+
+But the bright flush on Flora's cheek spoke more of exultation than of
+shame; the bouquet which she raised to her lips only half concealed a
+smile of triumph. She wreathed her slender neck haughtily while she met
+her rival's glance without flinching. She thought that, if she had
+played for a heavy stake--no less than the jeopardy of her fair
+fame--this time, at least, the game was her own.
+
+Constance spoke first, in a voice perfectly measured and composed. There
+was not a false note in the soft, musical tones. After once conquering
+her emotion, she would have dropped dead at Flora's feet sooner than
+betray how she was wounded.
+
+"When you have taken Miss Bellasys back, will you come to me for a
+moment, Mr. Livingstone? I will wait for you here."
+
+Flora rose before Guy could answer. "Don't trouble yourself," she said,
+gayly. "Here is my partner for the polka looking anxiously for me. I am
+ready, Captain Ravenswood."
+
+She turned, before reaching the door, to fire a last shot.
+
+"It is the next galop I am to keep for you, is it not?"
+
+This was to Guy; but there was no answer. He stood in precisely the same
+attitude, without a muscle of his face stirring or an eyelash quivering.
+
+In all the Rifle Brigade there was not a more reckless dare-devil than
+Harry Ravenswood, nor one who adhered more devoutly to the convenient
+creed, "All is fair in war or love." But he saw that something had
+happened quite out of his line; and he did not venture on a single
+allusion to it as he led his partner back to the dancing-room, with a
+perplexed expression on his cheery face, which amused Flora intensely
+when she remarked it. When the subject came on for discussion afterward
+in the smoking-room at his club, he thus expressed himself, in language
+terse and elegantly allegorical.
+
+"You see, Livingstone is a very heavy weight; a good deal better than
+most in the ring. When I saw him so floored as not to be able to come to
+time, I knew there had been some hard hitting going on thereabouts, so I
+kept clear."
+
+The two who were left alone in the conservatory remained silent for a
+few seconds. Then Guy roused himself, and offered his arm to his
+companion with an impulse of courtesy that was simply mechanical. She
+took it without remark, and they passed out through the door which led
+into the garden.
+
+There Constance left his side; and, for the first time, their eyes met
+as they stood face to face under the bright moon. Guy read his sentence
+instantly--a sentence from which there was no appeal. The very
+hopelessness of his situation restored its elasticity to the somewhat
+sullen pride which was the mainspring of his character. He stood,
+waiting for her to speak; and his eyes were not cast down now, but
+riveted on her face--gloomily defiant.
+
+"I hope you will believe," Miss Brandon said, "that it was quite
+involuntarily I became a spy on your actions. I did not overhear one
+word; and my partner had that moment left me, when I saw--" Not all her
+self-command could check the shudder that ran through every limb, and
+the choking in her throat that would interrupt her.
+
+"I have very little to add," she went on, more steadily. "After what I
+witnessed, I need hardly say that we only meet again as the merest
+strangers. You might think meanly of me, indeed, if I ever allowed your
+lips to touch my cheek or my hand again. Remember, I told you from the
+first we were not suited to each other; perhaps I deserve all I have met
+with for allowing myself to be overruled. You can not contradict a word
+of this, or say that it is unjust or severe."
+
+Did she pause in the expectation or the hope of an excuse, or an appeal
+from her hearer? Only the hoarse answer came,
+
+"I have forfeited the right to defend myself or to gainsay you."
+
+"You would find it difficult to do either," Constance rejoined, rather
+more haughtily; perhaps she was disappointed in the tone of his reply.
+"One word more: if my name is ever called in question, I am sure no one
+will defend it more readily than yourself. My voice will never be heard
+against you; and if, hereafter, you shall desire my forgiveness more
+than you now do; remember, I have given it unasked and freely."
+
+Guy's tone was pregnant with cold, cruel irony as he answered,
+
+"I congratulate you on your position, Miss Brandon; it is quite
+unassailable. You are in the right now, as you always have been. You
+were right, of course, in always doling out the tokens of your love in
+such scanty measure as your pride and your priests would allow. They
+ought to canonize you--those holy men! I doubt if they have another
+disciple so superior to all human weaknesses. It must be very
+gratifying to so eminent a Christian to be able to forgive plenarily,
+without danger of the favor being returned. I have nothing to urge
+against your decision--that we part forever. You will have no difficulty
+in forgetting me, whom you ought never to have stooped to. Yet I will
+give you one caution. I am not romantic, as you know, and I generally
+mean what I say. If you should think hereafter of bestowing yourself on
+some worthier object, hesitate a little for _his_ sake, or wait till I
+am dead; otherwise, the day that makes his happiness certain may bring
+him very near his grave."
+
+His voice had changed during the last words into a growl of savage
+menace, and his forehead was black and furrowed with passion.
+
+It might have been his own excited fancy, or the passing just then of a
+light cloud over the moon; but, for an instant, he thought he saw her
+steady lip quiver and tremble. If so, be very sure it was not fear which
+caused the emotion, though even that the circumstances might have
+excused; rather, I think, it was a pang of self-reproach--a
+consciousness of having acted unwisely, though for the best; perhaps,
+too, the stubbornness of the heart she had ruled once--so strong and
+proud even in its abasement--was congenial to her own besetting sin: she
+liked the fierce threat better than the cool sarcasm. At any rate, she
+answered more gently than she had yet spoken.
+
+"I believe you. But you know me better than to think a threat would
+influence me. Yet you need not fear my ever again trusting this world
+with my happiness. You will be very sorry hereafter for some things you
+have said to-night. Ask yourself--if I had loved you, as you seem to
+have expected, better than my own soul, would the result have been
+different? It is too late now to say any thing but--farewell. Will you
+not say it, as I do, kindly, or at least not in anger--Guy?"
+
+She paused between the two last words, and their imploring accent was
+almost piteous. There must have been a strange fascination about
+Livingstone, for, saint as she was, no other living creature would have
+won such a concession from the Christian charity of Constance Brandon.
+
+Had Guy spoken then, as he ought to have done, I believe all might have
+been amended; but an angry devil was busy within him, and would not let
+go his prey; he stood with his black brows downcast, and with folded
+arms, never seeming to notice the slender fingers that sought to touch
+his hand. True it is that nothing makes a man so unforgiving as the
+consciousness of having inflicted a bitter wrong. He heard a sigh, heavy
+and despairing as Francesca's when her dying prayer was spurned, a light
+shadow flitted across the streak of moonlit grass, and, when he raised
+his head, he was left alone, like Alp on the sea-shore, to judge the
+battle between a remorseful conscience and a hardened heart.
+
+Livingstone was seen no more that night; Constance glided in alone, and
+her absence had been scarcely noticed. During the short time that she
+remained, no one could have guessed from her face that her heart was
+broken, any more than did Napoleon that the aid-de-camp who brought the
+news of Lannes' victory had been almost cut in two by a grape-shot.
+
+I speak it diffidently, with the fear of the divine voice of the people
+before my eyes, as is but fitting in these equalizing days, when
+territories, the title to which is possession immemorial, are being
+plucked away acre by acre, and hereditary privileges mined one by one;
+but it seems to me, in this, perhaps, solitary attribute, "the brave old
+houses" still keep their pre-eminence.
+
+They are not better, nor wiser in their generation (forbid it,
+Manchester!), nor even more daring in confronting danger than the
+thousands whose grandsires are creations of a powerful fancy or of a
+complaisant king-at-arms. In that terrible charge which swept away the
+Russian cavalry at Eylau, three lengths in front of the best blood in
+France rode the innkeeper's son. The "First Grenadier" himself was not
+more splendidly reckless, though he was a La Tour d'Auvergne. But in
+passive uncomplaining endurance, in the power of obliterating outward
+tokens of suffering, physical or mental, may we not still say, _Noblesse
+oblige_?
+
+Hundreds of similar isolated instances may be quoted from the annals of
+the Third Estate; but, in the class I speak of, this quality seems a
+sixth sense wholly independent of, and often contradicting the rest of
+the individual's disposition.
+
+I remember meeting in France an old Italian refugee. He had not much
+principle and very little pride; he was ready _quidvis facere aut pati_
+to get a five-franc piece, which he would incontinently stake and lose
+at baccarat or ecarté, as he had done aforetime with a large ancestral
+inheritance; but his quiet fortitude under privations that were neither
+few nor light was worthy of Belisarius.
+
+Very often, I am sure, his evening meal must have been eaten with the
+Barmecide; but his pale, handsome face, finished off so gracefully by
+the white, pointed beard, still met you, courteous and unruffled, the
+idea of an exiled doge, or a Rohan in disgrace. Once only I saw him
+moved--when the landlord of our inn, a vast bloated _bourgeois_, smote
+the Count familiarly on the shoulder, and bantered him pleasantly on the
+brilliant prospects of his eldest son. It was not unkindly meant,
+perhaps, but the old man shrunk away from the large fat hand as if it
+hurt him, and turned toward us a look piteously appealing, which was not
+lost on myself or Livingstone. When mine host, later in the evening,
+shook in his gouty slippers before an ebullition of Guy's wrath, excited
+by the most shadowy pretext, I wonder if he guessed at the remote cause
+of that outpouring of the vials? Count Massa did, for he smiled
+intensely, as only an Italian can smile when amply revenged.
+
+One instance more to close a long digression. I have read of a baron in
+the fifteenth century who once in his life said a good thing. He was a
+coarse, brutal marauder, illiterate enough to have satisfied Earl Angus,
+and as unromantic as the Integral Calculus. He was mortally wounded in a
+skirmish; and when his men came back from the pursuit, he was bleeding
+to death, resting against a tree. When they lifted him up, they noticed
+his eyes fixed with a curious, complacent expression on the red stream
+that surged and gurgled out of his wound, just as a _gourmand_ looks at
+a bumper of a rare vintage held up to the light. They heard him growl to
+himself, "_Qu'il coule rouge et fort, le bon vieux sang de Bourgogne_."
+And then he fell back--dead.
+
+O Publicola Thompson! Phösphor to the Tower Hamlets and Boanerges of
+the platform--will you not allow that, amid a wilderness of weeds, this
+one fair plant flourishes under "the cold shade?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+     "Shy she was, and I thought her cold;
+       Thought her proud, and fled over the sea;
+     Filled I was with folly and spite,
+       When Ellen Adair was dying for me."
+
+
+When I came to Livingstone's chambers on the following morning, I found
+him alone. His head was resting listlessly against the back of the vast
+easy-chair in which he was reclining, and his face, thrown out in relief
+against the crimson velvet, looked haggard and drawn. The calumet--not
+of peace--was between his lips, and the dense blue clouds were wreathing
+round him like a Scotch mist. On a table near lay a heap of gold and
+notes. He had finished the night at his club, where lansquenet had been
+raging till long after sunrise. Fortune had been more kind than usual,
+and the fruits of "passing" eight times lay before me. An open
+liqueur-case close at his elbow showed that play was not the only
+counter-excitement to which he had resorted.
+
+I hoped to have found him in a repentant mood, but his first words
+undeceived me: "I start for Paris by this evening's train;" and then I
+remarked all about me the signs of immediate departure.
+
+I only had a confused idea of what had happened, and was anxious to know
+the truth, but he was very brief in his answers: the particulars of what
+had passed I learned long afterward.
+
+"Can nothing be done?" I asked, when he had finished all he chose to
+tell me.
+
+"Nothing!" replied Livingstone, decisively. "If excuse or explanation
+had been of any use, I think I should have tried them last night. You
+would not advise me to humiliate myself to no purpose, I suppose?"
+
+There is a certain scene in Æschylus which came into my mind just then.
+
+A group of elderly men, with grave, rather vacuous faces, and grizzled
+beards, stand in the court-yard of an ancient palace. On one side is the
+peristyle, with its square stunted pillars, looking as if the weight
+above crushed them, though it wearies them no more than the heavens do
+Atlas; on the other, a gateway, vast, low-browed, shadowy with Cyclopean
+stones. Somewhat apart is a strange weird figure, ever and anon starting
+up and tossing her arms wildly as she utters some new denunciation, and
+then cowering down again in a despairing weariness. There are traces yet
+in the thin, wan face of the beauty which enslaved Loxian Apollo, and of
+the pride which turned his great love into a greater hate: round it hang
+the black elf-locks, disheveled, that have never been braided since the
+gripe of Telamonian Ajax ruffled them so rudely. In her great, troubled
+eyes you read terrible memories, and a prescience of coming
+death--death, most grateful to the dishonored princess, but before which
+the frail womanhood can not but shudder and quail. No wonder that the
+reverend men glance at her uneasily, scarcely mustering courage enough
+sometimes to answer her with a pious platitude. Alas! alas! Cassandra.
+
+While we gaze, forth from the recesses of the gynæceum there breaks a
+cry, expressing rather wrath and surprise than mere pain. Then there
+comes another, more plaintive--the moan of a strong man in the
+death-throe.
+
+We know that voice very well; we have heard it many times, calm and
+regal, above the wrangle of councils and the roar of battle; often it
+prayed for victory or for the people's weal, but it never yet called on
+earth or heaven to help Agamemnon. The Chorus hear it too; but they
+linger and palter, while each gives his grave sentence deliberately in
+his proper turn. One or two advise action and interference, and stand
+perfectly still. At last we hear a heavy, choking groan, and a great
+stillness follows. We know that all is over--we know that there is a
+stir already down there in Hades--we seem to catch a far-off murmur
+raised by a thousand weak, tremulous voices--the very ghost of a
+wail--as the shadows of those who died gallantly in their harness before
+Troy gather to meet their old leader, the mightiest Atride.
+
+In the background of all we fancy a hideous Eidolon, from whose side
+even the damned recoil in loathing. There is a grin on the lips yet red
+and wet with the traces of the unholy banquet. Thyestes exalts over the
+fulfillment of another chapter in the inevitable curse.
+
+Who has not grown savage over that scene? We hate the old drivelers less
+when, a few minutes later, they truckle and temporize with the awful
+shape, who comes forth with a splash of blood on her slender wrist, and
+a speck or two on her white, lofty forehead.
+
+Just so helpless and useless I felt at that moment. I was standing by
+while a foul wrong was being wrought. I saw nothing but ruin for Guy,
+and desolate misery for Constance, in the black future. Yet I could
+think of no argument or counsel that would in the least avail. I felt
+sick at heart. It was some minutes before I answered his last question.
+At last the words broke from me almost unconsciously: "Ah! how will you
+answer to God and man for last night's work?"
+
+I forgot that I was quoting the cry of the Covenanter's widow when she
+knelt by her husband's corpse, and looked up into Claverhouse's face
+with those sad eyes that were ever dim and cloudy after the carbines
+flashed across them. But Guy remembered it, and answered instantly in
+the words of his favorite hero,
+
+"I can answer it to man well enough, and I will take God in my own
+hand."
+
+Years afterward we both recalled that fatal defiance, when the speaker
+lay helpless, at the mercy of the Omnipotence whose might he challenged.
+Just then his servant, who was busily preparing for departure, entered
+the room.
+
+Willis was a slight, under-sized man, of about fifty; his complexion was
+muddy and indefinite; his small whiskers, of a grayish red, were trimmed
+and pruned as accurately as a box border-edging, and the partial absence
+of eyebrows and eyelashes gave his face a sort of unfinished look. The
+expression natural to it was, I think, a low, vicious cunning; but his
+features and little green eyes were so rigidly disciplined that, as a
+rule, neither had any characteristic save utter vacuity. In his own line
+he was perfect. No commission that could be intrusted to him would draw
+from him a remark or a look of surprise. He executed precisely what he
+was told, and fulfilled the minutest duties of his station
+irreproachably, with a noiseless, feline activity. He was like the
+war-horse of the Douglas:
+
+             "Though somewhat old,
+     Swift in his paces, cool, and bold."
+
+He held a miniature-case in his hand as he entered. "Am I to put this
+in, sir?" he asked, in the slow, measured voice that was habitual to
+him.
+
+His master gazed sharply at him, as if trying to detect a covert
+sneer--it would have been safer to have stroked a rattlesnake's crest
+than to have trifled with Livingstone just then--but Willis's face was
+as innocent of any expression as a dead wall.
+
+"Put it down, and go on with your packing; you have no time to spare."
+The man laid the case on a marble table near, and went out.
+
+Guy took the miniature and regarded it steadfastly for some moments,
+then he looked up and caught my eye. Perhaps there was an eager appeal
+there (for I knew well whose likeness lay before him) which displeased
+and provoked his sullen temper; for he frowned darkly, and then his
+clenched hand fell with the crashing weight of a steam-hammer. Nothing
+but a heap of shivered wood, glass, and ivory remained of what had been
+the life-like image of Constance Brandon.
+
+A thrill of horror shot through me icily, and a low cry burst from my
+lips. I felt at that moment as if the blow had fallen, not on the
+portrait, but on the original.
+
+But I kept silence. The dark hour was on Saul, and I knew no spell to
+chase the evil spirit away.
+
+Guy spoke at last. His manner was unusually chill and constrained.
+
+"I expect to meet Mohun in Paris, and we shall probably go on to Vienna.
+I hardly like troubling you with commissions, but I must. Listen. I
+leave my own name--and another person's--in your keeping. I wish it to
+be clearly understood that the engagement was broken off by Miss
+Brandon, not by me. If you hear any man speak disparagingly of her in
+connection with what has passed, you can insult him on my behalf as
+grossly as you please. I will be here, as fast as steam can bring me, to
+back what you may have said or done. This is the only point in which I
+hope you will guard my honor. As for blaming _me_, they may say what
+they please. Do you quite understand? And will you promise?"
+
+I did promise; and so, after a few more last words, we parted, more
+coldly than we had ever done in all the years through which we had been
+intimate.
+
+Guy left England the same evening, and descended like a thunder-clap on
+the joyous little _ménage_ in the Rue de la Madeleine, where Forrester
+and his bride were still fluttering their wings in the honeymoon-shine
+of post-nuptial spring.
+
+They were miraculously happy, those two. Indeed, they seemed to have
+only one taste between them, and that was Charley's. If he felt
+inclined, which was not seldom, to utter inaction, his wife encouraged
+him in his laziness, sitting contentedly for hours on her footstool,
+with her silky hair just within reach of his indolent hand. If, after
+dinner, he suggested the "Italiens," or the "Bouffes," it was always
+precisely that theatre that she had been thinking of all the morning.
+She was in the seventh heaven when he won a hurdle-race in the Champ de
+Mars.
+
+They made excursions into the _banlieue_, and farther afield yet, like a
+couple of the _Pays Latin_ in their first loves. The cabinets of Bercy
+and St. Cloud knew them; so did the arbors of Asnières, where, in
+oilskin and _vareuse_, muster for their Sabbat the ancient mariners of
+the Seine. Nay, it has been whispered that more than once--close veiled
+and clinging tightly to her husband's arm--Isabel witnessed at _Mabille_
+and the _Chaumière_ the choregraphic triumphs of _Frisette_, _Pomare_,
+and _Mogador_.
+
+My hand trembles while I record such enormities and backslidings. O
+Brougham-girls of Belgravia, who "never gave your mothers a moment's
+uneasiness"--stars of the Western hemisphere, who can be trusted any
+where without fear of your wandering from your orbits--think on this
+lost Pleiad, once your companion, and be warned. Men are deceivers ever,
+even when they mean matrimony; and the tender mercies of the Light
+Dragoon are cruel.
+
+Isabel was dreadfully startled at the sudden appearance of her cousin.
+Her notions of his power were quite unlimited and irrational, and I
+believe her first thought was that he had changed his mind about the
+propriety of her marriage, and was come to carry her back into the house
+of her bondage with the strong hand.
+
+When his curt sentences told her the facts, sorry as she was, it
+certainly was rather a relief to her. Charley was full of compassion
+too, but he only confided this to his wife. He knew better than to try
+condolence with Guy, and felt instantly that the case was far beyond his
+simple powers of healing.
+
+They did not see much of him. The contrast of their happiness with his
+own state must have grated on his feelings. His grim presence chilled
+and clouded their little banquets at the Trois Frères or the Café de
+Paris. He sat there among the bright lamps and flowers like a statue of
+dark marble that it is impossible to light up, drinking all the while,
+moodily, of the strongest wines to that portentous extent that it made
+Isabel nervous and her husband grave.
+
+Perhaps Guy was conscious of the effect he produced; at all events, he
+rather avoided the Forresters, finding in Mohun more congenial society.
+The latter probably regretted what had happened; perhaps he felt an
+approach to sympathy, after his rough fashion, but with this mingled a
+dreary sort of satisfaction at the sight of a strong mind and hardy
+nature rapidly descending to his own misanthropical level. Such an
+exultation was breathed in that ghastly chorus of the dead kings and
+chief ones of the earth when they rose, each on his awful throne, and
+Hell beneath was moved at the advent of the Son of the Morning.
+
+These two did not stay long in Paris before they took their departure
+for Vienna.
+
+We who were left behind in England talked a little at first, of course,
+about the broken engagement, but I had no occasion to throw down the
+gauntlet that had been left in my hands. I never heard any thing more
+spiteful about Miss Brandon than that "she was never suited to her
+_fiancé_--far too good for him." Others "had always thought how it
+would be; it would take a good deal more yet to tame Livingstone." Sir
+Henry Fallowfield observed, "Nothing could be more natural and correct.
+The lady was a saint, and there is always a sort of incompleteness about
+saints if they are not made martyrs. Suffering is their normal state."
+
+It was remarked that he was unusually cheerful for some days afterward;
+and when Guy's conduct was canvassed, seemed inclined to quote the old
+school-master's words on witnessing his pupil's success, "Bless the boy!
+I taught him."
+
+Some other subject soon came up and replaced the week's wonder.
+
+Constance left town with her uncle almost immediately, and I heard
+nothing of her for many months. Miss Bellasys remained. Very few persons
+even guessed at the share she had had in breaking off the match; so her
+credit was not much impaired, and her campaign was as brilliantly
+successful as usual. If she felt any disappointment at Guy's abrupt
+departure, she concealed it remarkably well. In some things, though
+naturally impetuous and impatient, she was as cool as a Red Indian, and
+would wait and watch forever if she saw a prospect of ultimate success.
+So the days rolled on, bringing swiftly and surely the bitter
+harvest-time, when he who had sown the wind was to reap the whirlwind.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+     "And from his lips those words of insult fell--
+     His sword is good who can maintain them well."
+
+
+It was the middle of October; the reflux of the winter season was
+beginning to fill Paris, and thither Mohun and Livingstone had returned
+from their German tour, the latter decidedly the worse for his
+wanderings. He had not suffered much physically, for the hard living
+that would have utterly broken up some constitutions had only been able
+to make his face thinner, to deepen the bistre tints under the eyes, and
+to give a more angular gauntness to his massive frame.
+
+But morally he was not the same man. Play, which had formerly been only
+an occasional excitement, had now become a necessary part of his daily
+existence. Mohun would never say--perhaps he did not know--how much Guy
+had lost during those few months. In spite of several gigantic _coups_
+(he broke the bank both at Baden and Hombourg), the balance was
+fearfully on the wrong side, so much so that it entailed a heavy
+mortgage--the maiden one in his time--on the fair lands of Kerton Manor.
+
+I wonder people have not got tired of quoting "_Heureux en jeu;
+malheureux en amour_." It seems one of the least true of all stale,
+stupid proverbs. Luck will run itself out in more ways than one; and
+sometimes you will never hold a trump, however often the suit changes.
+The ancients knew better than we when they called the double-sixes
+"Venus's cast." The monotony of Guy's reckless dissipations was soon
+broken up by an event which ought to have sobered him.
+
+He had been dining with Mohun at the Trois Frères, and they were
+returning late toward the Boulevards, when their attention was attracted
+by a group in one of the narrow streets leading out of the Rue Vivienne.
+Five or six raffish-looking men had surrounded a fair, delicate girl,
+and were preparing to besiege her in form, deriving apparently intense
+amusement from the piteous entreaties of their victim to be released.
+Not the _roués_ of the Regency after the suppers that have become a
+by-word--not the _mousquetaires_ after the wildest of their orgies--were
+ever so unrelenting in brutality toward women quite lonely and
+undefended as those unshorn ornaments of Young France, when replete with
+a dinner at forty _sous_, and with the anomalous liquor that Macon
+blushes to own.
+
+In all Europe there is no more genial companion and gallant gentleman
+than the aristocrat of France _pur sang_--in all the world no more
+terrible adversary than her wiry, well-trained soldier; but, from the
+prolific decay of old institutions and prejudices, a mushroom growth has
+sprouted of child-atheists and precocious profligates, calculating
+debauchees while their cheeks are still innocent of down, who, after the
+effervescence of a foul, vicious youth has spent itself, simmer down
+into avaricious, dishonest _bourgeois_ and bloated café politicians. The
+teeth of the Republican dragon have been drawn, but they are sown
+broadcast from Dan even to Beersheba. Ancient realm of Capet, Valois,
+and Bourbon--motherland of Du Guesclin and Bayard--you may well be proud
+of your Cadmean offspring!
+
+Guy was passing the scene with a careless side-glance when the accent of
+the suppliant caught his ear--not French, though she spoke the language
+perfectly.
+
+"By G--d," he said, dropping Mohun's arm, "I believe it's an
+Englishwoman they are bullying;" and three of his long strides took him
+into the midst of the group.
+
+Two of the aggressors reeled back, right and left, from the shock of his
+mighty shoulders; and griping another, the tallest, by the collar, he
+whirled him some paces off on his back in the streaming kennel, as one
+might do with a very weak, light little child. "_Au large, canaille_!"
+he said, as he advanced on the two who still kept their feet. These drew
+back from his path without a second warning. One indeed, eminent in the
+_savate_, made a demonstration for an instant; but his comrade, who had
+just gathered himself up, caught his arm, muttering "_Ne t'y frotte pas,
+Alphonse. C'est trop dur_." None of them fancied an encounter with the
+grim giant who confronted them, his muscles braced and salient, his eyes
+gleaming with the _gaudia certaminis_, and his nostrils dilated as if
+they snuffed the battle.
+
+So they made way for Guy and his charge to pass, only grinding out
+between their teeth the strange guttural blasphemies that characterize
+impotent Gallic wrath.
+
+Mohun, a reserve scarcely leas formidable, stood by all the while,
+looking on lazily; he saw that his companion was more than equal to the
+emergency.
+
+"I hope you have not been much annoyed," Livingstone said, kindly.
+"Where were you going to? I shall be too happy to escort you, if you
+will allow me."
+
+She named the street, only a few hundred yards off, and tried to thank
+him gratefully, but her voice was broken and scarcely audible, and the
+blinding tears would rush into her eyes. Poor child! it was very long
+since she had heard gentle, courteous words in her mother-tongue. She
+recovered herself, however, during their short walk, and they had nearly
+reached her destination when Livingstone said, "Forgive me for being
+impertinent; I have no right to advise you; but I think you would find
+it better not to walk alone, often, at this hour. There is always a
+chance of something disagreeable."
+
+He could see her blush painfully as she answered, "I have no one to
+accompany me. I work hard at drawing and painting as long as there is
+light, and I had gone out to see if I could sell what I have done. But I
+fear I am a very poor artist; no one would offer me as much as they had
+cost me. And I tried at so many places!"
+
+It was piteous to hear the heavy, heart-broken sigh.
+
+"Perhaps I have better taste," replied Livingstone. "Those print-sellers
+are absurdly ignorant of what is good and anonymous. At all events, they
+will interest me, as a memorial of to-night. Will you give them to me? I
+will promise not to be too critical."
+
+He drew the roll out of her hand as he spoke, replacing it by his
+note-case; and before she could open it or make any objection, he
+followed Mohun (for they had reached the artist's door by this time),
+first raising his hat to her in adieu as courteously as he would have
+done to a reigning archduchess.
+
+How much did the case contain? Guy himself could hardly have told you.
+But be sure the Recorder of his many misdeeds knew, and reckoned it to
+the uttermost farthing when he wrote down that one kind action on the
+credit side.
+
+"Philanthropic, for a change!" Mohun remarked, when his companion joined
+him. "Well, it's not worse than many of your vagaries. We shall have you
+founding an asylum next, I suppose."
+
+In his heart the savage old cynic approved, but, for the life of him, he
+could not check the sneer.
+
+Livingstone made no reply. It was a habit of his very often not to
+answer Ralph, and the latter did not mind it in the least. In a few
+moments they reached Guy's apartments, where they found about a dozen
+men--French and English--awaiting their arrival to begin an unbridled
+lansquenet. It was a favorite rendezvous for this purpose. The
+thoroughbred gamblers preferred it to the brilliant entertainments of
+the Quartier Brèda. They liked to court or fight Fortune by themselves,
+without being congratulated in success or compassionated in defeat by
+the fair Phrynes and Aspasias, whose sympathy was somewhat expansive,
+inasmuch as they always would borrow from the heap whenever any one won,
+repaying the loan in kind by smiles and caresses, which cost the happy
+recipient about fifteen Napoleons apiece. Here was an Eden from which
+Eves were excluded; and on the nights of the _Mercurialia_, the
+brightest Peri that ever wore camellias might have knocked at the gate
+disconsolately, but in vain.
+
+While the tables were being prepared, Guy began to tell his late
+adventure. He spoke of it very lightly, but he thought, if he passed it
+over altogether, Mohun would probably betray him.
+
+Immediately there was a great cry for a sight of the performances of the
+unknown genius.
+
+Livingstone looked over the drawings himself carefully, and then passed
+them to the man who sat nearest him. "I have seen worse," he said.
+"There is no signature, and I shall not give you the address. You are
+none of you just the patrons she would fancy. You don't care much for
+high art."
+
+Among the guests was Horace Levinge, a pale, dark man, with a face that
+was decidedly handsome, in spite of its Jewish _contour_, and the
+excessive fullness of the scarlet, sensual lips. His grandfather, report
+said, had been a prize-fighting Israelite, and afterward a celebrated
+betting-man--equally eminent in either ring for an unscrupulous
+scoundrelism which made his fortune. His father had added to the family
+treasure and importance by cautious usury and adventurous stock-jobbing.
+Horace himself was a gentleman at large, with no other profession than
+the consistent pursuit of all kinds of debauchery. He was calculating
+even in his pleasures, and, they say, kept a regular ledger and daybook
+of the moneys disbursed in his vices.
+
+When the drawings came to him, he glanced at them for a moment, and
+then threw them down with a little contemptuous laugh.
+
+"I am sorry to spoil your romance, Livingstone, but I have a pretty good
+right to recognize the artist's touch. You know her, some of you; it is
+Fanny Challoner."
+
+"What! the girl you sent away about three weeks ago?" some one asked.
+"Poor thing! she was not sorry, I should think. She had a hard time of
+it before she left you."
+
+"Precisely," Levinge replied. "Her modesty and high moral principles,
+which I never could quite subdue, gave a zest to the thing at first. You
+understand?--a sort of caviare flavor. But at last it bored me horribly.
+I really believe she had a conscience. Can you conceive any thing so out
+of place? I did offer her a little money when she went away, but she
+would not take any, and said she would try to maintain herself honestly.
+Bah! I defy her. She was a governess, you know, when I took her first,
+so she is trying some of the old accomplishments. I wish you joy of your
+_protégée_, Livingstone; and as for her address, if any of you want it,
+I will give it you to-morrow."
+
+Before Guy could reply Mohun broke in. While Levinge had been speaking,
+the colonel's face had grown very dark and threatening.
+
+"Did her father live near Walmer? And was he a half-pay officer?"
+
+"Quite correct," was the answer. "He died about eighteen months before I
+met Fanny. You knew him, perhaps? How interesting! Excuse my emotion."
+
+"I did know him," Ralph said. "He was a gentleman, and well born.
+Perhaps that was the reason you could not get on long with his
+daughter?"
+
+It is a popular error that a bully is always a coward. Certainly Horace
+was an exception to the rule, if such exists. Nothing could be more
+calmly insolent than his tone as he answered deliberately,
+
+"How admirable to find Colonel Mohun in the character of the Censor! A
+Clodius come to judgment. I should hardly have expected it, from his
+past life, either."
+
+The reply came from the depths of Ralph's chest, very distinct, but with
+a strange effect of distance and echo, as if the words had been spoken
+under the vault of some vast dome.
+
+"You will leave my past life alone, if you are wise. I don't preach
+against immorality; it is only brutality that I find simply disgusting."
+
+"Bah!" the other retorted; "it comes to the same thing. I should have
+thought Lady Caroline Mannering might have taught you to be less
+critical."
+
+The Cuirassier rose from his seat and strode a pace forward, the gray
+hair bristling round his savage face like a wild-boar's at bay.
+
+"If you dare to breathe that name again, except with respect and honor,
+I'll cram the words down your throat, by the eternal God!"
+
+Levinge crimsoned with passion. The brutal blood of the dead
+prize-fighter, who, when he "crossed" a fight, lost it ever by a foul
+blow, was boiling in his descendant. He had been drinking too, and, as
+the French say--_avait le vin mauvais_--so he answered coolly and
+slowly, letting the syllables fall one by one, like drops of hail,
+
+"I shall mention it just as often as it pleases me, and with just so
+much respect as is due to Mannering's cast-off wife and your--"
+
+The foul word that was on his lips never left them, for Mohun's threat
+was literally fulfilled. His right hand shot out from the shoulder with
+a sudden impulse that seemed rather mechanical than an action of the
+will, and, catching the speaker full in the mouth, laid him on the
+carpet senseless and streaming with blood.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+     "Look doun, look doun now, ladye fair,
+       On him ye lo'ed sae weel;
+     A brawer man than yon blue corse
+       Never drew sword of steel."
+
+
+The dead silence that ensued was broken first by Guy Livingstone. "It
+was well done! I say it and maintain it; Mohun, I envy you that blow!"
+He looked round as if to challenge contradiction; but evidently the
+general opinion was that Levinge had only got his deserts. By this time
+the fallen man had recovered his consciousness, and struggled up, first
+into a sitting posture, then to his feet; he stood leaning against a
+table, swaying to and fro, and staring about him with wild eyes half
+glazed. At last he spoke in a thick, faint voice, stanching all the
+while the gushing blood with his handkerchief.
+
+"Will any one here be my second, or must I look for a friend elsewhere?"
+
+There was a pause, and then from the circle stepped forth Camille de
+Rosny. He did not like Levinge, and thought in the present instance he
+had behaved infamously, but it was the fashion hereditary in his gallant
+house to back the losing side; so, when he saw every one else shrink
+from the appeal, he bowed gravely and said,
+
+"I shall have that honor, if you will permit me. In an hour I shall be
+at the orders of M. le Colonel's second. Where shall I find him?"
+
+"Here," replied Livingstone. "I think no one will contest my right to
+see my old friend through this quarrel."
+
+Mohun grasped his hand. "I would have chosen you among a thousand. You
+understand me, and know what I wish."
+
+"Then I shall expect you, De Rosny," Guy went on. The Frenchman assented
+courteously, and then, turning to his principal,
+
+"Let us go," he said. "My _coupé_ is at your disposition, M. Levinge.
+_Messieurs, au plaisir._"
+
+Horace followed him with a step that was still faltering and uncertain;
+but at the door he turned, and, straightening himself up, faced his
+adversary with such a look as few human countenances have ever worn.
+There was more in it than mortal hatred: it expressed a sort of devilish
+satisfaction and anticipation, as if he knew that his revenge was
+secured.
+
+Mohun read all this as plainly as if it had been written down in so many
+words; but he only smiled as he seated himself and lighted a cigar.
+
+There was an end of lansquenet for that night. An ordinary quarrel would
+have made little impression on those reckless spirits, who had, most of
+them, at one time or another, "been out" themselves; but they felt that
+what they had witnessed now was the prologue to a certain tragedy; there
+was a savor of death in the air; so they dropped off one by one, leaving
+Guy and Ralph alone; not before the latter had expressed, with much
+politeness, "his desolation at having been compelled to interrupt a
+_partie_, which he trusted was only deferred till the morrow."
+
+Before long De Rosny returned. The preliminaries were soon arranged.
+Pistols were necessarily to be the weapons, for Levinge had seldom
+touched a foil; and, as the Frenchman said with a bow that made his
+objection a compliment, "Colonel Mohun's reputation as a swordsman was
+European." An early hour next morning was fixed for the _venue_, in the
+Pré aux Clercs of the nineteenth century--the Bois de Boulogne.
+
+When they were alone again Guy turned gravely to his companion. "It is a
+bad business, I fear, though you could not have acted otherwise; but I
+would rather your adversary were any other than Levinge. It is a
+murderous, unscrupulous scoundrel as ever lived. He can shoot--that's
+nothing; so can you, better than most men--but, mark me, Ralph, he has
+been out twice, and hit his man each time, the last mortally; but on
+neither occasion was _his fire returned_. Men say he has an awkward
+knack of pulling the trigger half a second too soon. I don't know if
+this is true, but I do know that Seymour, who seconded him at Florence
+when he killed O'Neill, has been more than cool to him ever since."
+
+"Faith, I can well believe it," Mohun answered, quietly, "and it is very
+probable I may get hard hit to-morrow; but of killing him I feel morally
+certain. Do you believe in presentiments? I do. Before that drunken
+brute had half done speaking, I saw imminent death written in his face
+as plainly as if I had possessed the Highland second-sight. I think I
+could almost tell you how it will look _after my shot_. Well, we must
+talk of business. My arrangements won't take me long. I have very little
+to dispose of; it is almost all entailed property. I shall leave you the
+choice of any thing among my goods and chattels. You will find some arms
+that you may fancy. But if my pistols fail me to-morrow, so that Levinge
+lives over it, do me the favor to throw them into the Seine; they
+deserve nothing better. As for the ready-money I have with me, and some
+more at my banker's--" he hesitated, and then went on in a gentler
+voice, "I should like it to go to that poor child whom we met to-night.
+If I live I will take care she is settled in England, where some one
+will be kind to her. Her father was a good soldier and a true-hearted
+gentleman. And, Guy, I am sorry that I sneered at you to-night; I hardly
+meant it when I said it."
+
+This was a great concession from Mohun, and his hearer thought so as he
+wrung his hand hard and replied,
+
+"Don't think of that again. I did you justice an hour ago."
+
+There was this peculiarity about Ralph; he was not only insensible to
+danger, like other men, but he absolutely seemed to revel in it. The
+genial side of his character came out at the approach of deadly peril,
+just as some morose natures will soften and brighten temporarily under
+the influence of strong wine.
+
+His mood seemed to change, however, suddenly; and when, after a long
+pause, he spoke again, it was in a low, broken voice, as if to himself.
+
+"'Be sure your sin will find you out.' It is thirty years since I heard
+that text; I forgot it the same day, and never thought of it again till
+now. There may be truth in that. It hunted _her_ to her grave, and it
+will not leave her in peace even there. And yet she suffered enough to
+make atonement. She tried not to let me see how much, but I did see it;
+I watched her dying for a year and more. I am sure she is an angel now.
+I like to think so, though I shall never see her again. I would not
+believe otherwise if a thousand priests said it and swore it; for I
+never moved from her side, after she was dead, till I saw the smile come
+on her face. She must have been happy then; do you not think so? They
+would hardly have gone on punishing her forever. It was all my fault,
+you know."
+
+He gazed at Livingstone anxiously, almost timidly. Guy bowed his head in
+assent, but he could not find words to answer just then. There was
+something very terrible in that opening of the flood-gates when a life's
+pent-up remorse broke forth.
+
+"I think you will end better than I have done," Mohun went on, "though
+you are going down-hill fast now. But I have no right even to warn you.
+Only take care--" He broke off suddenly, and roused himself with an
+effort. "I shall go home and dress now, and get through what little I
+have to write, and then lie down for an hour or two. Nothing makes the
+hand shake like a sleepless night. I'll call for you in good time." So
+he went away.
+
+Livingstone sat thinking, without ever closing his eyes, till Mohun
+returned. The latter looked fresh and alert; he had slept for the time
+he had allotted to himself quite calmly and comfortably; the old habits
+of picket-duty had taught him to watch or sleep at pleasure.
+
+After Guy had made a careful toilette, at the special request of his
+principal they started, and in forty minutes were on the ground. Levinge
+and his second, with the surgeon, arrived almost immediately; the former
+stood somewhat apart, keeping the lower part of his face carefully
+muffled.
+
+It was a dull, chill morning; the sky of a steely-gray, without a
+promise of a gleam from the sun, which had risen _somewhere_, but was
+reserving himself for better times. There was a sort of desultory wind
+blowing, just strong enough at intervals to bring the moist brown leaves
+sullenly down.
+
+After the pistols had been scientifically loaded, the seconds placed
+their men fifteen yards apart--with such known shots it was not worth
+while shortening the distance.
+
+The sensations of ordinary mortals under such circumstances are somewhat
+curious. Very few are afraid, I think; but one has an impression that
+one's own proportions are becoming sensibly developed--"swelling
+wisibly," in fact, like the lady at the Pickwickian tea-fight--while
+those of our adversary diminish in a like ratio, so that he does not
+appear near so fair a mark as he did a few minutes ago. But, with all
+this, there is a quickening of the pulse not unpleasurable--something
+like the excitement of the "four to the seven" chance at hazard, when
+you are backing the In for a large stake.
+
+I do not believe Mohun felt any thing of this sort. It was not his own
+life, but his adversary's death he was playing for; the other was busy,
+too, with still darker thoughts and purposes.
+
+"Listen," Guy said in French; "M. de Rosny gives the signal, _un_,
+_deux_, _trois_; if either fires before the last is fully pronounced, it
+is murder." He looked sharply at Levinge, but the latter seemed
+studiously to avoid meeting his eye. Guy felt very uncomfortable and
+very savage.
+
+The men stood opposite to one another like black marble statues, neither
+showing a speck of color which might serve as a _point de mire_, each
+turning only a side-front to his opponent.
+
+De Rosny pronounced the two first words of the signal in a clear,
+deliberate voice; the last left his lips almost in a shriek, for, before
+it was half syllabled, his principal fired.
+
+Quick as the movement was, it was anticipated; as Levinge's hand
+stirred, Mohun made a half-face to the right, and looked his enemy
+straight between the eyes. That sudden change of position, or the
+consciousness of detection, probably unsettled the practiced aim, for
+the ball, that would have drilled Ralph through the heart, only scored a
+deep furrow in his side.
+
+No one could have guessed that he was touched; he brought his pistol to
+the level just as coolly as he would have done in the shooting-gallery,
+and, after the discharge, dropped his hand with measured deliberation.
+Before the smoke had curled a yard upward, Horace Levinge sprang into
+the air, and, with out-stretched arms, fell crashing down upon the
+grass--a bullet through his brain.
+
+They turned him over on his back. It was a ghastly sight; the ball had
+penetrated just below the arch of the right eyebrow, and all the lower
+features were swollen and distorted with the blow of last night, adding
+to the hideous disfigurement.
+
+Is that the face on which the dead man used to spend hours, tending it,
+like an ancient coquette, with washes and cosmetics, dreading the
+faintest freckle or sunburn which might mar the smoothness of the
+delicate skin? No need of the surgeon there. Cover it up quickly. The
+mother that bore him, if she should recognize him, would recoil in
+disgust and loathing.
+
+"_C'en est fini_," Livingstone said to De Rosny, who stood by shuddering
+in horror, not at the death, but at the treachery which had preceded it.
+
+None but a Frenchman could have given such an accent to the low, hissing
+reply, "_Je l'espére_."
+
+Then they looked to Mohun's wound; it was nothing serious: there were a
+dozen deeper on the warworn body and limbs. Indeed, I imagine his
+general health was materially benefited by the blood-letting. The first
+remark he made was when he was depositing his pistol in its
+case--tenderly as you would lay a child in its cradle--"Do you believe
+in presentiments _now_, Guy?"
+
+The sullen sun broke out just as they turned to go, and peered curiously
+through the boughs, till it found out and lighted on the angular ominous
+heap, shrouded with a cloak, that, ten minutes ago, was a strong,
+hot-blooded man.
+
+There the _garde_ soon after discovered Horace Levinge; and, when he had
+been owned, they buried him in _Père la Chaise_. Such events were common
+then, and the police gave themselves no trouble to trace who had slain
+the stranger. Among his tribes-men and kinsfolk in Houndsditch and the
+Minories there was great joy at first, and afterward bitter, endless
+litigation. They screamed and battled over the heritage like vultures
+over a mighty carrion, tearing it at length piecemeal. He did not keep a
+pet dog, and so no living creature regretted him, unless it were the
+thin, delicate girl, with white cheeks and hollow eyes, who came once,
+and knelt to pray by his grave for hours, her tears falling fast.
+
+Hard as they may find it to observe other precepts of the Great Master,
+this one, at least, most women have practiced easily and naturally for
+eighteen hundred years: "Forgive, until seventy times seven." The acts
+of some of these--how they warred with their husbands and were worsted;
+how they provoked the presiding Draco, and stultified the attesting
+policeman by obstinately ignoring their injuries, written legibly in
+red, and black, and blue; how they interceded with many sobs for the
+aggressor--are they not written in the book of the chronicles of
+Bow-street and Clerkenwell?
+
+This propensity leads them into scrapes, it is true, for our world, in
+its wisdom, will take advantage of such weakness. Perhaps the next will
+make them some amends.
+
+But the mourner strewed no flowers on the grave. It would have been too
+bitter a mockery; for, if there were sympathy in sweet roses and pure
+white lilies, on no other spot of God's earth would they have withered
+so soon: she hung up no wreath of _immortelles_; for, if such things
+could be, the dearest wish one could have formed for the dead man's soul
+would have been swift, utter annihilation.
+
+Yet Fanny Challoner would scarcely have accepted Mohun's good offices if
+she had guessed that the blood of her seducer and tyrant was on his
+hand. She never suspected it, and so went gratefully to the home he
+found for her; and there she lives yet, tranquil and contented, though
+always sad and humble, among people who know nothing of her history and
+love her dearly, trying her best to be useful in her generation--alone
+in her cottage, that nestles under a sunny cliff, just above the white
+spray-line of the Irish Sea.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+     "Let me see her once again.
+     Let her bring her proud dark eyes,
+     And her petulant quick replies;
+     Let her wave her slender hand
+     With its gesture of command,
+     And throw back her raven hair
+     With the old imperial air;
+       Let her be as she was then--
+     The loveliest lady in all the land
+         Iseult of Ireland."
+
+
+Mohun and Livingstone soon fell back into the groove of their old
+habits; if any thing, the former was more forbidding and morose, the
+latter more reckless than ever.
+
+Just at this time Mrs. Bellasys and her daughter arrived in Paris. It
+was Flora's _débût_ there, and she had an immense success. The _jeunesse
+dorée_ of the Chaussée d'Antin and the cavaliers of the Faubourg
+thronged about her, emulously enthusiastic. Her repartees and sarcasms
+were quoted like Talleyrand's. They never wearied in raving over her
+perfections, taking them in a regular catalogue--from her magnificent
+eyes and hair, that flashed back the light from its smooth bands like
+clouded steel, down to the small _brodequins_ of white satin, which it
+was her fancy to wear instead of the ball-room _chaussure_ of ordinary
+mortals. The intrigues to secure her for a waltz or a mazurka displayed
+diplomatic talent enough to have set half a dozen German principalities
+and powers by the ears. The succession of admirers was never broken; as
+fast as one dropped off, killed by her coldness or caprice, another
+stepped into his place. It reminded one of the old "Die-hards" at
+Waterloo, filling up their squares torn and ravaged by the pelting
+grape-shot.
+
+Here, as elsewhere, she pursued her favorite amusement remorselessly.
+Fallowfield called it "her cutting-out expeditions." She used to watch
+till a mother and daughter had, between them, secured a good matrimonial
+prize, and then employ her fascinations on the captured one--seldom
+without effect--so as to steal him out of their hands.
+
+Do you remember Waterton's story of the osprey? The hard-working bird,
+by dint of perseverance, has brought up a good fish. Just as it emerges
+from the water, there is heard a flap and a whistle of mighty pinions,
+and from his watch-tower on the cliff far above swoops down the great
+sea-eagle. The poor osprey _a beau crier_, it must drop its booty, and
+the strong marauder sails off with a slow and dignified flight, to
+discuss it in the wood at his leisure. The only fault in the parallel
+was that Flora always dropped the prey with the coolest disdain when it
+was once fairly within her clutches. How the match-makers did hate her!
+What vows for her discomfiture must have been breathed into bouquets
+held up to conceal the angry flush of disappointment or the paleness of
+despair!
+
+I own this practice of hers did not raise her in my opinion. I can not
+think so hardly as it is the fashion to do of the junior and working
+members, at least, of the manoeuvring guild. It is not an elevating or
+very creditable profession, certainly, but it seems such a disagreeable
+one that none would take it up from choice. The chief fault, at all
+events, lies with the trainers; the jockeys (poor little things!) only
+ride to orders; and, by the way, I think they generally err in not
+knowing how to _wait_, and in making the running too strong at first.
+
+As I meet, year after year, one of these--to whom the seed sown in
+London ball-rooms and German watering-places had produced nothing yet
+but those tiresome garlands of the vestal--I look curiously to see how
+she wears, thinking of the courtier's answer to Louis XIV. when the
+latter asked if he was looking older: "Sire, I see some more victories
+written on your forehead." It is more defeats that one can read so
+plainly on poor Fanny Singleton's.
+
+How many shipwrecks close to port; how many races lost by a head, how
+many games by a point, she must have known before her silver laugh
+became so hollow, and her pleasant smile so evidently theatrical and
+lip-deep; before what once was chanceful became desperate, and she fell
+back into the ranks of the forlorn hope--of the "Lost Children!"
+
+On one of these occasions I met her. She was just beginning her
+_condottiére_ life then, and was very attractive even to those on whom
+she had no designs--believed in balls, and had an ingenious talent for
+original composition. I don't think those entertainments are dangerously
+exciting to her now; and Heaven forefend that she should write poetry!
+One shudders to think of what it would he. Well, she was returning to
+the house after a moonlight flirtation (if you can call it so when it
+was all on one side). She had been trying to fascinate a stupid, sullen,
+commercial Orson--a boy not clever, but cunning, who calculated on his
+share in the bank as a means of procuring him these amusements, as other
+men might reckon on their good looks or soft tongue. He had just left
+her, and I was wishing her good-night under the porch. She forgot her
+cue for a moment, and became natural. "I feel so very, very tired," she
+said. I remember how drearily she said it, and how the tears glittered
+in her weary eyes. I remember, too, how, ten minutes later, I heard that
+amiable youth boasting of what had happened, and giving a hideous
+travestie of her attempts to captivate him, till at last my wrath was
+kindled, and, to his great confusion (for he was of a timid
+disposition), I spoke, and sharply, with my tongue.
+
+Ah me! I mind the time when men used to waylay Fanny Singleton in the
+cloak-room, and shoot her flying as she went up the staircase, in their
+anxiety to secure her for a partner; and now she is a refuge for the
+destitute, except when some one, for old acquaintance' sake, takes a
+turn with one of the best waltzers in Europe.
+
+I like her for one thing--she has never tried the girlish dodge on yet.
+She has never been heard to say, "Mamma always calls me a wild thing."
+It is better that she should be bitter and sardonic, as she is
+sometimes, than that. Mars herself could hardly play the _ingénues_ when
+in mature age. Grisi's best part now is not Amina.
+
+The last thing I heard of Fanny was that she was about to unite herself
+(the _active_ voice is the proper one) to a very Low-Church clergyman, a
+distinguished member of the Evangelical Alliance, pregnant with the odor
+of sanctity--_bouquet de Baptiste_ treble distilled. I dare say they
+will get on well enough. If the holy man wants to collect "experiences,"
+his wife will be able to furnish them, that's certain. It will be very
+"sweet."
+
+I pity, but I condemn. In the name of Matuta and of common sense, is
+there an imperative necessity that all our maids should become matrons?
+
+If such exists, think, I beseech you, O virgins--pretty, but
+penniless--apt for the yoke, how many chances of subjection may turn up
+without rushing to put your necks under it. Is the aspiring race of
+H.E.I.C.S. cadets extinct? Are Erin's sons so good or so cold as not to
+be tempted by woman, even without the gold? Are there not soldiers still
+to the fore too inflammable to be trusted near an ammunition wagon? Are
+there not--the _bonne bouche_ comes at last--priests and deacons? The
+instant a man takes orders, celibacy becomes intolerable to him. I
+firmly believe that half the offers made in the year throughout broad
+England emanate from those energetic ecclesiastics.
+
+After all, what specimens you do pick up sometimes in your haste! If you
+_are_ to lead apes, is it not better to defer the evil day as long as
+possible, instead of parading the animals about by your sides here on
+this upper earth?
+
+My sermon is too long for the occasion--too short for the text. I close
+a discourse not much wiser, perhaps, than poor Wamba's, with his "_Pax
+vobiscum!_"
+
+Flora and Guy met with perfect composure on both sides. She did not
+appear to think that she had any claim upon him arising from what had
+passed, but it was evident that he was still the favorite, and that all
+others were complete "outsiders." No betting man would have backed the
+field for a shilling. She waltzed with him whenever he asked her, to the
+utter oblivion and annihilation of previous engagements, whereat the
+Frenchmen chafed inexpressibly, cursing and gnashing their teeth when,
+after the ball was over, they went forth into the outer darkness.
+Nothing but Livingstone's extraordinary reputation in the
+shooting-galleries, added to a certain ferocity of demeanor which had
+become habitual to him of late, saved him from more than one serious
+quarrel.
+
+He took it all as a matter of course. Flora amused him certainly; she
+sympathized with his tastes, and perhaps flattered his vanity. For
+instance, she always took an interest in his fortunes at play, watching
+and sometimes backing him at _ecarté_, and often inquiring the next
+morning how the battle had gone in her absence at the Board of Green
+Cloth.
+
+Once when an unfortunate adorer--in bitterness of spirit at being thrown
+over twice in one evening--hinted at some of the intrigues which had
+made Guy's name unenviably notorious (play was not the guiltiest of his
+distractions to thoughts that would come back), Miss Bellasys only
+smiled haughtily, and did not even deign to betray any curiosity on the
+subject. Those ephemeral passions were not the rivals she feared.
+
+Her mother all this time was very uncomfortable. Though herself
+perfectly innocent of any connivance in Flora's schemes, she was
+afflicted with a perpetual indistinct sort of remorse. Once or twice, I
+believe, she did venture on a remonstrance, but she was put down
+decisively, and did not try it again.
+
+One evening Guy had been lingering for some time in the Bellasys' box at
+the Opera. As he went out into the _foyer_ he saw an old acquaintance
+coming toward him.
+
+Lord Killowen was past sixty: the world had used him roughly, and he had
+been ruined very early in life, but he bore both years and troubles
+lightly. Looking at his smooth forehead, and square, erect figure, and
+listening to his ready, cheery laugh, you would never have guessed how
+long he had led that guerrilla existence--for forty years keeping the
+bailiffs at bay. His nerve and his seat in the saddle were as firm as
+they were on the first night of his joining the ---- Hussars, when he
+rode Kicking Kate over the iron pales round Hounslow Barrack-yard, and
+hit the layers of the long odds for a cool thousand.
+
+He had been intimate with Colonel Livingstone, and had known his son
+from childhood; but he was a still closer friend of the Brandon family,
+with whom, indeed, he was distantly connected. He had never seen Guy
+since the breaking off of the latter's engagement till this night, when
+he caught a glimpse of his lofty head bending over Flora Bellasys'
+chair.
+
+Lord Killowen's blood was as hot and his impulses as quick as if he had
+not yet seen his twentieth winter, and the chivalry within him was
+stirred at what he considered an insolent parade of treachery; for he
+had guessed much of what had happened, though he did not know all the
+truth; so he passed Guy's extended hand, turning his head studiously
+aside.
+
+The latter was startled for a moment, but he could not believe in an
+intentional "cut," and he knew his friend to be rather short-sighted; so
+with one stride he overtook him, and, touching him on the shoulder,
+said, "I must be very much changed if you do not know me, Lord
+Killowen."
+
+The brave old Irishman turned short upon his heel and confronted the
+speaker, bending on him all the light of his clear blue eyes: he drew
+himself up to the full height of a stature that nearly equaled
+Livingstone's, and said, coolly and slowly, "Pardon me, you are not
+changed in the least; I know you very well."
+
+The insult was palpable. Guy fairly staggered as if he had received a
+sword-thrust; then the angry blood rushed up to his temples, making the
+veins start out like muscles, and he spoke in a voice hoarse and
+indistinct with passion, "You will answer this."
+
+True, his antagonist was more than old enough to have been his father,
+but in feast, field, and fray, Lord Killowen remembered his own age so
+seldom that other men might be excused for forgetting it sometimes.
+
+The old man was going to answer eagerly, but he checked himself with an
+effort, as if repressing a strong temptation; when, after some seconds,
+he spoke, there was more of sadness and warning than of anger in his
+tone.
+
+"No, I will not fight, even in this quarrel, with your father's son;
+besides, I might be anticipating one who has a better right. Four days
+ago Cyril Brandon landed from India."
+
+It would have been difficult, I think, to have found another, among
+living men, both by constitution and temperament, so inaccessible to
+material terrors as Livingstone, yet when that name came upon him thus
+suddenly he felt a thrill and a start through his nerves, so
+unpleasantly like commonplace physical fear that ever, when he thought
+of it, it made his cheek burn with shame. He could not, after that,
+controvert gallant Lannes' maxim: "It is only a coward who says that he
+never was afraid."
+
+He stood silently, and allowed Lord Killowen to pass him, bowing
+courteously, though coldly, to him. The latter never knew what mischief
+he had done. After that momentary sensation had passed off, all the
+worst elements of Guy's stubborn, haughty nature rose in rebellion at
+what he deemed a despicable weakness. As if in defiance of the
+consequences, all that evening and on the succeeding days he devoted
+himself to Flora Bellasys with such unusual ardor that it made her
+nervous: she thought it was too good to last.
+
+When Mohun heard what had happened, he would not admit that there was
+the slightest chance of a meeting with Cyril Brandon, though he knew the
+character of the latter--fierce and intractable to a degree.
+
+"Don't flatter yourself you will wipe off the score in that way," he
+said to Guy, with his sardonic laugh. "Men will quarrel over cards and
+about _lorettes_ easily enough, but who fights for a 'broken covenant'
+now? We live two hundred years too late."
+
+Ralph remembered how long he had lingered on the French seaboard
+waiting for a challenge from beyond the Channel which never came, though
+there was deeper provocation to justify it.
+
+A few mornings after this had occurred Livingstone found himself without
+a servant. His demeanor toward this estimable class had always been
+imperious and stern to a fault, but latterly they, as well as others,
+had felt the effects of his exasperated temper, and he was sometimes
+brutally overbearing in his reprimands. On this particular occasion he
+must have been unusually oppressive, for it exhausted the patience of
+the much-enduring Willis, so that the worm turned again--insolently.
+
+Before he had said ten words his master interrupted him, his eye turning
+toward a heavy horsewhip that lay near with an expression that made
+Willis retreat toward the door.
+
+"So you have robbed me of enough to make you independent? Very well;
+make your book up; the _maître d'hôtel_ will settle with you. You will
+carry away some of my property, of course? I shall not trouble myself to
+have your trunks searched, but if you take any thing that I happen to
+want afterward, I'll have you arrested, wherever you are. Now go."
+
+The man left the room sulkily: an hour later he returned. "I am going
+this instant, Mr. Livingstone; but I could tell you something first that
+you ought to know, if you would promise not to be violent. I am very
+sorry now I did it." There was a curious expression--half spiteful, half
+frightened--on his cunning face as he spoke.
+
+Guy looked at him carelessly. "Thank you; I am in no humor to listen to
+your confessions. You may be quite easy; I give you credit for all
+imaginable rascality. Remember what I said: if I miss any thing, the
+police will be after you the same day. Now, once more, go. If I see your
+face about here again, it will be the worse for you."
+
+There was a good deal of meaning in Willis's smile, though, his lips
+were white with fear. "You will never miss what I was going to tell you
+about, sir," he said; and then faded away out of the room with his usual
+noiseless step, closing the door softly behind him.
+
+If his master could have guessed what was the secret he had refused to
+hear, haughty as he was, I do believe there is no earthly degradation to
+which he would not have abased himself to gain its knowledge.
+
+But the hour for the humbling of the strong, self-reliant nature had not
+come yet, though it was very near. The wild bull never saw the net till
+its meshes had trapped him fast.
+
+The same morning Guy, who was lounging an hour away at the Bellasys',
+mentioned to them what had occurred. If he had glanced at Flora's face
+just then, he would have been puzzled to guess what there was in the
+intelligence to turn her so deadly pale. It was only for an instant that
+the accomplished actress forgot her part, and when he looked at her next
+there was not a trace of emotion in her face.
+
+"Have you filled up his place?" she asked, carelessly.
+
+"I have ordered my landlord to provide me," replied Guy. "I shall find
+some well-trained scoundrel on my return, I hope. I shall never get
+another like Willis, though. It's just my luck. The great principle of
+the gazelle runs through life: When they come to know you well, &c. What
+made you ask? Surely you have no _protégé_ to recommend?"
+
+Flora laughed gayly as she answered in the negative, and so the subject
+dropped; but all the afternoon she was pensive and absent, and flashes
+of vexation gleamed every now and then fitfully in her stormy eyes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+               "Let none think to fly the danger,
+     For, soon or late, Love is his own avenger."
+
+
+Christmas-tide had come round again, and hall, manor-house, and castle
+were filling fast. But the pheasants had a jubilee at Kerton, to the
+great discouragement of Mallett, who "could not mind such another
+breeding season." Foxes were strong and plentiful with the Belvoir and
+the Pytchley; and, during two months of open weather, many a
+straight-goer had died gallantly in the midst of the wide
+pasture-grounds, testifying with his last breath to the generalship of
+Goodall and Payne. But the best shot and the hardest rider in
+Northamptonshire lingered on still in Paris, wasting his patrimony in
+most riotous living, and trying his iron constitution presumptuously.
+
+Lady Catharine sat alone in the gray old house, paler and more care-worn
+than ever. I think she would have preferred the noisiest revel that ever
+broke her slumbers in the old times to the dead silence that brooded
+like a mist in the deserted rooms.
+
+Guy had always been a bad correspondent, and now he hardly ever wrote to
+her; but rumors of his wild life reached his mother often, though dimly
+and vaguely. It was best so; what would that poor lady have felt if she
+could have guessed at the scene in which her son was the principal
+figure as the Christmas morning was breaking?
+
+It is the close of a furious orgie; the Babel of cries, of fragments of
+songs, of insane, meaningless laughter, is dying away, through the pure
+exhaustion of the revelers; on the gay carpet and the rich damask are
+pools of spilled liquors, heaps of shivered glass, and bouquets and
+garlands that have ceased to be fragrant hours ago. All around, in
+different attitudes--ignoble and helpless--are strewn the bodies of
+those who have gone down early in the battle of the Bacchanals: they lie
+in their ranks as they fell. One figure towers above the
+rest--pre-eminent as Satan in the conclave of the ruined angels--the
+guiltiest, because the most conscious of his own utter degradation. The
+frequent draughts that have prostrated his companions have only brought
+out two round scarlet spots in the pale bronze of his cheeks; his voice
+retains still its deep, calm, almost solemn tone. Listen to it as he
+raises to his lips an immense glass brimming-full of Burgundy: "One
+toast more, and with funeral honors--'To the memory of those who have
+fallen gloriously on the 24th of December.'"
+
+Is it true that, six months ago, the soft, pure cheek of Constance
+Brandon rested often on the broad breast that pillows now the disheveled
+head of that wild-eyed, shrill-voiced Mænad? Draw the curtains closer
+yet; shut out the dawn of the Nativity for very shame.
+
+Mohun was breakfasting with Livingstone on a cold, gusty January
+morning, that succeeded a night of heavy drinking and heavier play. The
+colonel would see him through one of these readily enough, but if there
+was even a single female face present he would retreat in disgust and
+contempt unutterable. Guy had been hit so hard that it made him graver
+than usual as he thought of it, though he was tolerably inured and
+indifferent to evil fortune; so the conversation languished during the
+meal. After it was over, Mohun rose to light a cigar, while his
+companion took up a pile of letters and began to glance at them
+listlessly. Suddenly the former dropped the match from his hand,
+starting in irrepressible astonishment.
+
+He had seen strong men die hard, mangled and shattered by sabre or
+bullet, but he had never heard a sound so terribly significant of agony
+as the dull, heavy groan that just then burst from Livingstone's lips.
+
+In those few seconds his face had grown perfectly livid; his eyes were
+riveted upon a small note that he held in his shaking fingers; they
+glittered strangely, but there was no meaning or expression in their
+fixed stare.
+
+"In the name of God, what has happened?" Ralph asked.
+
+Guy's lips worked and moved, but no sound came from them, except an
+irregular catching of the breath and a gasping rattle in the throat.
+
+Mohun took the note from his hand without his seeming to be aware of it,
+and read it through. These were the words:
+
+"I have tried very hard to persuade myself that you never received the
+letter I wrote to you two months ago. I think you would have answered
+it, for you would know how much I must have suffered before my pride
+broke down so utterly. Yet I could not have risked being scorned a
+second time if I had not learned yesterday that my life must now be
+reckoned by weeks, if not by days. I do not know if I shall be allowed
+to see you if you come. But you will come; will you not? Dear, dear Guy,
+I can not die as I ought to do, contentedly, unless I speak to you once
+again. In spite of all, I will sign my last letter
+
+     "Your own                CONSTANCE BRANDON."
+
+
+It was dated Ventnor.
+
+Hard and cynical as he was, Mohun was thoroughly shocked and grieved;
+but the urgency of the crisis brought back the prompt decision of
+thought and purpose that were habitual to the trained soldier. He sprang
+to his feet, alert and ready for action, as he would have done in the
+old times, from his bivouac, to meet a night-surprise of the wild
+Hungarians.
+
+"Get every thing ready," he said to the servant, who entered at that
+moment; "your master is going to England immediately. The train starts
+for Havre at two o'clock. You will catch the night-boat for
+Southampton."
+
+When the man had left the room he turned to Guy: "Rouse yourself, man!
+There is all a lifetime for remorse, but only a few hours for the little
+amends you can make. You will be at Ventnor to-morrow; and mind--you
+_must_ see her, whatever difficulties may be thrown in your way. You
+won't lose your temper if you meet her brother? Ah! I see you are not
+listening."
+
+Then Livingstone spoke for the first time, in a hoarse, grating
+whisper, articulating the words one by one with difficulty.
+
+"I never dreamed of this. I did not mean to kill her."
+
+Mohun knew his friend too well to attempt consolation or sympathy, even
+if these had not been foreign to his own nature; so he answered
+deliberately and coldly,
+
+"Of having brought bitter sorrow on Constance Brandon I do hold you
+guilty; of having caused her death, not, and so you will find when you
+know all. But her note of two months ago--of course you never saw it?
+You must have overlooked it; you are so careless with your papers."
+
+"It never reached me," Livingstone replied. "I have always looked at the
+outside of my letters, and I should have known that handwriting among
+ten thousand. Some one must have intercepted it. I wish I knew who." He
+was recovering from the first stunning effects of the shock, and the old
+angry light came back into his eyes.
+
+"I will find out when you are gone," said Mohun. "You have not a moment
+to spare. I won't ask you to write; I will join you in England in three
+days. Only remember one thing--keep cool. Yes, I know what you mean; but
+your patience may be tried more than you have any idea of." He was
+thinking of Cyril Brandon.
+
+The hurry of departure prevented any further conversation. At the
+station, just before the train started, Ralph said, grasping his
+comrade's hand as he spoke, "I did not think you loved her so dearly."
+
+It was very long before he forgot the dreary look which accompanied the
+answer, "I did not know it myself till now."
+
+"I must trace the note," the colonel muttered, as he strode away from
+the station. "That handsome tiger-cat has laid her claw on it, I am
+certain. But she won't confess; red-hot pincers would not drag a secret
+from her, if she meant to keep it. I doubt if she will even betray
+herself by a blush. Poor Constance! What chance had she against such a
+Machiavel in petticoats? I am bad at diplomacy, too. If I only had the
+slightest proof, or if she had any weak point--unless she loses her head
+when she hears where Guy is gone, I have no chance of finding out much
+in that quarter. There's Willis, to be sure--she bribed him, no doubt.
+D--n them both!" In this complimentary and charitable mood, he went
+straight to Flora Bellasys.
+
+He found her alone. She was sitting in her riding-dress, and the broad
+Spanish hat, with its curling plumes, lay close beside her, with the
+gauntlets and whip across it.
+
+She did not much like Mohun, for she had an idea that his sarcasms, with
+her for their object, had made Guy smile more than once approvingly. She
+knew, too, that all her fascinations recoiled harmlessly from that
+rugged block of ironstone. Whatever he might have been in early years,
+he was harder of heart than stout Sir Artegall now. Radigund, unhelming
+her lovely face, would never have tempted him to forego his advantage
+and throw his weapons down.
+
+However, she greeted him with perfect composure and satisfaction.
+
+"Do you join our party this afternoon, Colonel Mohun? I expect them to
+call for me every moment. We are going to the Croix de Berny, to see the
+ground for the race next week. Mr. Livingstone was to have lunched here;
+but I never reckon on his keeping an engagement."
+
+There was something in Ralph's manner which made her uncomfortable. She
+took up her whip, and began twisting its slender stock rather nervously;
+you would not have thought there was so much strength in the delicate
+fingers.
+
+"You are right," he replied, coolly, "not to count too much on Guy's
+punctuality. He _is_ very uncertain in his movements. I fear he can not
+accompany you this afternoon. He would have charged me with his excuses,
+I am sure, if he had not been so hurried."
+
+Flora looked up quickly.
+
+"It must have been something very sudden, then. Have you any idea where
+he is now?"
+
+Ralph consulted his watch. "About Mantes, I should imagine. He started
+for Havre by the last train. He will be at Southampton, to-morrow, and
+the same day he can reach--"
+
+He stopped, gazing at his companion with a cold, cruel satisfaction. The
+blood was sinking in her cheeks, not with a sudden impulse, but
+gradually--as the sunset rose-tints fade from the brow of the Jungfrau,
+leaving a ghastly opaque whiteness behind them. During the silence that
+ensued, a sharp tinkle might be heard as the jeweled head of the
+riding-whip, snapped by a convulsive movement, fell at Flora's feet.
+
+It _was_ weak in her to betray such loss of self-command, but,
+remember, the blow came unexpectedly. She saw the edifice she had
+plotted, and toiled, and risked so much to build, ruined and shattered
+to its foundation-stone. How many whispers, and smiles, and eloquent
+glances had been lavished, only to end in this Pavia, where not even
+honor was saved from the utter wreck!
+
+Was not the perfect waxen mask of the first Napoleon shivered in that
+terrible abdication-night at Fontainebleau? Where was Cleopatra's
+queenly dignity when she heard that Antony had rejoined Octavia?
+
+"Why has he gone? What called him back?"
+
+Her voice had lost the clear ring of silver, and sounded dull and flat,
+like base metal.
+
+"Constance Brandon wrote to tell him she was dying. Do you wonder that
+he went to her?"
+
+A passing cloud of horror swept across Flora's pale face; but after it
+broke forth a gleam of strange, ferocious exultation, which stifled the
+rising pity in her hearer's breast, and changed it into contempt.
+
+"I don't believe it," she cried, passionately. "It is a trick. She was
+quite well two months ago. At least, she said nothing--"
+
+She checked herself, but too late. The practiced duelist laughed grimly
+in his mustache, as he might have done on discovering the weak point in
+his enemy's ward which laid him open to his rapier.
+
+"You make my task easier," he said; "I came to inquire about a note
+which miscarried about the time you speak of. I _will_ know what became
+of it, Miss Bellasys, though I wish to spare you unnecessary exposure
+and shame."
+
+He had gained a momentary advantage, but it did not profit him much.
+There are swordsmen who will not own that they are touched, though their
+life-blood is ebbing fast. Flora rose without a sign of yielding or
+weakness in her dry eyes, drawing up her magnificent figure proudly.
+Ralph could not help thinking how like her father she was just then.
+
+"I will answer, though I deny your right to question me. I have not the
+faintest idea of what you refer to. I have seen no note, except such as
+were addressed to myself; and you will hardly think that Miss Brandon
+would choose me as a _confidante_ or correspondent."
+
+Mohun saw that she would persist to the last, undaunted as Sapphira. So
+he rose to leave her, without another word.
+
+"You do not doubt me?" Flora asked, as he turned away after saluting
+her. It was a rash question, all things considered, and scarcely worthy
+of the accomplished speaker. There is no more useful maxim in diplomacy
+than this: _Quieta non movere_.
+
+Ralph faced her directly. "Miss Bellasys, when a lady tells me what I
+can not believe, I question--not her word, but--her agent." He was half
+way down stairs before she could answer or detain him.
+
+He found out Willis's direction at Guy's hotel, but he had to wait some
+time before obtaining it; and other things delayed him _en route_, so
+that it was nearly two hours before he reached the modest lodgings, _au
+quatrième_, where the discharged valet was hiding his greatness.
+
+Willis had an extensive connection; this, and his well-known talents,
+made him tolerably sure of a situation whenever he chose to seek one. He
+had luxurious tastes, and thoroughly appreciated self-indulgence; so he
+determined to devote some time and a portion of his perquisites to
+relaxation before going into harness again.
+
+On this particular evening he had in prospect a little dinner at
+Philippe's--not uncheered by the smiles of venal beauty--and had just
+completed a careful toilette. He was above the small peculations of his
+order; indeed, had he been inclined to plunder his late masters
+wardrobe, the absurd disproportion in their size would have saved him
+from that vulgar temptation. He was somewhat choice in his tailors, and
+his clothes fitted him and suited him well. He was reviewing the general
+effect in the glass with a complacent and rather _égrillarde_ expression
+in his little eyes, when between him and his _partie fine_ rose the
+apparition of the colonel, like that of the commander before a bolder
+profligate. He knew that the interview must come, and did not wish to
+avoid it, but just at this moment it was singularly ill timed. What a
+contrast between the stern, fixed gaze that seemed to nail him to the
+spot where he stood and the well-tutored glances of fair, frail Héloise!
+He felt as if he had been put into the ice-pail by mistake for the
+Champagne. However, he met his ill luck placidly, and, handing his
+visitor a chair, begged to know "what he could do to serve him."
+
+"You can tell me what became of a letter from Miss Brandon, which ought
+to have reached yow master two months ago, and miscarried."
+
+Willis was forewarned and armed for the question; but, even with this
+advantage given in, his blank, unconscious look and start of
+astonishment did him infinite credit.
+
+"A letter, sir?" he said, vaguely, as if consulting his recollections.
+"From Miss Brandon? I have never seen or heard of such a thing. If I
+had, of course I should have given it to Mr. Livingstone. What else
+could I have done with it?"
+
+"I will give a thousand francs for it," Mohun went on, without noticing
+the denial, "or for a written acknowledgment of how you disposed of it,
+and at whose orders." He laid the bank-note on the table.
+
+The flats changed; the look of bewilderment gave place to one of injured
+innocence--an appeal against manifest injustice. It was really
+artistically done.
+
+"I am sorry, sir, that you should think I want a bribe to serve you or
+Mr. Livingstone. It is quite out of my power now. I don't know what you
+refer to."
+
+"I have no time to bargain," Ralph growled, and his eyes began to
+glisten ominously. "Name your price, and have done with it."
+
+Finale and Grand Tableau--virtuous indignation--the faithful servant
+asserting his dignity as a man. There was a hitch here somewhere; the
+scene-shifter was hardly up to his work, so that it was rather a
+failure.
+
+"I have told you twice, sir, that I do not know any thing about it. I
+beg you will not insult me with more questions. You have no right to do
+so; I am neither in your service nor Mr. Livingstone's now."
+
+Mohun bent his bushy brows in some perplexity. After all, he had not a
+shadow of proof, though he felt a moral certainty. His sheet-anchor was
+the avarice of the scoundrel he was dealing with, and this seemed to
+fail. Evidently a strong counter-influence had been at work.
+
+"Curse her!" he muttered between his clenched teeth, "she has been here
+before me."
+
+Then he looked up suddenly, and what he saw caused the shallow cup of
+his patience at once to overflow.
+
+In Willis's eyes was an ill-repressed twinkle of exultation and
+amusement, and on his thin lips the dawning of an actual sneer. It was
+but seldom the trained satellite allowed himself the luxury of betraying
+any natural feeling. In truth, he chose his time badly for its
+exhibition now. Before he could collect himself so as to utter a cry, he
+lay upon his back on the carpet, a heavy foot on his chest; and the
+colonel was gazing down on him with a fell murderous expression, that
+made the victim's blood run cold.
+
+"By G--d!" Mohun said, in the smothered tones of concentrated passion,
+"if you trifle with me ten seconds longer--if you open your lips except
+to answer my question, I'll crush your breast-bone in."
+
+Willis knew the desperate character of the man who held him in his
+power; it was no vain threat he had just heard; the pressure on his
+chest was agonizing already.
+
+"For God's sake don't murder me!" he gasped out; "I--I gave it to Miss
+Bellasys."
+
+"Of course you did," Mohun said, coolly; "I knew it all along. Now get
+up, and write that down."
+
+He spurned away the fallen man as he spoke till he rolled over and over
+on the floor.
+
+There is nothing which disconcerts a nature long used to obey like a
+sudden brutal _coup de main_. Remember the Scythians and their slaves.
+The rebels met their masters boldly enough on a fair field with sword
+and spear, but they cowered before the crack of the horsewhips.
+
+All the spider-webs of the unfortunate Willis's diplomacy were utterly
+swept away; his powers of thought and volition were concentrated now on
+one point--to get rid of his visitor as soon as possible.
+
+He rose slowly and painfully (for the mere physical shock had been
+heavy), and, placing himself at a table, tried to write the few words of
+acknowledgment that Mohun dictated; but his hand trembled so excessively
+that he could hardly form the letters. As he looked up in piteous
+deprecation, evidently fearing lest his inability to comply should be
+construed into unwillingness or rebellion, he presented a spectacle of
+degraded humanity so revolting in its abasement that even the cynic
+turned away in painful disgust.
+
+It was done at last. As Willis saw his confession consigned to Mohun's
+pocket-book, his avarice gave him courage to try one last effort to gain
+something by the transaction--a salve to his bruises--a set-off against
+the _relicta non bene parmula_.
+
+"I hope you will consider I have done all I can, sir," he said, looking
+wistfully at the bank-note, which still lay on the table. "I shall be
+ruined if this becomes known."
+
+The cast-steel smile which was peculiar to him hardened the colonel's
+face.
+
+"You must come down on Miss Bellasys for compensation. She pays well, I
+have no doubt. You never get another _sou_ from our side, if it were to
+keep you from starving. My second thought was the best, after all; it
+saved time and--money. (He put the note back into his purse.) I'll give
+you one caution, though. Keep out of Mr. Livingstone's way. If he meets
+you, after hearing all this, he'll break your neck, I believe in my
+conscience." So he left him.
+
+For the second time that evening Willis looked in the glass--the
+reflection was not so satisfactory. Was that unseemly crumpled ruin the
+white tie, sublime in its scientific wrinkles, on which its author had
+gazed with a pardonable paternal pride? No wonder that he stamped in
+wrath, not the less bitter because impotent, while he shook off the dust
+from his garments as a testimony against Ralph Mohun.
+
+He repaired the damages, though, to the best of his power, and then went
+off to keep his appointment; but the _pâtés à la bechamelle_ were as
+ashes, and the _gelée au marisquin_ as gall to his parched, disordered
+palate. He made himself so intensely disagreeable that poor Héloise
+thenceforth swore an enmity against his compatriots, which endured to
+the end of her brief misspent existence. "_Gredin d'Anglais, va!_" she
+was wont to say, grinding her little white teeth melodramatically,
+whenever she recalled that dreary entertainment, and the failure of her
+simple stratagems to enliven her saturnine host.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+     "Then let the funeral bells be tolled, a requiem be sung,
+     An anthem for the queenliest dead that ever died so young;
+     A dirge for her--the doubly dead, in that she died so young."
+
+
+For the first few minutes after the train had moved off Guy was unable
+to collect his thoughts. As the tall figure of Mohun passed from his
+view, it seemed as if a sustaining prop had been suddenly cut away from
+under him, and he felt more than ever helpless. The stubborn strength of
+his character asserted itself before long, and he faced his great sorrow
+as he would have done an enemy in bodily shape; but neither then, nor
+for many days after, could he pursue any one train of reflection long
+unbroken.
+
+First he began to think how Constance would look when he saw her. Would
+she be much changed? How beautiful she was the night they parted, with
+the blue myosotis gleaming through her bright hair! Would her eyes be as
+cold as he remembered them then (he had not seen their _last_ look), or
+would they forgive him at once, and tell him so? Not if she knew all.
+And then, in hideous contrast to her pure stately beauty, there rose
+before him faces and figures which had shared his orgies during the past
+months, gay with paint and jewels, and meretricious ornament. There was
+a deeper horror in those mocking shapes than in the most loathsome
+phantasms of corporeal corruption that feverish dreams ever called up
+from the grave-yard. If his lips were unworthy, months ago, to touch
+Constance's cheek or hand, what were they now? He ground his teeth in
+the bitterness of self-condemnation. It would be easier to bear, if she
+met him coldly and proudly, than if she yielded at once, as her letter
+seemed to promise. Her letter! What became of the first one? If that had
+reached him, how much had been saved! Perhaps Constance's
+life--certainly much of his own dishonor. The idea did cross him that
+Flora might have been concerned in intercepting it, but it seemed
+improbable, and he drove it away. With all his revived devotion to
+Constance, he did not like to think hardly of her rival; in a lesser
+degree he had wronged her too.
+
+You will rarely find the sternest or wisest of men disposed to be harsh
+toward errors that spring from a devotion to themselves. It is only
+just, as well as natural, that it should be so. If the second cause of
+the crime did not find an excuse for the defendant, I don't know where
+he or she would look for an advocate. St. Kevin need not have troubled
+himself: there were plenty of people ready to push poor Kathleen down. I
+think it is a pity they canonized him.
+
+Through all Guy's reflections there ran this under-current--"how easily
+all might have been avoided if the slightest things had turned out
+differently." Just so, after a heavy loss at play, a man _will_ keep
+thinking how he might have won a large stake if he had played one card
+otherwise, or backed the In instead of the Out. I have heard good judges
+say that this pertinacious after-thought is the hardest part to bear of
+all the annoyance. Of course he worries himself about it, just as if
+"great results from small beginnings" were not the tritest of all
+truisms. I don't wish to be historical, or I would reflect how often the
+Continent has been convulsed by a dish that disagreed with some one, or
+by a ship that did not start to its time. The Jacobites were very wise
+in toasting "the little gentleman in black velvet" that raised the fatal
+mole-hill. Does not the old romance say that an adder starting from a
+bush brought on the terrible battle in which all the chivalry of England
+were strewn like leaves around Arthur on Barren Down?
+
+Guy could still hardly realize to himself the certainty of Constance's
+approaching death. He tried to fix his thoughts on this till a heavy,
+listless torpor, like drowsiness, began to steal over him. He roused
+himself impatiently, and began to think how slow they were going.
+Nevertheless, the green _coteaux_ that swell between Rouen and the sea
+were flying past rapidly, and they arrived at Havre, as Mohun had said,
+just in time to catch the Southampton packet.
+
+There was threatening of foul weather to windward. The clouds, in masses
+of indigo just edged with copper, were banking up fast, and the "white
+horses," more and more frequent, were beginning to toss their manes
+against the dark sky-line.
+
+To the few travelers whom the stern necessities of business drove forth,
+lingering and shivering, from their comfortable inns on to the deck,
+already wet and unsteady, Livingstone was an object of great interest
+and many theories. His impatience to be gone was so marked that the
+conscientious official looked more than once suspiciously at his
+passport.
+
+Mr. Phineas Hackett, of Boston, U.S., Marchand (so self-described in
+the Livre des Voyageurs at Chamounix), made up his mind that he saw
+before him the hero of some gigantic forgery, or a fraudulent bankrupt
+on a large scale; but, just as he had fixed on the astute question which
+was to drive the first wedge into the mystery, Guy turned in his quick
+walk and met him full. I doubt if he even saw the smooth-shaven, eager
+face at his elbow; but he was thinking again of the lost letter, and the
+savage glare in his eyes made the heart of the "earnest inquirer" quiver
+under his black satin waistcoat. "D----d hard knot, that," he muttered,
+disconsolately, and retreated with great loss, to writhe during the rest
+of the passage in an orgasm of unsatisfied curiosity.
+
+The weather looked worse every moment as the wild north wind came
+roaring from seaward with a challenge to the vessels that lay tossing
+within the jetty to come forth and meet him. The waste-pipe of the
+_Sea-gull_ screamed out shrilly in answer; and the brave old ship,
+shaking the foam from her bows after every plunge, as her namesake might
+do from its breast-feathers, steamed out right in the teeth of the gale.
+
+A regular "Channel night"--a night which Mr. Augustus Winder, Paris
+traveler to H---- and Co., the mighty mercers of Regent Street, spoke of
+in after days with a shudder of reminiscence mingling with the pride of
+one who has endured and survived great peril; who has gone down to the
+sea in ships, and seen the wonders of the deep. His associates--the
+_élite_ of the silk-and-ribbon department--youths of polished manners
+and fascinating address, than whom _non alii leviore saltu_ took the
+counter in their stride--would gather round the narrator in respectful
+admiration, just as the young sea-dogs of Nantucket might listen to a
+veteran hunter of the sperm whale as he tells of a hurricane that caught
+him in the strait between the Land of Fire and terrible Cape Horn.
+
+Mr. Winder represented himself as having assisted all on board, from the
+captain down to the cabin-boy, with his counsel and encouragement, and
+as having been materially useful to the man at the wheel. The fact was,
+that he cried a good deal during the night, and was incessant in his
+appeals to the steward and Heaven for help. In his appeals to the latter
+power he employed often a strangely modified form of the Apostles'
+Creed; for his religious education had been neglected, and this was his
+solitary and simple idea of an orison. However, no one was present to
+detract from his triumph or to controvert his concluding words:
+
+"An awful night, gents; but duty's duty, and the firm behaved handsome.
+Mr. Sassnett, I'll trouble you for a light, sir." And so he ignited a
+fuller-flavored Cuba, and drank, in a sweeter grog, "Our noble
+selves"--_olim hæc meminisse juvabit_.
+
+There was one striking contrast on board to the gallant Winder.
+Livingstone did not go below, but walked the deck all night long,
+straining his eyes eagerly forward through the thick darkness and the
+driving rain.
+
+Captain Weatherby regarded him approvingly, as, halting in his walk, Guy
+stood near him, upright and steady as a mainmast of Memel pine. "That's
+the sort I like to carry," the old sailor remarked confidentially to
+his second in command as they shared an amicable grog under the shelter
+of the companion.
+
+The wind abated toward morning; and, as the dawn broke, they were under
+the lee of the Wight, and moving steadily into the quiet Solent.
+
+Guy made his way straight to Ventnor. Twenty-four hours after her
+summons reached him, Constance knew that her lover had never received
+her first letter, and that now he was within five hundred yards of her,
+waiting to be called into her presence.
+
+It was long before her answer came. It only contained a few hurried
+words, saying that it was impossible for her to see him that day, and
+begging him not to be angry, but to wait. The hand-writing was far more
+faltering and uncertain than that which had struck him so painfully with
+its weakness the day before. It spoke plainly of the effort which it had
+cost the invalid to trace even those brief lines. He did not try to
+delude himself any more, but all that day remained alone, face to face
+with his despair.
+
+He went out after nightfall, and stole up cautiously to the house where
+Constance was staying.
+
+It is not only ghosts that _walk_. Men, as powerless to retrieve the
+past as if they were already disembodied spirits, _will_ haunt the
+scenes and sepulchres of their lost happiness even before they die.
+Though the world was all before them where to choose, I doubt not that
+the exiles from Paradise lingered long just without the sweep of the
+flaming sword.
+
+Two rooms in the house were lighted, one with the faint glimmer peculiar
+to the shaded lamp of a sick-room. Guy's pulse bounded wildly at first,
+and then grew dull and still. In that room he knew Constance lay dying.
+The other window was brightly lighted, but half shaded by a curtain.
+While he gazed, this was torn suddenly aside, as if by an angry,
+impatient hand, and a man leaned out, throwing back the hair from his
+forehead, to catch the cold wind which was blowing sharply. Guy had
+never seen the dark, passionate face before, but he know whose it was
+very well, though there was little family likeness to guide him. Cyril
+Brandon's features were small and finely cut, like his sister's; but
+there the resemblance ended. His complexion, naturally sallow, had been
+burnt three shades deeper by the Indian sun. His fierce black eyes, and
+thin lips, that seemed always ready to curl or quiver, made the contrast
+with Constance very striking.
+
+Livingstone drew back into the farthest shadow of the garden trees. He
+knew how much reason Cyril had for hating him above all living men, and
+he did not wish to risk a meeting. Mohun's warning shot across his mind,
+and he felt it was rightly founded.
+
+Brandon looked out for some minutes without moving, then he dropped his
+head suddenly on his arms with a heavy groan. The bright light was
+behind him, and Guy could see his clasped fingers twisting and tearing
+at each other, as if he wished to distract mental agony by the sense of
+bodily pain. The gazer saw that another besides himself had given up all
+hope; and, with a heavier heart than over, he stole away home--not to
+sleep, but to think, and wait for the morning.
+
+About noon next day the expected message came:
+
+     "DEAR GUY,--I have got leave to see you at last, but it
+     was very difficult to gain. It is only on these conditions: you are
+     not to stay with me a moment beyond three hours, and you must leave
+     Ventnor immediately afterward, and not return. I have promised all
+     for you. It seems very hard; but we must not think of that now.
+     Come directly.                            C.B."
+
+Ten minutes later there was only a closed door between Livingstone, and
+the interview he longed for and dreaded so much. His steel nerves stood
+him in good stead then; it was not at the crisis that these were likely
+to fail. When Constance heard his step, it was measured and firmly
+planted as she always remembered it. So it would have been if he had
+been walking to meet the fire of a platoon. Her aunt, Mrs. Vavasour, was
+with her, but left the room, as Guy opened the door, and so they met
+again as they had parted--alone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+     "I charge thee, by the living's prayer,
+       By the dead's silentness,
+     To wring from out thy soul a cry
+       That God may hear and bless;
+     Lest heaven's own palm fade in my hand,
+     And, pale among the saints I stand
+       A saint companionless."
+
+
+Constance was lying on a couch near the fire propped up by many pillows.
+She felt weaker than usual: what she had gone through in the morning had
+exhausted her. Guy never knew, till long after, that the effort she had
+made to secure the meeting with him had, in all human probability,
+shortened her life by weeks. She thought it cheaply purchased at that
+price--and she was right. Even the excitement of the moment had hardly
+brought a tinge of color into the pure waxen cheeks, but the beautiful
+clear eyes were more brilliant than ever. A ribbon of the blue which was
+Guy's favorite was twisted in her bright glossy hair.
+
+He saw nothing of this at first; he did not see her raise herself with a
+faint joyful cry as he advanced with his eyes cast down; he never knew
+how it was that he found himself kneeling by Constance, with her arms
+clinging fondly round his neck, and her voice murmuring in his ear, "I
+said you would come--I knew you would come."
+
+Though her soft cheek lay so very near his lips, they never touched it.
+He drew back, shuddering all over, and said, hoarsely,
+
+"I can not; I dare not; I am not worthy."
+
+I do not know if she guessed what he meant, but she tried to lift his
+head, which was bent down on the cushion beside her, so that he might
+look into her true eyes as she answered,
+
+"You must not think that--you must not say so. I know you have been
+angry and almost mad for many months, but you are not so now, and you
+never will be any more. It was my fault--yes, mine. If I had not been so
+cold and proud, you would never have left me. You thought I did not love
+you; but I did; my own, my darling, I did--so dearly!"
+
+All Guy's stout manhood was shivered within him, utterly and suddenly,
+as 4000 years ago the rock was cloven in Horeb, the Mount of God. Now,
+too, from the rift in the granite the waters flowed; the first tears
+that he had shed since he was a very little child--the last that any
+mortal saw there--streamed hot and blinding from his eyes down on the
+thin, transparent hand that he held fast.
+
+Would those with whom he was a by-word for hard sternness of character
+have known him then? They would have been almost as much surprised to
+see Constance Brandon--thought so haughty and cold--overcoming her
+terror at his passionate burst of grief, to soothe him with every
+tenderest gesture and with words that were each a caress, till the
+convulsion passed away, and calm self-government returned.
+
+Guy did not speak till he could quite control himself; then he said
+firmly, but with a sob in his voice still,
+
+"Yet I have killed you!"
+
+"No, no," Constance answered, quickly; "indeed it is not so. A cold
+which attacked my chest caused this illness; but they say my lungs were
+affected long ago, and that I could hardly have lived many months. You
+must think of that, dear; and perhaps it is much better that it should
+be so. Life is very hard and difficult, I think, and I should never have
+been strong enough to bear my part in it well."
+
+Guy shook his head sadly, as if only half convinced, though he knew she
+would not have said an untrue word even to save him from suffering.
+
+"If you could only stay with me--if I could only keep you!" he cried
+out, and threw his arms round her, as if their strong clasp would hold
+her back one step on the road along which the messengers of God had been
+beckoning her for many days past.
+
+"Hush!" Constance whispered; "you must be patient. Yet I like to think
+that you will not forget me soon. Now listen--" and she held up her
+finger with something of the "old imperial air." "I have something to
+ask of you. Will you not like to do it for my sake, even if it is hard?"
+
+He did not answer; but she understood the pressure of his hand, and went
+on.
+
+"I have been fearing so much that something terrible will happen between
+you and Cyril. He is so passionate and willful, he will not listen to
+me, though he loves me dearly, and though I have tried every entreaty I
+could think of. (She grew paler than ever, and shuddered visibly.) And
+you are not patient, Guy, dear; but you would be this time, would you
+not? Only think how it would grieve me if--"
+
+The deep hollow cough that she had tried hard to keep back _would_
+break in here.
+
+"You can not doubt me," Guy replied, caressing her fondly: "I promise
+that nothing he can say or do shall tempt me to defend myself by word or
+deed. How could I, even if you had not asked this? Has he not bitter
+cause? Ask me something harder, my own!"
+
+Constance hesitated; then she spoke rapidly, as if afraid to pause when
+she had once made up her mind. The lovely color came and flickered for a
+moment on her cheek, and then went out again as suddenly.
+
+"I know it is easier for me to submit than for you, yet it is very hard
+to be obliged to leave you, Guy; it is harder still to leave you to
+Flora Bellasys. I hope my jealousy--I _am_ jealous--does not make me
+unjust; but I don't think she will make you better, or even happier in
+the end. Now do forgive me; perhaps I ought not--"
+
+Guy interrupted her here: he had not stopped her till she began to
+excuse herself.
+
+"I must see her once again (the knitting of his black brows omened ill
+for the peace of that interview); afterward, on my honor and faith, I
+will never speak to her one word, or willingly look upon her face."
+
+O true heart! that had suffered so long, and hitherto unavailingly, till
+your life-blood was drained in the struggle, be content, for the victory
+is won at last. Never did loyalty and right triumph more absolutely
+since those who stood fast by their King in the _dies iræ_ of the great
+battle saw the rebel angels cast headlong down.
+
+If, in the intense joy that thrilled through every fibre of Constance's
+frame, there mingled an element of gratified pride, who shall blame her?
+Not I, for fear of being less indulgent than I believe was her Eternal
+Judge when, not many days later, she stood before him.
+
+She needed no further protest or explanation; she never thought that,
+because her lover had once been entangled, there was danger of his
+falling into the net again; she never doubted for an instant--and she
+was right. The gaze of the spirit is far-seeing and rarely fallible when
+so near its translation as was hers.
+
+As she leaned her head against his shoulder, murmuring, "You have made
+me so very, very happy!" there were pleasant tears in the beautiful eyes
+that had known so many bitter ones, and had not lost their brightness
+yet.
+
+There was silence for some minutes; then Constance spoke again, looking
+wistfully, and more sadly than she had yet done, on her companion:
+
+"Do you know, Guy, I have been thinking that yours will not be a very
+long life? You are so strong that it seems foolish in me, but I can not
+help it."
+
+The faintest glimmer of satisfaction, like the ghost of a smile, came
+upon Livingstone's miserable, haggard face: there had been nothing like
+it there for many hours; there was nothing like it again for many days.
+
+"You may be right," he said, very calmly. "I trust in God you are."
+
+"Yes," Constance went on; "but I was thinking more than that. I was
+hoping that perhaps, for my sake, if not for your own, you would try to
+grow better every day. Only think what it would be if, throughout all
+ages, we were never to meet after to-day." She drew him closer to her,
+and her voice almost failed her. "I don't believe you ever could be what
+is called a very religious character. I am so weak--strong-minded as you
+thought me--that I fear I have found an attraction in this fault of
+yours; but you could keep from great sins, I am sure. Try and be gentler
+to others first, and with every act of unselfish kindness you will have
+gained something. Any good clergyman will tell you the rest better than
+I. Remember how happy you will make me. I believe I shall see and know
+it all. It may be hard for you, dear, but it may not be for long."
+
+The same strange, wistful look came into her eyes again, as if shadows
+of the dim future were passing before them.
+
+Poor child! Pure as she was in principle and firm in truth, she would
+have made but a weak controversial theologian; but her simple words went
+straight to her hearer's heart, with a stronger power of conversion than
+could have been found in the discourses of all the surpliced Chrysostoms
+that ever anathematized a sinner or anatomized a creed.
+
+Yet Guy did not answer so soon this time. When he did, he spoke firmly
+and resolutely: "Indeed, indeed, I will try."
+
+Constance nestled down on his broad chest, wearily, but with a
+long-drawn breath of intense relief.
+
+"I have said all my say," she whispered; "I have not tired you? Now I
+will rest, and you shall pet me and talk to me as you used to do."
+
+What broken sentences--what pauses of silence yet more eloquent--what
+lavish, tender caresses passed between those two, over whom the shadow
+of desolation was closing fast, I have never guessed, nor, if I could,
+would I write them in these pages. I hold that there are partings
+bitterer to bear than a father's from his child, and sorrows worthier of
+the veil than those of Agamemnon.
+
+Though Guy repressed now all outward signs of painful emotion, he
+suffered, I believe, far the most of the two. It is always so with those
+whom death is about to divide. The agony is unequally distributed,
+falling heaviest on the one that remains behind. If the separation were
+for years, and both were healthy and hopeful, very often the positions
+would be reversed; but--whether it be that bodily weakness blunts the
+sharp sense of anticipated sorrow, or that, to eyes bent forward on the
+glories and terrors of the unknown world, earthly relations lessen by
+comparison--you will find that with most, however impetuous it may have
+been in mid-channel, the river of life flows calmly and evenly just
+before its junction with the great ocean stream. Besides, the dying girl
+had suffered so much of late that the present change left no room for
+other feelings than those of unalloyed happiness, and the words of love
+murmured into her ear brought with them a deeper delight than when she
+heard them for the first time from the same lips.
+
+Both were so engaged with their own thoughts and with each other that
+they never noted how the narrow space of time allotted to them was
+vanishing, rapidly as the last dry islet of sand when the spring-tide is
+flowing. They never heard the footsteps, more impatient at every turn,
+sounding from the room beneath, where Cyril Brandon paced to and fro.
+Constance had cut off one of her long sunny braids, and was twining it,
+in and out, in fetter-locks round Guy's fingers as she lay nestling in
+the clasp of his other arm: it was only their eyes that were speaking
+then. They started as the door opened suddenly, and Mrs. Vavasour came
+in, her face white, and her eyes wild with terror. She was too
+frightened to be gentle or considerate.
+
+"You must go this instant!" she cried out, catching Livingstone's arm.
+"Constance, make him go; he has staid too long already. You know you
+promised."
+
+"I did promise," Constance answered, calmly, almost proudly "and he will
+keep it."
+
+Then she turned to Guy, who was kneeling by her, and hid her face in his
+neck, locking her arms round him. Her aunt caught the words--"Not
+forget!" Beyond these her farewell was a secret known only to her lover
+and the angels.
+
+But the parting, which had come so suddenly, drained the last weak
+remnant of strength already taxed too hardly. Guy felt the lips that
+were murmuring in his car grow still at first, and then cold; the tender
+arms unknit themselves, and his imploring eyes could draw no answer from
+hers that were closed.
+
+"She has only fainted," Mrs. Vavasour said, answering his look: "I will
+recover her. But pray, pray go!"
+
+He laid the light burden that scarcely weighed upon his arm down on the
+pillows, very softly and gently, smoothing them mechanically with his
+hand. Then he stooped and pressed one kiss more on the pale lips; they
+never felt it, though the passion of that lengthened caress might almost
+have waked the dead. And so those two parted, to meet again--upon earth
+never any more.
+
+The next time woman's lips touched Guy Livingstone's they were his
+mother's, and he had been a corpse an hour.
+
+He went, without looking back; his step was slow and unsteady, very
+different from the firm, even tread of three hours ago. The power of
+volition and self-direction was very nearly gone. Through a half open
+door on the lower story he caught a glimpse of a haggard face lighted up
+by wolfish eyes, and heard a savage, growling voice. He felt that both
+eyes and voice cursed him as he passed; and afterward, recalling these
+things vaguely, as one does the incidents of a hideous dream, he knew
+that, for the second time, he had seen Cyril Brandon. Guy could hardly
+tell how he reached London that night, for the brain fever was coming on
+that the next morning held him in its clutches fast.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+     "Quanto minus est cum reliquis versari, quam tui meminisse."
+
+
+The tidings of her son's illness reached Lady Catharine quickly at
+Kerton Manor. I did not hear of it till a day later, and when I arrived
+I found her nearly exhausted by sleeplessness and anxiety, though she
+had not been Guy's nurse for more than thirty-six hours.
+
+The sick-bed of delirium taxes the energies of the watcher very
+differently from any other. There is a sort of fascination in the roll
+of the restless head, tossing from side to side, as if trying to escape
+from the pressure of a heavy hot hand; in the glare of the eager eyes,
+that follow you every where, with a question in them that they never
+wait to have answered; in the incoherent words, just trembling on the
+verge of a revelation, but always leaving the tale half told, that
+creates a perpetual strain on the attention, enough to wear out a strong
+man.
+
+There have been men, they say, who, sensible of the approach of
+delirium, chose the one person who should attend them, and ordered their
+doors to be closed against all others, preferring to die almost alone to
+the risk of what their ravings might betray; but I have heard, also,
+that there are secrets--secrets shared, too, by many confederates--to
+which neither fever or intoxication ever gave a clew. The hot blood grew
+chill for an instant, and the babbling tongue was tied when the dreamer
+came near the frontier ground, where the oath reared itself distinct and
+threatening as ever, while all else was fantastic and vague.
+
+There was something of this in Guy's case. We could hear distinctly many
+of his broken sentences, relating sometimes to the hunting-field,
+sometimes to the orgies of wine or play. There were names, too,
+occurring now and then, which to his mother were meaningless, but to me
+had an evil significance. Once or twice--not oftener--he was talking to
+Flora Bellasys. But when the name of Constance Brandon came, the harsh
+loud voice sank into a whisper so low that if you had laid your ear to
+his lips you would not have caught one syllable. Very, very often I had
+occasion to remark this, and to wonder how the heart could guard its
+treasure so rigidly when the brain was driving on, aimless as a ship
+before the hurricane with her rudder gone.
+
+On the fifth day after Guy's illness began, an angel might have
+interceded for him in the stead of a pure true-hearted woman, for
+Constance was dead.
+
+I saw Lady Catharine tremble, and bend her head down low when she heard
+the news, as if herself crushed by the blow which would fall so heavily
+on her son. She had known but very little of Constance; that little had
+made her love her dearly--who could help doing that? Yet it was not
+Constance she was regretting then. I could see the same thought was in
+her mind as in mine--who will tell Guy this if he recovers? I did all I
+could to spare her; but the anxiety she felt when out of the sick-room
+tried her almost more than the bodily fatigue. It was best to let her
+have her way. I never guessed, till then, the extent of a weak woman's
+endurance.
+
+It was a close struggle, indeed, between life and death. The fire of the
+fever died out when there was little left for it to feed on. The arm
+which, a month ago, was fatal as old Front-de-Boeuf's, had not
+strength enough in its loosened sinews to lift itself three inches from
+the coverlet.
+
+Guy had fallen at last into a heavy sleep. The doctors said it was the
+turning-point. If he woke quite calm and sane, the immense power of his
+constitution would probably enable him to rally; if not, the worst that
+could be feared was certain.
+
+He woke after many hours. There was such a stillness in the room as he
+unclosed his eyes that you might have heard his mother's heart beat as
+she sat motionless by his bedside. They recognized her at once--heavy
+and dim as they were--for he tried to turn his head to kiss her hand
+that lay on the pillow beside him. Then we knew that he was saved; and I
+saw, for the first time, tears stream down Lady Catharine's worn cheeks.
+She could check the evidence of her grief better than that of her joy.
+
+He saw me, too, as I came forward out of the shadow. "Is that you,
+Frank?" he said, faintly. "How very good of you to come." We would not
+let him speak any more.
+
+On the third day after the change for the better, I was alone with the
+invalid. He turned to me suddenly, and spoke in a low voice, but so
+steady that it surprised me. "Frank, what have you heard of Constance?"
+
+Had I been arming myself to meet that question--disciplining my voice
+and countenance for days, only to fail so miserably at last? I felt
+unspeakably angry and self-reproachful when I saw that my face had told
+him all.
+
+"When did she die?" He went on in the same measured tone, without taking
+his eyes off me. I think he had nerved himself just enough for the
+effort, and was afraid of breaking down if he paused.
+
+I could speak now, and told him. I was going on to tell him, too, how
+calmly and happily her life had ended (her aunt had written all this to
+Lady Catharine), when Guy stopped me--not coldly, but with a hopeless
+sadness in his accent very painful to hear. "Thank you; it is meant
+kindly, but I would rather not speak of this, even to you--at least for
+some time."
+
+His self-command carried him through bravely, but it only just lasted
+out. Then he turned his head aside and threw his arm across it. As I
+drew back to the window, I saw the quivering of the long, emaciated
+fingers that veiled his face. I did not look again till Guy's voice
+called to me, quite composedly, for I did not dare to pry into or meddle
+with the secrets of the strong heart that knew its own bitterness so
+well.
+
+I told Lady Catharine what had passed. She was very much relieved to
+hear that it was all over. She never opened her lips on the subject to
+her son; indeed, though those two understood each other thoroughly,
+there were wonderfully few confidences between them.
+
+Guy's convalescence was slow--far slower than we had hoped for. It
+seemed as if some spring was broken in his being not easily to be
+replaced. He was moody and listless always, speaking very seldom; but
+his words and manner, when he did talk, were gentler and more kindly
+than I ever remembered them.
+
+One of his first visitors was Colonel Mohun. He had been incessant in
+his inquiries, and had offered to share our watching, but Lady Catharine
+would not hear of it. She had a sort of dread at the idea of that grim
+face lowering over the sick man's bed.
+
+No one was present at their first interview. Ralph was more moved than
+he cared to show at his old friend's altered looks and ways; but he gave
+him the account of his search after the lost letter conscientiously,
+without sparing a single detail. "It must have gone hard with Guy," he
+remarked to me, thoughtfully, as he came away. "He's very far from right
+yet. When I told him what Willis had done, I made sure he would be very
+angry. He only said, 'Poor wretch! He acted under orders, and did not
+know what mischief he was doing.' He wants rousing; but I am sure I
+don't know what is to do it."
+
+Forgiveness and forgetfulness of injuries seemed to that hard old
+heathen the most dangerous sign of bodily and mental debility.
+
+He came almost daily after that, and I think his rough ways, and sharp,
+sarcastic remarks acted on Livingstone as a sort of tonic--bitter, but
+strengthening.
+
+A few days later Mrs. Vavasour called. She, too, saw Guy alone. She
+surely had a message to deliver, or she would not have ventured on an
+interview which must have been so painful to both. It did not last long;
+but when she came down, her thick black veil was drawn closely over her
+face, and that evening Guy was denied to Ralph Mohun.
+
+One afternoon Livingstone was quite by himself. The colonel had gone
+into Warwickshire for a few days' hunting; Lady Catharine had paid her
+usual visit and had gone back to her hotel, and I was out for an hour or
+two. We did not mind leaving him a good deal alone; indeed, he preferred
+it very often, and said so.
+
+His servant came in, looking rather puzzled, to say that a lady wished
+to see him. She would not give her name, but said that she would not
+detain him many minutes.
+
+Guy had not time to refuse admittance to the visitor, she followed so
+close upon her message. Though she was closely-wrapped in her mantle,
+and her veil fell in triple folds, there was no mistaking the turn of
+the haughty head, the smooth, elastic step, and the lithe undulations of
+a figure matchless between the four seas. No wonder that he drew his
+breath hard as he recognized Flora Bellasys.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+     Treu und fest.
+
+
+As the door closed, Flora advanced quickly. "Confess you are surprised
+to see me," she said, holding out her little gloved hand. The courtesy
+toward the sex, which was hereditary with the Livingstones, contrasting
+strangely with their fierce, ungovernable tempers, made him not reject
+it; but his lay passive and nerveless in her slender fingers, never
+answering their eager pressure; it had no longer the elastic quiver of
+repressed strength that she remembered and liked so well.
+
+"I am surprised to see you here, and so soon," he answered, coldly; "but
+I knew we should meet before long."
+
+"The surprise does not seem too charming," Miss Bellasys said, pouting
+her scarlet lip as she threw herself into a deep _bergère_ opposite to
+the couch on which Livingstone had already sunk down again--he was very
+weak and unsteady in his movements still.
+
+Was it by chance or calculation that a fold of her dress disarranged
+displayed the slender foot, with its arched instep--set off by the
+delicate _brodequin_, a labor of love to the Parisian Crispin--and the
+straight, beautifully-turned ankle, cased in dead-white silk? The
+latter, I think; for Flora knew how to fall as well as Cæsar or
+Polyxena, and had studied her part to its minutest shade. It was by the
+senses that she had always been most successful in attacking Guy, and
+she knew that, in old days, no point of feminine perfection had a
+greater attraction for him.
+
+The temptation, if so it was intended, had about as much effect upon him
+now as it might have had on weather-beaten St. Simeon Stylites when his
+penances had lasted twenty years.
+
+After a minute's silence, during which Flora was gazing intently on her
+companion, leaning her chin upon her hand, she spoke again.
+
+"I fear you must have been very ill. How--how changed you are!"
+
+Livingstone was, indeed, fearfully altered. The healthy brown of his
+complexion had given place to a dull, opaque pallor; there were great
+hollows under the prominent cheek-bones, and his loose dressing-robe of
+black velvet hung straight down from the gaunt angles of the immense
+joints and bones. His voice sounded deeper than ever as he replied,
+
+"Yes, I have been very ill, and I am utterly changed. But you must have
+had something more important to say to me, or you would hardly have
+ventured on this step."
+
+She was getting very nervous--inexplicably so for her, who generally
+kept her head, while she made others lose theirs,
+
+"No. I only wished--" she hesitated, trying to force a smile, and then
+broke off suddenly--"Guy, do speak kindly to me. Don't look at me so
+strangely."
+
+His answer came, brief and stern.
+
+"I will speak, then. Miss Bellasys, on what authority from me did you
+venture to interfere in my concerns so far as to intercept my
+correspondence?"
+
+She tried denial still; it was her way; she always _would_ do it, even
+when it could avail nothing--perhaps to gain time.
+
+"I don't know what you mean. I never--"
+
+Livingstone interrupted her, with a curl of contempt on his lip.
+
+"Stop, I beg of you. It is useless to stoop lower than you have done
+already. I have Willis's written confession here. Ah! I know your
+talents too well to accuse you without material proof."
+
+She raised her head, haughtily enough now. There was something Spartan
+about that girl. She had such an utter recklessness of exposure--it was
+in failure that she felt the shame.
+
+"At least _you_ ought not to reproach me. You might guess my motive--my
+only one--without forcing me to confess it. Have I not gratified your
+pride enough already?"
+
+"You know that is not the question," Guy answered, gravely. "Yet you are
+half right. I could not reproach you for any fair, honest move. In much,
+I own myself more guilty than you. But this is very different. Miss
+Bellasys, you must have distrusted greatly your own powers of
+fascination before you stooped to such cruel treachery."
+
+"I did not know what I was doing," she whispered; "I did not know she
+was dying. Ah! Guy, have pity!"
+
+"But you knew it might kill her to find her letter--such a
+letter--unanswered. You knew what she must have suffered before she
+wrote it. You did all this in cold blood, and now you say to me, 'Have
+pity!' If an accountable being--not a woman and her miserable
+instrument--had wronged me so, I would have risked my soul to have
+revenge; and, because that is impossible, you think that I feel less
+bitterly? You might have known me better by this time."
+
+Instead of being softened by her appeal, his heart, features, and tone
+were hardening more and more.
+
+The sting of defeat, imminent and unavoidable, that, ere this, has
+driven strong and wise men headlong into the thickest of the battle to
+hunt for death there, proved too much for a temper never well regulated.
+
+"You have decided, then?" she cried, passionately, her eyes flashing and
+her lip quivering. "After all I have risked and borne for you, I am to
+be sacrificed to a shadow--a memory--the memory of that cold, pale
+statue of propriety?" She checked herself suddenly, only just in time.
+
+Guy had sprung to his feet, excitement bringing back for the moment all
+his lost strength. If Ralph Mohun had seen him, he would not have feared
+that the wrathful devil was cast out. It was raging within him then,
+untamed and dangerous as ever.
+
+"Do you dare to insult her now that she is dead--and to me, not a month
+after I have lost her? It is not safe: take care, take care!"
+
+The tempest of his passion made him forget, for the first time in his
+life, the weakness of her who had roused it.
+
+Flora was only a woman after all, though haughty and bold of spirit as
+any that had breathed. Her own outbreak of anger vanished before that
+terrible burst of wrath, just as the camp-fire, when the prairie is
+blazing, is swallowed up in the great roaring torrent of flame. She
+bowed her head on her hands, trembling all over in pure physical fear.
+Guy felt ashamed when he saw the effect of his violence, and spoke more
+gently than he had done yet.
+
+"Forgive me. I was very wrong; but I have not learned to control
+myself--I never shall, I fear; but you ought not to say such words, even
+if I could bear them better. Now it is time that we should part; you
+have staid here too long already. You must not risk your reputation for
+me, who can not even be grateful for the venture. We shall never meet
+again, if we can avoid it; it would be strange to do so as mere
+acquaintance, and in any other way--no, don't stop me--it is impossible.
+It will be long before I go much into society again, so I shall not
+cross your path."
+
+Flora knew it was hopeless then. She was quite broken down, and did not
+raise her head from her hand, through the fingers of which, half shading
+her face, the tears trickled fast. Guy heard her murmur, very low and
+plaintively, "I have loved you so long--so dearly!"
+
+Mistress as she was of every art that can deceive, I believe she only
+spoke the simple truth then. With all the energy of her strong and
+sensual nature, I believe she did worship Livingstone. To most men she
+would have been far more dangerous thus, in the abandonment of her
+sorrow, than ever she had been in the insolence of her splendid beauty.
+
+There are some women, very few (Johnson's fair friend, Sophy
+Streatfield, was one), whom weeping does not disfigure. Their eyelids do
+not get red or swollen; only the iris softens for a moment; and the
+drops do not streak or blot the polished cheeks, but glitter there,
+singly, like dew on marble; their sobs are well regulated, and follow in
+a certain rhythm; and the heaving bosom sinks and swells, not too
+stormily. It is a rare accomplishment. Miss Bellasys had not practiced
+it often, being essentially Democritian--not to say Rabelaisian--in her
+philosophy; but she did it very well. Like every other emotion, it
+became her.
+
+Guy hardly glanced at her, and never answered a word.
+
+She rose to go; then turned all at once to try one effort more. "Yes, we
+must part," she said. "I know it now. But give me a kind word to take
+with me. I shall be so lonely, now that you are my enemy. Will you not
+say you wish me well? Ah! Guy, remember all the hours that I have tried
+to make pleasant for you. Say 'Good-by, Flora,' only those two little
+words, gently." Her voice was broken and uncertain, but full of music
+still, like the wind wandering through an organ.
+
+Just at that moment I opened the door. (I had not an idea Livingstone
+was not alone.) I closed it before either had remarked my entrance, but
+not before I had caught sight of a very striking picture.
+
+Guy was leaning one arm against the mantel-piece; the other was crossed
+over his chest: on that arm Flora was clinging, with both her hands
+clenched in the passion of her appeal. Her slight bonnet had fallen
+rather back, showing the masses of her glorious hair, and all her
+flushed cheeks, and her eyes that shone with a strange lustre, though
+there were tears still on their long, trailing lashes. I saw the
+impersonation of material life, exuberant and vigorous, yet delicately
+lovely--the Lust of the Eye incarnate.
+
+He stood perfectly still, making no effort to cast her off. Had he done
+so with violence, it would scarcely have evinced more repulsion than did
+the expression of his face. There was no more of yielding or softening
+in the set features and severe eyes than you would find in those of a
+corpse three hours old, whose spirit has passed in some great anger or
+pain. Can you guess what made him more than ever hard and unrelenting?
+He was thinking _who_ tried to win a kind farewell from him six months
+ago, and utterly failed. Should her rival have this triumph, too, over
+the dead?
+
+As he answered deliberately, each slow word shut out another hope, like
+bolts shot, one by one, in the lock of a prison door.
+
+"I remember nothing of the past except your last act, for which I will
+never, never forgive you. I form no wish for your welfare or for the
+reverse. There shall not stand the faintest shadow of a connecting link
+that I can break asunder. Between you and me there is the gulf of a
+fresh-made grave, and no thought of mine shall ever cross it--so help me
+God in Heaven!"
+
+Flora's last arrow was shivered: if she had had another in her quiver,
+she would have had no courage to try it after hearing those terrible
+words. She caught his hand, however, before he could guess her
+intention, and pressed her lips upon it till they left their print
+behind, and then she was gone. Her light foot hardly sounded as it
+sprang down the stairs, but its faint echo was the last living sound
+connected with Flora Bellasys that ever reached the ear of Guy
+Livingstone.
+
+When I heard more of the interview, I thought, and think still, that he
+erred on the side of harshness. He was so fixed and steady in his
+purpose that he could have afforded to have compromised a little in
+expressing it. But he did things in his own way, and fought with his own
+weapons--effective, but hardly to be wielded by most men, like the axe
+of the King-maker or the bow of Odysseus. In carrying out his will, he
+was apt to consider the softer feelings of others as little as he did
+his own. It was just so with him when riding to hounds: he went as
+straight as a line, and if he did not spare his horses, he certainly did
+not himself.
+
+To each man alive, one particular precept of the Christian code is
+harder to realize and practice than all the rest put together. It was
+this, perhaps, which drove the anchorites on from one degree of penance
+to another, and made them so savage in self-tormenting. When the
+macerated flesh had almost lost sensation, the thorn that had galled it
+sometimes in their hot youth rankled incessantly, more venomous than
+ever. That one injunction--"Forgive, as you would hope to be
+forgiven"--was ever a stumbling-block to Guy.
+
+Besides all this, he knew, better than any one, what sort of an
+adversary he was contending against; one with whom each step in
+negotiation or temporizing was a step toward discomfiture. It was like
+the Spaniard with his _navaja_ against the sabre: your only chance is
+keeping him steadily at the sword's-point, without breaking ground; if
+he once gets under your guard, not all the saints in the calendar can
+save you.
+
+Perhaps, then, he was right, after all. Certainly Ralph Mohun thought
+so, as he listened to a sketch of the proceedings with a grim
+satisfaction edifying to witness.
+
+As for me, before I went to bed that night, I read through those
+chapters in the "Mort d'Arthur" that tell how the long, guilty loves of
+Launcelot and Guenever ended. In the present case, there was certainly
+wonderfully little penitence on the lady's side, but yet there were
+points of resemblance which struck me. [I always think the queen must
+have been the image of Flora.] It is worth while wading through many
+chapters of exaggeration and obscurity to come out into the noble light
+of the epilogue at last.
+
+Good King Arthur is gone. It bit deep, that blow which Mordred, the
+strong traitor, struck when the spear stood out a fathom behind his
+back; and Morgan la Fay came too late to heal the grievous wound that
+had taken cold. The frank, kind, generous heart, that would not mistrust
+till certainty left no space for suspicion, can never be wrung or
+betrayed again. The bitter parting between the lovers is over too; and
+Launcelot is gone to his own place, without the farewell caress he
+prayed for when he besought the queen "to kiss him once and never more."
+After a very few short months, the beautiful wild bird has beaten
+herself to death against her cage, and the vision comes by night,
+bidding Launcelot arise and fetch the corpse of Guenever home. She
+wandered often and far in life, but where should her home be _now_ but
+by the side of her husband? Hardly and painfully in two days, he and
+the faithful seven accomplish the thirty miles that lay between; so
+utterly is that unearthly strength, before which lance-shafts were as
+reeds, and iron bars as silken threads (remember the May night in
+Meliagraunce's castle), enfeebled and broken down. He stands in the
+nunnery-church at Almesbury; he hears from the queen's maidens of the
+prayer that was ever on her lips through those two days when she lay a
+dying, how "she besought God that she might never have power to see Sir
+Launcelot with her worldly eyes." Then, says the chronicler, "he saw her
+visage; yet he wept not greatly, but sighed. And so he did all the
+observance of the service himself, both the dirge at night and the mass
+on the morrow." Not till every rite was performed, not till the earth
+had closed over the marble coffin, did Launcelot swoon.
+
+I know nothing in fiction so piteous as the words that tell of his
+dreary, mortal sorrow. "Then, Sir Launcelot never after ate but little
+meat, nor drank, but continually mourned until he was dead; and then he
+sickened more and more, and dried and dwined away; for the bishop nor
+none of his fellows might make him to eat, and little he drank; so that
+he waxed shorter by a cubit than he was, and the people could not know
+him; for evermore day and night he prayed; but needfully as nature
+required, sometimes he slumbered a broken sleep; and always he was lying
+groveling on King Arthur's and Queen Guenever's tomb. And there was no
+comfort that his fellows could make him; it availed nothing."
+
+We know it can not last long; we know that the morning is fast
+approaching, when they will find him "stark dead, and lying as he had
+smiled;" when they will bear him forth, according to his vow, to his
+resting-place in Joyous Guard; when there will be pronounced over him
+that famous funeral oration--the truest, the simplest, the noblest, I
+think, that ever was spoken over the body of a sinful man.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+     "I pray God pardon me,
+     That I no more, without a pang,
+       His choicest works can see."
+
+
+It was long before Livingstone's health recovered the check to its
+improvement given by that interview. However, as the spring advanced he
+began to regain strength rapidly, and toward the end of May he and I
+started in the _Petrel_, which he had just bought, for a cruise in the
+Mediterranean.
+
+It would seem hard that any one, coasting for the first time along the
+shores of Italy, and penetrating ever and anon far into the interior,
+should not feel and display some interest in the succession of pictures,
+of living Nature and dead Art, that meet you at every step. I can not
+say that I ever detected the faintest symptom of such in my companion.
+He strayed with me through the old Forum, and through Adrian's Villa,
+and lingered by the Alban Lake; but it was more to keep me in
+countenance than any thing else. I liked them better this second time of
+seeing them than I did the first; I doubt if they left an impression on
+his mind equal to the dimmest photograph that ever was the pride of an
+amateur and the puzzle of his friends. The brilliant landscapes made up
+of bold headlands, hanging woods, and sunny bays fared no better. Guy
+did not come on deck for two hours after we cast anchor off Mola di
+Gaeta.
+
+Our _ciceroni_ were much pained and scandalized at an indifference
+which exceeded all they had yet encountered in the matter-of-fact
+_Signori Inglesi_. I saw one of them look quite relieved when, after
+quitting us, he had to listen to an excitable young Jewess endeavoring
+to express her raptures in the most execrable Italian. The physical
+effort it cost her was awful to witness, especially as she was wintering
+in Italy for her lungs. O, long-suffering stones of the Coliseum! which
+returned the most barbarous echo--the growls from the cells when their
+tenants scented the Christian; the jargon of the Goth and the Hun; or
+the _lingua Anglo-Romana in bocca Bloomsburiana_? The two first-named
+classes, at all events, confined themselves to their own dialect, and
+spoke it, doubtless, with perfect propriety. However, in the present
+instance, the _custode_ took the sentimental ebullition of the Maid of
+Judah for an _amende honorable_, and rubbed his key complacently.
+
+I do not believe that our travels brought to Guy a single distraction to
+the great sorrow that all the while held him fast.
+
+A German philosopher under similar circumstances would have written
+reams and spoken volumes (eating and drinking all the while
+Pantagruelically), theorizing and abstracting his emotions till they
+vanished into cloud and vapor. A true disciple of Rousseau or Lamartine
+would have analyzed his grief, dividing it into as many channels as
+Alexander did the Oxus, till the main stream was lost, and each
+individual rivulet might be crossed dry-shod. Both would have shed tears
+perpetual and profuse. I read the other day of a Frenchman who, in the
+midst of a mixed assembly, remembering that on that day ten years he had
+lost a dear friend, instantly went out and wept bitterly. He was so
+charmed with the happiness of the thought that, as he says, "I took the
+resolution henceforth to weep for all whom I have loved, each on the
+anniversary of their death."
+
+Can you conceive any thing more touching than the picture of the
+Bereaved One consulting his almanac and then "going at it with a will?"
+It _was_ an athletic performance certainly; but remember what condition
+he must have been in from the constant training.
+
+From the episode of Niobe down to the best song in the "Princess," how
+many beautiful lines have been devoted to those outward and visible
+signs of sorrow?
+
+Sadder elegiacs, more pathetic threnodies might have been written on the
+tears that were stifled at their source, either from pride or from
+physical inability to let them flow. Great regrets, like great schemes,
+are generally matured in the shade. If I had to choose the tombs where
+most hopes and affections are buried, I should turn, I think, not to
+those with the long inscriptions of questionable poetry or blameless
+Latinity, but to where just the initials and a cross are cut on the
+single stone.
+
+The philosophical and poetical mourners hardly suffered much more than
+Guy did during those months, and for long after too, though he was
+always quite silent on the subject, and would speak cheerfully on others
+now and then, and though, from the day that he parted with Constance to
+that of his own death, his eyes were as dry as the skies over the Delta.
+He used to lie for hours in that state of utter listlessness which
+gives a reality to the sad old Eastern proverb, "Man is better sitting
+than standing, lying down than sitting, dead than lying down."
+
+With all this, however, his health improved every day. After the wild
+life he had led lately, the perfect rest and the clear pure air
+refreshed him marvelously. It had the effect of coming out of a room
+heated and laden with smoke into the cool summer morning. His strength,
+too, had returned almost completely. I found this out at Baiæ.
+
+The guardian of the _Cento Camerelle_, a big _lazzarone_, became
+inordinately abusive. My impression is that he had received about
+fifteen times his due; but, seeing our yacht in the offing, he conceived
+the idea that we were princes in our own country, and ought to be robbed
+in his proportionally. Guy's eyes began to gleam at last, and he made a
+step toward the offender. I thought he was going to be heavily visited;
+but Livingstone only lifted him by the throat and held him suspended
+against the wall, as you may see the children in those parts pin the
+lizards in a forked stick. Then he let him drop, unhurt, but green with
+terror. A year ago, a straightforward blow from the shoulder would have
+settled the business in a shorter time, and worked a strange alteration
+in good Giuseppe's handsome sunburnt face. But the old hardness of heart
+was wearing away. I had another proof of this some days later.
+
+We were dropping down out of the Bay of Naples. Though we weighed anchor
+in early morning, it was past noon before we cleared the Bocca di Capri,
+for there was hardly wind enough to give the _Petrel_ steerage-way. The
+smoke from our long Turkish pipes mounted almost straight upward, and
+lingered over our heads in thin blue curls; yet the sullen, discontented
+heave and roll in the water were growing heavier every hour. The black
+tufa cliffs crested with shattered masonry--the foundations of the sty
+where the Boar of Capreæ wallowed--were just on our starboard quarter,
+when Riddell, the master, came up to Livingstone. "I think we'd better
+make all snug, sir," he said. "There's dirty weather to windward, and we
+haven't too much sea-room." He was an old man-of-war's boatswain, and
+had had a tussle, in his time, on every sea and ocean in the known
+world, with every wind that blows. He had rather a contempt for the
+Mediterranean, esteeming it just one degree above the Cowes Roads, and
+attaching about as much importance to its vagaries as one might do to
+the fractiousness of a spoiled child. If he had been caught in the most
+terrible tempest that ever desolated the shores of the Great Lake, I
+don't believe he would have called it any thing but "dirty weather." He
+was too good a sailor, though, not to take all precautions, even if he
+had been sailing on a piece of ornamental water; and he went quickly
+forward to give the necessary orders, after getting a nod of assent from
+Guy.
+
+The latter raised himself lazily on his arm, so as to see all round over
+the low bulwarks. There was a blue-black bank of cloud rolling up from
+the southwest. Puffs of wind, with no coolness in them, but dry and
+uncertain as if stirred by some capricious artificial means, struck the
+sails without filling them, and drove the _Petrel_ through the water by
+fits and starts.
+
+"I really believe we are going to have a white squall," Guy remarked,
+indifferently. "Well, we shall see how the boat behaves. Riddell only
+spoke just in time."
+
+Suddenly his tone changed, and he said, quickly and decidedly, "Hold on
+every thing!"
+
+The master turned his weatherwise eye toward the quarter where the
+danger lay, and frowned. "We're none too soon with it, Mr. Livingstone.
+If there's a yard too much canvas spread when _that_ reaches us, I won't
+answer for the spars."
+
+Deeper and deeper the blackness came rushing down upon us, an angry
+ridge of foam before it--the white squall showing its teeth.
+
+Guy took the old man by the arm, and pointed to an object to leeward
+that none on board had remarked yet. It was a small _barca_ with four
+men in it. They were Capriotes, as we found afterward, the boldest
+boatmen in the Bay. Had they been pure-bred Neapolitans, they would have
+been down on their faces long ago, screaming out prayers to a long
+muster-roll of saints. As it was, they stood manfully to their oars,
+straining every muscle to reach us; there was no other safety for them
+then. "They will never get alongside in time, unless we bear down to
+meet them," Livingstone said, "and what chance will they have in ten
+minutes hence?"
+
+Riddell was only half satisfied. His creed evidently was that a sailor's
+first duty is to his own ship; but neither he nor any one else ever
+argued with Guy. "As you like, sir," he grumbled, somewhat
+discontentedly. "Keep her full, Saunders; we shall fetch them so."
+
+If a stitch of sail had been taken off our vessel she could never have
+reached the _barca_, though her crew strove hard to meet us. She forged
+down slowly enough as it was, but we were just in time to take them on
+board.
+
+"Reef every thing now!" Riddell shouted, leaping himself first into the
+rigging like a wild-cat. "Cheerily, men--with a will!" All his ill-humor
+was gone when the peril became imminent.
+
+We were strong-handed, and the four Capriotes did us seaman's service;
+but it was "touch and go." The last man had scarcely reached the deck
+when the line of foam was within half-cable's length. Then there came a
+sound unlike any I had ever heard before in the elements, beginning with
+a whistling sort of scream and deepening into a roar as of many angry
+voices, bestial and human, striving for the mastery; and then the
+_Petrel_ staggered and reeled over almost on her beam-ends, in the midst
+of a white boiling caldron of mad water. She recovered herself, however,
+quickly, quivering and trembling as a live creature might do after
+severe punishment; and we drove on, the strong arms at the wheel keeping
+her well before the blast. In a very few minutes, I suppose (though it
+seemed very long), I heard old Riddell say, "Sharp while it lasted, Mr.
+Livingstone; but they're right to call it a squall. They've nothing down
+here-away like a good right down hard gale."
+
+I looked up, clearing my eyes, blinded with the hissing spray, just as
+Guy answered, coolly as ever. He had run his arm through a becket, and
+did not seem to have moved otherwise, whereas I disgraced myself by
+falling at full length as the squall struck us.
+
+"Ah! you've got difficult to please; it's always so when one sees so
+much of life. Never mind, Riddell, the Mediterranean does its best, and
+perhaps we'll go and try your tornadoes some day. Where's the _barca_
+now?"
+
+Where? The eyes that could have told you that must have looked a hundred
+fathoms deep. There was not the faintest vestige of such a thing to be
+seen--not even a shivered plank. The poor Capriotes' "bread-winner" had
+gone the way of Antonio's argosies--another whet to the all-devouring
+appetite, for which nothing that swims is too large or too small.
+
+It was almost calm again when we landed the rescued men at Salerno; we
+were glad to get rid of them, for their gratitude was overpowering,
+especially as all the salt water that had soaked them could not disguise
+the savor of their favorite herb.
+
+You may break, you may ruin the clay if you will, but the scent of the
+garlic will cling to it still.
+
+Guy gave them enough to buy two such boats as they had lost--about as
+much as one wins or loses in an evening's whist, with fair luck and
+half-crown points.
+
+This incident showed the change that was coming over my companion. His
+principle had always been that a man who could not help himself was not
+worth helping. He never asked for aid himself, and never gave it to his
+own sex, as a rule. I believe his rescuing me at B---- was a solitary
+case, and I took it as a great compliment. You will say this one was
+only an act of common humanity. If you had known the man, you would have
+thought, as I did, that the words of her, who was an angel then, were
+bearing fruit already.
+
+Nothing happened of the slightest interest as we ran down through the
+Straits of Messina, and up the eastern coast of Calabria. We did not
+stay to see Sicily then, for we had settled to be in Venice by a certain
+day, to meet the Forresters.
+
+If I were to be seduced into "word-painting," the Queen of the Adriatic
+would tempt me. I know no other scene so provocative of enthusiasm as
+the square acre round St. Mark's. All things considered, the author of
+the "Stones of Venice" seems very sufficiently rational and
+cold-blooded.
+
+We can not all be romantic about landscapes. Nature has worshipers
+enough not to grudge a few to Art. For myself, admiring both when in
+perfection, I prefer hewn stones to rough rocks--the Canalazzo to _any_
+cascade. The glory of old days that clings round the Palace of the Doges
+stands comparison, in my mind's eye, with the Iris of Terni.
+
+But why trench on a field already amply cultivated? I will never
+describe any place till I find a virgin spot untouched by Murray, and
+then I will send it to him, with my initials. Does such exist in Europe?
+"Faith, very hardly, sir." _Nil intentatum reliquit._ What obligations
+do we not owe to the accomplished compilers? Rarely rising into poetry
+(I except "Spain"--the field, and bar one), never jocose, they move on,
+severe in simplicity, straight to their solemn end of enlightening the
+British tourist. Upright as Rhadamanthus, they hold the scales that
+weigh the merits of cathedrals, hotels, ruins, guides, pictures, and
+mountain passes, telling us what to eat, drink, and avoid. Let us repose
+on them in blind but contented reliance.
+
+I heard of one man, clever but eccentric, who became so exasperated at
+seeing the volumes in every body's hand, and hearing them in every
+body's mouth, that he conceived a sort of personal enmity to them,
+impiously dissenting from their conclusions and questioning their
+premises. The well-known red cover at last had the same effect on him as
+the scarlet cloak on the bull in the _corrida_, making him stamp and
+roar hideously. The angry gods had demented him. _Væ misero!_ How could
+such sacrilege end but badly? Braving and deriding the solemn warning of
+the prophet, he attempted a certain pass in the Tyrol alone, and, losing
+his way, caught a pleurisy which proved fatal. He died game, but, I am
+sorry to say, impenitent, speaking blasphemy against the book with his
+last breath. _Discite justitiam, moniti, et non temnere--_
+
+Such heresy, be it far from me! If I had my will, I protest I would
+found a "Murray's Traveling Fellowship" in one or both of the
+Universities. If I had the poetic vein, I would indite a pendant to
+Byron's iambics to that enlightened bibliopole. He published "Childe
+Harold," and the Hand-book to Every Where. Could one man in one century
+do more for the Ideal and the Real?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+     "Sweetest lips that ever were kissed,
+       Brightest eyes that ever have shone,
+     May sigh and whisper, and _he_ not list,
+     Or look away, and never be missed
+       Long or ever a month be gone."
+
+
+It was a very curious _ménage_ that of the Forresters'. They were
+wonderfully happy, yet you could not call theirs _domestic_ felicity.
+They went out perpetually every where, and were scarcely ever alone
+together at home. Tho cold-water cure of matrimony had not been able to
+cool either down into the dignity and steadiness befitting that
+honorable state. As far as I could see, Charley flirted as much as ever;
+the only difference was, that he stole upon his victims now with a sort
+of protecting and paternal air, merging gradually, as the interest
+deepened, into the old confidential style. The whole effect was, if any
+thing, more seductive than before.
+
+The fair Venetians admired him intensely. His bright, clear complexion
+and rich chestnut hair had the charm of novelty for them. Though without
+the faintest respect for grammar or idiom, he spoke their language with
+perfect composure, confidence, and self-satisfaction, and his tones were
+so well adapted to the slow, soft, languid tongue, that his blunders
+sounded better than other men's correctness of speech. _Mallem
+mehercule cum Platone errare_. When he said "_Si, Siora_," it seemed as
+if he were calling the lady by a pet name.
+
+Isabel did a good deal of mischief too in her unassuming way, but I
+think she confined her depredations chiefly to her compatriots.
+
+The best of it was, that neither objected in the least to the other's
+proceedings, appearing, indeed, to consider them rather creditable than
+otherwise. Perhaps it would be as well if this principle of reciprocal
+free agency were somewhat extended, though not quite to the latitude to
+which they carried it.
+
+We can not send our wives about surrounded by a detachment of semiviri
+to keep the peace; our climate is too uncertain, and influenza too
+prevalent, for us to watch their windows ourselves, as they do at Cadiz.
+Fancy mounting guard in Eaton Square at 4 P.M., shrouded in a yellow
+fog, on the chance of surprising a forbidden morning visitor!
+
+Supposing that we could adopt either of those methods, why should they
+prove more efficacious than they are said to be on their native soil? If
+the British husband will allow nothing for the principles, charitably
+supposed by others to be inherent in the wife of his bosom--nothing for
+the Damoclean damages hanging over the imaginary plotter against his
+peace--why should he depreciate his own merits and powers so completely
+as to consider himself out of the lists altogether? If he would only
+desist from making himself consistently disagreeable, I believe, in most
+cases, his substantial interest would be little endangered.
+
+That poor Hephæstus! The net was an ingenious device, and a pretty
+piece of workmanship, but--it didn't answer.
+
+In despite of Mrs. Ellis, there are women whose mission it is _not_ to
+be good housewives; they can't be useful if they would, any more than
+May-flies can spin silk. Like them, they can attract fish (and sometimes
+get snapped up if they go too close), that's all. If you marry them, you
+must accept them as they are, and take your chance. Be generous, then,
+and don't stop their waltzing. I believe there may be flirting without
+the most distant idea of criminality--fencing with wooden foils, where
+no blood is drawn.
+
+A lady was asked the other day "what she did when an admirer became too
+lover-like." Her answer was, "I never had such a case." I think she
+spoke the truth; yet she was a coquette renowned through a good part of
+two hemispheres.
+
+As for the doubts and fears of the other sex, the subject is too vast
+for me. To the end of time there will be Deianiras (with imaginary
+Ioles), Zaras, and Mrs. Caudles. Tragedy and comedy have tried in vain
+to frighten or to laugh them out of the indulgence of the fatal passion,
+that wreaks itself indiscriminately on the beat and the worst, the
+youngest and the oldest, the simplest and the most guileful of adult
+males. Let us not attempt to argue, then, but, wrapping ourselves in our
+virtue, endure as best we may the groundless reproaches and accusations
+of our ox-eyed Junos.
+
+We _did_ Venice very severely, with the exception of Forrester, who,
+after strolling once through the Palace of the Doges (a pilgrimage
+interrupted by many halts and profuse lamentations), declined seeing any
+thing more than what he could view from his gondola. I never saw any
+one so completely at home in that most delicious of conveyances. His
+Venetian friends encouraged and sympathized with him in his laziness,
+and pitied him with eyes and words, forever being teased about it.
+Indeed, he was generally left alone; but one day we were landing to see
+a church of great repute, and Miss Devereux made a strong appeal to him
+to follow her. She was a handsome, clever girl, a great favorite of
+Charley's. I believe they used to quarrel and make it up again about six
+times in every twenty-four hours. We saw that it was hopeless, but she
+was obstinate enough to try and persuade him.
+
+"Now, Captain Forrester, you must come. I have set my heart upon it."
+
+He lifted his long eyelashes in a languid satisfaction. "Thank you very
+much; I like people to be interested about me; but you see it's simply
+impossible. Look at Rinaldo; there's a sensible example for you. He
+doesn't mean to stir till he is obliged to do so." The handsome
+gondolier had already couched, to enjoy a bask in the sun, which was
+blazing fiercely down on his brown face and magnificent black hair.
+
+"There is the most perfect Titian," she persisted.
+
+"No use. I should not appreciate it," he replied. "I have been through a
+gallery _with you_ before. It's a delusion and a snare. I never looked
+at a single picture. The canvas won't stand the comparison."
+
+"I did not think you would have refused me," Miss Devereux went on,
+"particularly after last night, when you were so very--amusing." She
+hesitated out the last word with a blush. It evidently was not the
+adjective that ought to have closed the sentence.
+
+"Amusing!" replied Charley, plaintively. "You need not say any more. I
+am crushed for the day. I meant to be especially touching and pathetic.
+Well, there's some good in every thing, though. I entertained an angel
+unawares."
+
+"I shall know how far to believe you another time, at all events," she
+retorted, getting rather provoked.
+
+"Don't be unjust," said Forrester, profoundly regardless of the fact
+that his wife was within three paces of them. "I said I was ready to die
+for you. So I am. You may fix the time, but I may choose the place. If
+you insist upon it, I'll make an end of it now--here." And he settled
+himself deeper into the pile of cushions.
+
+We had no patience to listen to any more, but went off to perform our
+duty. Long before he had exhausted his arguments against moving, we had
+returned. Margaret Devereux missed seeing the church and its Titian, but
+she got a "great moral lesson." She never wasted her pretty pleadings in
+such a hopeless cause again.
+
+I remember, when we mounted the Campanile, the solemn way in which he
+wished us _buon viaggio_. When we reached the top, we made out his
+figure reclining on many chairs in front of "Florian's."
+
+He saw us, too, and lifted the glass before him to his lips with a wave
+of approval and encouragement, just as they do at Chamounix when the
+telescopes make out a few black specks on the white crests of the
+mountain. When we came down, he stopped us before we could say one
+word. "Yes, I know--it was magnificent. Bella, I see you are going to
+rave about the view. If you do, I'll shut you up for a week _en
+penitence_, and feed you on nothing but 'Bradshaw' and water."
+
+We spent a very pleasant month in Venice. It did Guy good being with the
+Forresters. He had always been very fond of his cousin, and she seemed
+to suit him better than any one else now. She would sit by him for
+hours, talking in her low, caressing tones, that soothed him like a cool
+soft hand laid on a forehead fever-heated. Isabel was not afraid of him
+now, but a great awe mingled with her pity.
+
+It is curious, and tells well perhaps for our human nature; neither
+pride of birth, nor complete success, nor profound wisdom, surrounds a
+man with such reverence as the being possessed with a great sorrow. At
+least no one can envy him; and so those who were his enemies once--like
+the gallant Frenchman when he saw his adversary's empty sleeve--bring
+their swords to the salute, and pass on.
+
+At last we started for Rome, our party nearly filling two carriages.
+There are only two ways of traveling: in your own carriage, with courier
+and fourgon, like Russian or transatlantic noble, or with vetturino.
+This last mode, which was ours, is scarcely less pleasant, if you are
+not in a hurry. The charm of having, for a certain period, every care as
+to ways and means off your mind, compensates for the six-miles-an-hour
+pace. So we moved slowly southward through Verona, where one thinks more
+of the Avon than the Adige--where, in tombs poised like Mohammed's
+coffin, the mighty Scagliari sleep between earth and heaven, as if not
+quite fit for either--where are the cypresses in the trim old garden,
+soaring skyward till the eyes that follow grow dizzy, the trees that
+were green and luxuriant years before the world was redeemed. So through
+Mantua and Bologna down to Florence, where, I think, the spirits of
+Catharine and Cosmo linger yet, the women and the men all so soft-toned,
+and silky, and sinful, and cruel. We did not stay long there, for we had
+all visited it before once or twice, but kept on our way, by the upper
+road, to Rome, till we reached our last halting-place--Civita
+Castellana.
+
+We were gathered round the wood fire after dinner (for the October
+evenings grew chilly as they closed in); I don't know how it was that
+Forrester began telling us about their flight.
+
+"You ought to have seen Bella's baggage," he said, at last; "it was so
+compact. You can't fancy any thing so tiny as the _sac de nuit_. A
+courier's moneybag would make two of it. Then a vast cloak, and that's
+all. Quite in light marching order."
+
+"I wonder you are not ashamed to talk about baggage," his wife retorted.
+"When we got to Dover, there was his servant with four immense
+portmanteaus and a dressing-case nearly as large, waiting for us. Was it
+not romantic?"
+
+"Bah!" Charley said. "A man must have his comforts, even if he is
+eloping. I am sure I arranged every thing superbly. I don't know how I
+did it--an undeveloped talent for intrigue, I suppose."
+
+"Was it not kind of him to take so much trouble?" Isabel asked, quite
+innocently, and in perfect good faith, I am sure; but her husband
+pinched the little pink ear that was within his reach.
+
+"She means to be sarcastic," he said. "You've spoiled her, Guy. If I had
+had time to deliberate, though, I don't think I should ever have come to
+the post. I wonder how any one stands the training."
+
+"I'll tell you what would have suited you exactly," Livingstone
+remarked--"to have been one of those men in the Arabian Nights, who wake
+and find themselves at a strange city's gate, 10,000 leagues from home,
+to whom there comes up a venerable vizier, saying, 'My son, heaven has
+blessed me with one daughter, a very pearl of beauty; many have sought
+her in marriage, but in vain. Your appearance pleases me, and I would
+have you for my son-in-law.'"
+
+"Exactly," said Forrester. "I should not have minded turning out
+somebody else's child eventually--(they all did that, didn't they?)--for
+such a piece of luck as to be taken in and done for off-hand, without
+the trouble of thinking about it."
+
+Instead of looking vexed, Isabel laughed merrily, and her eyes glittered
+as they rested on him, full of a proud, loving happiness.
+
+"The best of it was," Charley went on, "she was in the most dreadful
+state of alarm and excitement all the way to Dover, looking out at every
+station, under the impression that she should see the bridegroom there,
+'dangling his bonnet and plume' (though how he was to have got ahead of
+us, unless he came by electric telegraph, does not appear). What sport
+it would have been! I should have liked so to have seen the 'laggard in
+love' once more."
+
+"He was not quite _that_," Isabel interrupted, rather mischievously.
+
+"Ah! I dare say you kept him up to the traces," her husband remarked,
+languidly. "You have a talent that way. What 'passages,' as Varney
+called them, there must have been, eh! Guy? We won't hear your
+confession now, Puss. In pity to Mademoiselle Agläe's eyes (which are
+very fine), if not to your own (which are very useful), I think you had
+better go to bed. That ferocious vetturino will have us up at unholy
+hours, and is not to be mitigated."
+
+We sat talking for a little while after Isabel left us; then Forrester
+rose and strolled to the window. The flood of light that poured in when
+he drew the curtain was quite startling, making the three beaked oil
+lamps look smoky and dim.
+
+"I shall smoke my last cigar _al fresco_," Charley said; "I suppose it's
+the correct thing to do, with such a moon as that. Won't you come, Guy?
+I must not tempt you out into the night air, Hammond."
+
+"Not to-night," Livingstone answered. "I am not in the humor for
+admiring any thing. I should be rather in your way."
+
+One of his gloomy fits was coming over him, at which times he always
+chose to be alone.
+
+"Well, I shall go and consume the 'humble, but not wholly heart-broken
+weed of every-day life,' as Tyrrell used to say. (Don't you remember his
+double-barreled adjectives?) If you hear any one singing _very_ sweetly,
+don't be alarmed; you'll know it is the harmless lunatic who now
+addresses you; the fit won't last more than an hour. We shall be in Rome
+to-morrow. The only thing on my mind now is whether I shall find any
+thing there to carry me across the Campagna. K---- has a very fair pack,
+I understand, and no end of foxes."
+
+Have you ever watched the completion of a photograph, when the nitrate
+of silver (or whatever the last lotion may be) is applied? First one
+feature comes out, that you may indulgently mistake for a tree, or a
+gable-end, or a mountain top; then another, till the whole picture
+stands out in clear, brilliant relief.
+
+Just so when I recall that scene--little heed as I took at the time of
+them--every gesture, and look, and tone of Forrester's becomes as
+distinct as if he stood in the body before me now. I can see him
+standing in the shadow of the doorway, the red glare from the blazing
+wood with which he was lighting his cigar falling over his delicate
+features and bright chestnut hair--I can hear his kind soft voice as he
+speaks these last two words, "_Al rivederci_."
+
+Whether that wish will be accomplished hereafter, God alone can tell; if
+so, it must be beyond the grave. In life we never saw him any more.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+     "But time at length makes all things even,
+     And if we do but bide the hour,
+     There never yet was human power
+       That could evade, if unforgiven,
+     The patient search and vigil long
+     Of him who treasures up a wrong."
+
+
+Three quarters of an hour later, Guy was sitting in his room, gazing at
+the embers on the hearth, in the attitude of moody thought that of late
+he was apt to fall into. Suddenly there came a timid knock at his door.
+When he opened it, his cousin stood on the threshold--ghost-like,
+against the background of darkness, with her white dressing-gown, pale
+cheeks, and long hair unbound.
+
+"Guy, don't be angry," she said; "it's very foolish of me, I know; but
+Charley has not come in yet, and just now I am certain there was a shot
+quite near. Agläe heard nothing, but I did. You know he always carries a
+pistol. I made him do so. It is nothing, I am sure; but I am so
+frightened. If you would--"
+
+She tried to smile, but that ghastly look of terror that he had seen
+once before, long ago, in the library at Kerton Manor, again swept over,
+and possessed all her face like a white chill mist.
+
+"Don't be absurd, you silly child," Guy said, kindly. "Of course I'll go
+out directly, and bring him in in five minutes, to laugh at you. Now go
+back to your room; there's nothing on earth to be alarmed about."
+
+But the instant she had gone, I heard his voice quick and stern: "Frank,
+come here." There was a door of communication between our rooms, and,
+though it was closed, I had caught some words of this conversation, so I
+was ready nearly as soon as he. Guy only staid to take a short
+lance-wood club, headed with a spiked steel head, which was his constant
+traveling companion--a very simple weapon, but deadly in his hands as
+the axe of Richard the King--and then we sallied out, taking our
+servants and some other men that were below, with torches, in case the
+moon should fail us unexpectedly.
+
+Twice, three times, when we had gone a short distance, Livingstone
+shouted Forrester's name. His powerful voice rang far through the
+ravines, and struck against the rocks, rolling and reverberating in
+their hollows like a blast fired in a deep mine; but no answer came.
+
+I looked at my companion very nervously. He never spoke, but I saw him
+gnaw his under lip till the blood ran down.
+
+We had gone a hundred paces or so farther along a narrow path outside
+the town. On our right the cliff fell almost abruptly toward the river.
+Guy was a few paces in front, when suddenly there broke from his lips
+such a sound as I have never heard from those of any mortal before or
+since.
+
+It is impossible to describe it. It was utterly involuntary, as if some
+spirit had spoken within the man--a cry of horror and of unspeakable
+wrath, such as might have burst from the chest of one of the Old-World
+giants, when the rock fell from heaven that crushed him like a worm. The
+Italians, used to every tone that can express passion, shrunk and
+cowered back in terror.
+
+Our eyes all followed the direction of his, that were staring down upon
+a flat open space, clear from brush-wood, down in the hollow on our
+right. Our search was ended, and we knew it. The moon, that flickered
+and quivered elsewhere through bough and brake, settled there steadily
+on a single white spot.
+
+In all the world there is but one object on which she can cast so
+ghastly a reflection--a dead man's face.
+
+Guy recovered himself first, and plunged recklessly down the cliff side.
+When we reached him, he was supporting on his knee the head of poor
+Charley Forrester, stone dead, and foully murdered.
+
+The first glance told how unavailing all human aid must be. One small
+deep wound just above the left temple must have been fatal instantly.
+Close by his side lay the instrument of the slaughter--a thin,
+triangular piece of granite--and, ten paces off, his pistol, one barrel
+discharged. His watch and (as we afterward found) his purse were gone,
+but an emerald ring of great value was still untouched on his finger.
+
+I staggered back, heart-sick and faint. When I recovered I saw dimly the
+group of men, awe-stricken and whispering, and Guy still gazing down at
+the face that rested on his knee, as if it fascinated his eyes. I could
+not bear to look upon the piteous sight. All through the bright hair the
+dark blood had soaked, and a slow stream was stealing through it still;
+the fair features were all defaced and deformed with the wrath and
+agony of the last mortal struggle. Yet I do remember that, if any one
+definite expression still lingered there, it was bitter contempt and
+scorn.
+
+"In God's name, sir, what is to be done?" It was Hardy who spoke, poor
+Forrester's own servant, the only Englishman among our attendants. He
+was choking, and could hardly gasp out the words.
+
+Livingstone rose slowly, first pillowing the mangled head on a soft tuft
+of moss, tenderly as if it were conscious still. His nature was such
+that no shock, or pain, or sorrow to which humanity is liable, could
+bend or quell it, so as to deprive him, beyond a brief instant, of
+self-possession and calmness. It was not insensibility now, and hardly
+stoicism, but an elasticity of resistance and strength of endurance
+that, in my own knowledge, have never been matched. In history or in
+Indian life you might find many parallels.
+
+He answered quite steadily, though in a low tone, as if reverencing the
+presence of the dead.
+
+"There is no hope. It is useless to send for a surgeon. Hardy, you will
+take all the men whom you can collect and scour the country. Send to the
+_sbirri_ immediately; they will go with you. There must be traces of the
+murderer. Frank, will you see that--he--is brought carefully to the
+house? I will"--he stopped, and drew a long, hard breath--"I will go and
+break it to Isabel." His hand, that happened to touch mine as he spoke,
+was damp and icy cold.
+
+In his life Guy Livingstone had done and dared more than most men, but
+he never ventured on any thing so thoroughly brave, and valiant, and
+strong-hearted as when he left me, without another word, on that
+errand. For myself, though weak both in body and nerve, I swear I would
+rather have gone up the breach at Badajoz with the forlorn hope, than up
+that bank with the certainty before me of what awaited him.
+
+Trees overhanging, and high walls on either side, and the change from
+the bright moonlight, made it so dark just as you approached the inn
+that Guy scarcely saw a white figure crouching down a few paces from the
+door till he was close upon it.
+
+He threw his arm round Isabel Forrester's waist before she could pass
+him. Half his task was done; there was nothing to break to her now. She
+understood all when she saw him come back alone.
+
+For a few moments, there they stood in the dark, no word passing between
+them; the only sound was her quick panting, as she struggled in his
+grasp, battling to get free.
+
+"Isabel," he said, at last, gravely, "come in; I must speak to you."
+
+No answer still, but the same desperate struggle to get loose. There was
+a savage, supernatural power in her writhings that taxed even his
+gigantic strength to hold her; as it was, he yielded unconsciously to
+her impulse so as to recede some paces till they issued out into the
+moonlight. He could scarcely recognize her features; they were all
+working and contorted, the lips especially horribly drawn back and
+tense. She bent her head down at last, and made her teeth meet in the
+arm that detained her.
+
+Guy never flinched nor stirred, but spoke again in the same slow,
+deliberate tone.
+
+"Isabel, come in. I swear that you shall see him when it is safe. They
+are bringing him back now."
+
+She ceased struggling and stood straight up, shaking all over, straining
+her eyes forward to the turning in the path where the torches began to
+gleam.
+
+"Is he not dead, then?" she said, in a strange, harsh voice, utterly
+unlike her own. Her cousin did not try to delude her; all the stern
+outline of his face softening in an intense pity told her enough.
+
+Such a scream--weird, long drawn out, and unearthly, such as we fancy the
+Banchee's--as that which pierced through my very marrow (though I stood
+three hundred yards away, as if it had been uttered close at my ear), I
+trust I shall never hear again.
+
+Then followed the contrast of a great stillness; for, as the last
+accents died away on her lips, Isabel sank down, without a struggle,
+into a dead swoon.
+
+A sad satisfaction came into Guy's face. "It is best so," he muttered;
+"I hope she won't wake for an hour," and he carried her into the house.
+They were trying to revive her, unsuccessfully, when I reached it with
+those who bore the corpse on a litter of pine branches. By Guy's
+directions, it was laid on his own bed; and there the Italian women
+rendered the last offices to the dead man, weeping and wailing over him
+as though he had been a brother or dear friend--only for his rare
+beauty--even as the Moorish girls mourned over that fair-faced Christian
+knight whom they found lying, rolled in blood, by the rock of Alpujarro.
+
+Soon they came to tell Guy that Isabel was recovering from her swoon.
+She was hardly conscious when he entered the room, and he heard her
+moaning, "I am so cold, so cold," shivering all over, though she was
+warmly wrapped in cloaks and shawls.
+
+The village doctor, a mild, helpless-looking man, was sitting by her
+bedside. He tried to feel her pulse just then, I suppose to show that he
+could be of some use; but she shrunk away from him, and beckoned to her
+cousin to come near. He motioned to the others to leave them alone, and,
+kneeling down by her, took her hand in his.
+
+"Guy, dear," she said, "I know I have been so very wicked and ungrateful
+to you; but you must not be angry. I have no one left to take care of me
+but you, now. I will try to be patient; indeed, indeed I will." Her
+voice was faint and exhausted, but as gentle as ever.
+
+He held her hand faster, and bent his forehead down upon it.
+
+"You are not wicked--only too weak to bear your sorrow. If I only knew
+what to do to comfort you! But I am so rough and harsh, even when I mean
+to be kind. I can say nothing, either. I suppose you ought to submit,
+but I can not tell you how; it is a lesson I have never been able to
+learn."
+
+"You can do this," she said. "Let me go to him. Ah! don't refuse. I will
+be calm and good. Indeed I will. But I must go"--she sank her voice into
+a lower whisper yet--"I have not kissed him to-night."
+
+There was something so unspeakably piteous in her tone and in her
+imploring eyes, that had grown quite soft again, though no tears had
+moistened them, that Guy could hardly answer her.
+
+"I did not mean to refuse you, dear," he said, at last. "I won't even
+ask you to wait. If you are not strong enough to walk, I will carry
+you."
+
+She rose slowly and painfully, as if her limbs were stiff with cold; but
+she could stand, and walk with his arm round her; and so these two moved
+slowly along the deserted passages toward the room where the corpse lay.
+
+There was nothing shocking in its appearance now. All the traces of
+murder had been washed away, and they had arranged the silky chestnut
+hair till it concealed the wound, and fell in smooth waves over the
+white forehead. That sweet calm which will sometimes descend on the face
+of the dead, even when their end has been violent--the sad _Alpen-gluth_
+that comes only when the sun has set--was there in all its beauty. Save
+that the features were somewhat sharper than in life, there was nothing
+to mar their pure classical outline. It was well, indeed, that Guy held
+her back two hours ago. If Isabel had looked on them then, I believe she
+would have gone mad with terror, if not with sorrow. It matters much,
+the expression of a face, when it is sure to mingle in our dreams for
+many after years.
+
+Guy led her up to the bedside, and left the room as she sank down on her
+knees. He remained outside the closed door, for he thought she might
+need help if her strength failed suddenly; and I joined him there.
+
+For some time we heard only the quick, stormy sobs, and the kisses
+showering down; then came the piteous, heart-broken wail that called
+upon her husband's name; and then the great gush of tears that saved
+her. After that there was a murmur, often broken off but always
+renewed: we both bowed our heads reverently, for we knew the widow was
+praying.
+
+She came forth at length, her head buried in her hands; but she could
+walk to her room unassisted, and allowed them to undress her there,
+without a word but thanks. Before long nature would have her way, and
+she was sleeping quietly.
+
+While we were waiting the return of the men who had gone out in pursuit,
+Livingstone went alone into the death-chamber. He staid there some
+minutes. When he came out his face was paler than ever, and there was a
+sort of horror in his eyes.
+
+He took my arm and led me into the room without speaking. "Do you see
+that?" he asked, lifting the hair gently that fell over the left check
+of the corpse.
+
+Distinctly and lividly marked on the waxen flesh were the five fingers
+of a man's _open hand_.
+
+"Do you think that was a brigand's work?" he went on, his gripe
+tightening till I could scarcely bear the pain. "They always strike with
+a weapon or with the clenched fist. Shall I tell you whose mark that is?
+Bruce's. If he did not murder him himself, he struck him after he was
+dead."
+
+"Impossible," I said; "how could he? He has never--"
+
+Livingstone cast my arm loose somewhat impatiently. "We shall know all
+some day," he growled, his whole face black with passion. "I am
+convinced of it. If he's on earth I'll find him; and when I do, if I
+show him mercy or let him go--" The imprecation that followed was not
+less solemn and terrible because it was muttered to his own heart.
+
+"We must never let Isabel guess the truth," he said, when he became
+calmer. "It would be worse than all. She would always think she had
+caused this, and she has enough to bear up against already. God help
+her!"
+
+Soon Agläe came to tell us that her mistress was asleep. The
+Frenchwoman's first impulse had been to be hysterical and helpless; it
+was only her terror of Guy prevailing over all others that made her, as
+she was, very useful.
+
+He went to the door for an instant, and looked at Isabel. Dreamland was
+kinder and pleasanter to her than real life, poor child, for there was a
+smile on her lips that, when she was waking, would be long in visiting
+them. How would ships or men ever last out if there were not some
+harbors of refuge to rest in before going out into the wild weather
+again? Truly she had won hers for the moment; it looked as if an angel
+had come down to smooth, this time, instead of troubling the waters.
+
+The pursuers came back empty-handed; they had not come upon the faintest
+trace, nor could they hear of any suspicious character having been seen
+in the neighborhood.
+
+Guy betrayed no impatience when he heard this; but he went out himself
+with some of the best men, and spent the rest of the night and all the
+following morning on the quest. All to no purpose. He returned about
+noon, with his companions quite fagged out; but fatigue and
+sleeplessness seemed to have no grasp upon his frame.
+
+Isabel was up, and had been asking for him several times. When he saw
+her, she offered no opposition to his wish to go on straight to Rome the
+next day. Neither then nor at any future time did she ever ask for any
+particulars of her husband's death.
+
+Her old child-like dependence and trust in her cousin had come back, and
+all through the journey she was quite tranquil. It is true, we hardly
+ever saw her face, for her veil was closely drawn. Her grief was not the
+less painful to witness because it was so little demonstrative. Very old
+and very young women, in the plenitude of their benevolence, are good
+enough to sympathize with any tale of woe, however absurdly exaggerated;
+but men, I think, are most moved by the simple and quiet sorrows. We
+smile at the critical point of a spasmodic tragedy, complacently as the
+Lucretian philosopher looking down from the cliff on the wild sea; we
+yawn over the wailings of Werter and Raphael, but we ponder gravely over
+the last chapters of the _Heir of Redclyffe_, and feel a curious
+sensation in the throat--perhaps the slightest dimness of vision--when
+we read in _The Newcomes_ how that noble old soldier crowned the
+chivalry of a stainless life, dying in the Gray Brother's gown.
+
+There were many at Rome who had known Forrester and loved him well, and
+all these followed him to his grave. I do not think he had an enemy on
+earth except the man who slew him.
+
+What are the qualifications of a general favorite? Good looks, good
+birth, good-humor, and good assurance will do much; but the want of one
+or more of these will not invalidate the election, nor the union of all
+four insure it. It must be very pleasant to serve in the _compagnie
+d'élite_. They have privileges to which the Line may not aspire. It does
+not much matter what they do. Their victories make them no enemies, and
+their defeats raise them up hosts of sympathizers and apologists. When
+they err gravely, if you hint at the misdemeanor, a "true believer"
+looks at you indignantly, not to say contemptuously, and says, "What
+could you expect? It's only poor--" Yes, it is a great gift--Amiability;
+and when the possessor dies, it is profoundly true that better men might
+be better spared.
+
+Very soon Raymond came to take his daughter back to England. That calm
+old calculating machine was more deranged and shocked by the catastrophe
+than I should have thought it possible he would have been by any earthly
+disaster. He was getting older now, and more broken, it is true, and so,
+perhaps, was more accessible to the weakness of sympathy. At all events,
+nothing could be kinder and more considerate than his conduct to Isabel.
+
+Guy and I still lingered on in Rome. He was untiring in his researches,
+but quite unsuccessful. Yet it was not that the police were remiss, or
+the country people inclined to shield the murderer. The best of them
+would have sold his own father to the guillotine for half the reward
+offered by Livingstone, for he lavished as much gold in trying to clear
+up that crime as in old days the Cenci or Colonna did to smother theirs.
+At length we were forced to give it up, and returned home in the
+_Petrel_. I own I despaired of ever being more successful; but my
+companion evidently had not done so, for I heard him, more than once,
+mutter to himself, in the same low, determined tone, "If he is on
+earth, I'll find him."
+
+Immediately on our arrival, Guy went up to Bruce's home in Scotland. He
+only learned that the latter had not been there for a long time; but
+that some months back, Allan Macbane, a sort of steward and old
+dependent of the family, had left suddenly, summoned, it was supposed,
+by his master. More the people could not or would not tell.
+
+At his banker's it was discovered that, immediately after the
+Forresters' marriage, he had drawn out a very large sum--not in letters
+of credit, but in bank-notes--and had not been heard of since. After
+much trouble, we did find out that one of the large notes had been
+changed at Florence about the time of the murder, but the description of
+the person did not answer in the least to that of Bruce or the man who
+was supposed to be his attendant. All trace stopped there. So the months
+rolled away. I constantly saw Guy, and sometimes was with him both in
+town and at Kerton, where Isabel was staying with Lady Catharine. He
+still appeared to have no doubt of the ultimate result of the search,
+which, personally or by deputy, he never intermitted for a day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+                                 "He threw
+     His wrathful hand aloft, and cried 'Away!
+     Earth could not hold us both, nor can one heaven
+     Contain my deadliest enemy and me.'"
+
+
+We were sitting in Livingstone's chambers one night in the following
+March, and dinner was just over, when the detective was announced who
+for months had been in Guy's pay and on Bruce's track.
+
+He was a stout, hale man, rather past middle age, with a rosy face, a
+cheerful, moist eye, and full, sensual lips--just the proper person to
+return thanks for "The Successful Candidates" at an agricultural
+meeting. Originally of a kindly convivial nature, he had grown familiar
+with crime till he despised it. The reward set upon the criminal's
+capture was his only standard of guilt. He took a real pleasure in the
+chase, I imagine, but had no preference for any game in particular, and
+was quite indifferent whether the cover he had to draw was a saloon or a
+cellar. He would hunt a fraudulent bankrupt or a parricide with equal
+zeal, and, when he had caught him, be just as jocularly affable with the
+one as with the other. In a drama of life and death, the fierce passions
+of the actors were only so many gleams of light showing him where the
+right path lay, for which assistance he thanked them heartily. The
+foulest mysteries of the sinful human heart touched and shocked him no
+more than the evidences of disease do the dissecting surgeon: with both
+it was a simple question of defective organization. The possession of
+secrets, far less weighty than some that he never told, have made men
+look worn, and miserable, and gray; but he would pat his corpulent
+leather pocket-book with a self-sufficient satisfaction, scarcely
+hinting that the publication of its contents would have caused more
+devastation in some well-regulated families than the bursting of a
+ten-inch shell in their front drawing-room.
+
+His lips and eyes wore a smile pleasantly significant as he entered,
+and, before he could speak, Guy leaped up, waving his hand high in
+irrepressible triumph. "I told you so, Frank. I knew we should find him.
+Come--come quickly." He was more excited than I had seen him in the last
+dozen years.
+
+I exulted too, but I confess a certain repugnance and nervousness
+mingled with that feeling: it was a new thing to me to stand face to
+face with a murderer.
+
+Neither of us gave as much attention as it deserved to the narrative
+with which the officer favored us _en route_, of how he had been
+gradually getting the clew to the fugitive's many doublings and
+disguises till he came upon his retreat at last. "They mostly make for
+home when they're dead beat," he remarked, alluding to Bruce's having
+selected London as his final hiding-place.
+
+We soon reached the spot--one of those dreary by-ways that trend
+westward out of the Waterloo Road. As we drew up, the outline of a
+figure revealed itself out of the darkest nook of the dim street, and a
+man came forward and opened the door of the cab, interchanging a word
+or two with our companion.
+
+As we got out, the detective laid his hand on Guy's arm. "Gently, sir,"
+he said. "You must be careful. We've not quite so much proof as I could
+wish. It would be straining a point to arrest him as it stands. I'd do
+it though--_for you_. Get him to talk, and don't hurry him; he's safe to
+commit himself; and we'll nail him at the first word. My comrade says he
+has not left his bed since yesterday. Perhaps he's ill. All the better.
+We can frighten him if we get his man out of the way."
+
+Guy's hand was on the bell before the last words were said, and he rang
+it sharply. The two officers drew back into the shadow.
+
+In a few moments an old man opened the door, whom we guessed to be
+Bruce's attendant. He had one of those stubborn, rough-hewn faces that
+even white hair can not soften any more than hoar-frost can the outline
+of a granite crag.
+
+"What's ye're wull?" he drawled out, in the rugged Aberdeen Doric.
+
+"I wish to see Mr. Bruce."
+
+"No sic a pairson here," was the reply, accompanied by a vigorous effort
+to close the door.
+
+A heavy groan, proceeding from a room on the ground floor, gave him the
+lie as he spoke. Guy threw up his head like a hound breaking from scent
+to view, and thrust Macbane back violently. The old man staggered and
+fell; but he clung round Livingstone's knees, as he groveled, till he
+was actually trampled down. There was a difficulty in the lock
+somewhere; but bolt and staple were torn away in an instant by the
+furious hand that grasped the handle, and so at last we stood in the
+presence of the man we had sought so long.
+
+Do you remember that hideous picture in Hogarth's "Two Apprentices,"
+where the sleeping robber is alarmed by the crash in the chimney? That
+was exactly Bruce's attitude. He had started into a sitting posture, and
+was braced up on his hands, his face thrust forward, half covered by the
+straight unkempt hair. What a face it was! White and flecked with
+sweat-drops, marbled here and there with livid stains, the lips
+quivering and working till they twisted themselves sometimes into a
+ghastly mockery of a smile, the long teeth gleaming more wolfish than
+ever. The iris of the prominent eyes had grown yellowish, and the whites
+were bloodshot, so that the light seemed to flash from them _tawnily_.
+
+Bruce had always been very much afraid of Livingstone. His terror had
+gone on increasing during months of relentless pursuit; it had reached
+its climax now. Guy stood at the foot of the bed, contemplating the
+unhappy wretch with a cruel calmness that seemed to drive him wild. He
+writhed and cowered under the fixed gaze, as if it gave him physical
+pain.
+
+"What are you here for?" he screamed out at last.
+
+In strong contrast to the shrill, strained voice, the answer came slow
+and stern. "To arrest Charles Forrester's murderer."
+
+Then Bruce seemed to lose his head all at once, and began to rave. It is
+impossible to transcribe the string of protestations, prayers for mercy,
+and horrible blasphemies; but there was enough of self-betrayal to
+complete the proof we wanted ten times told. The detective chuckled
+more complacently than ever as he insinuated the handcuffs round
+Macbane's wrists. Over all Bruce's cries, I remember, the old man's
+harsh voice made itself heard, "Whisht, whisht, I tell ye, and keep a
+quiet tongue; they canna harm ye." The other did not seem to hear him,
+or to notice his removal by the officers, muttering, as he went, that
+"we had driven his master mad, and were killing him."
+
+Livingstone waited patiently till the outbreak had spent itself; then he
+said, "Get up, and come with us instantly. You shall finish your night
+in Newgate."
+
+Tho sick man lay back for some moments with his eyes closed, panting and
+evidently quite exhausted. When he opened his eyes there was a
+steadiness in them which surprised us. He spoke, too, quite calmly. "I
+do not mean to deny any thing, nor to resist, even if I could. I am
+tired of running away; it is as well over; but I was taken by surprise
+at first. Guy Livingstone, do you choose to listen to me for five
+minutes? My head is clear now. I do not know how long it will last; but
+I do know that, after to-night, I will never speak about Forrester's
+death one word."
+
+"Will you tell me how you killed him?" Livingstone asked, controlling
+his voice wonderfully.
+
+"That is what I wish to do," Bruce said. I believe he was glad of the
+opportunity of showing us how much we had misjudged him in thinking him
+harmless, for a curious sort of grin was hovering about his mouth. Guy,
+whose eyes were bent down at the moment, did not see it, or the tale
+would never have been told.
+
+"You know how you were all against me at Kerton," he began. "She did
+not care for me then, perhaps; but I would have been so patient and
+persevering that she must have loved me at last--only you never gave me
+fair play. Ah! do you think, because I was ugly and awkward, I had no
+chance?"
+
+"No; but because she knew you were a coward," Guy said.
+
+There was something grand in the utter indifference with which Bruce met
+the insult.
+
+"You are wrong," he replied, coolly; "she did not know it. You all did,
+and reckoned on my being long-suffering and inoffensive. I saw, at last,
+what Forrester had done; yet I never guessed but that she would marry
+me. I trusted to her father and her own fears for keeping her straight.
+After marriage I would have tried still what great love and tenderness
+could do. I meant--never mind what I meant--it's all over now. I was
+nearly mad for a week after their flight. Then I became quite cool, and
+I said, 'I will kill him myself.' And so I did. Mind, I swear, Allan
+knew nothing of it till all was done. I thought I should be brave enough
+for that. Fifty times during the months that I tracked them, always
+changing my disguise, I nearly caught him alone; but each time I was
+balked. Wherever they went, I watched under their windows for the chance
+of his coming out; but I only saw--"
+
+He gnashed his teeth, and rolled over and over in a paroxysm of jealous
+recollection. We guessed what he meant. Then he went on: "That night he
+sauntered backward and forward for some time. I thought he would not go
+far enough away, and I called to the devil to help me. He did; for, very
+soon, Forrester walked straight down the path. I crept after him till
+he had gone some hundred yards--my heart was beating so quickly that I
+could hardly breathe--then I ran forward and stood before him. I had
+taken off the black wig and beard that I always wore, and he knew me
+directly.
+
+"'Mr. Bruce, I believe?' he said, raising his hat, just as if he had met
+me by appointment.
+
+"'Yes,' I said. 'I have got you at last, as I wished.' I tried to speak
+as steadily as he had done; but, as the moment for action came near, my
+d----d cowardice made me stammer.
+
+"'I am not invisible, as a rule,' he replied. 'You, or any friend of
+yours, might have found me long ago. You have been some time making up
+your mind. It's that unfortunate constitutional--caution, I suppose.
+Well, I'll meet you in Rome: it's more than you deserve.'
+
+"'You'll fight me here--now,' I said.
+
+"'I shall do nothing half so melodramatic,' he answered. 'I'll give you
+a fair chance on the ground; but, if you do not move out of my path now,
+I'll shoot you as I would any other disagreeable ruffian,' and he put
+his hand into his breast, where, I knew, he carried a pistol.
+
+"I _was_ brave then. I sprang in upon him all at once. 'You may shoot
+now, if you like,' I said. 'I swear I am quite unarmed. But show _that_
+to your wife when you go back,' and I struck him with my open hand."
+
+(I remembered the mark on the corpse's cheek, and looked at Guy eagerly.
+I could not see his face, which was hidden by the curtain, but all his
+lower limbs were shaking and quivering.)
+
+"I thought how it would be," Bruce went on; "he drew his hand out with
+the pistol in it, but he only flung it over the bank--one barrel went
+off in the fall--then we grappled. After wrestling for a minute or two
+on the narrow path, we lost our footing and rolled down the rocks;
+neither quitted his hold, but I fell uppermost and kept him down. He
+struggled desperately at first; but when he found that I was much the
+stronger, he lay quite still, looking up into my face. I said, 'It's my
+turn at last. Do you think I'll let you off?'
+
+"He did not answer at first. I believe he would not till he had quite
+recovered his breath; then he said, coolly, 'No, I don't. Finish it
+quickly, if you can, that's all.' I would have delayed a little, to
+enjoy my triumph, but I thought the pistol-shot might bring some one; so
+I tightened my gripe on his throat, and looked round for a weapon. I
+found none at first, and my purpose actually began to soften when I saw
+him so helpless; but, as I relaxed my fingers, I heard him whisper to
+himself, 'Poor Bella! we have been very happy: I wish we had more
+time--' I got mad again directly. 'D--n you!' I cried out, 'I'll kill
+you now, and marry her some day.' His old insolent smile came on his
+lip. 'No you won't,' he said; 'you don't know how she hates you, and how
+we have laughed--' He had no time to say more, for I found my weapon
+then--a stone triangular and sharp-pointed like a dagger--and I struck
+him over the temple with all my force. He gave one convulsive spring
+that threw me clear of him, and never stirred again.
+
+"I did not repent when it was done; I have never repented since; I do
+not now. I only thought how best to escape the consequences. I took his
+watch and purse, that brigands might be suspected, and threw them into
+the river a mile off. I robbed him of one thing more--this!" All his
+haggard face was transfigured with a ghastly triumph as he opened a
+small leathern case that hung round his neck, and held up before us two
+locks of hair.
+
+There they were--the love-gift and the death-spoil--the memorials of
+defeat and of victory, of foiled affection and of gratified hate--the
+one, beguiled from Isabel by Bruce himself, with many earnest pleadings,
+in the early days of their engagement; the other, torn from her
+husband's temples before they were cold. The long light brown tress was
+scarcely more soft and satin-smooth than the chestnut curl; but one end
+of the last was matted, and discolored by a dark rusty stain--the stain
+that, the Greek poet said, all the rivers of earth flowing in one
+channel could never wash away--the testimony, to our ears mute enough
+now, but which, perhaps, will make itself heard above the Babel of all
+other cries at the Day of Judgment.
+
+The two tokens were twined together lovingly, as if they were sensitive
+and conscious still. Bruce plucked them asunder: "I never can keep them
+apart," he said, querulously. Then he put them back into the case
+separately, and began to mutter to himself many words that I could not
+distinguish.
+
+"Have you any thing more to say?" Livingstone asked. His lips were rigid
+and compressed like a steel-trap, opening and closing mechanically. As
+he spoke, he snatched the leathern bag from Bruce's hand and threw it
+into the blazing fire.
+
+A sharp howl, like a flogged hound's, broke from the sick man as he saw
+his treasure shrivel up in the flame. Then he began to whimper out all
+sorts of incoherent supplications, crying "that we did not know how much
+he had suffered before he killed Forrester, and since too; that he had
+been cruelly used from the beginning; that he was very, very ill now;
+would not we let him die in peace?" The tears were streaming down his
+face. It was a sight of abasement that sent a shiver through one's
+veins.
+
+Guy laid his hand on the miserable creature's shoulder. Though he
+scarcely touched it, I saw the great muscles starting out on his arm
+like ropes from the intensity of his suppressed emotion; his lower lip
+trembled, but his tones did not in the least. I can give no idea of
+their pitiless, deliberate ferocity.
+
+"Listen!" he said. "I told you before to get up and come with us--that
+is my answer now. If you have life enough left to be carried to the
+gallows-foot, you shall never cheat the hangman."
+
+Bruce looked up into the speaker's face for some moments. Gradually the
+agonized appeal in his wild eyes died away into vacancy; an expression,
+half cunning, half amused, stole over his face; and, leaning gently
+back, he began pulling threads out of the coverlet, laughing low.
+
+The blood gushed from Guy's clenched hand as he struck it furiously
+against the stone mantel.
+
+"By ----," he said, with a fearful oath, "he has escaped me, after all."
+
+It was so. The mind, worn and strained by the terrors of the long
+pursuit, perhaps by remorse not acknowledged even to himself; and by the
+last great effort at self-control, had given way at last--forever. God
+had recorded his verdict, and no earthly court could try the criminal
+again. Bruce is living now (and I dare say will outlive most of us, for
+his bodily health is perfect), vicious sometimes, but never conscious;
+hard to please, but easy to manage, so long as his attendant is a man,
+and a strong one; accessible only to the one emotion which drove him
+mad--physical fear.
+
+Livingstone called the officers; they came in with Macbane. The old man
+pretended to be very wroth when he saw his master's state, but I believe
+he rejoiced secretly. The credit of the family, with him, outweighed all
+considerations of personal attachment, and he would think public
+disgrace cheaply averted at any price.
+
+On our poor detective, perhaps, the blow fell heaviest; for, after some
+time, Guy did come round to my idea, that no punishment we could have
+brought about would have been so ample and terrible; but Mr. Fitchett
+could not see it in that light at all. Not only was the termination of
+the affair dreadfully unprofessional, but the little triumph he had
+anticipated at the trial was spoiled. If human weakness ever could touch
+this great man, it was when he heard the judge pay a compliment to "the
+sagacity and zeal of that most efficient officer." On such occasions,
+his bow of conscious merit abnegating praise was, I am told, wonderful
+to see. After a few words of explanation, he glanced wistfully at Bruce,
+and shook his head, like a broken-hearted Lord Burleigh. Then he
+unloosed the handcuffs from Macbane's wrists, whistling all the while
+softly a popular air, lively in itself, with a cadence so plaintive that
+it might have been a penitential psalm. No romantic school-girl opening
+the cage to her pet starling ever displayed more hesitation and
+reluctance than Mr. Fitchett setting that grim old bird free.
+
+In truth, there was no evidence to attach to the servant, so we left him
+and his master together. I could not have stood that room much longer.
+The ceaseless complacent chuckle of the idiot, and his fearful grimaces
+when he could not make the threads match, had the effect on my chest of
+a nightmare. Very slowly and silently we walked home through the
+darkness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+     "Be the day weary or never so long,
+     At length it ringeth to even song."
+
+
+There is little to chronicle in the events of the next few years.
+Livingstone resided almost entirely at Kerton. He rode as hard, and
+distinguished himself in all other field-sports as much as ever. But
+even in these, his favorite pursuits, he had lost the intense faculty of
+enjoyment which once seemed a part of his powerful organization.
+
+Do you remember that scene in the Nekuia, where the Eidolon of Achilles
+comes slowly through the twilight to meet his old brother in arms? Not
+only are his form and features altered after so ghastly a fashion that
+even the wanderer, wave-worn and travel-stained, looks brilliant by
+comparison, but all his feelings are utterly and strangely changed.
+Listen! He asks after the father from whom he parted when quite a child;
+after the son, whom he never saw; but not one word of his fair
+first-love--not one of her who was the passion of his manhood, whom he
+bucklered once against ten thousand. He had rather hear of Peleus and
+Neoptolemus than of Deidamia or Briseis. Of Polyxena, be sure that he
+remembers nothing but that he was holding her hand when her brother slew
+him. Will he ever forgive her that? Not if she could have made amends by
+the sacrifice of ten lives instead of that one which she gave,
+willingly, on Sigæum. Has ambition any hold on him either? Only to
+breathe the fresh clear air above instead of that murky, heavy
+atmosphere, he would resign the empire of the dead, and be a drudge to
+the veriest boor. Yet once, if we remember right, he chafed fiercely
+enough at a word of authority uttered by the King of Men. One of his old
+tastes clings to him still--a very simple one. He has forgotten the
+savor of Sciote and Chian wine; but--were it only for the sake of the
+carouses they have had together--Odysseus will not grudge him another
+draught out of the black trench. It is so long since be tasted blood!
+
+Guy was no more like his former self than the shadow was like the
+substance of Pelides. He was not languid, but simply apathetic and
+indifferent, so that one could not help being constantly struck by the
+contrast between his moral and physical state: the latter was still the
+perfection of muscular power.
+
+He was every thing that was kind to his mother, and to Isabel Forrester
+too, who spent much of her time at Kerton, and whose health was very
+delicate. If Lady Catharine could only have seen him more cheerful, she
+would have been _too_ happy. It was her great delight to try and spoil
+him, as she used to do when he was a child--trying to suit his tastes to
+the minutest shade. For instance, Guy was always finding in his own
+rooms some new ornament or addition to their comfort. Indifferent as he
+was to every thing, it was good in him that he never failed to remark
+these instantly. You would not have thought a cold, haughty face could
+light up so brilliantly as his mother's always did when he thanked her.
+Poor lady! Those last few years were her summer of St. Martin--not the
+less pleasant because winter was gathering already on the crests of the
+whitening hills.
+
+There were a good many guests in the house at times, almost invariably
+men, but none of the wild revels of the old days, very little hard
+drinking, and no play to speak of.
+
+One thing was remarkable--the great eagerness Guy displayed to keep the
+party together at night. He would engage us in arguments, and employ all
+sorts of ingenious devices to prevent us from going to bed, so that it
+became very trying to a weak constitution. I observed this to him one
+night when the rest had gone.
+
+The slight flush left by the excitement of conversation was vanishing
+rapidly from his cheeks, and a gray tinge was creeping over them like
+that which we see on a sick man very near his end.
+
+"It is too bad to keep you up, and too selfish," he said; "but I find
+the nights so long!"
+
+I left him without another word; but I lay long awake, haunted by that
+haggard face and dreary eyes. I wish I did not see them so often still
+in my dreams.
+
+There were changes in other houses besides Kerton Manor, and a vacancy
+in the most luxurious set of chambers in the Albany.
+
+Duns, and rheumatic gout, and satiety had proved too much at last for
+the patience of Sir Henry Fallowfield; so one night he preached his
+farewell sermon in the smoking-room of the ----, in which he was
+especially severe and witty on the absurdity and bad taste of a man
+condescending to suicide under any circumstances. The next morning they
+found him with--"that across his throat that you had scarcely cared to
+see." The hand whose tremor used to make him so savage when he was
+lifting a glass to his lips, had been strong and steady enough when it
+shattered the Golden Bowl and cut the Silver Cord asunder.
+
+Whether he was looking death in the face while he uttered those last
+cynicisms, and calculated on heightening the stage effect of the morrow,
+or whether a paroxysm of pain drove him mad, as it had done better men,
+who can tell? I think and hope the latter was the case, but--I doubt.
+Though Sir Henry Fallowfield had never read Aristotle, he had studied,
+all his life, the principles of the peripeteia.
+
+Godfrey Parndon no longer ruled over the Pytchley. He had backed his own
+opinions and other men's bills once or twice too often, and had retired
+temporarily into private life till he could get "his second wind." The
+new M.F.H. was his complete contrast--pale-faced, low-voiced, mild-eyed,
+and melancholy as a lotus-eater--one of the class of "weak-minded but
+gentlemanly young men" that Tom Cradock used to ask his friends to
+recommend to him as pupils. The farmers missed sadly Godfrey's bluff
+face and stalwart figure at the cover-side, while the "bruisers" from
+Leamington, and the "railers" from town, hearing no longer his great
+voice, good-naturedly imperative, adjuring them to "hold hard, and not
+to spoil their own sport," rode over the hounds rejoicing.
+
+Flora Bellasys was married.
+
+It was just the match I thought she would make. Sir Marmaduke
+Dorrillon's possessions were vast enough to satisfy any ambition, and
+his years put love out of the question.
+
+His friends had been as prophetic in their warnings as January's were,
+but even, they never guessed what he would have to endure at the hands
+of that cruel May. He tried very hard not to be jealous, but he could
+not help being sensitive; and so, day by day, she inflicted on him the
+_peine forte et dure_, "laying on him as much as he could bear, and
+more." It was sad to see how the kind old man withered and pined away;
+yet he never complained, and quarreled mortally with his best friend for
+daring to compassionate him.
+
+He was so courteous, and gentle, and chivalrous; so conscious of his own
+disadvantage in age; so generous in trusting her, and in hoping against
+hope; so considerate in anticipating all her wishes and whims, that it
+might have moved even Flora to pity. But her great disappointment had
+strangely altered and imbittered her character. She was _quite_
+merciless now, and never seemed really amused unless she was doing harm
+to some one.
+
+It was not that her manner had become harsh or repellent, or even more
+sarcastic; she wag to the full as fascinating as ever; but she was cool
+and calculating in her caprices. She took pains to make the momentary
+pleasure as exquisite as possible, that the after suffering might be
+more terrible; just like that ingenious Borderer who fed his enemy with
+all pungent and highly-seasoned dishes, and then left him to die of
+thirst.
+
+Yet all the while her own feelings must have been scarcely enviable.
+They say that great enchantresses, from Medea and Circe downward, have
+generally been unhappy in their loves. Either they could not raise the
+spirit, or it proved unmanageable; either their affection was not
+returned, or its object was unfaithful at last. In the single case where
+they put their science and their philtres aside, and were womanly, and
+natural, and sincere; where, to gain or to keep their treasure, they
+would gladly have broken their wand, they failed utterly, and found they
+were only half omnipotent. The justice was retributive, but it was very
+complete. Be sure, with those passionate natures, the honey of a
+thousand triumphs never deadened the sting of the one discomfiture.
+Suitors flocking from every shore and island of the Ægean never made
+Sappho forget, for one hour, that stubborn impassible Phaon. No wonder
+such are cruel and unjust to their subjects in after days. Poor innocent
+Ægeus very often has to do penance for the infidelity of Jason.
+
+I have little more to tell, and that is of the sort that is best told
+briefly.
+
+The hounds met one morning not far from Kerton. A three-days' frost had
+broken up; but it was not out of the ground yet, making the "take-off"
+slippery, and the north side of the fences dangerously hard. Livingstone
+rode the Axeine that day. The chestnut was still his favorite, and the
+crack hunter of three counties, though he had never lost his habit of
+pulling.
+
+It was a large, straggling cover that we drew, but the fox went away
+very soon. From the lower end of the wood a great pasture sloped down,
+at the bottom of which was a flight of post-and-rails--very high, new,
+and strong, with a deep cutting on the farther side. At one end of this
+was an open gate, through which the whole field passed.
+
+The hounds were just settling to the scent, when I happened to turn my
+head, and saw Livingstone coming down at the rails. He had got a bad
+start, and saw that, by taking them straight in his line, he would gain
+greatly on the pack, which was turning toward him.
+
+As the Axeine tore down the hill at furious speed, pulling double, it
+was evident that neither he nor his rider had the remotest idea of
+refusing.
+
+It was the last fence that either of them ever charged. As the chestnut
+rose to the leap, his hind legs slipped; he chested the rail, which
+would not break, and turned quite over, crushing Guy beneath him.
+
+I had seen the latter fall a hundred times without feeling the
+presentiment that seemed to _tighten_ round my heart as I galloped up to
+the spot. Many others must have felt the same, for they let the hounds
+go away without another glance, and some were before me there.
+
+The Axeine lay stone dead, with his neck broken, the huge carcass
+pressing on the legs of his rider. Guy was quite senseless; his face of
+a dull, ghastly white; there was a deep cut on his forehead; but we all
+felt we did not see the worst. With great trouble we drew him from under
+the dead horse. Still we could discover no broken bones or further
+external injury. We dashed water over him. In a few minutes he opened
+his eyes, and seemed to recognize every one directly, for he looked up
+into the frightened face of the first whip, who was supporting him, and
+said,
+
+"You always told me I went too fast at timber, Jack."
+
+I was sure, then, he was desperately injured, his voice was so weak and
+changed.
+
+"Where are you hurt, Guy?" some one asked. I could not speak myself.
+
+"I don't know," he said, looking down in a strange, bewildered way. "My
+head and arm pain me; but I feel nothing _below the waist_."
+
+His lower limbs were not much twisted or distorted, but they bore a
+horribly inert, dead appearance. There was not even a muscular quiver in
+them.
+
+I saw the Squire of Brainswick turn his head away with a shudder and a
+groan (he loved Guy as his own son), and I heard him mutter, "The
+_spine_!"
+
+It was so, and Livingstone soon knew it himself. He sighed once,
+drearily; but not a man there could have commanded his voice as he did
+when he said,
+
+"You must carry me home, heavy as I am. My walking days are ended."
+
+We made the best litter we could of poles and branches; and I remember,
+as we bore him past the carcass of the Axeine, he made us stop for an
+instant, and dropping his hand on the stiff, distorted neck, stroked it
+softly,
+
+"Good-by, old horse," he said. "It was no fault of yours. How well you
+always carried me!" He never spoke again till we reached Kerton Manor.
+
+Isabel Forrester was fortunately out, but Lady Catharine met us on the
+hall steps. She did not shriek or faint when she saw the horror, which
+had haunted her for years, fulfilled there to the uttermost. She knelt
+by her son when we laid him down, and wiped off a spot or two of blood
+from his forehead, and then kept his hand in hers, kissing it often. We
+had sent on before to warn the village doctor, and he visited Guy alone
+in his room.
+
+Powell had been a surgeon's mate in his youth, and was serving under
+Collingwood at Trafalgar when his ship stood first into action, and,
+like a sovereign of the old days, led the van of the battle. There was
+no shape of shattered and maimed humanity with which he had not been
+familiar, and my last hope died away when I saw him come forth,
+trembling all over, his rugged features convulsed with grief.
+
+"I saw him born," the old man sobbed out. "I never thought to see him
+die--and die _so_!"
+
+Guy had received a mortal injury in the spine, though how long he might
+linger none could tell.
+
+There broke from Lady Catharine's white lips one terrible heart-broken
+cry--"If God would only take me first!" Then her self-control returned,
+and she went into her son's room, outwardly quite calm.
+
+I have never tried to fancy what passed at the meeting of those two
+strong hearts, after the one had been brought suddenly, face to face,
+with an awful death, the other with a yet more awful sorrow.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+     "Ah! Sir Launcelot, there thou liest, that never wert matched of
+     earthly hands. Thou wert the fairest person, and the goodliest of
+     any that rode in the press of knights; thou wert the truest to thy
+     sworn brother of any that buckled on the spur; and thou wert the
+     faithfullest of any that have loved _paramours_: most courteous
+     wert thou, and gentle of all that sat in hall among dames; and thou
+     wert the sternest knight to thy mortal foe that ever laid spear in
+     the rest."
+
+
+When Powell's self-command gave way so completely after he saw the
+nature of Guy's case, it was not because he knew it must end fatally,
+but because his skill told him what fearful agonies must precede the
+release. All the surgeons who were called in could do nothing but
+confirm these forebodings. The colossal strength and vital energy of
+Livingstone's frame and constitution yielded but slowly to a blow which
+would have crushed a weaker man instantly. All the outworks were ruined
+and carried, but Death had still to fight hard before he won the
+citadel. I can not go through the details; I will only say that,
+sometimes, none of us could endure to look upon sufferings which never
+drew a complaint or a moan from him.
+
+Almost every pleasure has been discussed and dissected, but we know
+comparatively nothing of the physiology of pain. There is no standard by
+which to measure it, even if the courage and endurance of any mortal man
+could enable him to analyze his own tortures philosophically. Was it not
+always supposed that the guillotine is merciful, because quick in
+annihilation? Look at Wiertz's pictures at Brussels. If his idea (shared
+too, now, by many clever surgeons) be true, you will see the amount of a
+long life's suffering exceeded by what seems to us a minute's agony. But
+it is like the Eastern king's gaining the experience of fifty years by
+dipping his head for a second in the magic water. For a soul in torment
+there is no horologe.
+
+Of one thing be sure; the strong temperaments who enjoy greatly, suffer
+greatly too--those who endure in silence, most of all. I think the
+wolf's death-pang is sharper than the hare's.
+
+But Guy was not only patient, he was actually more cheerful than I had
+seen him since Constance died. He liked to see his old friends, and to
+hear accounts of their sport with hound and gun. To do these justice,
+there was not one who would not give up, gladly, the best meet of the
+Pytchley, or the shooting of the best cover in the county, to sit for
+half a day in that sick-room. He talked, too, always pleasantly and
+kindly to his mother and his cousin.
+
+Poor Isabel Forrester was quite broken down by this second blow. Next to
+her dead husband, I believe, she loved Guy better than any one; not
+unnaturally, for he had petted and protected her all her life long. She
+could not help giving way, though she tried hard, for the sake of
+others. It was piteous to see her, sitting alone for hours, gazing out
+on the bleak winter landscape, while the tears welled slowly from under
+her heavy eyelids.
+
+Foster, who was still at Kerton, came often to visit Livingstone. No
+one could do him so much good. The curate was just as confident and
+uncompromising in the discharge of his office as he was yielding and
+diffident when only himself was in question. He was so honest, and
+straightforward, and true--so free from rant or cant--so strong in his
+simple theology, that Guy soon trusted him implicitly when he spoke of
+the past and of the future that was so near. The repentance that was
+begun by Constance's dying bed was completed, I am sure, on his own.
+
+"Frank," Guy said, one morning, suddenly, "I have written to ask Cyril
+Brandon to come to me. He will be here to-day. It would make me very
+happy if I could hear him say he forgave me."
+
+"Do you think you will succeed?" I asked, sadly; for I felt a nervous
+certainty that the pain the interview must cost him would be unavailing.
+
+"I can not tell," he answered, firmly; "but Foster says, and I know,
+that it is my duty to try. You may be present, if you like, on one
+condition--you must promise, whatever he may say or do, not to interfere
+by a look or a word."
+
+I did promise; but I looked forward with dread to Brandon's coming. In
+an hour's time he was announced.
+
+It was the first time I had seen him; and I was much struck by the
+mingled expression of suffering and ferocity that sat, like a mask, on
+his worn dark face. I have seen its like but once--in a dangerous
+maniac's. He walked straight up to Guy's couch without noticing me, and
+stood there silent, glaring down on the sick man with his fiery black
+eyes.
+
+"It is very good of you to come," Guy said; "I scarcely hoped you
+would. I have wronged you, more deeply than any living man--so deeply
+that I could never have dared to ask your forgiveness if I had not been
+very near my death. Can you give me your hand? Indeed, indeed, I have
+repented sorely."
+
+Brandon's hoarse tones broke in:
+
+"I came, because, years ago, to see this sight, to see you lying there
+like a crushed worm, I would have sold my soul. Wronged me? Shall I tell
+you what you have done? There was only one creature on earth I cared
+for; that was my sister. All those years in India I had been fancying
+our meeting. I came back, and found her dying; more than that, I found
+her love turned away from me. You did _all_ this. I tell you, I never
+could get one of her old fond looks or words from her all the time she
+was dying. She was only afraid of me. By hell! you stood between us to
+the last. Do you know that she dragged herself across the room at my
+knees--mine, who never refused to indulge her in a whim before--first to
+be allowed to see you, and then to make me swear not to attempt your
+life?"
+
+He stopped, gnashing his teeth.
+
+All Guy's features, wan and worn by pain, were lighted up with a
+tenderness and joy inexpressible as he heard what his dead love had
+borne and done for him. He would have hidden his face had he guessed how
+its expression would exasperate Cyril's furious temper.
+
+"D--n you!" he howled out, like a madman, "do you dare to triumph?" and,
+tearing off his glove, he struck Livingstone on the cheek with it a
+sharp blow.
+
+A great shudder swept through every fibre of the maimed giant's frame,
+in which sensation lingered still; the blood surged up to his forehead
+and ebbed again instantly, leaving even the lips deathly white; he
+raised his hand quickly, but it was only to warn me back; for, mild and
+peaceable as I am, I leaped up then, as savage as Cain. With that hand
+he caught Brandon's wrist. The latter stood with his eyes cast down,
+sullenly--already, I am sure, horror at the act of foul cowardice into
+which his passion had driven him was creeping over him--he did not try
+to disengage himself. Had he done so, thrice his strength would not have
+set him free.
+
+"I thank God, from my heart," Guy said, very slowly and steadily, "that,
+if I meet your sister hereafter, I shall not shrink before her, for I
+believe all I promised her has been kept. Listen! you would feel shame
+to your life's end thinking that you had struck a helpless, dying
+cripple. It is not so. You don't know what you risked. You were within
+arm's-length, and at close quarters I could be dangerous still. Look."
+
+He took up a small silver cup that lay near, and crushed it flat between
+his fingers.
+
+There was silence then; only Brandon's breath was heard, drawn hard and
+irregularly, as if he was trying to throw off a weight from his chest.
+
+Guy looked up at him, and said very gently, holding out his hand, "Once
+more, forgive me."
+
+Cyril answered in a thick, smothered voice,
+
+"I will not take your hand. I will never forgive you. But I forgive
+Constance; for--I understand her now."
+
+He turned on his heel, and left the room without another word, still
+with his head bent down, as if in thought. I gazed after him till the
+door shut softly. Then I looked round at Guy. His head had fallen back,
+and the features looked so drawn and changed that I cried out, thinking
+he was dead. It was only a long, long swoon.
+
+Just another scene, and my tale is told.
+
+I was reading in Guy's room one evening. He had not spoken for some
+time, and I fancied he was asleep. Suddenly he called to me,
+
+"Frank, come here--nearer. I have several things to say to you, and I
+feel I must make haste. No, don't call any one. I said farewell to my
+mother yesterday, and we must spare her all we can."
+
+In the presence of that sublime self-command, I _dared_ not betray my
+grief by any outward sign. I knelt down by his side silently.
+
+He went on in a voice that, though hollow and often interrupted by
+failing breath, was perfectly measured and steady.
+
+"You can only be glad that the end has come at last, though it is well I
+have had time to prepare myself. Am I ready now? I can not tell. Foster
+says I ought to hope. I trust it is not wicked to say I do not _fear_. I
+have sinned often and deeply; but He who will judge me created me, and
+He knows, too, how much I have suffered. I do not mean from _this_ (he
+threw his hand toward his crippled limbs with the old gesture of
+disdain), but from bitterness and loneliness of heart. More than all, I
+am sure my darling has been pleading for me ever since she died. I will
+not believe her prayers have been wasted.
+
+"I want to tell you what I have done. You know the direct line of my
+family ends with me. I am glad it does. The next in succession would be
+a cousin, who has taken to some trade in Edinburgh; a good man, I
+believe--but he would not do here. So I have left Kerton to my mother
+for her life, and then--to you. Hush! the time is too short for
+objections or thanks, and death-bed gifts show little generosity.
+Besides, I would have left it to Isabel, only it would be more a trouble
+to her than any thing else. You will take care of every thing and every
+body. Say farewell for me to my old friends, especially to Mohun. Poor
+Ralph! he will be sorry--though he will not own it--when he comes back
+from Bohemia and finds me gone."
+
+He raised himself a little, so as to rest his hand on my shoulder as I
+knelt, while his voice deepened in its solemn calm:
+
+"Dear Frank, one other word for yourself, who have borne so patiently
+with my perverse temper since we were boys together. I have been silent,
+but, indeed, not ungrateful. For all your kind, unselfish thoughts, and
+words, and deeds--for all the good you would have counseled--for all
+your efforts to stand between me and wrong-doing--tried friend, true
+comrade! I thank you now, heartily, and I pray God to bless you always."
+
+It was only self-control, almost superhuman, that enabled him to speak
+those words steadily, for the fierce death-throe was possessing him
+before he ended. Through the awful minutes that followed, not another
+sound than the hissing breath escaped through his set lips; his face was
+not once distorted, though the hair and beard clung round it, matted and
+dank with the sweat of agony. The brave heart and iron nerve ruled the
+body to the last imperially--supreme over the intensity of torture.
+
+When he opened his eyes, which had been closed all through the
+protracted death-pang, there was a look of the ancient kindness in them,
+though they were glazing fast. He found my hand, and grasped it, till I
+felt the life ebbing back in his fingers. I saw his lips syllable
+"Good-by;" then, he leaned his head back gently, and, without a sigh or
+a shiver, the strong man's spirit went forth into The Night.
+
+A sense of utter desolation, as it were a horror of great darkness,
+gathered all around me as I leaned my forehead against the corpse's
+cheek, sobbing like a helpless child.
+
+You will not care to hear how we all mourned him.
+
+Will you care to hear that, often as his mother visits his grave, there
+is _one_ woman who comes oftener still?
+
+None of us have ever met her, for she comes always at late night or
+early morning. But finding, in the depth of winter or in the bleak
+spring, the ground about strewed with the choicest of exotic
+flowers--not carefully arranged, but showered down by a reckless,
+desperate hand--we know that Flora Dorrillon has been there.
+
+Do not laugh at her too much for clinging to the one romance of her
+artificial existence. Remember, while he lived, there was nothing so
+rare and precious--ay, even to the sacrifice of her own body and
+soul--that she would not have laid ungrudgingly at Guy Livingstone's
+feet.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Guy Livingstone;, by George A. Lawrence
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GUY LIVINGSTONE; ***
+
+***** This file should be named 17084-8.txt or 17084-8.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/0/8/17084/
+
+Produced by David Garcia, Martin Pettit and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Kentuckiana Digital Library)
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+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
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/17084-8.zip b/17084-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..828688e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17084-8.zip
diff --git a/17084-h.zip b/17084-h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bd576ad
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17084-h.zip
diff --git a/17084-h/17084-h.htm b/17084-h/17084-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d3ef4d0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17084-h/17084-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,9817 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+<html>
+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content=
+    "text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"/>
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of GUY LIVINGSTONE, by GEORGE A. LAWRENCE.
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css">
+/*<![CDATA[  XML blockout */
+<!--
+    p {  margin-top: .75em;
+         text-align: justify;
+         margin-bottom: .75em;
+         }
+    h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {
+         text-align: center; /* all headings centered */
+         clear: both;
+         }
+    hr { width: 33%;
+	 margin-top: 2em;
+	 margin-bottom: 2em;
+         margin-left: auto;
+         margin-right: auto;
+         clear: both;
+       }
+
+    body{margin-left: 10%;
+         margin-right: 10%;
+        }
+
+
+    .center   {text-align: center;}
+    .smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
+
+
+
+    .poem             {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;}
+    .poem br          {display: none;}
+    .poem .stanza     {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;}
+    .poem div        {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem div.i2     {display: block; margin-left: 2em;}
+    .poem div.i8     {display: block; margin-left: 8em;}
+    .poem div.i9     {display: block; margin-left: 9em;}
+    .poem div.i10     {display: block; margin-left: 10em;}
+    .poem div.i12     {display: block; margin-left: 12em;}
+    .poem div.i14     {display: block; margin-left: 14em;}
+
+
+
+    /* index */
+
+    div.index ul li { padding-top: 1em ;text-align: center; }
+
+    div.index ul ul ul, div.index ul li ul li { padding: 0; text-align: left; }
+
+    div.index ul { list-style: none;  margin: 0; }
+
+    div.index ul, div.index ul ul ul li { display: inline; }
+
+    div.index .subitem { display: block; padding-left: 2em; }
+    // -->
+    /* XML end  ]]>*/
+    </style>
+  </head>
+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Guy Livingstone;, by George A. Lawrence
+
+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: Guy Livingstone;
+       or, 'Thorough'
+
+Author: George A. Lawrence
+
+Release Date: November 17, 2005 [EBook #17084]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GUY LIVINGSTONE; ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Garcia, Martin Pettit and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Kentuckiana Digital Library)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<p><i>Transcriber's note: Greek transliterations added.</i></p>
+
+<h1>GUY LIVINGSTONE;</h1>
+
+<h3>OR,</h3>
+
+<h2>"THOROUGH."</h2>
+
+<h3>BY</h3>
+
+<h2>GEORGE A. LAWRENCE.</h2>
+
+<h3>ICH HABE GELEBT UND GELIEBT.</h3>
+
+
+<h3>NEW YORK:<br />
+HARPER &amp; BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,<br />
+FRANKLIN SQUARE.<br />
+1868.</h3>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<div class="index">
+<ul>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII.</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV.</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV.</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI.</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII.</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII.</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX.</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX.</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI.</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII.</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII.</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV.</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV.</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">CHAPTER XXVI.</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">CHAPTER XXVII.</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">CHAPTER XXVIII.</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">CHAPTER XXIX.</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXX">CHAPTER XXX.</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI">CHAPTER XXXI.</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXII">CHAPTER XXXII.</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIII">CHAPTER XXXIII.</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIV">CHAPTER XXXIV.</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXV">CHAPTER XXXV.</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVI">CHAPTER XXXVI.</a></li>
+
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'>
+<div class='i8'>"Neque imbellem feroces</div>
+<div class='i8'>Progenerant aquil&aelig; columbam."</div></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>It is not a pleasant epoch in one's life, the first forty-eight hours at
+a large public school. I have known strong-minded men of mature age
+confess that they never thought of it without a shiver. I don't count
+the home-sickness, which perhaps only affects seriously the most
+innocent of <i>d&eacute;butants</i>, but there are other thousand and one little
+annoyances which make up a great trouble. If there were nothing else,
+for instance, the unceasing query, "What's your name?" makes you feel
+the possession of a cognomen at all a serious burden and bar to
+advancement in life.</p>
+
+<p>A dull afternoon toward the end of October; the sky a neutral tint of
+ashy gray; a bitter northeast wind tearing down the yellow leaves from
+the old elms that girdle the school-close of &mdash;&mdash;; a foul, clinging
+paste of mud and trampled grass-blades under foot, that chilled you to
+the marrow; a mob of two hundred lower boys, vicious with cold and the
+enforcement of keeping goal through the first football match of the
+season&mdash;in the midst, I, who speak to you, feeling myself in an
+eminently false position&mdash;there's the <i>mise en sc&egrave;ne</i>.</p>
+
+<p>My small persecutors had surrounded me, but had hardly time to settle
+well to their work, when one of the players came by, and stopped for an
+instant to see what was going on. The match had not yet begun.</p>
+
+<p>There was nothing which interested him much apparently, for he was
+passing on, when my despondent answer to the everlasting question caught
+his ear. He turned round then&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Any relation to Hammond of Holt?"</p>
+
+<p>I replied, meekly but rather more cheerfully, that he was my uncle.</p>
+
+<p>"I know him very well," the new-comer said. "Don't bully him more than
+you can help, you fellows; I'll wait for you after calling over,
+Hammond. I should like to ask you about the squire."</p>
+
+<p>He had no time to say more, for just then the ball was kicked off, and
+the battle began. I saw him afterward often during that afternoon,
+always in the front of the rush or the thick of the scrimmage, and I
+saw, too, more than one player limp out of his path disconsolately,
+trying vainly to dissemble the pain of a vicious "hack."</p>
+
+<p>I'll try to sketch Guy Livingstone as he appeared to me then, at our
+first meeting.</p>
+
+<p>He was about fifteen, but looked fully a year older, not only from his
+height, but from a disproportionate length of limb and development of
+muscle, which ripened later into the rarest union of activity and
+strength that I have ever known. His features were very dark and pale,
+too strongly marked to be called handsome; about the lips and lower jaw
+especially there was a set sternness that one seldom sees before the
+beard is grown. The eyes were very dark gray, nearly black, and so
+deeply set under the thick eyebrows that they looked smaller than they
+really were; and I remember, even at that early age, their expression,
+when angered, was any thing but pleasant to meet. His dress was well
+adapted for displaying his deep square chest and sinewy arms&mdash;a
+close-fitting jersey, and white trowsers girt by a broad black belt; the
+cap, orange velvet, fronted with a silver Maltese cross.</p>
+
+<p>The few words he had spoken worked an immediate change in my favor. I
+heard one of my tormentors say, not without awe, "The Count knows his
+people at home;" and they not only left me in peace, but, a little
+later, some of them began to tell me of a recent exploit of Guy's, which
+had raised him high in their simple hero-worship, and which, I dare say,
+is still enumerated among the feats of the brave days of old by the fags
+over their evening small-beer.</p>
+
+<p>To appreciate it, you must understand that the highest form in the
+school&mdash;the sixth&mdash;were regarded by the fags and other subordinate
+classes with an inexpressible reverence and terror. They were considered
+as exempt from the common frailties of schoolboy nature: no one ventured
+to fix a limit to their power. Like the gods of the Lotus-eater, they
+lay beside their nectar, rarely communing with ordinary mortals except
+to give an order or set a punishment. On the form immediately below them
+part of their glory was reflected; these were a sort of &#7969;&#956;&#8055;&#952;&#949;&#959;&#953;
+ [hêmitheoi],
+awaiting their translation into the higher Olympus of
+perfected omnipotence.</p>
+
+<p>In this intermediate state flourished, at the time I speak of, one
+Joseph Baines, a fat, small-eyed youth, with immense pendent pallid
+cheeks, rejoicing in the <i>sobriquet</i> of "Buttons," his father being
+eminent in that line in the Midland Metropolis. The son was Brummagem to
+the back-bone. He was intensely stupid; but, having been a fixture at
+---- beyond the memory of the oldest inhabitant, he had slowly
+gravitated on into his present position, on the old Ring principle,
+"weight must tell." I believe he had been bullied continuously for many
+years, and now, with a dull, pertinacious malignity, was biding his
+time, intending, on his accession to power, to inflict full reprisals on
+those below him; or, in his own expressive language, "to take it out of
+'em, like smoke." He was keeping his hand in by the perpetration of
+small tyrannies on all whom he was not afraid to meddle with; but
+hitherto, from a lingering suspicion, perhaps, that it was not quite
+safe, he had never annoyed Livingstone.</p>
+
+<p>It was on a Saturday night, the hebdomadal Saturnalia, when the week's
+work was over, and no one had any thing to do; the heart of Joseph was
+jocund with pork chops and mulled beer, and, his evil genius tempting
+him, he proposed to three of his intimates "to go and give the Count a
+turn." Nearly every one had a nickname, and this had been given to Guy,
+partly, I think, from his haughty demeanor, partly from a prevalent idea
+that this German dignity was dormant somewhere in his family. When the
+<i>quartette</i> entered, Guy knew perfectly what they came for, but he sat
+quite still and silent, while two of them held him down by the arms in
+his chair.</p>
+
+<p>"I think you'd look very well with a cross on, Count," Baines said, "so
+keep steady while we decorate you."</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke he was mixing up a paste with tallow and candle-snuff, and,
+when it was ready, came near to daub the cross on Livingstone's
+forehead.</p>
+
+<p>The two who held him had been quite deceived by his unexpected
+tranquillity, and had somewhat relaxed their gripe as they leaned
+forward to witness the operation; but the fourth, standing idle, saw all
+at once the pupils of his eyes contract, and his lips set so ominously,
+that the words were in his mouth, "Hold him fast!" when Guy, exerting
+the full force of his arms, shook himself clear, and grasping a
+brass-candlestick within his reach, struck the executioner straight
+between the eyes. The effort of freeing himself to some extent broke the
+force of the blow, or the great Baines dynasty might have ended there
+and then; as it was, Buttons fell like a log, and, rolling once over on
+his face, lay there bleeding and motionless.</p>
+
+<p>While the assistants were too much astounded to detain him, Guy walked
+out without a glance at his prostrate enemy; and going straight to the
+head of the house, told him what had happened. The character of the
+aggressor was so well known, that, when they found he was not seriously
+hurt, they let Guy off easy with "two books of the <i>Iliad</i> to write out
+in Greek." Buttons kept the sick-room for ten days, and came out looking
+more pasty than ever, with his pleasant propensities decidedly checked
+for the time.</p>
+
+<p>In his parish church at Birmingham, two tons of marble weighing him
+down, the old button-maker sleeps with his father (to pluralize his
+ancestors would be a grave historical error), and Joseph II. reigns in
+his stead, exercising, I doubt not, over his factory-people the same
+ingenuity of torture which in old times nearly drove the fags to
+rebellion. He is a Demosthenes, they say, at vestries, and a Draco at
+the Board of Guardians; but in the centre of his broad face, marring the
+platitude of its smooth-shaven respectability, still burns angrily a
+dark red scar&mdash;Guy's sign-manual&mdash;which he will carry to his grave.</p>
+
+<p>The exultation of the lower school over this exploit was boundless.
+Fifty energetic admirers contended for the honor of writing out the
+punishment inflicted on the avenger; and one sentimentalist, just in
+Herodotus, preserved the fatal candlestick as an inestimable relic,
+wreathing its stem with laurel and myrtle, in imitation of the honors
+paid by Athens to the sword that slew the Pisistratid.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'><div class='i8'>"My only books</div>
+<div class='i8'>Were woman's looks,</div>
+<div class='i9'>And folly all they taught me."</div></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>The Count bore his honors very calmly, though every week some fresh feat
+of bodily strength or daring kept adding to his popularity. It was no
+slight temptation to his vanity; for, as some one has said truly, no
+successful adventurer in after-life ever wins such undivided admiration
+and hearty partisans as a school hero. The <i>prestige</i> of the liberator
+among the Irish peasantry comes nearest to it, I think; or the feeling
+of a clan, a hundred years ago, toward their chief. It must be very
+pleasant to be quoted so incessantly and believed in so implicitly, and
+to know that your decisions are so absolutely without appeal. From that
+first day when he interfered in my favor, Guy never ceased to accord me
+the &aelig;gis of his protection, and it served me well; for, then as now, I
+was strong neither in body nor nerve. Yet our tastes, save in one
+respect, were as dissimilar as can be imagined. The solitary conformity
+was, that we were both, in a desultory way, fond of reading, and our
+favorite books were the same. Neither would do more school-work than was
+absolutely necessary, but at light literature of a certain class we read
+hard.</p>
+
+<p>I don't think Guy's was what is usually called a poetical temperament,
+for his taste in this line was quite one-sided. He was no admirer of
+the picturesque, certainly. I have heard him say that his idea of a
+country to live in was where there was no hill steep enough to wind a
+horse in good condition, and no wood that hounds could not run through
+in fifteen minutes; therein following the fancy of that eminent French
+philosopher, who, being invited to climb Ben Lomond to enjoy the most
+magnificent of views, responded meekly, "<i>Aimez-vous les beaut&eacute;s de la
+Nature? Pour moi, je les abhorre</i>." Can you not fancy the strident
+emphasis on the last syllable, revealing how often the poor materialist
+had been victimized before he made a stand at last?</p>
+
+<p>All through Livingstone's life the real was to predominate over the
+ideal; and so it was at this period of it. He had a great dislike to
+purely sentimental or descriptive poetry, preferring to all others those
+battle-ballads, like the <i>Lays of Rome</i>, which stir the blood like a
+trumpet, or those love-songs which heat it like rough strong wine.</p>
+
+<p>He was very fond of Homer, too. He liked the diapason of those sonorous
+hexameters, that roll on, sinking and swelling with the ebb and flow of
+a stormy sea. I hear his voice&mdash;deep-toned and powerful even at that
+early age&mdash;finishing the story of Poseidon and his beautiful
+prize&mdash;their bridal-bed laid in the hollow of a curling wave&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'><div><i>"&#928;&#959;&#961;&#966;&#8059;&#961;&#949;&#959;&#957; &#948;&#8125; &#7940;&#961;&#945; &#954;&#8166;&#956;&#945; &#960;&#949;&#961;&#953;&#963;&#964;&#8049;&#952;&#951;, &#959;&#8020;&#961;&#949;&#970; &#7990;&#963;&#959;&#957;,</i></div>
+<div><i>&#922;&#965;&#961;&#964;&#969;&#952;&#8050;&#957;, &#954;&#961;&#8059;&#968;&#949;&#957; &#948;&#8050; &#920;&#949;&#8056;&#957; &#952;&#957;&#951;&#964;&#8053;&#957; &#964;&#949; &#947;&#965;&#957;&#945;&#8150;&#954;&#945;.</i></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'><div><i>"Porphureon d' ara kuma peristathê, oureï ison,</i></div>
+<div><i>Kurtôthen, krupsen de Theon thnêtên te gunaika.</i></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<p>And yet they say that the glorious old Sciote was a myth, and the
+Odyssey a magazine worked out by clever contributors. They might as well
+assert that all his marshals would have made up one Napoleon.</p>
+
+<p>I remember how we used to pass in review the beauties of old time, for
+whom "many drew swords and died," whose charms convulsed kingdoms and
+ruined cities, who called the stars after their own names.</p>
+
+<p>Ah! Gyneth and Ida, peerless queens of beauty, it was exciting,
+doubtless, to gaze down from your velveted gallery on the mad tilting
+below, to see ever and anon through the yellow dust a kind, handsome
+face looking up at you, pale but scarcely reproachful, just before the
+horse-hoofs trod it down; ah! fairest Ninons and Dianas&mdash;prizes that,
+like the Whip at Newmarket, were always to be challenged for&mdash;you were
+proud when your reckless lover came to woo, with the blood of last
+night's favorite not dry on his blade; but what were your fatal honors
+compared to those of a reigning toast in the rough, ancient days? The
+demigods and heroes that were suitors did not stand upon trifles, and
+the contest often ended in the extermination of all the lady's male
+relatives to the third and fourth generation. People then took it quite
+as a matter of course&mdash;rather a credit to the family than otherwise.</p>
+
+<p>Guy and I discussed, often and gravely, the relative merits of Evadne
+the violet-haired, Helen, Cleopatra, and a hundred others, just as, on
+the steps of White's, or in the smoking-room at the "Rag," men compare
+the points of the <i>d&eacute;butantes</i> of the season.</p>
+
+<p>His knowledge of feminine psychology&mdash;it <i>must</i> have been theoretical,
+for he was not seventeen&mdash;implied a study and depth of research that was
+quite surprising; but I am bound to state that his estimate of the
+strength of character and principle inherent in the weaker sex was any
+thing but high; nearly, indeed, identical with that formed by the
+learned lady who, to the question, "Did she think the virtue of any
+single one of her sisterhood impregnable?" replied "<i>C'est selon</i>." He
+often used to astonish my weak mind by his observations on this head. I
+did not know till afterward that Sir Henry Fallowfield, the Bassompierre
+of his day, came for the Christmas pheasant-shooting every year into
+Guy's neighborhood, and that he had already imbibed lessons of
+questionable morality, sitting at the gouty feet of that evil Gamaliel.</p>
+
+<p>He spoke of and to women of every class readily whenever he got the
+chance, always with perfect <i>aplomb</i> and self-possession; and I have
+heard older men remark since, that in him it did not appear the
+precocity of "the rising generation," but rather the confidence of one
+who knew his subject well. Perhaps the fact of his father having died
+when he was an infant, and his having always been suzerain among his
+women at home, may have had something to do with this. An absurd
+instance of what I have been saying happened just before Guy left.</p>
+
+<p>By time-honored custom, four or five of the Sixth were invited every
+week to dine with the head master. They were not, strictly speaking,
+convivial, those solemn banquets; where the host was condescendingly
+affable, and his guests cheerful, as it were, under protest; resembling
+somewhat the entertainments in the captain's cabin, where the chief is
+unpopular.</p>
+
+<p>Our Archididascalus was a kind-hearted, honest man, albeit, by virtue
+of his office, somewhat strict and stern. You could read the
+<i>Categories</i> in the wrinkles of his colorless face, and contested
+passages of Thucydides in the crows'-feet round his eyes. The
+everlasting grind at the educational tread-mill had worn away all he
+might once have had of imagination; he translated with precisely the
+same intonations the Tusculan <i>Disputations</i> and&mdash;<i>"&#7964;&#961;&#969;&#962; &#7936;&#957;&#8055;&#954;&#945;&#964;&#949; &#956;&#8049;&#967;&#945;&#957;. [Erôs anikate machan.]</i></p>
+
+<p>He had lately taken to himself a wife, his junior by a score of years.
+The academic atmosphere had not had time then to freeze her into the
+dignity befitting her position; when I met her ten years later, she was
+steady and staid enough, poor thing, to have been the wife of Grotius.</p>
+
+<p>Guy sat next to her that evening, and before the first course was over a
+decided flirtation was established. The pretty hostess, albeit wife of a
+doctor and daughter of a dean, had evidently a strong coquettish element
+in her composition, and a very slight spark was sufficient to relight
+the <i>veteris vestigia flamm&aelig;.</i></p>
+
+<p>For some time her husband did not seem to realize the position; but
+gradually his sentences grew rare and curt; he opened his mouth, no
+longer to let fall the pearls of his wisdom, but to stop it with savory
+meat; finally this last resource failed, and he sat, looking wrathfully
+but helplessly on the proceedings at the other end of the table&mdash;a
+lamentable instance of prostrated ecclesiastical dignity. His disgust,
+however, was far exceeded by the horror of one of the party, a meek,
+cadaverous-looking boy, whose parents lived in the town, and who was
+wont to regard the head master as the vicegerent of all powers, civil
+and sacerdotal&mdash;I am not sure he did not include military as well. I
+caught him looking several times at the door and the ceiling with a
+pale, guilty face, as if he expected some immediate visitation to punish
+the sacrilege. However, heaven, which did not interrupt the feast of
+Atreus or of Tereus (till the dessert), allowed us to finish our dinner
+in peace. During the interval when we sat alone over his claret, our
+host revived a little; but utterly relapsed in the drawing-room, where
+things went on worse than ever. Guy leaned over the fair Penelope (such
+was her classical and not inappropriate name) while she was singing, and
+over her sofa afterward, evidently considering himself her legitimate
+proprietor for the time, and regarding the husband, as he hovered round
+them, in the light of an unauthorized intruder. The latter would have
+given any thing, once or twice, to have interfered, I am sure; but,
+apart from, the extreme ridicule of the thing, he was in his own house,
+and as hospitable as Saladin.</p>
+
+<p>It was a great scene, when, at parting, she gave Guy the camellia that
+she wore at her breast; the doctor gasped thrice convulsively and said
+no word; but I wonder how she accounted afterward for the smile and
+blush which answered some whispered thanks? There are certain limits
+that even the historian dares not transgress; a veil falls between the
+profane and the thalamus of an LL.D.; but I rather imagine she had a
+hard time of it that night, the poor little woman! Let us hope, in
+charity, that she held her own.</p>
+
+<p>When the Count was questioned as to the conversation that had passed,
+he declined to give any particulars, merely remarking that "he had to
+thank Dr. &mdash;&mdash; for for a very pleasant evening, and he hoped everyone
+had enjoyed themselves very much"&mdash;which was philanthropic, to say the
+least of it.</p>
+
+<p>I don't know if it was our imagination, but we fancied that when the
+head master called up Livingstone in form after this, he did so with an
+air of grave defiance, such as a duelist of the Old R&eacute;gime may have worn
+when, doffing his plumed hat, he said to his adversary, "<i>En garde!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>There was little time to make observations, for shortly afterward Guy
+went up to Oxford, whither, six months later, I followed him.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'><div class='i8'>"Through many an hour of summer suns,</div>
+<div class='i10'>By many pleasant ways,</div>
+<div class='i8'>Like Hezekiah's, backward runs</div>
+<div class='i10'>The shadow of my days."</div></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>When I came up, I found Guy quite established and at home. He was a
+general favorite with all the men he knew at college, though intimate
+with but very few. There was but one individual who hated him
+thoroughly, and I think the feeling was mutual&mdash;the senior tutor, a
+flaccid being, with a hand that felt like a fish two days out of water,
+a large nose, and a perpetual cold in his head. He consistently and
+impartially disbelieved every one on their word, requiring material
+proof of each assertion; an original mode of acquiring the confidence of
+his pupils, and precluding any thing like an attempt at deception on
+their part. I remember well a discussion on his merits that took place
+in the porter's lodge one night just after twelve. When several had
+given their opinions more or less strongly, some one asked the gate-ward
+what he thought of the individual in question, to which that eminent
+functionary thus replied: "Why, you see, sir, I'm only a servant, and,
+as such, can't speak freely, but I wish he was dead, I do."</p>
+
+<p>As I have said, Livingstone disliked Selkirk heartily, and did not take
+the trouble to conceal it. He used to look at him sometimes with a
+curious expression in his eyes, which made the tutor twirl and writhe
+uncomfortably in his chair. The latter annoyed him as much as he
+possibly could, but Guy held on the even tenor of his way, seldom
+contravening the statutes except in hunting three days a week, which he
+persisted in doing, all lectures and regulations notwithstanding. He
+rode little under fourteen stone even then; but the three horses he kept
+were well up to his weight, and he stood A 1 in Jem Hill's estimation as
+"the best heavy-weight that had come out of Oxford for many a day;" for
+he not only went straight as a die, but rode <i>to</i> hounds instead of
+<i>over</i> them. I suppose this latter practice is inherent in University
+sportsmen. I know, in my time, the way in which they pressed on hounds,
+for the first two fields out of cover or after a check, used to make the
+gray hairs, which were the brave old huntsman's crown of glory, stand on
+end with indignation and terror, so that he prayed devoutly for a big
+fence which, like the broken bridge at Leipsic, might prove a stopper to
+the pursuing army. There was the making of a good rider in many of them,
+too; they only wanted ballast, for they knew no more of fear than Nelson
+did, and would grind over the Vale of the Evenlode and the Marsh Gibbon
+double timber as gayly and undauntedly as over the accommodating
+Bullingdon hurdles. And what screws they rode! ancient animals bearing
+as many scars as a <i>vieux de la vieille</i>, that were considered short of
+work if they did not come out five days a fortnight. This was Guy's
+favorite pursuit; but he threw off the superfluity of his animal
+energies in all sorts of athletics: in sparring especially he attained a
+rare excellence; so well-known was it, indeed, that he passed his first
+year without striking a blow in anger, through default of an antagonist,
+except a chance one or two exchanged in the <i>mel&eacute;e</i> which is imperative
+on the 5th of November.</p>
+
+<p>I did not hunt much myself, for my health was far from strong, and, I
+confess, my University recollections are not lively.</p>
+
+<p>After the first flush of novelty had worn off, they bored one
+intensely&mdash;those large wines and suppers where, night by night, a score
+of Nephel&eacute;geret&aelig; sat shrouded in smoke, chanting the same equivocal
+ditties, drinking the same fiery liquors miscalled the juice of the
+grape, villainous enough to make the patriarch that planted the vine
+stir remorsefully in his grave under Ararat&mdash;each man all the while
+talking "shop," <i>&agrave; l'outrance</i>. The skeleton of ennui sat at these
+dreary feasts; and it was not even crowned with roses. I often used to
+wonder what the majority of my contemporaries conversed about, when in
+the bosom of their families, during the "long." They couldn't <i>always</i>
+have been inflicting Oxford on their miserable relatives; the weakest of
+human natures would have revolted against such tyranny; and yet the
+horizon of their ideas seemed as utterly bounded by Bagley and
+Headington Hill as if the great ocean-stream had flowed outside those
+limits. Some adventurous spirits, it is true, stretched away as far as
+Woodstock and Abingdon, but I doubt if they returned much improved by
+the grand tour.</p>
+
+<p>One of their most remarkable characteristics was the invincible terror
+and repugnance that they appeared to entertain to the society of women
+of their own class. When the visitation was inevitable, it is
+impossible to describe the great horror that fell on these unfortunate
+boys. The feeling of Zanoni's pupil, as the Watcher on the Threshold
+came floating and creeping toward him, was nothing to it.</p>
+
+<p>For example, at Commemoration&mdash;to which festival "lions" from all
+quarters of the earth resorted in vast droves&mdash;when one of this class
+was hard hit by the charms of some fair stranger, he never thought of
+expressing his admiration otherwise than by piteous looks, directed at
+her from an immense distance, out of shot for an opera-glass; when in
+her immediate vicinity his motto was that of the Breton baron&mdash;<i>mourir
+muet</i>. Claret-cup flowed and Champagne sparkled, powerless to raise him
+to the audacity of an avowal. Under the woods of Nuneham, in the gardens
+of Blenheim, amid the crowd of the Commemoration ball, the same deep
+river of diffidence flowed between him and his happiness. My own idea is
+that, after all was over, the silent ones, like Jacques' stricken deer,
+used to "go weep" over chances lost and opportunities neglected. With
+waitresses at wayside inns, <i>et id genus omne</i>, they were tolerably
+self-possessed and reliant; though even there "a thousand might well be
+stopped by three," and I would have backed an intelligent barmaid
+against the field at odds; indeed, I think I have seen a security nearly
+allied to contempt on the fine features of a certain "lone <i>star</i>" as
+she parried&mdash;so easily!&mdash;the compliments and repartees of a dozen
+assailants at once, accounted, in their own quadrangles, Millamours of
+the darkest dye.</p>
+
+<p>Guy accounted for this unfortunate peculiarity by saying that a cigar
+in the mouth was the normal state of many of these men; so that, when
+circumstances debarred them from the Havana courage, they lost all
+presence of mind, and, being unable to retreat under cover of the smoke,
+lapsed instantly into a sullen despair, suffering themselves to be shot
+down unresistingly. Perhaps some future philosopher will favor us with a
+better solution to this important problem in physics; I know of none.</p>
+
+<p>After all, the reading men did best, though we did not think so then,
+when we saw them creeping into morning chapel jaded and heavy-eyed,
+after a debauch over Herodotus or the Stagyrite. They had a purpose in
+view, at all events, and, I believe, were placidly content during the
+progress of its attainment&mdash;in the seventh heaven when their hopes were
+crowned by a First, or even a Second. True; the pace was too good for
+some of the half-bred ones, and such as could not stand the training,
+who departed, to fade away rapidly in the old house at home, or to pine,
+slowly, but very surely, in remote curacies.</p>
+
+<p>Some of these, I fancy, must have sympathized with Madame de Sta&euml;l's
+consumptive niece, who answered to the question, "Why she was weeping
+all alone?" "<i>Je me regrette.</i>" When, resting in their daily walk,
+shortened till it became a toil to reach the shady seat under the elms
+at the garden's end, they watched the stalwart plowmen and drovers go
+striding by, without a trouble behind their tanned foreheads except the
+thought that wages might fall a shilling a week, was there no envy, I
+wonder, as they looked down on the wan hands lying so listless across
+their knees? Would they not have given their First, and their fellowship
+in embryo to boot, to have had the morning appetite of Tom Chauntrell,
+the horse-breaker, after twelve pipes overnight, with gin and water to
+match, or to have been able, like Joe Springett, the under keeper, to
+breast the steepest brae in Cumberland with never a sob or a painful
+breath? Did they never murmur while thinking how brightly the blade
+might have flashed, how deftly have been wielded, if the worthless
+scabbard had only lasted out till, on some grand field-day, the word was
+given, "Draw swords?" Some felt this, doubtless; but the most part, I
+imagine, were possessed with a comfortable assurance that their short
+life had been useful, if not ornamental; and so, to a certain extent,
+they had their reward. At any rate, their ending was to the full as
+glorious as that of some other friends of ours, who crawl away from the
+battle-ground of the <i>Viveurs</i> to die, or to linger on helpless
+hypochondriacs.</p>
+
+<p>If I have spoken depreciatingly or unfairly of the mass of my college
+coevals (and it may well be so), I do full justice, in thought at least,
+to some brilliant exceptions. I founded friendships there which, I
+trust, will outlive me.</p>
+
+<p>I do not forget Warrenne, too good for the men he lived with, a David in
+our camp of Kedar&mdash;always going on straight in the path he thought
+right&mdash;though ever and anon his hot Irish blood would chafe fiercely
+under the curb self-imposed&mdash;and laboring incessantly, with all
+gentleness, to induce others to follow; a Launcelot in his devotion to
+womankind; a Galahad in purity of thought and purpose. I have never
+known a man of the world so single-hearted, or a saint with so much
+<i>savoir vivre</i>.</p>
+
+<p>I see before me now Lovell, with his frank look and cheery laugh, the
+model of a stalwart English squirehood; and Petre, equal to either
+fortune; in reverse or success calm and impassible as Athos the
+mousquetaire; regarding money simply as a circulating medium, with the
+profoundest contempt for its actual value&mdash;<i>se ruinant en prince</i>. He
+edified us greatly, on one occasion, by meeting his justly offended
+father with a stern politeness, declining to hold any communication with
+him by word or letter till he (the sire) "could express himself in a
+more Christian spirit."</p>
+
+<p>Then there was Barlowe, the pearl of gentlemen riders, the very apple of
+Charles Symond's eye; unspoiled by a hundred triumphs, and never
+degenerating into the professional, though I believe his idea of earthly
+felicity was,</p>
+
+<p>A match for &pound;50, 10 st. 7 lb. each. Owners up. Over 4 miles of a fair
+hunting country.</p>
+
+<p>I see him, too, with his pleasant face, round, rosy, and beardless as a
+child-cherub of Rubens, tempting pale men with splitting heads to throw
+boots at him in the bitterness of their envy as he entered their rooms
+on the morning after a heavy drink, his eyes so clear and guileless that
+you would never guess how sharp they could be at times when a dangerous
+horse was coming up on his quarter. A strange compound his character was
+of cool calculation and sentimental simplicity. The most astute of
+trainers never got the better of him in making a match; and I am sure,
+to this day, he believes in &mdash;&mdash;'s poetry, and in the immutability of
+feminine affection.</p>
+
+<p>How agreeable he was about the small hours, chirping over his grog;
+alternating between reminiscences of "My tutor's daughter" and recitals
+of choice morsels in verse and prose; misquoting, to the utter
+annihilation of rhythm and sense, but all with perfect gravity, good
+faith, and satisfaction!</p>
+
+<p><i>Nec te, memorande, relinquam</i>&mdash;true Tom Lynton! not clever, not even
+high-bred, but loved by every one for the honestest and kindest heart
+that ever was the kernel of a rough rind.</p>
+
+<p>Do we not remember that supper where the Fathers of England were being
+discussed? Every one, drawn on by the current, had a stone to throw at
+his relieving officer, the complaint, of course, being a general
+tightness in the supplies. At last, Tom, who, though his own sire was an
+austere man, could not bear to hear the absent run down, broke in,
+gravely remonstrating,</p>
+
+<p>"Well, gentlemen," he said, "remember they're our <i>fellow-creatures</i>, at
+all events."</p>
+
+<p>They drank "Lynton and the Governors" with a compound multiplication of
+cheers.</p>
+
+<p>I might mention more; but a face rises just now before me which makes me
+close the muster-roll&mdash;the face of one who united in himself many, very
+many of the best qualities of the others; of one whom I shrink from
+naming here, lest it should seem that I do so lightly&mdash;a face that I saw
+six hours before its features became set forever.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'><div class='i8'><i>"&#916;&#8052; &#964;&#8057;&#964;&#8125; &#7936;&#957;&#945;&#963;&#967;&#959;&#956;&#8051;&#957;&#969;, &#8001; &#956;&#8050;&#957; &#7972;&#955;&#945;&#963;&#949; &#948;&#949;&#958;&#8055;&#959;&#957; &#8038;&#956;&#959;&#957;</i></div>
+<div class='i8'><i>&#7998;&#961;&#959;&#962;, &#8001; &#948;&#8125; &#945;&#8016;&#967;&#8051;&#957;&#8125; &#7956;&#955;&#945;&#963;&#963;&#949;&#957; &#8017;&#960;&#8125; &#959;&#8022;&#945;&#964;&#959;&#962;, &#8000;&#963;&#964;&#8051;&#945; &#948;&#8125; &#949;&#7988;&#963;&#969;</i></div>
+<div class='i8'><i>&#7964;&#952;&#955;&#945;&#963;&#949;&#957;&#8231; &#945;&#8016;&#964;&#8055;&#954;&#945; &#948;&#8125; &#7974;&#955;&#952;&#949;&#957; &#7936;&#957;&#8048; &#963;&#964;&#8057;&#956;&#945; &#966;&#959;&#8055;&#957;&#953;&#959;&#957; &#945;&#7991;&#956;&#945;."</i></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'><div class='i8'><i>"Dê tot' anaschomenô, ho men êlase dexion ômon </i></div>
+<div class='i8'><i>Iros, ho d' auchen' elassen hup' ouatos, ostea d' eisô</i></div>
+<div class='i8'><i>Ethlasen; autika d' êlthen ana stoma phoinion haima."</i></div></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>Toward the end of my second year an event came off in which we were all
+much interested&mdash;a steeplechase in which both Universities were to take
+part. The stakes were worth winning&mdash;twenty sovs. entrance, h.f., and a
+hundred sovs. added; besides, the <i>esprit de corps</i> was strong, and men
+backed their opinions pretty freely. The venue was fixed at B&mdash;&mdash;; the
+time, the beginning of the Easter vacation.</p>
+
+<p>The old town was crowded like Vanity Fair. There was a railway in
+progress near, and the navvies and other "roughs" came flocking in by
+hundreds, so that the municipal authorities, justly apprehensive of a
+row, concentrated the cohorts of their police, and swore in no end of
+specials as a reserve.</p>
+
+<p>The great event came off duly, a fair instance of the "glorious
+uncertainty" which backers of horses execrate and ring-men adore. All
+the favorites were out of the race early. Our best man, Barlowe, the
+centre of many hopes, and carrying a heavy investment of Oxford money,
+was floored at the second double post-and-rail. The Cambridge cracks,
+too, by divers casualties, were soon disposed of. At the last fence, an
+Oxford man was leading by sixty yards; but it was his maiden race, and
+he lost his head when he found himself looking like a winner so near
+home. Instead of taking the stake-and-bound at the weakest place, he
+rode at the strongest; his horse swerved to the gap, took the fence
+sideways, and came down heavily into the ditch of the winning field. The
+representative of Cambridge, who came next, riding a good steady hunter,
+not fast, but safe at his fences, cantered in by himself. I remember he
+was so bewildered by his unexpected victory that one of his backers had
+to hold him fast in the saddle, or he would have dismounted before
+riding to scale, and so lost the stakes.</p>
+
+<p>Well, the race was over and the laurels lost, so we had nothing to do
+but pay and look pleasant, and then adjourn to the inevitable banquet at
+"The George." There was little to distinguish the proceedings from the
+routine of such festivals. The winners stood Champagne, and the losers
+drank it&mdash;to any amount. The accidents of flood and field were discussed
+over and over again; and, I believe, every man of the twenty-three who
+had ridden that day could and did prove, to his own entire satisfaction,
+that he must have won but for some freak of fortune totally unavoidable,
+and defying human calculation.</p>
+
+<p>About nine o'clock I went out with another man to get some fresh air,
+and something I wanted in the town. At the corner of every street there
+was a group of heavy, sullen faces, looking viciously ready for a row,
+while out of the windows of the frequent public houses gushed bursts of
+revelry hideously discordant, from the low-browed rooms where the wild
+Irish sat howling and wrangling over their liquor. However, we got what
+we wanted, and were returning, when, in a street on our left, we heard
+cries and a trampling of many feet. Two figures, looking like University
+men, passed us at speed, and, throwing something down before us, dived
+into an alley opposite, and were lost to sight. My companion picked up
+the object; and we had just time to make out that it was a bell-handle
+and name-plate, when the pursuers came up&mdash;six or seven "peelers" and
+specials, with a ruck of men and boys. We were collared on the instant.
+The fact of the property being found in our possession constituted a
+<i>flagrans delictum</i>&mdash;we were caught "red-handed." It was vain to argue
+that, had we been the delinquents, we should scarcely have been standing
+there still, awaiting discovery. The idea of arguing with a rural
+policeman, when, by a rare coincidence, popular feeling is with him! The
+mob regarded our capture, exulting like the Romans over Jugurtha in
+chains. It was decided "we were to go before the Inspector." We were
+placed in the centre of a phalanx of specials, each guarded by two
+regulars; and so the triumph, followed by a train that swelled at every
+turning, moved slowly along the Sacred Way toward the temple of the
+station-house, where the municipal Jupiter Capitolinus sat in his glory.</p>
+
+<p>Before we had proceeded three hundred yards there was a shout from the
+crowd, "Look out! here come the 'Varsity!" and down a cross street
+leading from the inn, two hundred gownsmen, wild with wrath and wassail,
+came leaping to the rescue.</p>
+
+<p>In the van of all I caught sight of two figures&mdash;one that I knew very
+well, towering, bareheaded, a hand's-breadth above the throng; the
+other, something below the middle height, but shaggy, vast-chested, and
+double-jointed as a red Highland steer&mdash;M'Diarmid of Trinity, glory of
+the Cambridge gymnasium, and "5" in the University eight. They were not
+shouting like the rest, but hitting out straight and remorselessly; and
+before those two strong Promachi, townsman and navvy, peeler and
+special, went down like blades of corn. Close at their shoulder I
+distinguished Lovell, his clear blue eyes lightening savagely; and stout
+Tom Lynton, a deeper flush on his honest face, hewing away with all the
+unscientific strength of his nervous arm.</p>
+
+<p>But my two guards, very Abdiels in their duty, never let me go; on the
+contrary, one tightened his gripe on my throat suffocatingly, while the
+other, though I remained perfectly quiescent, kept giving me gentle
+hints to keep the peace with the end of his staff. I was getting sick
+and dizzy, when something passed my cheek like the wind of a ball; there
+was a dull, crashing sound close at my ear; the grasp on my neck relaxed
+all at once; I felt something across my feet, and saw a dark blue mass,
+topped by the ruin of a shiny hat, lying there quite still; an arm was
+round my waist like the coil of a cable, and I heard Guy's voice
+laughing loud,</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Frank," he said, as he dragged me away toward the inn, "the
+centre of a row, as usual. <i>Que, diable, allait il faire dans cette
+bagarre?</i>"</p>
+
+<p>I hardly heard him, for my senses were still confused; but in thirty
+seconds I was under the archway of "The George." As the heroines of the
+Radcliffe romances say, "I turned to thank my preserver, but he was
+gone."</p>
+
+<p>When I recovered my breath, I went up to a balcony on the first floor
+and looked out. The tide of the affray was surging gradually back into
+the wide open space before the inn, and very shortly this was filled
+with a chaos of furious faces and struggling arms. The University were
+evidently recoiling, pressed back by the sheer weight of their
+opponents; but soon came a re-enforcement of grooms and stable-men,
+lightweights, active and wiry; and these, with their hunting-crops and
+heavy cutting-whips used remorselessly&mdash;like C&aelig;sar's legionaries, they
+struck only at the face&mdash;once more re-established the balance of the
+battle.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly the <i>mel&eacute;e</i> seemed to converge to one point&mdash;the mid-eddy, as
+it were, of the whirlpool; then came a lull, almost a hush; and then
+fifty strong arms, indiscriminately of town and gownsmen, were locked to
+keep the ground, while a storm of voices shouted for "A ring!"</p>
+
+<p>In that impromptu arena two men stood face to face under the full glare
+of the gas-lamps&mdash;one was Guy Livingstone; the other a denizen of the
+Potteries, yclept "Burn's Big 'un," who had selected B&mdash;&mdash; as his
+training quarters, in preparation for his fight to come off in the
+ensuing week with the third best man in England for &pound;100 a side.</p>
+
+<p>They made a magnificent contrast. Guy, apparently quite composed, but
+the lower part of his face set stern and pitiless; an evil light in his
+eyes, showing how all the gladiator in his nature was roused; his left
+hand swaying level with his hip; all the weight of his body resting on
+the right foot; his lofty head thrown back haughtily; his guard low. The
+professional, three inches shorter than his adversary, but a rare model
+of brute strength; his arms and neck, where the short jersey left them
+exposed, clear-skinned and white as a woman's, through the perfection of
+his training; his hair cropped close round a low, retreating forehead;
+his thick lips parted in a savage grin, meant to represent a smile of
+confidence. So they stood there&mdash;fitting champions of the races that
+have been antagonistic for four thousand years&mdash;Patrician and
+Proletarian.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly there was a commotion at one corner of the ring, and I saw a
+small, bullet-headed man, with a voice like a fractious child, striving
+frantically to force his way through. "Don't let 'em fight!" he
+screamed: "it's robbery, I tell you. There's hundreds of pounds on him
+for Thursday next, I'm his trainer; and I daren't show him with a
+scratch on him."</p>
+
+<p>A great roar of laughter answered his entreaties, and twenty arms thrust
+the little man back; but his interesting charge seemed to ponder and
+hesitate, when a drawling nasal voice spoke from the opposite corner:
+"Ah! you're right; take him away; don't show his white feather till
+you're druv to it." That turned the wavering scale. The Big 'un ground
+his teeth with blasphemy, and set-to.</p>
+
+<p>I need not go through the minuti&aelig; of the fight; it was all one way. The
+professional did his best, and took his punishment like a glutton; but
+he could do nothing against the long reach of his adversary, who stopped
+and countered as coolly as if he had only the gloves on.</p>
+
+<p>It was the beginning of the sixth round; our champion bore only one
+mark, showing where a tremendous right-hander had almost come home&mdash;a
+cut on his lower lip, whence the bright Norman blood was flowing freely.
+I will not attempt to describe the hideous changes that ten minutes had
+wrought in his opponent's countenance; but I think I was not the only
+spectator who felt a thrill of fear mingling with disgust as the Big 'un
+made his despairing effort, and fought his way in to the terrible
+"half-arm rally." In truth, there was something unearthly and awful in
+the sight of the maimed and mangled Colossus; his huge breast heaving
+with wrath and pain; his one unblinded eye glaring unutterably; his
+crushed lips churning the crimson foam. It was the last rash of the
+Cordovan bull goaded to madness by picador and chulo; but Guy's fatal
+left met him, straight, unyielding as the blade of the matador; twice he
+reeled back wellnigh stunned; the third time he dropped his head
+cleverly, so as to avoid the blow, and grappled. For some seconds the
+two were locked together, undistinguishably; then we saw Guy's right
+hand, never used till then save as a guard, rise and fall twice with a
+dull, smashing sound, which was bad to hear; then the huge form of the
+prize-fighter was whirled up unresistingly over his antagonist's hip,
+and fell crashing down at his feet, a heap of blind, senseless, bleeding
+humanity.</p>
+
+<p>"Time!" You must call louder yet before he will hear, and lance a vein
+in the throat before he will answer.</p>
+
+<p>Then, in the old market-place of B&mdash;&mdash;, there went up such a shout as I
+think it has never heard since Vikings and Berserkyr caroused there
+after storming the town. The gownsmen, as they will do on slighter
+provocation, screamed themselves hoarse and voiceless with delight; and
+their late opponents&mdash;the honest Saxon's love of a fair fight overcoming
+the spirit of the partisan&mdash;echoed and prolonged the cheer.</p>
+
+<p>There was no more thought of battle or broil; and there were as many
+navvies as University men among the enthusiasts who bore the champion on
+their shoulders into "The George."</p>
+
+<p>How we reveled on that night of victory, especially when Guy, after
+necessary ablutions and change of raiment, joined us, calm and
+self-possessed as ever, only slightly swelled about the lower lip, and a
+dark red flush on his forehead! He had satisfactory accounts of his
+adversary, the said amiable individual having so far recovered, under
+the surgeon's hands, as to swear thrice&mdash;"quite like hisself," the
+messenger said&mdash;and to call for cold brandy and water.</p>
+
+<p>Livingstone's health was proposed twice&mdash;the first time by a fellow of
+King's, with a neat talent for classical allusions, who remarked that,
+"if the olive-crown of the Hippodrome had fallen to the lot of
+Cambridge, none would deny her sister's claim to the parsley of the
+c&aelig;stus." The second time was very late in the evening, by M'Diarmid. It
+must be confessed that gallant chieftain was somewhat incoherent, and
+amid protestations of admiration and eternal friendship, much to our
+astonishment, wept profusely. Still later, he got very maudlin indeed,
+and was heard to murmur, looking at his scarred knuckles, that "he was
+afraid he must have hurt some one that night," with an accent of
+heartfelt sorrow and contrition which was inimitable.</p>
+
+<p>We heard afterward that the taunt which made the fight a certainty came
+from the commissioner of the party who stood heavily against the Big
+'un, sent down to watch him in his training, and spy out the joints in
+his harness.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'><div class='i8'>"As he rode down the sanctified bends of the Bow,</div>
+<div class='i8'>Each carline was flyting and shaking her pow;</div>
+<div class='i8'>But the young Plants of Grace they looked couthie and slee,</div>
+<div class='i8'>Saying, 'Luck to thy bonnet, thou bonnie Dundee.'"</div></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>In the autumn of that year my chest became so troublesome that I was
+obliged to try Italy. Thither I went; and, about the same time, Guy was
+gazetted to the &mdash;&mdash; Life Guards. The struggle between climate and
+constitution was protracted, and for a long time doubtful; but winters
+without fog, and springs without cold winds, worked wonders, and at last
+carried the day. In the fourth year they told me I might risk England
+again. Moving homeward slowly, I reached London about the beginning of
+December&mdash;a most unfavorable season, it is true; but I was weary of
+foreign wandering, and wanted to spend Christmas somewhere in the
+fatherland, though where I had not yet determined.</p>
+
+<p>I had heard tolerably often from Livingstone during my absence. His
+letters were very amusing, containing all sorts of news, and remarks on
+men and manners. They would have pleased me more if they had not
+indicated a vein of sarcasm deepening into cynicism.</p>
+
+<p>I stand very much alone in this world, and had few family visits to
+detain me; so, on the morning after my arrival, I went down to the
+Knightsbridge barracks, where Guy's regiment happened to be quartered.</p>
+
+<p>It was a field-day, his servant said, and his master was out with his
+troop; but he expected him in very shortly. Captain Forrester was
+waiting breakfast for him up stairs.</p>
+
+<p>As I entered the room, its occupant turned his head languidly on the
+sofa-cushion which supported it; but when he saw it was a stranger, sat
+up, and, on hearing my name, actually rose and came toward me.</p>
+
+<p>"Livingstone will be charmed to find you here, Mr. Hammond," he said, in
+a voice that, though slightly affected and <i>tra&icirc;nante</i>, was very
+musical. "I don't know if he ever mentioned Charley Forrester to you,
+who must do the honors of the barrack-room in his absence?"</p>
+
+<p>I had heard of him very often; and, though my expectations as to his
+personal appearance had been raised, I own the first glance did not
+disappoint them. He was about three-and-twenty then, rather tall, but
+very slightly built; his eyes long, sleepy, of a violet blue; features
+small and delicately cut, with a complexion so soft and bright that his
+silky, chestnut mustache hardly saved the face from effeminacy; his
+hands and feet would have satisfied the Pacha of Tebelen at once as to
+his purity of race; indeed, though Charley was not disposed to
+undervalue any of his own bodily advantages, I imagine he considered his
+extremities as his strong point. His manner was very fascinating, and,
+with women, had a sort of caress in it which is hard to describe, though
+even with <i>them</i> he seldom excited himself much, preferring,
+consistently, the passive to the active part in the conversation.
+Indeed, his golden rule was the Arabic maxim, <i>Agitel lil
+Shaitan</i>&mdash;Hurry is the Devil's&mdash;so, in the flirtations which were the
+serious business of his life, he always let his fish hook themselves,
+just exerting himself enough to play them afterward.</p>
+
+<p>In ten minutes we were very good friends, talking pleasantly of all
+sorts of things, though Forrester had resumed his recumbent posture, and
+I could not help fearing it was only a strong effort of politeness or
+sense of duty which enabled him always to answer at the right time.</p>
+
+<p>Before long we heard the clatter of horses' hoofs and the rattle of
+steel scabbards, and I looked out at the squadrons defiling into the
+barrack-yard. My eye fell upon Livingstone at once: it was not difficult
+to distinguish him, for few, if any, among those troopers, picked from
+the flower of all the counties north of the Humber, could compare with
+him for length of limb and breadth of shoulder. I felt proud of him, as
+the hero of my boyhood, looking at him there, on his great black
+charger, square and steadfast as the keep of a castle.</p>
+
+<p>His servant spoke to him as he dismounted. I saw his features soften and
+brighten in an instant; in five seconds he was in the room, and the
+light was on his face still&mdash;I like to think of it&mdash;the light of a
+frank, cordial welcome, as he griped my hand.</p>
+
+<p>He was changed, certainly, but for the better. The features, which in
+early youth had been too rugged and strongly marked, harmonized
+perfectly with the vast proportions of a frame now fully developed,
+though still lean in the flanks as a wolf-hound. The stern expression
+about his mouth was more decided and unvarying than ever&mdash;an effect
+which was increased by the heavy mustache that, dense as a Cuirassier's
+of the Old Guard, fell over his lip in a black cascade. It was the face
+of one of those stone Crusaders who look up at us from their couches in
+the Round Church of the Temple.</p>
+
+<p>Before our first sentences were concluded, Forrester had nerved himself
+to the effort of rising, and turned to go.</p>
+
+<p>"You must have fifty things to say to each other," he said. "You'll find
+me in the mess-room. But, Guy, don't be long; I've no appetite myself
+this morning, and it will refresh me to see you eat your breakfast;" and
+so faded away gradually through the door.</p>
+
+<p>"How do you like him?" Livingstone called out from the inner room, where
+he was donning the "mufti." "He's not so conceited as he might be,
+considering how the women spoil him; and, lazy as he looks, he is a very
+fair officer, and goes across country like a bird. Did I ever tell you
+what first made him famous?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; I should like to hear."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it was at a picnic at Cliefden. Charley was hardly nineteen then,
+and had just joined the &mdash;&mdash;th Lancers at Hounslow; he wandered away,
+and got lost with Kate Harcourt, a self-possessed beauty in high
+condition for flirting, for she had had three seasons of hard training.
+When they had been away from their party about two hours, she felt, or
+pretended to feel, the awkwardness of the situation, and asked her
+cavalier, in a charmingly helpless and confiding way, what they were to
+do. 'Well, I hardly know,' Forrester answered, languidly; 'but I don't
+mind proposing to you, if that will do you any good.' A fair performance
+for an untried colt, was it not? Miss Harcourt thought so, and said so,
+and Charley woke next morning with an established renown. Shall we go
+and find him?"</p>
+
+<p>After breakfast we went with Guy to his room, to do the regulation
+cigar.</p>
+
+<p>"I know you've made no plans, Frank," Livingstone said, "so I have
+settled every thing for you already. You are coming down to Kerton with
+us. We have just got our long leave, and our horses went down three days
+ago."</p>
+
+<p>"It's very nice of him to say 'our horses,'" interrupted Forrester.
+"Mine consist of one young one, that has been over about eight fences in
+his life, and a mare, that I call the Wandering Jewess, for I don't
+think she will ever die, and I am sure she will never rest till she
+does: what with being park-hack in the summer and cover-hack in the
+winter, with a by-day now and then when the country's light, she's the
+best instance of perpetual motion I know. Well, it's not my fault the
+chief won't let us hunt our second chargers&mdash;that's the charm of being
+in a crack regiment&mdash;I always have one lame at least, and no one will
+sell me hunters on tick."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be so plaintive, Charley; you've nearly all mine to ride: it's a
+treat to them, poor things, to feel your light weight and hand, after
+carrying my enormous carcass. That's settled, then, Frank; you come with
+us?" Guy said.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be very glad. I only want a day to get my traps together." So
+two days afterward we three came down to Kerton Manor. It was not my
+first visit to Livingstone's home, but I have not described it before.</p>
+
+<p>Fancy a very large, low house, built in two quadrangles&mdash;the offices and
+stables forming the smaller one farthermost from the main entrance&mdash;of
+the light gray stone common in Northamptonshire, darkened at the angles
+and buttresses into purple, and green, and bistre by the storms of three
+hundred years; on the south side, smooth turf, with islands in it of
+bright flower-beds, sloped down to a broad, slow stream, where grave,
+stately swans were always sailing to and fro, and moor-hens diving among
+the rushes; on the other sides, a park, extensive, but somewhat
+rough-looking, stretched away, and, all round, lines of tall avenue
+radiated&mdash;the bones of a dead giant's skeleton&mdash;for Kerton once stood in
+the centre of a royal forest.</p>
+
+<p>You entered into a wide, low hall, the oak ceiling resting on broad
+square pillars of the same dark wood; all round hung countless memorials
+of chase and war, for the Livingstones had been hunters and soldiers
+beyond the memory of man.</p>
+
+<p>Often, passing through of a winter's evening, I have stopped to watch
+the fitful effects of the great logs burning on the andirons, as their
+light died away, deadened among brown bear-skins and shadowy antlers, or
+played, redly reflected, on the mail-shirt and corslet of Crusader or
+Cavalier.</p>
+
+<p>There were many portraits too; one, the most remarkable, fronted you as
+you came through the great doorway, the likeness of a very handsome man
+in the uniform of a Light Dragoon; under this hung a cavalry sword, and
+a brass helmet shaded with black horse-hair. The portrait and sword were
+those of Guy's father; the helmet belonged to the Cuirassier who slew
+him.</p>
+
+<p>It was in a skirmish with part of Kellermann's brigade, near the end of
+the Peninsular war; Colonel Livingstone was engaged with an adversary in
+his front, when a trooper, delivering point from behind, ran him through
+the body. He had got his death-wound, and knew it; but he came of a race
+that ever died hard and dangerously; he only ground his teeth, and,
+turning short in his saddle, cut the last assailant down. Look at the
+helmet, with the clean, even gap in it, cloven down to the
+cheek-strap&mdash;the stout old Laird of Colonsay struck no fairer blow.</p>
+
+<p>It was curious to mark how the same expression of sternness and decision
+about the lips and lower part of the face, which was so remarkable in
+their descendants, ran through the long row of ancestral portraits. You
+saw it&mdash;now, beneath the half-raised visor of Sir Malise, surnamed
+<i>Poing-de-fer</i>, who went up the breach at Ascalon shoulder to shoulder
+with strong King Richard&mdash;now, yet more grimly shadowed forth, under the
+cowl of Prior Bernard, the ambitious ascetic, whom, they say, the great
+Earl of Warwick trusted as his own right hand&mdash;now, softened a little,
+but still distinctly visible, under the long love-locks of Prince
+Rupert's aid-de-camp, who died at Naseby manfully in his harness&mdash;now,
+contrasting strangely with the elaborately powdered peruke and delicate
+lace ruffles of Beau Livingstone, the gallant, with the whitest hand,
+the softest voice, the neatest knack at a sonnet, and the deadliest
+rapier at the court of good Queen Anne. Nay, you could trace it in the
+features of many a fair Edith and Alice, half counteracting the magnetic
+attraction of their melting eyes.</p>
+
+<p>On the sunny south side, looking across the flower-garden, were Lady
+Catharine Livingstone's rooms, where, diligent as Matilda and her
+maidens, in summer by the window, in winter by the fire; the pale
+ch&acirc;telaine sat over her embroidery. What rivers of tapestry must have
+flowed from under those slender white fingers during their ceaseless
+toil of twenty years!</p>
+
+<p>The good that she did in her neighborhood can not be told. She was kind
+and hospitable, too, to her female guests, in her own haughty,
+undemonstrative way; nevertheless, the wives and daughters of the
+squirearchy regarded her with great awe and fear. Perhaps she felt this,
+though she could not alter it, and the sense of isolation may have
+deepened the shades on her sad face. She had only one thing on earth to
+centre her affections on, and that one she worshiped with a love
+stronger than her sense of duty; for, since his father died, she had
+never been able to check Guy in a single whim.</p>
+
+<p>When he had a hunting-party in the house, she sometimes would not appear
+for days; but, however early he might start for the meet, I do not think
+he ever left his dressing-room without his mother's kiss on his cheek.
+She knew, as well as any one, how recklessly her son rode; nothing but
+his science, coolness, and great strength in the saddle could often have
+saved him from some terrible accident. Many times, in the middle of the
+day's sport, the thought has come across me piteously of that poor lady,
+in her lonely rooms, trembling, and I am very sure praying, for her
+darling.</p>
+
+<p>On the opposite side of the court were Guy's own apartments: first, what
+was called by courtesy his study&mdash;an armory of guns and other weapons, a
+chaos <i>e rebus omnibus et quibusdam aliis</i>, for he never had the
+faintest conception of the beauty of order; then came the smoking-room,
+with its great divans and scattered card-tables; then Livingstone's
+bed-room and dressing-room.</p>
+
+<p>Did the distance and the doors always deaden the sounds of late revels,
+so as not to break Lady Catharine's slumbers? I fear not.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'><div class='i8'>"Thou art not steeped in golden languors;</div>
+<div class='i8'>No tranced summer calm is thine,</div>
+<div class='i8'>Ever-varying Madeline."</div></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>It was a woodland meet, a long way off, the morning after we arrived, so
+we staid at home; and, after breakfast, Guy having to give audience to
+keepers and other retainers, I strolled out with Forrester to smoke in
+the stables. I have seldom seen a lot which united so perfectly bone and
+blood. Livingstone gave any price for his horses; the only thing he was
+not particular about was their temper; more than one looked eminently
+unsuited to a nervous rider, and a swinging bar behind them warned the
+stranger against incautious approach.</p>
+
+<p>After duly discussing and admiring the stud, we established ourselves on
+the sunniest stone bench in the garden, and I asked my companion to tell
+me something of what Guy had been doing during my absence.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it's rather hard to say," answered Charley. "He never takes the
+trouble to conceal any thing; but then, you see, he never tells one any
+thing either; so it's only guess work, after all. He lives very much
+like other men in the Household Brigade; plays heavily, though not
+regularly; but he always has two <i>affaires de c&oelig;ur</i>, at least, on
+hand at once; that's his stint."</p>
+
+<p>"So he still persecutes the weaker sex unremittingly?" I asked,
+laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"In a way peculiar to himself," said Forrester; "he is always strictly
+courteous, but decidedly sarcastic. Poor things, they are easily imposed
+upon; he very soon has them well in hand, and they can never get their
+heads up afterward. I suppose they like it, for it seems to answer
+admirably. Last season he divided himself pretty equally between
+Constance Brandon and Flora Bellasys&mdash;quite the two best things out,
+though as opposite to each other in every way as the poles. To do Miss
+Brandon justice, I don't think she knew much of the other flirtation;
+she always went away early, and he used to take up her rival for the
+rest of the evening."</p>
+
+<p>"But the said rival&mdash;how did she like the divided homage?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all at first; at least, she used to look revolvers at Guy from
+time to time&mdash;(ah! you should see the Bellasys' eyes when they begin to
+lighten)&mdash;but he always brought her back to the lure, and at last she
+seemed to take it quite as a matter of course, keeping all her
+after-supper waltzes for him religiously, though half the men in town
+were trying to cut in. I can't make out how he does it. Do you think his
+size and sinews can have any thing to do with it?" He said this gravely
+and reflectively.</p>
+
+<p>"Not unlikely," I replied; "the <i>fortiter in re</i> goes a long way with
+women apparently, even where there is not a tongue like his to back it.
+Don't you remember Juvenal's strong-minded heroine, who left husband and
+home to follow the scarred, maimed gladiator? I doubt if the Mirmillo
+was a pleasant or intellectual companion. Now I want you to tell me
+something about Guy's cousin and her father; they are coming here
+to-day, and I have never met them."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Raymond is very like most calm, comfortable old men with a life
+interest in &pound;2000 a year," Charley said; "rather more cold and
+impassible than the generality, perhaps. He <i>must</i> be clever, for he
+plays whist better than any one I know; but not brilliant, certainly.
+His daughter is"&mdash;the color deepened on his cheek perceptibly&mdash;"very
+charming, most people think; but I hate describing people. I always
+caricature the likeness. You'll form your own judgment at dinner. Shall
+we go in? We shoot an outlying cover after luncheon, and the blackthorns
+involve gaiters."</p>
+
+<p>We had very fair sport, and were returning across the park, picking up a
+stray rabbit every now and then in the tufts of long grass and patches
+of brake. One had just started before Forrester, and he was in the act
+of pulling the trigger, when Livingstone said suddenly,</p>
+
+<p>"There's my uncle's carriage coming down the north avenue."</p>
+
+<p>It was an easy shot in the open, but Charley missed it clean.</p>
+
+<p>"What eyes you have, Guy," he said, pettishly; "but I wish you wouldn't
+speak to a man on his shot."</p>
+
+<p>Guy's great Lancaster rang out with the roar of a small field-piece, and
+the rabbit was rolling over, riddled through the head, before he
+answered,</p>
+
+<p>"Yea, my eyes <i>are</i> good, and I see a good many things, but I <i>don't</i>
+see why you should have muffled that shot, particularly as my
+intelligence was meant for the world in general, and it was not such an
+astounding remark, after all."</p>
+
+<p>Charley did not seem ready with a reply, so he retained his look of
+injured innocence, and walked on, sucking silently at his cigar. The
+Raymonds reached the house before us; but, not being in a presentable
+state, I did not see them before dinner.</p>
+
+<p>Forrester was right; there was nothing startling about Mr. Raymond. He
+had one of those thin, high-bred looking faces that one always fancies
+would have suited admirably the powder and ruffles of the last century.
+It expressed little except perfect repose, and when he spoke, which was
+but seldom, no additional light came into his hard blue eyes. His
+daughter was his absolute contrast&mdash;a lovely, delicate little creature,
+with silky dark-brown hair, and eyes <i>en suite</i>, and color that deepened
+and faded twenty times in an hour, without ever losing the softness of
+its tints. She had the ways of a child petted all its life through, that
+a harsh word would frighten to annihilation. She seemed very fond of
+Guy, though evidently rather afraid of him at times.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing passed at dinner worth mentioning; but soon after the ladies
+left us, Mr. Raymond turned lazily to his nephew to inquire,</p>
+
+<p>"If he would mind asking Bruce to come and stay at Kerton, as he was to
+be in the neighborhood soon after Christmas."</p>
+
+<p>He did not seem to feel the faintest interest in the reply.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be too glad, Uncle Henry," answered Guy (he did not look
+particularly charmed though), "if it will give you or Bella any
+pleasure. Need he be written to immediately?"</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you very much," said Raymond, languidly. "I know he bores you,
+and I am sure I don't wonder at it; but one must be civil to one's
+son-in-law that is to be. No, you need not trouble yourself to invite
+him yet. Bella can do it when she writes. I suppose she <i>does</i> write to
+him sometimes."</p>
+
+<p>I looked across the table at Forrester. This was the first time I had
+heard of Miss Raymond's engagement. He met my eye quite unconcernedly,
+pursuing with great interest his occupation of peeling walnuts and
+dropping them into Sherry. It did not often happen to him to blush
+<i>twice</i> in the twenty-four hours. Directly afterward we began to talk
+about pheasants and other things.</p>
+
+<p>After coffee in the drawing-room Guy sat down to piquet with his uncle.
+Raymond liked to utilize his evenings, and never played for nominal
+stakes. He was the <i>beau ideal</i> of a card-player, certainly; no
+revolution or persistence of luck could ruffle the dead calm of his
+courteous face. He would win the money of his nearest and dearest
+friend, or lose his own to an utter stranger with the same placidity. To
+be sure, to a certain extent, he had enslaved Fortune; though he always
+played most loyally, and sometimes would forego an advantage he might
+fairly have claimed, his rare science made ultimate success scarcely
+doubtful. He never touched a game of mere chance.</p>
+
+<p>I heard a good story of him in Paris. They were playing a game like
+Brag; the principle being that the players increase the stakes without
+seeing each other's cards, till one refuses to go on and throws up, or
+shows his point. Raymond was left in at last with one adversary; the
+stakes had mounted up to a sum that was fearful, and it was his choice
+to double or <i>abattre</i>. Of course, it was of the last importance to
+discover whether the antagonist was strong or not; but the Frenchman's
+face gave not the slightest sign. He was <i>beau joueur s'il en f&ucirc;t</i>, and
+had lost two fair fortunes at play. Raymond hesitated, looking steadily
+into his opponent's eyes. All at once he smiled and doubled instantly.
+The other dared not go on; he showed his point, and lost. They asked
+Raymond afterward how he could have detected any want of confidence to
+guide him in a face that looked like marble.</p>
+
+<p>"I saw three drops of perspiration on his forehead," he said; "and I
+knew my own hand was strong."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Catharine was resting on a sofa: she looked tired and paler than
+usual, not in the least available for conversation. Miss Raymond had
+nestled herself into the recesses of a huge arm-chair close to the
+fire&mdash;she was as fond of warmth, when she could not get sunshine, as a
+tropical bird&mdash;and Forrester was lounging on an ottoman behind her, so
+that his head almost touched her elbow. When I caught scraps of their
+conversation it seemed to be turning on the most ordinary subjects; but
+even in these I should have felt lost&mdash;I had been so long away from
+England&mdash;so I contented myself with watching them, and wondering why
+discussions as to the merits of operas and inquiries after mutual
+acquaintances should make the fair cheeks hang out signals of distress
+so often as they did that evening.</p>
+
+<p>I lingered in the smoking-room about midnight for a moment after
+Forrester left us.</p>
+
+<p>"So your cousin is really engaged?" I asked Guy.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Tout ce qu'il y a du plus fianc&eacute;</i>," was the answer. "It was one of the
+last affairs of state that my poor aunt concluded before she died. Bruce
+is a very good match. I don't think Bella worships him, though I have
+scarcely ever seen them together, and I am sure he is not a favorite
+with Uncle Henry; but nothing on earth would make him break it off;
+indeed, I know no one who would propose such a thing to him&mdash;not his
+daughter, certainly. There's no such hopeless obstacle as the passive
+resistance of a thoroughly lazy man. Good-night, Frank. I've sent the
+Baron on for you to-morrow. We must start about nine, mind, for we've
+fifteen miles to go to cover."</p>
+
+<p>I went to bed, and dreamed that Raymond was playing <i>ecart&eacute;</i> with
+Forrester for his daughter, who stood by blushing beautifully&mdash;and never
+held a trump!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'><div class='i8'>"She has two eyes so soft and brown;</div>
+<div class='i14'>Take care!</div>
+<div class='i8'>She gives a side glance, and looks down;</div>
+<div class='i14'>Beware! beware!</div>
+<div class='i8'>Trust her not; she is fooling thee."</div></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>So the days went on. The stream of visitors usual in a country house
+during the hunting season flowed in and out of Kerton Manor without any
+remarkable specimen showing itself above the surface. One individual,
+perhaps, I ought to except, the curate of the parish, who was a very
+constant visitor.</p>
+
+<p>His appearance was not fascinating: he had a long, narrow head, thatched
+with straight, scanty hair; little, protruding eyes, and a complexion of
+a bright unvarying red&mdash;in fact, he was very like a prawn.</p>
+
+<p>It was soon evident that the Rev. Samuel Foster was helplessly smitten
+by Miss Raymond, or, as Forrester elegantly expressed it, "hard hit in
+the wings, and crippled for flying!" Helplessly, I say, but not
+hopelessly; for that wicked little creature, acting perhaps under
+private orders, gave him all sorts of treacherous encouragement. I never
+saw any human being evolve so much caloric under excitement as he did,
+except one young woman whom I met ages ago&mdash;(a most estimable person;
+her Sunday-school was a model)&mdash;whose only way of evincing any emotion,
+either of anger, fear, pain, or pleasure, was&mdash;a profuse perspiration.
+Mr. Foster not only got awfully hot, but electrical into the bargain.
+His thin hairs used to stand out distinctly and in relief from his head
+and face, just like a person on the glass tripod. Charley suggested
+insulating him unawares, and getting a flash out of his knuckles, if not
+out of his brain. In truth, it was piteous to see the struggle between
+passion and nervousness that raged perpetually within him. He would
+stand for some time casting <i>lamb's</i>-eyes at the object of his
+affections&mdash;to the amorous audacity of the full-grown sheep he never
+soared&mdash;then suddenly, without the slightest provocation, he would
+discharge at her a compliment, elaborate, long-winded, Grandisonian, as
+a raw recruit fires his musket, shutting his eyes, and incontinently
+take to flight, without waiting to see the effect of his shot. If he had
+spent half the time and pains on his sermons that he did on his
+small-talk (I believe he used to write out three or four foul copies of
+each sentence previously at home), what a boon it would have been to his
+unlucky audience on Sundays!</p>
+
+<p>Why is it that the great proportion of our pastors seem to conspire
+together with one consent to make the periodical duty of listening to
+them as hard as possible? Can they imagine there is profit or pleasure
+in a discourse wandering wearily round in a circle, or dragging a slow
+length along of truisms and trivialities? In the best of congregations
+there can be but few alchemists; and, without that science, who is to
+extract the essence of Truth from the <i>moles incongesta</i> of crass
+moralities?</p>
+
+<p>To persuade or dissuade you must interest the head or the heart. I
+admire those who can do either successfully, but I do protest against
+those clerical tyrants who shelter themselves behind their license to
+fire at us their ruthless platitudes. If such could only struggle
+against that strong temptation of our fallen nature&mdash;the delight of
+hearing one's own sweet voice&mdash;so as to concentrate now and then! The
+best orators, spiritual and mundane, have been brief sometimes.</p>
+
+<p>I am no theologian, but I take leave to doubt if, in the elaborate
+divinity of fourteen epistles, the apostle of the Gentiles ever went so
+straight to his hearer's heart as in that farewell charge, when the
+elders of Ephesus gathered round him on the sea-sand, "Sorrowing most of
+all for the words that he spake, that they should see his face no more."</p>
+
+<p>Do you remember Canning and the clergyman? When the latter asked him,
+"How did you like my sermon? I endeavored not to be tedious;" I always
+fancy the statesman's weary, wistful look, which would have been
+compassionate but for a sense of personal injury, as he answered, in his
+mild voice, "And yet&mdash;<i>you were</i>."</p>
+
+<p>Well, the flirtation went on its way rejoicing, to the intense amusement
+of all of us, especially of Forrester, till one day his cousin came into
+Guy's study, who had just returned from hunting, looking rather
+frightened, like a child who has let fall a valuable piece of china&mdash;it
+was only an honest man's heart that she had broken. Slowly the truth
+came out; Mr. Foster had proposed to her that afternoon in the park.</p>
+
+<p>We, far off in the drawing-room, heard the shrill whistle with which
+Livingstone greeted the intelligence.</p>
+
+<p>"You accepted him, of course?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"O Guy!" Miss Raymond answered, blushing more than ever. (I'll back a
+woman against the world for expressing half a chapter by a simple
+interjection; Lord Burleigh's nod is nothing to it.) "But, indeed," she
+went on, "I'm very sorry about it; I never saw any one look so unhappy
+before. Do you know I think I saw the tears standing in his eyes; and I
+only guessed at the words when he said 'God bless you!'"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah bah!" replied Guy, with his most cynical smile on his lip; "he'll
+recover. Who breaks his heart in these days, especially for such little
+dots of things as you? But, Bella mia, how do you think Mr. Bruce would
+approve of all these innocent amusements?"</p>
+
+<p>It was no blush now, but a dead waxen whiteness, that came over the
+beautiful face, even down to the chin. The soft brown eyes grew fixed
+and wild with an imploring terror. "You won't tell him?" she gasped out;
+and then stood quivering and shuddering. Guy was very much surprised: he
+had never believed greatly in his cousin's affection for her betrothed;
+but here there were signs, not only of the absence of love, but of the
+presence of physical fear.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear child," he said, very kindly, "don't alarm yourself so
+absurdly. I have not the honor of Mr. Bruce's confidence; and if I had,
+how could I tell him of an affair where <i>I</i> have been most to blame?
+I'll speak to Foster; he must not show his disappointment even before
+Uncle Henry. You will be quite safe, you see. But, mind, I won't allow
+<i>any one</i> to frighten or vex my pet cousin." His countenance lowered as
+he spoke, and there was a threat in his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>As the cloud darkened on his face, the light came back on Isabel
+Raymond's. She took his hand&mdash;all fibre and sinew, like an
+oak-bough&mdash;into her slender fingers and pressed it hard. In good truth,
+a woman at her need could ask no better defender than he who stood by
+her side then, tall, strong, black-browed, and terrible as Saul. "Thank
+you so much, dear Guy," she whispered. "If you speak to Mr. Foster, you
+will tell him how <i>very</i> sorry I am!" and then she left him.</p>
+
+<p>Guy did speak to the curate, I hope gently. At all events, we never
+laughed at him again. How could we, when we saw him going about his
+daily duties, honestly and bravely, and always, when in presence,
+struggling with his great sorrow, so as not by word or look to
+compromise the thoughtless child who had won his heart for her
+amusement, and thrown it away for her convenience?</p>
+
+<p>I have been disciplined since by what I have felt and seen, and I see
+now how ungenerous we had been.</p>
+
+<p>What right had we to make of that man a puppet for our amusement,
+because he was shy, and stupid, and slow? He was as true in his
+devotion, as honorable in all his wishes, as confident in his hopes till
+they were blasted, as any one that has gone a wooing since the first
+whisper of love was heard in Eden. If his despair was less crushing than
+that of other men, it was because his principles were stronger to
+endure, and perhaps because his temperament was more tranquil and cold.
+As I have said, he did his day's work thoroughly, and that helped him
+through a good deal. But, to the utmost of his nature, I believe he did
+suffer. And could the long train of those whom disappointment has made
+maniacs or suicides do more?</p>
+
+<p>Let us not trust too much to the absence of feeling in these seemingly
+impassive organizations.</p>
+
+<p>I wonder how often the executors of old college fellows, or of
+hard-faced bankers and bureaucrats, have been aggravated by finding in
+that most secret drawer, which ought to have held a codicil or a jewel,
+a tress, a glove, or a flower? The searcher looks at the object for a
+moment, and then throws it into the rubbish-basket, with a laugh if he
+is good-natured, with a curse if he is vicious and disappointed. Let it
+lie there&mdash;though the dead miser valued it above all his bank-stock, and
+kissed it oftener than he did his living and lawful wife and
+children&mdash;what is it worth now? Say, as the grim Dean of St. Patrick
+wrote on <i>his</i> love-token, "Only a woman's hair."</p>
+
+<p>Now these men, unknown to their best friend perhaps, had gone through
+the affliction which is so common that it is hard to speak of it without
+launching into truisms. This sorrow has made some men famous, by forcing
+them out into the world and shutting the door behind them. It has made
+the fortunes of some poets, who choose the world for their confidant,
+setting their bereavement to music, and bewailing Eurydice in charming
+volumes, that are cheap at "3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> in cloth, lettered." It has made
+some&mdash;I think the best and bravest&mdash;somewhat silent for the rest of
+their lives. I read some lines the other day wise enough to have sprung
+from an older brain than Owen Meredith's.</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'><div>"They were pedants who could speak&mdash;</div>
+<div>Grander souls have passed unheard;</div>
+<div>Such as felt all language weak;</div>
+<div>Choosing rather to record</div>
+<div>Secrets before Heaven, than break</div>
+<div>Faith with angels, by a word&mdash;"</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<p>Yes, many men have their Rachel; but&mdash;there being a prejudice against
+bigamy&mdash;few have even the Patriarch's luck, to marry her at last; for
+the wife <i>de convenance</i> generally outlives her younger sister; and so,
+one afternoon, we turn again from a grave in Ephrata-Green Cemetery,
+somewhat drearily, into our tent pitched in the plains of Belgravia,
+where Leah&mdash;(there was ever jealousy between those two)&mdash;meets us with a
+sharp glance of triumph in her "tender eyes."</p>
+
+<p>We have known pleasanter <i>t&ecirc;te-&agrave;-t&ecirc;tes</i>&mdash;have we not?&mdash;than that which
+we undergo that evening at dinner, though our companion seems disposed
+to be especially lively. We have not much appetite; but our <i>carissima
+sposa</i> tells us "not to drink any more claret, or we shall never be fit
+to take her to Lady Shechem's <i>conversazione</i>." Of all nights in the
+year, would she let us off duty on this one? "There are to be some very
+pleasant people there," she says, "though none, perhaps, that <i>you
+particularly care about</i>." (Thank you, my love; I understand that
+good-natured allusion perfectly, and am proportionately grateful.) Her
+voice sounds shriller than usual as she says this, and leaves us to put
+some last touches to her toilette. So we order a fresh bottle,
+notwithstanding the warning, and fall to thinking. How low and soft
+<i>that other</i> voice was, and, even when a little reproachful, how rarely
+sweet! <i>She</i> would scarcely have invented that last taunt if matters
+had turned out differently. Then we think of our respected
+father-in-law, Sir Joseph Leyburn, of Harran Park&mdash;a mighty county
+magistrate and cattle-breeder. He got Ishmael Deadeye, the poacher,
+transported last year, and took the prize for Devons at the Great
+Mesopotamian Agricultural with a brindled bull. We remember his weeping
+at the wedding-breakfast over the loss of his eldest treasure, and
+wonder if he was an arrant humbug, or only a foolish, fond old man,
+inclining morosely toward the former opinion. We don't seem to care much
+about Sir Roland de Vaux, the celebrated geologist, whom we shall have
+the privilege of meeting this evening. What are strata to us, when our
+thoughts will not go lower than about <i>eight feet</i> underground? We shall
+be rather bored than otherwise by Dr. Sternhold, that eminent Christian
+divine, who passes his leisure hours in proving St. Paul to have been an
+unsound theologian and a weak dialectician. Why should Mr. Planet, the
+intrepid traveler, be always inflicting Jerusalem upon us, as if no one
+had ever visited the Holy Land before him? Our ancestors did so five
+hundred years ago, and did not make half the fuss about it; and <i>they</i>
+had a skirmish or two there worth speaking of, while we don't believe a
+word of Planet's encounter with those three Arabs on the Hebron road.
+Pooh! there's no more peril in traversing the Wilderness of Cades than
+in going up to the Grands Mulets. We are not worthy of those
+distinguished men, and would prefer the society of hard-riding Dick
+Foley of the Blues. He had a few feelings in common with us once on a
+certain point (how we hated him then), and he won't wonder if we are
+duller than usual this evening. Perhaps his own nerve will scarcely be
+as iron as usual in the Grand Military, to come off in the course of the
+week.</p>
+
+<p>Well, the bottle is out, and Mademoiselle Zelpa comes to say that
+"Madame is ze raid&egrave;e." So one glass of Cognac neat, as a <i>chasse</i> (to
+more things than good Claret), and then&mdash;let us put on our whitest tie
+and our most attractive smile, and "go forth, for she is gone."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'><div class='i8'>"A man had given all other bliss</div>
+<div class='i8'>And all his worldly worth for this,</div>
+<div class='i8'>To waste his whole heart in one kiss</div>
+<div class='i9'>Upon her perfect lips."</div></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>We were asked to dine and sleep at Brainswick, where the hounds met on
+the following morning. Mr. Raymond could not make up his mind to the
+exertion, so Forrester and I accompanied Guy alone.</p>
+
+<p>"By-the-by," the latter observed, as we were driving over in his
+mail-phaeton, "I wonder if we shall see the Bellasys to-night? I know
+they were to come down about this time. Steady, old wench! where are you
+off to?" (This was to the near wheeler, who was breaking her trot.) "I
+think you'll admire her, Frank; but, <i>gare &agrave; vous</i>, she's dangerous. Eh,
+Charley?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you ought to know," answered Forrester; "I never tried her much
+myself. She's two or three stone over my weight. I wonder what she has
+been doing lately? They sent her down to rusticate somewhere at the end
+of the season. She ought to be in great condition now, with a summer's
+run."</p>
+
+<p>Livingstone smiled, complacently I thought, as if some one had praised
+one of his favorite hunters, but did not pursue the subject.</p>
+
+<p>When I came down before dinner he was talking to a lady in dark blue
+silk, with black lace over it, a wreath curiously plaited of natural ivy
+in her hair. I guessed her at once to be Flora Bellasys.</p>
+
+<p>Let me try to paint&mdash;though abler artists have failed&mdash;the handsomest
+brunette I have ever seen.</p>
+
+<p>She was very tall; her figure magnificently developed, though
+slender-waisted and lithe as a serpent. She walked as if she had been
+bred in a <i>basqui&ntilde;a</i>, and her foot and ankle were hardly to be matched
+on this side of the Pyrenees; the nose slightly aquiline, with thin,
+transparent nostrils; and the forehead rather low&mdash;it looked more so,
+perhaps, from the thick masses of dark hair which framed and shaded her
+face. Under the clear, pale olive of the cheeks the rich blood mantled
+now and then like wine in a Venice glass; and her lips&mdash;the outline of
+the upper one just defined by a penciling of down, the lower one full
+and pouting&mdash;glistened with the brilliant smoothness of a pomegranate
+flower when the dew is clinging. Her eyes&mdash;the opium-eaters of Stamboul
+never dreamed of their peers among the bevies of hachis-houris. They
+were of the very darkest hazel; one moment sleeping lazily under their
+long lashes, like a river under leaves of water-lilies; the next,
+sparkling like the same stream when the sunlight is splintered on its
+ripples into carcanets of diamonds. When they chose to speak, not all
+the orators that have rounded periods since Isocrates could match their
+eloquence; when it was their will to guard a secret, they met you with
+the cold, impenetrable gaze that we attribute to the mighty mother,
+Cyb&egrave;le. Even a philosopher might have been interested&mdash;on purely
+psychological grounds, of course&mdash;in watching the thoughts as they rose
+one by one to the surface of those deep, clear wells (was truth at the
+bottom of them?&mdash;I doubt), like the strange shapes of beauty that
+reveal themselves to seamen, coyly and slowly, through the purple calm
+of the Indian Sea.</p>
+
+<p>Twice I have chosen a watery simile; but I know no other element
+combining, as her glances did, liquid softness with lustre.</p>
+
+<p>When near her, you were sensible of a strange, subtle, intoxicating
+perfume, very fragrant, perfectly indefinable, which clung, not only to
+her dress, but to every thing belonging to her. From what flowers it was
+distilled no artist in essences alive could have told. I incline to
+think that, like the "birk" in the ghost's garland,</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'><div>"They were not grown on earthly bank,</div>
+<div>Nor yet on earthly sheugh."</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<p>Guy took Miss Bellasys in to dinner, and I found myself placed on her
+other side. I had been introduced to her ten minutes before, but had
+little opportunity for "improving the occasion," as the Nonconformists
+have it, for she never once deigned a look in my direction.</p>
+
+<p>My right-hand neighbor was an elderly man of a full habit, whom it would
+have been cruel to disturb till the rage of hunger was appeased, so I
+was fain to seek amusement in the conversation going on on my left.
+There was no indiscretion in this, for I knew Guy would never touch
+secrets of state in mixed company.</p>
+
+<p>For some time they talked nothing but commonplaces, evidently feeling
+each other's foils. The real fencing began with a question from
+Flora&mdash;if he was not surprised at seeing her there that evening.</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all," was the reply; "I knew we must meet before long. It is
+only parallels that don't; and there is very little of the right line
+about either you or me."</p>
+
+<p>"Speak for yourself," Miss Bellasys said; "I consider that a very rude
+observation."</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me," retorted Guy; "I seldom say rude things&mdash;never
+intentionally. I don't know which is in worst taste, that, or paying
+point-blank compliments. Without being mathematical, you may have heard
+that the line of beauty is a curve."</p>
+
+<p>Flora laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"It is difficult to catch you. What have you been doing since we
+parted?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is just the question that was on my lips, so nearly uttered that I
+consider I spoke first. Now, will you confess, or must I cross-question
+some one else? I <i>will</i> know. It is easy to follow you, like an invading
+army, by the trail of devastation."</p>
+
+<p>"So you do care to know?" the soft voice said, that could make the
+nerves of even an indifferent hearer thrill and quiver strangely.</p>
+
+<p>After once listening to it, it was very easy to believe the weird
+stories of Norse sorceresses, and German wood-spirits and pixies, luring
+men to death with their fatally musical tones.</p>
+
+<p>"Simple curiosity," Guy replied, coolly, "and a little compassion for
+your victims. They might be friends of mine, you know."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Bellasys bit her lip, half provoked, half amused, apparently, as
+she answered, "The dead tell no tales."</p>
+
+<p>"No, but the wounded do, and they cry out pretty loudly sometimes. I
+suppose all the cases did not terminate fatally. Will you confess?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have nothing to tell you," Flora said, very demurely and meekly,
+only for once her eyes betrayed her. "Mamma took me down into
+Devonshire, where we have an aunt or two, for sea-breezes and seclusion.
+I rather liked at first having nothing on earth to do, and nothing&mdash;yes,
+I understand&mdash;really nothing to think about. I used to sleep a great
+deal, and then drive a little obstinate pony, to see views. But I don't
+care much about views&mdash;do you? Then mamma was always wanting me to help
+her look for shells and wild-flowers; and the rocks hurt my feet, and
+the bushes never would leave me alone in the woods." She shuddered
+slightly here.</p>
+
+<p>"The Bushes! a Devonshire family of that name, I presume?" Guy
+interrupted, with intense gravity. "How wrong of them! They are very
+ill-regulated young men down in those parts, I believe."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be absurd; I never saw a creature for months between fifteen and
+fifty. Are not those ages safe?" (A shake of the head from Livingstone.)
+"I began to be very unhappy; I had no one to tease; my aunts are too
+good-natured, and mamma is used to it. At last I had the greatest mind
+to do something desperate&mdash;to write to you, for instance&mdash;merely to see
+the household's horror when your answer came. You would have answered,
+would you not? I should not have opened it, you know, but given it to
+mamma, like a good child."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course; I know you show all your letters to your mother. But that
+ruralizing must have been fearful for you, <i>poverina</i>! People were
+talking a good deal of agricultural distress, but this is the most
+piteous case I've heard of. So there were really no men to govern in
+that wood?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not even a little boy," said Flora, decisively. "There were two or
+three from Oxford in the neighborhood; I used to see them sitting
+outside their lodgings in the sun, like rabbits, but they always ran in
+before&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Before you could get a shot at them, you mean?" broke in Guy; "you
+ought to have crept up, and stalked them cleverly."</p>
+
+<p>Flora threw hack her handsome head. "I don't war with children. It went
+on just as I tell you till we left for our round of winter visits, which
+have been very stupid and correct&mdash;till now."</p>
+
+<p>I hardly caught the two last words, she spoke them so low. There was
+silence for several minutes, and then Guy leaned back to address me.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you remember Arthur Darrell, of Christchurch, Frank, the man that
+used to speak at the Union, and was always raving about ebon locks and
+dark eyes?"</p>
+
+<p>"I remember him well. I have not seen him for years; but I heard he was
+getting on well in the law."</p>
+
+<p>"He'll have time to get tired of brunettes&mdash;if any one ever <i>does</i> get
+tired of them&mdash;before he comes back," said Guy. "He's just gone out to
+try the Indian bar."</p>
+
+<p>"What could have put such an idea into his head?" I asked, very
+innocently.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't say," was the reply; "men do take such curious fancies. It was
+a sudden determination, I believe. The beauties of the Eastern
+hemisphere began to develop themselves to his weak mind last summer
+while he was down with his people in&mdash;Devonshire."</p>
+
+<p>Involuntarily I looked at Miss Bellasys. She saw she was detected; but,
+instead of betraying any embarrassment, she turned upon Guy a queer
+little imploring look, not indicative in the least of shame or
+repentance, but such as might be put on by one of those truly excellent
+people who do good by stealth and blush to find it known, when some of
+their benevolent acts have come to light, and they wish to deprecate
+praise.</p>
+
+<p>Livingstone gazed piercingly at her for several instants without moving
+a muscle of his face; suddenly its fixed and stern expression&mdash;you could
+not say softened, but&mdash;broke up all at once like a sheet of ice
+shivering.</p>
+
+<p>"Let there be peace," he said, sententiously. "We forgive all the errors
+of your long vacation in consideration of the good it has evidently done
+you. You are looking brilliantly!"</p>
+
+<p>There was an unusual softness, almost a tremor, in his deep voice as he
+spoke the last words, and a look in his bold eyes that many trained
+coquettes would have shrunk from&mdash;a look that I should be sorry and
+angry to see turned on any woman in whom I felt an interest&mdash;a look such
+as Selim Pasha might wear as the Arnauts defile into his harem-court,
+bringing the fair Georgians home.</p>
+
+<p>Flora Bellasys only smiled in saucy triumph.</p>
+
+<p>"You say you never pay compliments," she answered, "and I always <i>try</i>
+to believe you. We will suppose this one is only the truth extorted. My
+glove&mdash;thank you." The same smile was on her lip as she turned her head
+once in her haughty progress to the door.</p>
+
+<p>As Guy sat down again, and filled a huge glass with claret, I heard him
+mutter between his teeth, "<i>Royale, quand m&ecirc;me</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>"Close up, gentlemen, close up!" broke in the cheery voice of our rare
+old host. "Livingstone, if you begin back-handing already, you'll never
+be able to hold that great raking chestnut I saw your groom leading this
+evening. The man looked as if he thought he would be eaten before he got
+in."</p>
+
+<p>"Whatever you do, drink fair," Guy answered, laughing; "so saith the
+immortal Gamp. The squire's beginning to tremble for his '22 wine."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't wonder," said Godfrey Parndon, the M.F.H. "I've always observed
+that, after flirting disgracefully at dinner, you drink harder
+afterward. It's to drown remorse, I suppose. So you ride that new horse
+of yours to-morrow? My poor hounds!"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be alarmed," cried Guy; "he never kicks hounds, and I won't let
+him go over them; it's only human strangers the amiable animal can't
+endure: that's why I call him the Axeine. He is worth more than the &pound;300
+I gave for him."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, he nearly spoiled two grooms for Hounscott," Parndon said. "The
+stablemen at Revesby had a great beer the day they got rid of him."</p>
+
+<p>"He wouldn't suit every one," remarked Livingstone&mdash;"not you, for
+instance, Godfrey, who always ride with a loose rein. I was obliged to
+give him his gallops myself at first; he's a devil to pull, and if he
+once gets away with you, you may 'write to your friends.' But I've
+nothing like him in my stable."</p>
+
+<p>Then the conversation became general, revolving in a circle of
+hound-and-horse talk, as it will do now and then in the shires.</p>
+
+<p>"Guy," whispered Forrester, as we went up stairs, "there's a little
+woman here who says she used to know you very well: won't you go and
+talk to her?"</p>
+
+<p>"Many little women say that," answered Guy; "it's a way they have. Which
+is it, now?"</p>
+
+<p>Charley pointed out a small, plump, rather pretty blonde, with long
+ringlets, and light, laughing blue eyes. It seemed the lady's
+reminiscences were well founded, for in five minutes Livingstone and she
+were talking like old friends.</p>
+
+<p>In the course of the evening I found myself near Miss Bellasys. This
+time she did me the honor to address me, and soon began asking me more
+questions than I could answer, even had she waited a reply. Did I like
+Kerton Manor? Had there been many agreeable people there yet? Not any
+remarkably so! She was surprised at that. Miss Raymond was there <i>en
+permanence</i>, of course? She was such a favorite with her (Flora), and
+with her cousin too, she thought. Was Mr. Livingstone always playing
+with his uncle, and always losing? She supposed he liked losing&mdash;at
+play. Did I know the lady in pink, with twenty-five flowers in her hair?
+She had counted them. Yes, that was her husband, the stout man looking
+uncomfortable, in the corner&mdash;an old friend of Mr. Livingstone's? He had
+so many old friends; but he did not always talk to them for a whole
+evening without intermission. Ah! she was going to sing; that is, if
+Mr. Livingstone had quite finished with her, and would let her go.
+Little women with pink cheeks and dresses always <i>did</i> sing, and never
+had any voice.</p>
+
+<p>I don't know how many more questions she put to me in the same quiet,
+clear tones; but just then I happened to look down on the handkerchief
+she held in her hand, and I saw a long rent in its broad Valenciennes
+border that I am very sure was not there an hour ago; for Flora's
+toilette, morning and evening, was faultless to a degree.</p>
+
+<p>I had hardly time to remark this when Guy lounged up to us. My
+companion's dark eyes were more eloquent than her lips, which quivered
+slightly as she said,</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder you have not more consideration. A new arrival in the county,
+and compromised irretrievably! Look at Mr. Stafford now."</p>
+
+<p>"The husband?" Guy said, with intense disdain; "the husband's helpless.
+He may sharpen his&mdash;tusks, but he'll never come to battle. How good and
+great you are! It is quite refreshing to hear your strictures on
+innocent amusements. But I beg you will speak of that lady with due
+respect; she is the first&mdash;yes, positively the first&mdash;woman I ever
+loved."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Monseigneur, que d'honneur!</i>" Flora said, curling her haughty lip.</p>
+
+<p>"It is true," Guy went on. "At a children's ball, about fifteen years
+ago, I met my fate. She was in white muslin, with a velvet bodice (Flora
+shuddered visibly); for a year after I pictured to myself the angels in
+no other attire, and now&mdash;years vitiate one's tastes so&mdash;I can fancy
+nothing but a jockey in 'black body and white sleeves.' I suppose she
+was very pretty; let us hope so; it is my only excuse for being
+enchanted in ten minutes, and stupidly enslaved in half an hour. The
+thing would not have been complete without a rival; he came&mdash;a plump,
+circular-faced boy, with severely flaxen hair. No, you need not look
+across the room&mdash;not the least like what she is now! Great jealousy may
+make me unjust, but I don't think he had any advantage over me save one,
+and he used that mercilessly. He wore collars boldly erect under his fat
+checks, while those of the rest of us lay prostrate, after the simple
+fashion of my childhood. The <i>prestige</i> was too much for Ellen's weak
+mind. (Did I tell you her name was Ellen?) Bottom monopolized Titania
+for the rest of the evening. I could have beaten him with ease and
+satisfaction to myself, but I refrained; and, rushing into the
+supper-room, drained three glasses of weak negus with the energy of
+despair.</p>
+
+<p>"I have never suffered any thing since like the torment of the next two
+hours. I saw her several times afterward, and might have made play,
+perhaps, but the phantom of a round red face, with collars starched <i>&agrave;
+l'outrance</i>, always came between us. It is only a slight satisfaction to
+hear that she has utterly lost sight of my rival, and promises to cut
+him dead the first time they meet. There's the history of a young heart
+blighted&mdash;of a crushed affection! I am not aware if there is any moral
+in it; if there is, you are very welcome to it, I am sure. You might
+look a little more sympathizing, though, even if I <i>have</i> bored you."</p>
+
+<p>Flora tried to look grave, but the dancing light in her rebellious eyes
+betrayed her, even before her merry musical laugh broke in.</p>
+
+<p>"It is far the most touching thing I ever heard. Poor child, how you
+must have suffered! I wonder you ever smiled again. How well she sings,
+does she not? when she does not try to go too high."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be severe," Guy retorted; "you may have to sing yourself some
+day. You prefer talking, though? Well, with a well-managed <i>contralto</i>,
+it comes nearly to the same thing, and I suppose you consider the world
+in general is not worthy of it?"</p>
+
+<p>Almost imperceptibly, but very meaningly, her glance turned to where I
+sat close beside her.</p>
+
+<p>"How absurd! you know why I don't sing often. To-night it would be&mdash;too
+cruel. (Flora's idea of modest merit was peculiar.) Now tell me, what
+are you going to ride to-morrow? We shall all go and see them throw
+off."</p>
+
+<p>Without answering her question, he leaned over her, and said something
+too low for me to hear, which made her color brighten.</p>
+
+<p>From a distant corner two ancient virgins, long past "mark of mouth,"
+surveyed the proceedings with faces like moulds of lemon-ice. Flora
+glanced toward them this time, and said demurely, making a gesture of
+crossing her arms a <i>&agrave; la Napol&eacute;on I.</i>, "Take care; from the summit of
+yonder sofa forty ages behold you."</p>
+
+<p>The caution was a challenge; and so her hearer interpreted it as he sank
+down beside her.</p>
+
+<p>I seemed to be lapsing rapidly into the terrible <i>third</i> that spoils
+sport, so I left them; but not all the adjurations of Godfrey Parndon
+invoking his favorite antagonist to the whist-table could draw Guy from
+his post again that evening.</p>
+
+<p>I know men who would have given five years of life for the whisper that
+glided into his ear as he gave Miss Bellasys her candle on retiring, ten
+for the Parthian glance that shot its arrow home.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'><div class='i8'>"I know the purple vestment;</div>
+<div class='i10'>I know the crest of flame;</div>
+<div class='i8'>So ever <i>rides</i> Mamilius,</div>
+<div class='i10'>Prince of the Latian name."</div></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>The next was a perfect hunting morning; a light breeze, steady from the
+southwest, and not too much sun; the very day when a scent, in and out
+of cover, would be a certainty, if there were any calculation on this
+contingency. Let us do our sisters justice&mdash;there is <i>one</i> thing in
+nature more uncertain and capricious than the whims of womankind.</p>
+
+<p>The hounds had come up with their usual train of officials, and of those
+steady-going sportsmen who love the pack better than their own children,
+and can call each individual in it by his name. Godfrey Parndon was
+doing the civil to the "great men in Israel," his heaviest subscribers;
+pinks were gleaming in every direction through the clumps and belts of
+plantation, as the men came up at a hard gallop on their cover-hacks, or
+opened the pipes of their hunters by a stretch over the turf of the
+park.</p>
+
+<p>On the hall steps stood Flora Bellasys&mdash;Penthesilea in a wide-awake and
+plume; a dozen men were round her, striving emulously for a word or a
+smile, and she held her own gallantly with them all. She was waiting
+patiently till Guy had lighted an obstinate cigar, and was ready to
+mount her. He understood putting her up better than any one else, she
+said. Perhaps he did; but, though he swung her into the saddle with one
+wave of his mighty arm as lightly as Lochinvar could have done, the
+arrangement of the skirt and stirrup seemed a problem hardly to be
+solved.</p>
+
+<p>If there was any truth in the old Courland superstition that the display
+of a lady's ankle to the hunters before they started brought them luck,
+we ought to have had the run of the season that day.</p>
+
+<p>He rode by her side, too, as near as the plunges of the chestnut would
+allow, till we reached the gorse that we were to draw; once there, the
+stronger passion prevailed. Aphrodit&egrave; hid her face, and the great
+goddess Artemis claimed her own. As the first hound whimpered, he drew
+off toward a corner, where a big fence would give a chance of shaking
+off the crowd, and I do not think he turned his head till the fox went
+away.</p>
+
+<p>The last thing I remember there was the anxious look in two beautiful
+hazel eyes as they gazed after the Axeine, charging his second fence
+with the rush of an express train.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>f&eacute;tiche</i> did not fail us; we had a wonderful run, of which only
+five men saw the end. I confess, the second brook stopped me and many
+others. Forrester got over with a fall; but they were preparing to break
+up the fox, when he came up first of the second flight.</p>
+
+<p>Guy came home in great spirits; he had been admirably carried. He and
+the first whip, a ten-stone man, were head and head at the last fence,
+while the hounds were rolling over their fox, a hundred yards farther,
+in the open.</p>
+
+<p>After dinner he amused himself with teasing his cousin. At last he
+asked her if she would lend him Bella Donna to hack to cover, as his own
+favorite was rather lame.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Raymond's indignation was superb; for, be it known, she was prouder
+of the said animal than of any thing else in the world.</p>
+
+<p>She (the mare, not the lady) was a bright bay, with black points, quite
+thorough-bred, and as handsome as a picture. Livingstone had bought her
+out of a training-stable, and had given her to his cousin, after having
+broken her into a perfect light-weight hunter.</p>
+
+<p>One of the few extravagances in which Mr. Raymond indulged his daughter
+was allowing her to take Bella Donna wherever she went.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't excite yourself, you small Amazon!" replied Guy to her indignant
+refusal. "How you do believe in that mare! I wonder you don't put her
+into some of the great Spring Handicaps! You would get her in light, and
+might win enough to keep you in gloves for half a century."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I don't know," Forester's slow, languid voice suggested; "I think
+she's faster, for three miles, than any thing in your stable. I should
+like to run the best you have for &pound;50, weight for inches."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not surprised at your supporting Bella's opinion," said Guy, with
+a shade of sarcasm in his voice, "but I did not expect you would back
+it. Come, I'll make this match, if you like; you shall ride
+catch-weight, which will be about 11 st. 7 lb., and I'll ride the Axeine
+at 14 st. 7 lb.: I must take a 7 lb. saddle to do that. They are both in
+hard condition, so it can come off in ten days; and I'll give the
+farmers a cup to run for at the same time. Is it a match?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, if Miss Raymond will trust me with Bella Donna."</p>
+
+<p>Isabel's eyes sparkled&mdash;so brilliantly! as she answered, "I should like
+it, of all things."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Puss," Guy went on, "you ought to have something on it. There is a
+certain set of turquoises and pearls that I meant to give you whenever
+you had been good for three weeks consecutively; it is no use waiting
+for such a miracle, so I'll bet you these against that sapphire and
+diamond ring you have taken to wearing lately."</p>
+
+<p>His cousin looked distressed and confused. "Any thing else, Guy," she
+said. "I can not risk that; it was a present from&mdash;from Mrs. Molyneux."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think," Charley suggested, very quietly, "Mrs.&mdash;Molyneux, was
+it not?&mdash;could object to your investing her present on such a certainty.
+I really believe we shall bring it off; and if not&mdash;" He checked himself
+with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, if you think so," answered Isabel, blushing more than ever, "I will
+venture my ring. But you <i>must</i> win; I don't know what I should do if I
+lost it." So it was settled.</p>
+
+<p>"You seem confident," I remarked to Livingstone, later in the evening. I
+remember the peculiar expression of his face, though I did not then
+understand it, as he answered gravely,</p>
+
+<p>"Bella ought to be; for&mdash;she has laid long odds."</p>
+
+<p>There was great excitement in the neighborhood when the match, and the
+farmers' race to follow, became known. Half the county was assembled on
+the appointed morning, an off-day with the Pytchley. Godfrey Parndon was
+judge, and had picked the ground&mdash;a figure of 8, with 17 fences, large
+but fair for the most part; the horses were to traverse it twice,
+missing the brook (16 feet of clear water) the second time.</p>
+
+<p>I wish they were not getting so rare, those purely country meetings,
+where three wagons with an awning make the grant stand; where there are
+no ring-men to force the betting and deafen you with their blatant
+proffers&mdash;"to lay agin any thing in the race;" where the bold yeomen, in
+full confidence that their favorite will not be "roped," back their
+opinions manfully for crowns.</p>
+
+<p>Livingstone's great local renown, and the reputation of the Axeine for
+strength and speed (though no one knew how fast he <i>could</i> go), made the
+betting 5 to 4 on him; but takers were not wanting, calculating on the
+horse's truly Satanic temper. Miss Bellasys, who, with her mother, had
+arrived at Kerton the night before, laid half a point more&mdash;<i>not</i> in
+gloves&mdash;on the heavy-weight.</p>
+
+<p>The bell for saddling rang, and the horses came out. The mare stripped
+beautifully, as fine as a star&mdash;no wonder her mistress was proud of her;
+and I think she had, to the full, as many admirers as the Axeine.</p>
+
+<p>The latter was a dark chestnut with a white fetlock, standing full 16
+hands (while the mare scarcely topped 15), well ribbed up, with a good
+sloping shoulder, immense flat hocks, and sinewy thighs; his crest and
+forehand were like a stallion's; and, when you looked at his quarters,
+it was easy to believe what the Revesby stablemen said, "They could
+shoot a man into the next county."</p>
+
+<p>He was "orkarder than usual that morning," the groom remarked; perhaps
+he did not fancy the crowd without the hounds, for he kept lashing out
+perpetually, with vicious backward glances from his red eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Then the riders showed: Livingstone in his own colors, purple and
+scarlet cap, workmanlike and weather-stained; Forrester in the fresh
+glories of light blue with white sleeves, his cap quartered with the
+same.</p>
+
+<p>Charley lingered a minute by Miss Raymond's side, taking her last
+instructions, I suppose. She looked very nervous and pale, her jockey
+pleasantly languid as ever.</p>
+
+<p>The instant the chestnut was mounted he reared, and indulged in two or
+three "buck-jumps" that would have made a weaker man tremble for his
+back-bone, and then kicked furiously; but Guy seemed to take it all as a
+matter of course, sitting square and erect; all he did was to drive the
+sharp rowels in repeatedly, bringing a dark blood-spot out with each
+stroke. It was not by love certainly that he ruled the Axeine. Then came
+the preliminary gallops, the mare going easily on her bit, gliding over
+the ground smoothly and springily; the horse shaking his head, and every
+now and then tearing madly at the reins, without being able to gain a
+hair's breadth on the iron hands that never moved from his withers.</p>
+
+<p>"They're off!" Guy taking the lead; well over the first two fences, fair
+hunting ones; the third is a teaser&mdash;an ugly black bulfinch, with a
+ditch on the landing side, and a drop into a plowed field. The
+chestnut's devil is thoroughly roused by this time. When within sixty
+yards of the fence, he puts on a rush that even his rider's mighty
+muscles can not check: his impetus would send him through a castle wall;
+but he hardly rises at the leap, taking it, too, where there is a
+network of growers&mdash;a crash that might be heard in the grand stand&mdash;and
+horse and man are rolling in the field beyond.</p>
+
+<p>Flora Bellasys strikes her foot angrily with her riding-whip, and turns
+very pale.</p>
+
+<p>Ten lengths behind, the mare comes up, well in hand, and slips through
+the bulfinch without a mistake&mdash;hardly with an effort&mdash;just at the only
+place where you can see daylight through the blackthorn.</p>
+
+<p>What is Guy doing? Even in that thundering fall he has never let the
+reins go. Horse and rider struggle up together. A dozen arms are ready
+to lift him into the saddle, and a cheery voice says in his ear, "Hold
+up, squire; keep him a going, and you'll catch the captain yet!" He
+hardly hears the words though, for his head is whirling, and he feels
+strangely sick and faint; but before he has gone a hundred yards his
+face has settled into its habitual resolute calmness, only there is a
+thin thread of blood creeping from under his cap, and his brow is bent
+and lowering.</p>
+
+<p>A fall, which would have taken the fight out of most horses, has only
+steadied the Axeine; and, as we watch him striding through the deep
+ground, casting the dirt behind him like a catapult we think and say,
+"The race is not over yet."</p>
+
+<p>They are over the brook without a scramble. Forrester still leads,
+riding patiently and well. He knows better than to force the running,
+even with the difference in weight, for the going is too heavy quite to
+suit his mare.</p>
+
+<p>As Livingstone passed the spot where Miss Raymond was stationed, he
+turned half round in his saddle, and looked curiously in her face. She
+did not even know he was near. All her soul was in her eyes, that were
+gazing after Forrester with an anxiety so disproportioned to the
+occasion that her cousin fairly started.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor child," he said to himself, all his angry feelings changing, "she
+seems to have set her heart so upon winning, it would be sad if she were
+disappointed. No one has much on it; shall I try 'Captain Armstrong' for
+once? It would make her very happy. Bar accidents, I must win. They do
+not know that the chestnut has not extended himself yet."</p>
+
+<p>We lose sight of the horses for a little. When we see them a gain, the
+mare has decidedly gained ground; and, to our astonishment, the Axeine
+swerves, and refuses at rather an easy fence.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Bellasys' cheek flushes this time. She goes off at a sharp canter
+through a gate that takes her into a field where the horses must pass
+her close; several of her attendants follow. Charley comes up, looking
+rather more excited and happy than usual. He has made the pace better
+for the last half mile, and still seems going at his ease. More than a
+distance behind is the chestnut, evidently on bad terms with his jockey;
+he is in a white lather of foam, and changes his leg twice as he
+approaches. Guy has his face turned slightly aside as he nears the spot
+where Miss Bellasys waits for him, in the midst of her body-guard. For
+the first time since the race began, her voice was heard, cutting the
+air with its clear mocking tones, like the edge of a Damascus sabre,
+"The chestnut wins&mdash;hard held!"</p>
+
+<p>Guy's kindly impulses vanished instantly before the sarcasm latent in
+those last two words. He could sacrifice his own victory and the hopes
+of his backers, but he would not give a chance to Flora's merciless
+tongue. We saw him change his hold on the reins, and, with a shake and a
+fierce thrust of the spurs, he set the Axeine fairly going.</p>
+
+<p>Every man on the ground, including his late owner [who hated himself
+bitterly at that moment for parting with him], was taken by surprise by
+the extraordinary speed the horse displayed. He raced up to Bella Donna
+just before the last fence, at which she hangs ever so little, while he
+takes it in his swing, covering good nine yards from hoof to hoof.
+Nothing but hurdles now between them and home. The down-hill run-in
+favors his vast stride. A thousand voices echo Flora's words, "The
+chestnut wins!" Charley made his effort exactly at the right time, and
+the brave little mare answered gallantly; but it was not to be. He shook
+his head, and never touched her with whip or spur again.</p>
+
+<p>The race was over. No one disputed the judge's fiat: "The Axeine by six
+lengths."</p>
+
+<p>Up to the skies went the hats and the shouts of the sturdy yeomen, who
+"know'd he couldn't be beat," exulting in the success of their
+favorite. Round winner and loser crowded their friends, congratulating
+the one, condoling with the other, praising both for their riding. At
+that moment I do not think any one except myself remarked Isabel
+Raymond, who sat somewhat apart, her tears falling fast under her veil
+as she looked upon her lost ring.</p>
+
+<p>Just then Forrester rode up. "Woe to the vanquished!" he said. "All is
+lost but honor. Will you say something kind to me after my defeat, Miss
+Raymond? You will find your pet not punished in the least, and without a
+scratch on her."</p>
+
+<p>Without answering, she held out her hand. As he bent over it, and
+whispered, what I could not hear, I saw her eyes sparkle, and a happy
+consciousness flush her cheeks, till they glowed like a sky at sunset
+when a storm is passing away in the west. Then I knew that he had won a
+richer prize than ever was set on a race since the first Great
+Metropolitan was run for at Olympia.</p>
+
+<p>Livingstone had washed away the traces of his fall (his wound was only a
+cut under the hair, above the temple), and was going to get the horses
+in line to start them for the farmers' cup. As he passed Miss Bellasys
+he checked his horse for an instant, and said, very coldly,</p>
+
+<p>"You are satisfied, I trust?"</p>
+
+<p>"All's well that ends well," answered Flora; "but I began to tremble for
+my bets. I thought you were waiting too long."</p>
+
+<p>Guy did not wish to pursue the subject apparently, for he rode on
+without reply. Flora made no attempt to detain him. She had studied the
+signs of the times in his countenance long enough to be weather-wise,
+and to know that the better part of valor was advisable when the
+quicksilver had sunk to Stormy.</p>
+
+<p>The cup was a great success. Eleven started, and three made a most
+artistic finish&mdash;scarcely a length between first and third. The farmers
+of the present day ride very differently from their ancestors of fifty
+years ago, whose highest ambition was to pound along after the slow,
+sure "currant-jelly dogs."</p>
+
+<p>Go down into the Vale of Belvoir; watch one of the duke's tenants
+handing a five-year old over the Smite, and say if the modern
+agriculturists might not boast with Tydides,</p>
+
+<blockquote><p><i>"&#7969;&#956;&#949;&#8150;&#962; &#948;&#8052; &#960;&#945;&#964;&#8051;&#961;&#969;&#957; &#956;&#8051;&#947;&#8125; &#7936;&#956;&#949;&#8055;&#957;&#959;&#957;&#949;&#962; &#949;&#8016;&#967;&#8057;&#956;&#949;&#952;&#8125; &#949;&#7990;&#957;&#945;&#953;."</i></p></blockquote>
+
+<blockquote><p><i>"hêmeis dê paterôn meg' ameinones euchometh' einai."</i></p></blockquote>
+
+<p>They are getting so erudite, too, that I dare say they would quote it in
+the original.</p>
+
+<p>When all was over, and they were returning to Kerton, Guy ranged up to
+his cousin's side. He looked rather embarrassed and penitent&mdash;an
+expression which sat upon his stern, resolute face very strangely. But
+Isabel was radiant with happiness, and did not even sigh as she held out
+the forfeited ring. He put it back with a decided gesture of his hand,
+and, leaning over her, whispered something in her ear. I don't know how
+they arranged it; but Miss Raymond wore the turquoises at the next
+county ball&mdash;the ring, to her dying day.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'><div class='i8'>"Souvent femme varie;</div>
+<div class='i8'>Bien fol est, qui s'y fie."</div></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>We sat by the firelight in the old library of Kerton Manor. The dreary
+January evening was closing in, with a sharp sleet lashing the windows
+and rattling on their diamond panes, but the gleams from the great
+burning logs lighted up the dark crimson cushions of Utrecht and the
+polished walnut panels so changefully and enticingly that no one had the
+heart to think of candles.</p>
+
+<p>All the younger members of the party were assembled there, with Mrs.
+Bellasys to play propriety. It was her mission to be chaperon in
+ordinary to her daughter and her daughter's friends, and she went
+through with it, admirable in her patient self-denial. May they be
+reckoned to her credit hereafter&mdash;those long hours, when she sat sleepy,
+weary, uncomplaining, with an aching head but a stereotyped smile.</p>
+
+<p>Let us speak gently of these maternal martyrs, man&oelig;uvring though they
+be. If they have erred, they have suffered. I knew once a lady with a
+lot of six, nubile, but not attractive, all with a decided bias toward
+Terpsichore and Hymen. Fancy what she must have endured, with those
+plain young women round her, always clamoring for partners, temporary or
+permanent, like fledglings in a nest for food. Clever and unscrupulous
+as she was&mdash;they called her the "judicious Hooker"&mdash;she must have been
+conscious of her utter inability to satisfy them. She knew, too, that
+if, by any dispensation, one were removed, five daughters of the
+horse-leech would still remain, with ravenous appetites unappeased. Yet
+the poor old bird was cheerful, and sometimes, after supper, would chirp
+quite merrily. <i>Honneur au courage malheureux.</i> Let us stand aside in
+the cloak-room, and salute her as she passes out with all the honors of
+war.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bellasys was a little woman, who always reminded me of a certain
+tropical monkey&mdash;name unknown. She wore her hair bushily on each side of
+her small face, just like the said intelligent animal, and had the same
+eager, rather frightened way of glancing out of her beady black eyes,
+accompanied by a quick turning of the head when addressed. She had her
+full share of troubles in her time, but she took them all
+contentedly&mdash;not to say complacently&mdash;as part of the day's work. Her
+husband was not a model of fidelity, nor, indeed, of any of the conjugal
+or cardinal virtues. He was a sort of Ma&euml;lstrom, into which fair
+fortunes and names were sucked down, only emerging in unrecognizable
+fragments. His own would have gone too, doubtless; but he had been lucky
+at play for a long time&mdash;too constantly so, some said&mdash;and a pistol
+bullet cut him short before he had half spent his wife's money, so that
+she was left comfortably off, and her daughter was a fair average
+heiress. She had long ago abdicated the government in favor of Flora,
+who treated her well on the whole, <i>en bonne princesse</i>.</p>
+
+<p>It is an invariable rule that, if there is a delicate subject which we
+determine beforehand to avoid, this particular one is sure
+imperceptibly to creep into the conversation.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bruce was to arrive before dinner, an event which we guessed would
+not add materially to the comfort of two of our party (how silent those
+two were in their remote corner where the firelight never came), so of
+course we found ourselves talking of ill-assorted marriages.</p>
+
+<p>"You count <i>m&eacute;salliances</i> among such?" Guy asked, at length. "Yes, you
+are right; but I know a case where 'a man's being balked in his
+intention to degrade himself' ruined him for life. Ralph Mohun told me
+of it. It was a nine-days' wonder in Vienna soon after he joined the
+Imperial Cuirassiers. A Bohemian count flourished there then&mdash;a great
+favorite with every one, for he was frank and generous, like most boys
+well-born and of great possessions, who have only seen things in general
+on the sunny side. While down at his castle for the shooting, he fell in
+love with the daughter of one of his foresters. The man was a dull,
+brutal cur, and, when drunk, especially savage. His daughter was rarely
+beautiful; at all events, the count, a good judge, thought her peerless.</p>
+
+<p>"He meant fairly by the girl from the first, and promised her marriage,
+actually intending to keep his word. Still there were arrangements to be
+made before he could introduce such a novel element into blood that for
+centuries had been pure as the <i>sangue azzura</i>. He went up to Vienna for
+that purpose, leaving his design a profound secret to all his
+dependents. If these thought about it at all, they probably believed
+their master's intentions to be&mdash;like Dick Harcourt's toward the Irish
+lady&mdash;'strictly dishonorable.'</p>
+
+<p>"One night during his absence shrieks came from the cottage where the
+forester lived alone with his daughter. Those who heard them made haste;
+but it was a desolate spot, far from any other dwelling, and they came
+too late.</p>
+
+<p>"They found the girl lying in her blood, not a feature of her pretty
+face recognizable. Near her were the butt of a gun shivered, and her
+father senselessly drunk. He had evidently finished the bottle after
+beating her to death.</p>
+
+<p>"Whether it was merely an outbreak of his stupid ferocity, or if she had
+exasperated him by her threats and taunts, for she was of a haughty
+spirit, poor child! and perhaps rather elevated by the thought of the
+coming coronet, will never be known. The murderer was in no state to
+make a confession, and he remained obstinately silent in prison till his
+lord's return."</p>
+
+<p>"How very horrible!" Mrs. Bellasys cried out, shuddering; "was not the
+count very angry?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, he <i>was</i> rather vexed," replied Guy, coolly. "They are high
+justiciaries on their own lands, those great Bohemian barons, and so he
+gave the forester a fair trial. It was soon over; the man denied
+nothing, only whining out, in excuse, that he thought his daughter was
+dishonored. The shadow of death was closing round him, and he was nearly
+mad with fear.</p>
+
+<p>"The old steward saw a strange sort of smile twist his master's white,
+quivering lips when he heard this, but he never said a word. I imagine
+he thought to reveal his purpose now that it was crushed too great a
+sacrifice even to clear the dead girl's fair fame; perhaps, though, he
+could not trust his voice, for he did not announce the sentence in
+words, but wrote it down: his hand shook very much, and it never carried
+a full glass unspilled to his mouth again.</p>
+
+<p>"The court broke up at midday, and the man went straight, unconfessed,
+to the place of his punishment. They tied him to the tree nearest his
+own door, and the count sat by while he howled his life out under the
+lash. He was hardly dead by sundown."</p>
+
+<p>"It was revenge, not justice," Mrs. Bellasys said, more firmly than was
+her wont. I saw the quick, impatient movement of her daughter's little
+foot; she did not appreciate her mother's moralities.</p>
+
+<p>The answer came in the deepest of Livingstone's deep, stern tones.</p>
+
+<p>"He was no saint, but a man, and a very miserable one; he acted
+according to his light, and in his despair caught at the weapon that was
+nearest to his hand. After all, the blood of a base, brutal hound, take
+it in what fashion you will, is a poor compensation for one life cut
+short in agony, and another blasted utterly.</p>
+
+<p>"Mohun knew the count's family. Some of them, maiden aunts I suppose,
+were devotees of the first order: these came in person, or sent their
+pet priests, to argue with him on his unchristian habits of sullen
+solitude. The men of his old set came too, to laugh him out of the
+horrors. Saint and sinner got the same answer&mdash;a shake of the head, a
+curse, a threat if he were not left alone, growled out between deep
+draughts of strong Moldavian wine. They went, and were wise; for his
+pistols lay always beside him&mdash;in case his servants offended him, or if
+he should take a sudden fancy to suicide&mdash;and the shaking finger could
+have pulled a trigger still.</p>
+
+<p>"After a little he left Vienna, shut himself up in his castle, and would
+see no one.</p>
+
+<p>"In England they would have tried at the '<i>de lunatico</i>' statute; but
+his next of kin left him in peace, biding their time as patiently as
+they could. They had not to wait long; in four years a good constitution
+broke up, suddenly at last, and the count exchanged stupor for a sleep
+with his fathers, without benefit of clergy. Perhaps they would not have
+given him absolution, for he died certainly not in charity with all
+men."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," Mrs. Bellasys objected, with a timid obstinacy; "I can
+not argue with you; but I am sure it was very wrong."</p>
+
+<p>I struck in to the meek little woman's rescue.</p>
+
+<p>"That's right, Mrs. Bellasys, don't let him put you down with the high
+hand; it's always his way when truth is against him; but I never knew
+him break down a stubborn fact yet."</p>
+
+<p>Guy turned upon me directly.</p>
+
+<p>"Frank, I have often remarked in you, with pain, quite a feminine
+propensity to theorize. Women <i>will</i> do it. My dear Mrs. Bellasys, don't
+look so dreadfully like an accusing angel about to bring me to book; you
+know I am a hopeless heretic. They get up a sort of <i>Memoria Technica</i>
+in early youth, and it clings to them all their life through. If they go
+astray, they never cease proclaiming aloud that 'they know it's very
+wrong;' though eminently unpractical, they think it due to themselves to
+pet certain abstract truths (circumstances don't affect them in the
+least), like that priestess of Cotytto, who said to the magistrate,
+through her tears, 'I may have been unfortunate, but I've always been
+respectable!' Sometimes principle gets the pull over passion, but, in
+such a case, regrets come as often afterward as remorse does in the
+reverse. I was reading a French story the other day&mdash;" He checked
+himself with a laugh. "Bah! I am in the prosaic vein, it seems,
+anecdoting like the old knave of clubs."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you go on?" Flora said, leaning over toward him, her eyes
+glittering in the firelight.</p>
+
+<p>The thrill in her voice&mdash;strangely contagious it was&mdash;told how much she
+was interested. I do not wonder at it. There was only one man on earth
+for whom she had ever really cared&mdash;he sat beside her then&mdash;and, I
+believe, what attracted her most in him was the daring disregard of
+opinions, conventionalities, and more sacred things yet, which carried
+him on straight to the accomplishment of his thought or purpose. In
+those days, if either were an obstacle, he flinched no more before a
+great moral law than at a big fence.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," Guy went on, "it is the simple history of Fernande, an <i>ange
+d&eacute;chue</i> of the Quartier Br&egrave;da. She had formed a connection with a man
+who suited her perfectly in every way, and they went on in happy
+immorality, till she found out that Maurice had a wife somewhere, a very
+charming person, who loved him dearly; perhaps she thought that the
+possession of two such affections by one man was <i>de luxe</i>; at all
+events, she cut him at once, refusing consistently to see him again.
+Maurice, after trying all other means to move her in vain, resorted to
+the expedient of a brain fever. When his wife and mother saw him very
+near his end, they sent for Fernande as a last resource. They ought to
+have preferred death to dishonor, of course; but, my dear Mrs. Bellasys,
+they were not strong-minded. What would you have? There are women and
+women.</p>
+
+<p>"She came and nursed him faithfully; when he got better, though still
+very weak, she took advantage of his unprotected position to inflict on
+him the longest lectures, replete with good sense and good feeling, as
+to his conjugal duties, proprieties, and so forth. He gave in at last,
+on the principle of 'any thing for a quiet life,' and promised to behave
+himself like a decent head of a family. When the balance of power was
+thoroughly re-established, she left him, first entreating him, when he
+found himself really in love with his wife, and happy, to write and tell
+her so. This was to be her reward, you know. The others went to Italy,
+Fernande to a place she had in Brittany, where she put herself on a
+strict <i>r&eacute;gime</i> of penitence, attending matins regularly, and doing as
+much good in her neighborhood as Lady Bountiful, or&mdash;my mother. In about
+a twelvemonth the letter came; Maurice was devoted to his wife, and
+great on the point of domestic felicity. Then Fernande went into her
+oratory and prayed. What do you think was the substance of her prayer?"</p>
+
+<p>"That she might go mad or die," was the quick answer: it came from Flora
+Bellasys.</p>
+
+<p>"How good of you," Guy said, "to let me finish that long story, when you
+knew it by heart."</p>
+
+<p>I think no ear but his and mine caught the whisper&mdash;"I never read or
+heard of it till now."</p>
+
+<p>He bent his head in assent, as if the intelligence did not surprise him
+much, and then spoke suddenly,</p>
+
+<p>"Charley, will you make an observation? You have been displaying that
+incontestable talent of yours for silence long enough."</p>
+
+<p>Very seldom was Forrester taken by surprise, but this time his reply was
+not ready. There was an embarrassing pause, broken by a <i>Deus ex
+machin&acirc;</i>,&mdash;the butler announcing that Mr. Bruce had arrived, and was in
+the drawing-room.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'><div class='i8'>"And now thou knowest thy father's will,</div>
+<div class='i10'>All that thy sex hath need to know:</div>
+<div class='i8'>'Twas mine to teach obedience still&mdash;</div>
+<div class='i10'>The way to love thy lord may show."</div></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>From that dark distant corner I heard a sigh, ending in a nervous
+catching of the breath, and then a muttered word unpleasantly like an
+oath, as Forrester sprang to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>Livingstone rose slowly.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll go and receive him. Let Mr. Raymond know, Wise. I suppose he will
+not care to see any one else before dressing-time; it must be near that
+now."</p>
+
+<p>As he passed his cousin, he whispered something inaudible to us; and I
+saw his heavy hand fall on Charley's shoulder, crushing him down again
+like a child.</p>
+
+<p>Then Flora went to Miss Raymond, and asked her, with more kindness in
+her manner than usual, to come to her rooms for some tea; they always
+seriously inclined to the consumption of that cheerful herb about this
+hour. Isabel clung to her companion as they went out with a meek
+helplessness which was sad to see.</p>
+
+<p>Charley had vanished before them. After that first involuntary movement
+he had become <i>nonchalant</i> as ever, so I remained alone to ruminate. I
+confess, after some thought, I was still in the dark as to where things
+would end.</p>
+
+<p>The meeting had been got over somehow, for, when I came down before
+dinner, Bruce was sitting on a sofa by Miss Raymond's side.</p>
+
+<p>Why does a man in such a position invariably look as if he were on the
+stool of repentance, expiating some misdeed of unutterable shame? He has
+sat by the same woman before, when it was only a strong flirtation; more
+eyes, curious and spiteful, were upon him then, and he met them with
+perfect self-possession. Now that he is in his right, why does he look
+blushingly uneasy, as if he would call on the curtains to hide him, and
+the cushions to cover him? Have any mortals existed so good, or great,
+or wise, as to be exempt from that dreadful poll-tax levied on all males
+unprivileged to woo by proxy&mdash;the necessity of looking ridiculous from
+the moment their engagement is announced to that when they leave the
+church as Benedicts? I should like to have watched Burke, or Herschel,
+or the Iron Duke, or <i>any</i> Archbishop of Canterbury, through the ordeal
+of a recognized courtship. Would the dignity of the statesman, the sage,
+the soldier, or the saint have been sustained? I trow not.</p>
+
+<p>In truth, it is a sight full of sad warning, that ever-recurring
+spectacle of an engaged man (the lady is always provokingly at her ease)
+in general society. His friends turn away in compassion and charity; the
+girls, whom he ought to have married and&mdash;didn't, look on, exchanging
+smiles with their mothers; it is their hour of savage triumph. The
+French manage things more comfortably, I think. The promessi sposi meet
+so seldom before the contract is signed&mdash;between sentence and execution
+the time is so brief that there is little space for intermediate
+terrors.</p>
+
+<p>Nature had not been bountiful to Mr. Bruce in externals. He was very
+tall, with round shoulders, long, lean limbs, large feet and hands, and
+immense joints. There was a good deal of strength about him, but it
+wanted concentration and arrangement. His features were rather
+exaggerated and coarse in outline, with the high cheek-bones common on
+the north side of the Tweed; his hair of an unhappy vacillating color
+that could not make its mind up to be red; and his eyes, that rarely met
+you fairly, of a light cold gray. About the mouth, in particular, there
+was a very unpleasant expression, alternately vicious and cunning.</p>
+
+<p>I do not believe that his intimates, if he had any, in their wildest
+moments of conviviality, ever called him "Jack;" nor his mother, in his
+earliest childhood, "Johnnie." Plain "John Bruce" was written
+uncompromisingly in every line of his face; just the converse of
+Forrester, whom old maids of rigid virtue, after seeing him twice, were
+irresistibly impelled to speak of as "Charley."</p>
+
+<p>I wish some profound psychologist would give us his theory on the
+question of "The influence of nomenclature on disposition and destiny."
+It is all very well to ask, "What's in a name?" I think there is a great
+deal; and that our sponsors have much to answer for in indulging their
+baptismal fancies. Not to go into the subject (which some have already
+done without exhausting it), have you not remarked that Georgiana is
+always pretty and slightly sarcastic; that Isabella has large, soft,
+lustrous eyes&mdash;generally they are dark; that Fanny invariably flirts;
+and that Kate is decided in character, if not haughty?</p>
+
+<p>Tragedy and comedy both are forced to observe these nominal
+proprieties. Who was it that illuminated his house, and had the church
+bells rung, on finding a name for his hero? We should never have
+believed in Iago's treacheries if he had appeared before us as simple
+"James."</p>
+
+<p>The new arrival seemed to have chilled us all into stupidity. Dinner
+languished; and afterward, Guy, after trying at first to be laboriously
+civil&mdash;the sense of duty was painfully evident&mdash;lapsed into silence,
+passing the claret rather faster than usual, so that Mr. Raymond, to his
+intense disgust, had to make an effort and force the conversation.</p>
+
+<p>When we entered, Isabel was nestling under Miss Bellasys' wing, from
+which shelter she had to emerge at Bruce's request for some music. She
+went directly, and played several pieces that he asked for straight
+through, while he stood gravely behind her with a complacent air of
+proprietorship which was inexpressibly aggravating.</p>
+
+<p>When her task was done she went back to her sofa again; there she was
+safe, for all Bruce's devotion to his ladye-love and stubbornness of
+character could not give him courage enough to affront, at close
+quarters, the mingled dislike and scornful humor that played round
+Flora's lips, and gleamed in her eyes like summer lightning. He had to
+retreat upon Lady Catharine, who, thinking him hardly used, in her
+inextinguishable charity exerted herself to entertain him.</p>
+
+<p>We were all glad when that first evening was over, and we got into the
+smoking-room, whither Mr. Bruce was not entreated to follow. It was
+always an augury of foul weather in Livingstone's temper when, instead
+of the decent evening cigar, he smoked the short black <i>brule-gueule</i>,
+loaded to the muzzle with cavendish. He sat thus for some minutes,
+rolling out stormy puffs from under his mustache, and then broke out,</p>
+
+<p>"I haven't an idea what to do with him" (there was no need to name the
+object of his thoughts); "I made up my mind to risk a horse or two, for,
+of course, he would have broken their knees; but when I offered him a
+mount, he thanked me and said, 'He didn't hunt.' It would have got him
+away from home, at all events. Poor Bella! how heavy on hand she <i>will</i>
+find him."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! and he might have come to a timely end over timber; Providence does
+interfere so benevolently sometimes." This was Forrester's pious
+reflection.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that's over," Guy went on. "He must shoot, though; every one
+shoots, or thinks he does. We have all the pheasants to kill yet
+(by-the-by, Fallowfield comes over on Thursday for the Home Wood); that
+will keep him employed for some time; but it's only putting off the evil
+day. My match-making aunt, of blessed memory, how much she has to answer
+for! I hate to think of Bella's <i>mignonne</i> face alongside of that
+flinty-cheeked Scotchman's."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be angry, Guy," suggested Charley, with some diffidence; "but, if
+it's not an impertinent question, do you think he ever tries to kiss
+your cousin?"</p>
+
+<p>"I never thought of that," replied Livingstone, not without an oath;
+"there's another pleasant reflection. No, I should think not. He <i>is</i>
+ceremonious, to give the devil his due. I'll find out to-morrow, though,
+without making Bella blush. Miss Bellasys is sure to know. I saw them
+exchanging confidences all this evening, and I am certain there were
+instigations to rebellion. Flora would delight in an <i>&eacute;meute</i>; she's a
+perfect Red Republican, that girl."</p>
+
+<p>"The opposition seems organizing," I remarked; "ministers will find
+themselves soon, I fear, without a working majority."</p>
+
+<p>"Not unlikely," said Guy, filling another pipe; "but they won't resign.
+Some men never know when they are beaten. Well, he who lives will see.
+If this wind lasts, we shall have a cracker from Lilbourne to-morrow.
+You ride the young one, don't you, Charley?"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'><div class='i14'>"A life whose waste</div>
+<div class='i8'>Ravaged each bloom by which its path was traced,</div>
+<div class='i8'>Sporting at will, and moulding sport to art,</div>
+<div class='i8'>With what sad holiness&mdash;the human heart."</div></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>It is a bright, crisp morning, and there is a gathering round the hall
+door of Kerton Manor.</p>
+
+<p>To the right is Sir Henry Fallowfield, already established on the broad
+tack of his shooting pony, an invaluable animal, that can leap or creep
+wherever a man can go, and steady under fire as old Copenhagen. The
+baronet is very gouty. The whip made out of his favorite vices cuts him
+up sharply at times, and he does not like it alluded to. I never saw him
+look so savage at Guy as when the latter quoted, <i>"Raro antecedentem
+scelestum Deseruit pede p&oelig;na claudo."</i> Of course, he can not walk
+much; but, placed in a ride, or at the corner of a cover, he rolls over
+the hares and pulls down the pheasants unerringly as ever; when you come
+up, you will find him surrounded by a semicircle of slain, and not a
+runner among them.</p>
+
+<p>The battle of life has left its tokens on the face of the strong,
+skillful Protagonist. The features, once so finely cut, are somewhat
+full and bloated now; but it is a magnificent ruin, and there are traces
+yet of "the handsomest man of his day." Very expressive are his glances
+still; a little too much so, some people think, when he is criticising a
+figure or a face; but, to do him justice, <i>gourmandise</i> is his pet
+weakness now, a comparatively harmless one; and a delicate <i>entremet</i>
+will bring the light into his eyes that only war or love could do in the
+old days.</p>
+
+<p>By Sir Henry's side, encouraging him with great prophecies of sport,
+stands Mallett, the head-keeper. What a contrast his fresh, honest face
+makes with the veteran <i>rou&eacute;'s</i>! He is the elder of the two by a good
+ten years, and there is scarcely a wrinkle on his ruddy cheeks and
+smooth forehead. Wind and weather have used him with a rough kindness,
+and his foot is almost as light, his hand quite as heavy, as when he
+entered the service of Guy's grandfather half a century ago. For
+generations his family have been devoted to the preservation of game;
+his six stalwart sons are all eminent in that line; and the "Kerton
+breed" of keepers is renowned throughout the Midland shires. He is a
+prime favorite with the village children and their mothers, for, in all
+respects save one, his heart is as soft as a woman's; to poachers it is
+as the nether millstone. There is the stain of a "justifiable homicide"
+on the old man's hands&mdash;the blood of an antagonist slain in fair fight,
+in those rough times when the forest was, and marauders came out by
+scores to strike its deer. I do not think the deed has weighed heavily
+on his conscience (though he never has spoken of it since), or troubled
+his healthy, honest slumbers.</p>
+
+<p>To the left is Guy, repressing the attentions of four couple of strong
+red and white spaniels, but <i>not</i> those of Miss Bellasys, who, standing
+at the oriel window of the library, is good-natured enough to fasten the
+band of his wide-awake for him, which has come undone. As he stands
+with his towering head a little bent, murmuring the "more last words,"
+Sir Henry, contemplating the picture with much satisfaction, smacks his
+lips, and suggests "Omphale."</p>
+
+<p>Last of all, Mr. Raymond comes slowly down the staircase, followed by
+his son-in-law that is to be. Forrester and I have been ready long ago,
+so we start.</p>
+
+<p>Bruce did shoot, certainly, if discharging his gun on the slightest
+provocation constituted the fact; but he shot curiously ill. Indeed, he
+might have formed a pendant to that humane sportsman who, having taken
+to rural sports <i>sero sed serio</i>, said, in extreme old age, "that it was
+a satisfaction to him to reflect that he could not charge himself with
+having been, wittingly, the death of more than a dozen of his
+fellow-creatures."</p>
+
+<p>It was a problem whereon Mallett ruminated gravely long
+afterward&mdash;"Wherever Mr. Bruce's shot do go to?" He could not conceive
+so much lead being dispersed in the atmosphere without a more adequate
+result. This want of dexterity, too, was thrown into strong relief that
+day; for all the other men, putting myself out of the question, were
+rare masters of the art.</p>
+
+<p>Livingstone headed the list, though Fallowfield ran him hard. He got the
+most shots, indeed; for his knowledge of the woods and great strength
+enabled him always to keep close to the spaniels. He was a sight to
+marvel at, as he went crashing through bramble and blackthorn with a
+long even stride, just as if he had been walking through light springs.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of the day we were all assembled outside the cover, where the
+game was being counted, except Bruce, who was still in the wood. A stray
+shot every now and then gave notice of his approach.</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'><div>"We heard but the distant and random gun</div>
+<div>That the foe was sullenly firing,"</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<p>Guy quoted, laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"Random! you may say that," remarked Fallowfield. "That man ought to be
+in a glass case, and ticketed; he's a natural curiosity. His bag to-day
+consists of one hare, one hen, and one&mdash;sex unknown, for no one saw it
+rise or tried to pick it up; it was blown into a cloud of feathers
+within six feet of his muzzle. Here he comes; don't ask him what he's
+done&mdash;it's cruelty."</p>
+
+<p>Bruce came up to us, looking rather more discontented than usual, but
+not nearly so savage as the keeper who had attended him all day, who
+immediately retreated among his fellows to relieve himself, by many
+oaths, of his suppressed disgust and scorn. They offered him beer, but
+it was no use. I heard him growl out, "That there muff's enough to spile
+one's taste for a fortnit."</p>
+
+<p>It was the hour of the wood-pigeons coming in to roost, and several were
+wheeling over our heads at a considerable height.</p>
+
+<p>"There's something for you to empty your gun at, Bruce," Sir. Raymond
+said, pointing to one that came rather nearer than the rest.</p>
+
+<p>He was leveling, when Forrester cried out, "Five-and-twenty to five on
+the bird!"</p>
+
+<p>"Done!" answered Bruce, as he pulled the trigger. It was a long and not
+very easy shot, but the pigeon came whirling down through the tranches
+with a broken pinion.</p>
+
+<p>"You are unlucky in your selection, Captain Forrester," the successful
+shot remarked, coolly. "You might have won a heavy stake by laying the
+same odds all day."</p>
+
+<p>"It serves you right," interposed Guy, "for speaking to a man on his
+shot. Don't you remember quarreling with me the other day for doing so,
+Charley?"</p>
+
+<p>Charley's face of perplexity and disgust was irresistible. We all
+laughed. "What a <i>guignon</i> I have," he said. "Mr. Raymond, I believe you
+were in the robbery."</p>
+
+<p>"Not I," was the answer. "I was as much surprised as any one. I think,"
+he went on, lowering his tone, "Guy is right; he changed his aim, as you
+spoke, involuntarily, or he <i>must</i> have missed."</p>
+
+<p>Then we turned homeward through the twilight.</p>
+
+<p>I do not know if the reminiscence of his lost "pony" was rankling in
+Forrester's mind, or if he was only affected by the presence of Sir
+Henry Fallowfield&mdash;an immoral Upas, under whose shadow the most
+flourishing of good resolutions were apt to wither and die; but
+certainly, after dinner, he broke through the cautious reserve which he
+had always in public maintained toward Miss Raymond since Bruce's
+arrival. He not only talked to her incessantly, but tempted her to sing
+with him, during which performance they seemed rapidly lapsing into the
+old confidential style.</p>
+
+<p>Bruce sat apart, the shades on his rugged face gradually deepening from
+sullenness into ferocity. He looked quite wolfish at last, for it was a
+habit he had to show his white teeth more when he was savage than when
+he smiled. But the music went on its way rejoicing,</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'><div>"Unconscious of their doom,</div>
+<div>The little victims played."</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<p>Isabel was too happy, and Charley too careless to be prudent. Once I
+caught his glance as it crossed with Bruce's scowl. There was an
+expression on his pleasant face that few men had ever seen there,
+approaching nearly to an insolent defiance. Looking at those two, a
+child might have known that between them there was bitter hate.</p>
+
+<p>But what of that? Are not the laws of society and the amenities of
+civilized life supreme over such trifles as personal animosities? How
+many women are there who never meet without mingling in a close embrace,
+when each is to the other a Brinvilliers in heart? My gentle cousin
+Kate, only last night I saw you greet your intimate enemy. It was the
+moat gushing thing I ever imagined. The kisses were profuse and
+tantalizing in the extreme; yet I wish, if thoughts could kill, dearest
+Emma's neck would have been safer in the hug of a Norway bear than in
+the clasp of your white willowy arms.</p>
+
+<p>Are there not men, sitting constantly at each other's tables, who, in
+the Golden Age, when people spoke and acted as they felt, would only
+have encountered at the sword's point?</p>
+
+<p>If we hear that our mortal foe is ruined irretrievably, we betray no
+indecorous exultation, but smile complacently and say, "We are not
+surprised;" or, if we have the chance, give him a last push to send him
+over the precipice on whose brink he is staggering. But as for any
+violent demonstration&mdash;bah! the <i>Vendetta</i> is going out of fashion, even
+in Corsica, nowadays; only on the boards of the "Princess's" does it
+have a run.</p>
+
+<p>It is better so. Is it not far more creditable and less ridiculous for
+two of our reverend seniors, between whom there exists a deadly feud, to
+comport themselves with decent reserve toward each other, than to go
+vaporing about on crutches, stamping the foot that is not gouty, and
+blaspheming in a weak, cracked treble, like Capulet and Montague? Hot
+rooms and cold draughts are dangerous, but not so fatal as the Aqua
+Tofana, and other pleasant beverages more revolting and rapid in their
+effects. Could any thing be more harrowing to a well regulated mind than
+to see, in the midst of a neatly-turned compliment, one's partner
+literally <i>look black</i> at one, and expire incontinently in great
+torments?</p>
+
+<p>It is less romantic, but I prefer to be given an unmedicated rose. When
+I win a pair of gloves, it is a satisfaction to me to reflect that in
+Houbigant or Pivert there is no venom or guile.</p>
+
+<p>All these consoling thoughts, and more, passed through my mind that
+evening; yet I could not get rid of a strange, indistinct impression
+that it was only the presence of Livingstone which averted some great
+danger imminent over his cousin and Forrester.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'><div class='i14'>"This is all</div>
+<div class='i8'>The gain we reap, from all the wisdom sown</div>
+<div class='i8'>Through ages. Nothing doubted those first sons</div>
+<div class='i8'>Of time; while we, the schooled of centuries,</div>
+<div class='i8'>Nothing believe&mdash;"</div></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>We were scattered round the smoking-room, about midnight, in different
+attitudes of repose. Bruce was of the party, decidedly out of his
+element. He did not like tobacco much, and only took a cigar as a
+sacrifice to the exigencies of the occasion, consuming the same with
+great toil and exertion of the lungs, and when he removed it from his
+lips, holding it at arm's length, like a viper or other venomous beast.</p>
+
+<p>"Charley," asked Fallowfield, at length, from the depths of his divan,
+"how is the regiment going on? Insolvent as ever?"</p>
+
+<p>"More so," was the reply. "When I came away they were thinking of
+framing a &pound;5 note, and hanging it up in the ante-room, to show that we
+had <i>some</i> money&mdash;just like the man who pitched loaves over the
+city-walls when they were dying of famine&mdash;but there was a difficulty
+about procuring one. However, we have been promised the son of an
+opulent brewer or distiller (I forget which, but I know he makes
+something to drink), who is to join before Easter. Perhaps he may set us
+afloat again."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," Guy remarked; "fortunately, a martial spirit is abroad in the
+Third Estate. <i>Walbrook s'en va t'en guerre</i>. If there is one moneyed
+man in the lot, it seems sufficient to keep the others going. I often
+wonder how you manage; for, to do you justice, you don't plunder your
+Cr&oelig;sus. You deserve statues&mdash;as Sydney Smith would have said&mdash;<i>&aelig;ris
+alieni</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not the rose, but I have lived with her," responded Forrester,
+sententiously. "That's the principle of the thing. When a subaltern
+arrives laden with gold, the barrack-yard is a perfect garden of
+Bendemeer to the tradesmen."</p>
+
+<p>"I believe it is precisely such regiments," remarked Bruce, "that the
+political economists have in view when they attack the army estimates."</p>
+
+<p>The observation was aggressive; but Charley's countenance was unruffled
+as the Dead Sea as he answered, "Personal, but correct. You are intimate
+with Joseph Hume, probably? You look as if you were." (These last words
+were a stage aside, not quite so inaudible as could be wished.) "I think
+we should fight, if we had a chance, though."</p>
+
+<p>His lip wore a curious smile, and he raised himself on his arm to look
+the last speaker full in the face.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you would," broke in Sir Henry; "that's not a peculiarity of
+crack regiments or second sons. It's only in their baptism of fire that
+the young ones shrink and start; after that, the meekest of men develop
+themselves wonderfully. I heard an old Indian, the other day, speak of a
+case in point.</p>
+
+<p>"There was an officer in his service, mild and stupid to a degree. He
+had been a butt all his life; bullied at school, at Addiscombe, and in
+his corps worst of all.</p>
+
+<p>"They were attacking a hill-fort, and the fire from wall-pieces and
+matchlocks was so heavy that the storming-party would not face it. Among
+those who retreated were two of his superior officers and chief
+tormentors. The junior lieutenant saw them cowering away to seek
+shelter, and laughed out loud; then he flung his shako before him into
+the fort, and led the sepoys back to the charge, and right over the
+breastwork&mdash;bareheaded and cheering. He was shot down inside, and lived
+only a few hours, all the time in horrible agony; but Western told us
+that Bayard or Sidney could have made no braver or calmer ending."</p>
+
+<p>"You are right," Livingstone said. "The Roundheads fought fully as well
+as the Cavaliers. I only know of two instances where the thoroughbreds
+had the advantage of a contrast. One was when the Scottish regiment took
+the island in the Rhine; the other was the exploit of the <i>Gants
+Glac&eacute;s</i>. Don't you know it? It's worth hearing.</p>
+
+<p>"They were attacking some town in the wars of the Fronde. The breach was
+scarcely practicable, and the best of the besieging army had recoiled
+from it with great loss. The Black Mousquetaires stood by in all the
+coquetry of scarf, and plume, and fringed scented gloves, laughing
+louder at each repulse of the Linesmen. The soldiers heard them and
+gnashed their teeth. At last there was a murmur, and then a shout&mdash;<i>'En
+avant les Gants Glac&eacute;s!'</i> They wanted to see 'the swells' beaten too.
+Then the Household Brigade went up and carried the breach, leaving a
+third of their number on it. The general in command made the whole army
+defile past their <i>guidon</i>, and salute it with sloped standards.</p>
+
+<p>"No; very few men are physical cowards in battle, whatever they may be
+across country. I don't believe Paris was, when he ran from Menela&uuml;s;
+and Helen did not think so, though she teased him about it, or she would
+never have spoken to him again. I rather imagine his feeling was that of
+a certain Guardsman of our acquaintance, who said, declining the ordeal
+of combat, that 'his first duty was to his partners, and this did not
+allow him to risk a black eye.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Might not remorse at the sight of the man he had injured have had
+something to do with his flight?" Bruce asked.</p>
+
+<p>He was full of moral sentiments&mdash;that man; only you could not look at
+him without fancying that they sprung more from an inclination to be
+contradictious and disagreeable than from any depth of principle.</p>
+
+<p>"Absurd," Guy retorted. "Wasn't he a heathen, and rather an immoral one?
+It was of profligates with far greater advantages of education that some
+one said, '<i>'Le remords nait de l'abandon, et non de la faute</i>.' The
+walls of Troy were strong then, and the Destroyer-of-ships safe behind
+them, 'getting herself up alarmingly' for his return. No wonder Menela&uuml;s
+was eager for the duel: he was staking his loneliness against Paris's
+nine points of the law."</p>
+
+<p>Sir Henry Fallowfield smiled approvingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he observed, not answering what had been said, but evidently
+following out a train of his own thought. "Modern exquisites have
+courage, and self-possession, and conceit&mdash;great elements of success
+with women, I own&mdash;but they have not much more. I am certain Charley,
+who is a favorable specimen of the class, often affects silence because
+he has nothing on earth to say. There is a decadence since my younger
+days (I hope I speak dispassionately), and how very far we fell short of
+the <i>rou&eacute;s</i> of the R&eacute;gence! We could no more match them than a
+fighting-man in good training could stand up to one of the old Pict
+giants. Look at Richelieu: good at all points&mdash;in the battle, in the
+boudoir, in the Bastille&mdash;a dangerous rival at the two ages of ordinary
+men's first and second childhood."</p>
+
+<p>"He was a great man in his way," I assented. "Do you remember his answer
+to the Duchesse de Maine, when she asked him, for a political purpose,
+if he could remain faithful for one week to an intrigue then twenty-four
+hours old? '<i>Madame, quand une fois j'embrasse un parti, je suis capable
+des plus grandes sacrifices pour le soutenir.</i>' The object of that
+heroic constancy was the Mar&eacute;chale de Villars, one of the loveliest
+women in France. It was the sublime of fatuity&mdash;was it not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I don't know," said Charley, settling himself comfortably in his
+cushions, and glancing almost imperceptibly at Bruce; "they seem to
+fancy us, notwithstanding. We have only one great obstacle&mdash;the mothers
+that <i>bore</i> us."</p>
+
+<p>Be it known that "they," used simply, stood in his vocabulary for the
+fair sex in general.</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense," replied Fallowfield; "don't be so ungrateful. You don't know
+what you owe to those anxious parents. It helps you enormously, being
+the objects of perpetual warnings from husbands and chaperons, the
+first considering you <i>mauvais sujets</i>, the last <i>mauvais partis</i>; for
+you <i>are</i> 'detrimentals,' for the most part, you will own."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Vetitum ergo cupitum</i>," interrupted Livingstone. "A good many
+moralists before and since old Rabelais have discoursed on that text.
+The Chief of Errington was probably much more agreeable, besides being a
+better match than Jock of Hazeldean, who clearly was what an old
+Frenchman lately described to me&mdash;'<i>un vaurien, mon cher, qui court les
+filles et qui n'a pas le son</i>.' But then poor Frank was the government
+candidate; so, of course, in a popular election, he went to the wall."</p>
+
+<p>Sir Henry's face grew more pensive and grave as he said, "It is very
+hard on the women, certainly, that our race should have degenerated so,
+for I believe in my conscience they are as clever and wicked, and
+appreciate temptation as much as ever." (The gusto with which he said
+this is indescribable.) "There is the Bellasys, for instance, with a
+calculating sensuality, an astuteness of stratagem, an utter contempt of
+truth, and a general aptitude for making fools of men, that poor Philip
+the Regent would have worshiped. When she had no one better to corrupt,
+I have seen her take in hand an older, sadder, wiser, uglier man than
+myself, and in three days bring him to the verge of insanity, so that he
+would scowl at his wife, his companion for forty years, the blameless
+mother of six grown-up children, with a hideous expression indicative of
+carving-knives and strychnine. Guy suits her best. His thews and sinews
+awe her a little sometimes; and he has a certain hardness of character
+and pitilessness of purpose, improved by my instructions, which will
+carry him far, but not far enough, I think. You're right not to look
+flattered" (Guy's face had moved no more than the marble Memnon's); "you
+are only a shade better than the rest. Our effete world is not worthy of
+that rare creature: she was born a century too late."</p>
+
+<p>"I quite differ with you," Bruce said, in his harshest voice; "I am
+certain the great plurality of the women of our day would resist any
+temptation, from fear of the consequences, if not from principle."</p>
+
+<p>Fancy the feelings of the Greek professor interrupted in his lecture by
+a controverting freshman, and you will have some idea of Fallowfield's.
+His eye lighted on the last speaker, glittering like a hooded snake's,
+as it were caressing him with a lambent scorn.</p>
+
+<p>I never guessed how much sneering provocation could reside in tones
+usually so very soft and musical till I heard him answer, "I suppose you
+<i>do</i> differ with me. We probably both speak from experience. On one
+point you are scarcely practical, though. You think you can frighten a
+woman into propriety. Try it."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you not too general in your strictures or encomiums?" I suggested,
+wishing to relieve the awkwardness which ensued; "surely there are many
+instances to the contrary. Take Lady Clanronald, for instance, married
+to a man her elder by twenty years, and not very clever or agreeable, I
+should think. No one ever breathed a whisper against her, and it has not
+been through default of aspirants."</p>
+
+<p>An evil smile curled round the old <i>rou&eacute;'s</i> sensual mouth, radiating
+even to the verge of the forest of his iron-gray whiskers.</p>
+
+<p>"Clanronald not clever?" he replied. "The cleverest man I know. He knew
+how his wife would be tempted, and he has taken the greatest pains to
+encourage a counteracting influence&mdash;family pride. Don't you know she is
+a Hautagne? It is a tradition with that race that their women never go
+wrong&mdash;under a prince of the blood. None of these are available just
+now, so she is still '<i>Une Madeleine, dans la puissance de son mari, et
+dans l'impuissance de se repentir</i>.'"</p>
+
+<p>It was worse than useless to argue with Fallowfield. All your own best
+hits were turned aside by the target of his cynicism and unbelief, while
+his sophistries and sarcasms often came home. Like old wounds, they
+would begin to shoot and rankle in after years, just when it was most
+important and profitable to forget them.</p>
+
+<p>We separated soon after this. Sir Henry's face wore an expression of
+placid self-congratulation. He thought the conversation had been rather
+improving, I believe, and that some of the ideas and illustrations had
+been rather neatly put; so he laid his head down that night with the
+calm, satisfied feeling of a good man who has done his duty and not lost
+a day.</p>
+
+<p>He was not more ingenious in overcoming the scruples of others than in
+silencing his own conscience, though of late years this last had
+probably ceased to give him much trouble. Finer feelings with him were
+only "sensations morbidly exaggerated," and he made no sort of
+allowance for such; among others, utterly ignoring remorse, I doubt if
+he ever looked forward; I am sure he never looked back. A parody on the
+"tag" which was given to Cambronne would sum up his terribly simple and
+consistent creed&mdash;<i>La femme se rend, mais ne meurt pas</i>.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'><div class='i8'>"I hold him but a fool, that would endanger</div>
+<div class='i8'>His body for a girl that loves him not."</div></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>Fallowfield left us the next morning, the Bellasys later in the same
+day. They were to pay divers visits, and then return to Kerton. Lady
+Catharine pressed them to do so; though she liked the daughter less than
+the mother, she was so anxious Guy should marry some one that I think
+she would have accepted even Flora with thankfulness.</p>
+
+<p>It is a favorite delusion with the British parent that marriage will
+work a miracle, and steady their children for life, by casting forth the
+<i>lutins</i> who beset them. A thousand failures have not convinced the good
+speculative matrons of the hazard of the experiment, nor will as many
+more do so; they will go on match-making and blundering to the end of
+time. For a very brief space the evil spirits are exorcised; but before
+the gloss is off the new-married couple's new furniture, one of the band
+creeps back and opens the door to his fellows. These hardly know their
+old quarters at first, but they soon begin to like them better than
+ever&mdash;are they not swept and garnished? "So they enter in and dwell
+there, and"&mdash;I need not finish the sentence; a thousand sweet though
+somewhat shrill voices will save me that trouble&mdash;a doleful music&mdash;an
+ancient tale of wrong&mdash;the Song of the Brides! They used to say that a
+man never went so hard to hounds after entering the holy estate. If
+this be so, I fear it is the only comforting result which follows of
+course.</p>
+
+<p>What Flora and Guy said to each other at parting I can not guess.
+Neither was of the sentimental order, and both might have taken for
+their motto, "Lightly won and lightly lost." Her hand lingered somewhat
+long in his as they said farewell, but she was smiling, if any thing,
+more saucily than ever. So she went, leaving behind her no tangible
+token, except a tiny pearl-colored glove, which Guy twisted rather
+pensively between his fingers as he stood on the hall steps, and watched
+the carriage disappear down the avenue. Mr. Bruce exulted after his
+saturnine fashion, and Isabel Raymond trembled; the one had lost a
+strong, unscrupulous ally, the other a formidable enemy.</p>
+
+<p>"Why don't you open those letters, Charley?" Livingstone asked at
+breakfast, next morning, pointing to a pile that lay unopened by the
+letters plate.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear boy, I haven't the heart to do it," was the reply. "They are
+all expressive, I know, of different phases of mercantile despair. I
+believe these men keep a supplicant, as Moses maintains a poet. The last
+appeal from my saddler was perfectly heartrending: he could not have
+written it himself, for he looks as tough as his own pig-skin. If he
+had, he would be <i>impayable</i> in more ways than one. What can I do? I
+can't come down on the poor old man who has the misfortune to be my
+father for more supplies when rents are being reduced fifteen per cent.
+The tradesmen must learn to endure. They have a splendid chance of
+attaining the victory of suffering."</p>
+
+<p>Bruce smiled complacently to himself, and then superciliously at
+Charley. He had just received a letter from his banker, consulting him
+as to the disposal of a superfluous thousand or so, and he was
+hesitating between some dock shares and a promising railway.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," Forrester went on, "it's very well for you to talk in that
+hardened way, as you did the other night, about detrimentals and second
+sons. I wonder how you would like to have an elder brother, a pillar of
+learned societies, and as tenacious of life as one of his pet zoophytes?
+He used to consume quantities of medicine, which was encouraging; but
+lately he has taken to hom&oelig;opathy, which was quite out of the match.
+He told me, lately, that 'four hundred a year and my pay was affluence.'
+Affluence!"</p>
+
+<p>It is impossible to describe the cadence of plaintive indignation which
+he gave to the last word. The recollection of his wrongs had made him
+almost energetic: we listened to his eloquence in respectful surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"It was adding insult to injury," answered Guy. "If Parliament does not
+do something for you all soon, there will be another exodus of the
+Parthenid&aelig;."</p>
+
+<p>Charley looked at his friend admiringly, as he always did when Guy was
+classical in his allusions; but the unwonted effort had evidently
+exhausted him, and he lapsed into silence.</p>
+
+<p>We rode out that afternoon to make some calls in the neighborhood, and,
+in returning, Livingstone proposed a short cut through a line of gates,
+with a short interval of cross-country work.</p>
+
+<p>His cousin looked delighted, Bruce decidedly uncomfortable, though, of
+course, he could not refuse. He was riding Kathleen, an Irish mare, one
+of the quietest in the Kerton stable, where none were very steady. The
+fences were nothing at first; at last we came to a brook. It was not
+broad, but evidently deep, with high, rotten banks. However, as we were
+going at a fair hunting pace, all, including Bella Donna and her
+mistress, took it in their stride, but pulled up at once, seeing that
+Bruce was left behind, with the groom who was following us.</p>
+
+<p>The first time he came at it, it was a clear case of "craning." He was
+hauling nervously at the reins, and would not let the mare have it.</p>
+
+<p>Guy regarded him with intense contempt. "By G&mdash;d," he muttered, "I
+believe the man's afraid!"</p>
+
+<p>Forrester laughed so unrestrainedly that Isabel looked at him
+beseechingly, in evident dread of the consequences.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Miss Raymond," he said, answering her frightened glance, "don't
+alarm yourself. Do you think I am a Quixote, to war with windmills?"</p>
+
+<p>No one could look at Bruce's long arms and legs, all working at once,
+without owning the aptness of the simile.</p>
+
+<p>For the third time he came down at the brook, and, I really believe,
+meant going; but Kathleen, unused to such vacillating measures, had got
+sulky, and swerved on the very brink, almost sliding over it. Her rider
+lost his seat, rolled over her shoulder, and for an instant disappeared
+in the water.</p>
+
+<p>Achelous or Tiber, emerging from his native waves, crowned with aquatic
+plants, presented, I doubt not, an appearance at once dignified and
+becoming, but I defy any ordinary non-amphibious mortal to look, under
+similar circumstances, any thing but supremely ridiculous. The wrathful
+face framed in dripping hair and plastered whiskers&mdash;the movements of
+the limbs, awkward and constrained&mdash;the rivulets distilling from every
+salient angle, turning the victim into a walking Lauterbrunnen&mdash;when we
+saw all these absurdities exaggerated before us, no wonder that from the
+whole party, including the groom, there broke "unnumbered laughters."</p>
+
+<p>"Curse the mare!" Bruce hissed out. The words came crushed and broken,
+as it were, through the white ranges of his grinding teeth.</p>
+
+<p>Livingstone's face hardened directly. "Swear as much as you think the
+circumstances require, or as my cousin will allow," he said, "but be
+just before you're generous: don't anathematize Kathleen. It was no
+fault of hers. I never saw her refuse before; but she is used to be put
+straight at her fences. Hold her still, Harry" (to the groom on the
+farther side, who had caught the mare's rein); "I'll ride her at it
+myself."</p>
+
+<p>He threw his bridle to Forrester, and, dismounting, cleared the brook at
+a bound. Then he went up to Kathleen, and began to coax her with voice
+and hand.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll bet an even fifty he takes her over the first time," said Charley.</p>
+
+<p>Bruce nodded his head, without speaking, to show that he took the bet. I
+thought he had the best of it, for the mare was so savage and sulky
+still that a refusal seemed a certainty.</p>
+
+<p>Guy had mounted by this time, and, after taking a wide sweep in the
+field, came down at the brook. Kathleen was curling her back up, and
+going short, with the most evident intention of balking; but swerving
+was next to impossible, for she was fairly held in a vice by her rider's
+hands and knees. The whip fell heavily twice on either shoulder, and,
+just at the water's edge, Livingstone drove his heels in and lifted her.
+It was almost a standing leap, and, as Kathleen landed, a fragment of
+the bank went crashing into the water from under her hind hoofs, and she
+went down on her head; but Guy recovered her cleverly, and, turning
+again, sent her over it twice, backward and forward. The first time the
+mare did not try to refuse again, but rushed at it, snorting wrathfully,
+with her head in the air; the second she was quite tamed, and took it
+evenly in her stride.</p>
+
+<p>"Give Mr. Bruce your horse, Harry, and take the Czar," Guy said. "I'll
+ride Kathleen home. Steady, old lady&mdash;don't fret. We are friends again
+now."</p>
+
+<p>"So you have got your pony back," I remarked to Forrester.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and with interest," was the quiet reply. "I don't think he will
+owe me much when I have done with him."</p>
+
+<p>Though I had nothing on earth to do with it, I felt something like
+compunction as I guessed what he meant.</p>
+
+<p>Bruce's was a hard, money-loving nature, unromantic to a degree; but I
+believe he would gladly have waked to find himself a houseless, landless
+beggar, if he could thus have regained what Charley, with his soft
+voice, and eyes, and manner, had stolen from him long ago.</p>
+
+<p>Am I right in saying "stolen?" Perhaps he never had it; at all events,
+he thought he had, which comes to nearly the same thing.</p>
+
+<p>It is true that, unraveling the cord of a man's existence, you will
+generally find the blackest hank in it twined by a woman's hand, but it
+is not less common to trace the golden thread to the same spindle.</p>
+
+<p>Great warrior, profound statesman, stanch champion of liberty as he was,
+without Edith of the Swan's-neck, Harold would scarcely have risen into
+a hero of romance. We do not quite despise Charles VII. when we think
+how faithfully, in loneliness and ruin, the Lady of Beauty loved her
+apathetic, senseless, discrowned king. Others never found it out, but
+there must have been something precious hid in a dark corner of his
+wayward heart near which Agnes nestled so long. We look leniently on
+Otho&mdash;parasite and profligate&mdash;when we see him lingering on his last
+march, on the very verge of the death-struggle, in the teeth of Galba's
+legions, to decorate Pop&aelig;a's grave. More in pity than in scorn, be sure,
+did Tacitus, the historic epigrammatist, write "<i>Ne tum quidem veterum
+immemor amorum</i>."</p>
+
+<p>Was it in remorseful consciousness of having inflicted a deep,
+irreparable wrong, that Isabel rode so constantly by Bruce's side,
+striving, by all means of timid propitiation, to chase the cloud
+lowering on his sullen face as we returned slowly home?</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'><div class='i8'><i>"&#932;&#8056; &#948;&#8050; &#960;&#961;&#959;&#954;&#955;&#8059;&#949;&#953;&#957;,</i></div>
+<div class='i10'><i>&#7960;&#960;&#949;&#8054; &#947;&#8051;&#957;&#959;&#953;&#964;&#8125; &#7938;&#957; &#7972;&#955;&#965;&#963;&#953;&#962;, &#960;&#961;&#959;&#967;&#945;&#953;&#961;&#8051;&#964;&#969;&#8231; </i></div>
+<div class='i14'><i>&#7996;&#963;&#959;&#957; &#948;&#8050; &#964;&#8183; &#960;&#961;&#959;&#963;&#964;&#8051;&#957;&#949;&#953;&#957;,</i></div>
+<div class='i12'><i>&#932;&#959;&#961;&#8056;&#957; &#947;&#8048;&#961; &#7972;&#958;&#949;&#953; &#963;&#8059;&#957;&#959;&#961;&#952;&#961;&#959;&#957; &#945;&#8016;&#947;&#945;&#8150;&#962;."</i></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'><div class='i8'><i>"To de prokluein,</i></div>
+<div class='i10'><i>Epei genoit' an êlusis, prochairetô;</i></div>
+<div class='i14'><i>Ison de tô prostenein,</i></div>
+<div class='i12'><i>Toron gar êxei sunorthron augais."</i></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<p>My stay at Kerton Manor was drawing to a close. I had lingered there too
+long already, and letters from neglected relatives and friends came,
+reproachful, with every post. The day before I went, Guy called me into
+his study.</p>
+
+<p>"Frank," he said, "I am in a great strait of perplexity; my uncle has
+been attacking me this morning about Isabel and Charley. Bruce puts him
+up to it, of course."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought it would come; but why on earth did not Bruce speak to you,
+if not to Forrester, himself? Perhaps it was from delicacy, though. Let
+us hope so."</p>
+
+<p>"How philanthropic we are!" Guy retorted. "I don't believe any other man
+would have spoken of delicacy and that rough-hewn log of Scotch-fir in
+the same breath. My dear boy, the thing is as simple as possible&mdash;the
+man is a coward. He is as careful of that precious person of his as if
+it were worth preserving, so he shoots his arrows from behind Uncle
+Henry's Telamonian shield. Nothing is so acute and right-judging as the
+instinct of fear. He knows that if he had a fancy for a quarrel, either
+Charley or I would be too happy to indulge him."</p>
+
+<p>"He can't be such a dastard," I said.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure of it; but he is not the less dangerous for that. Such men
+are always the most unscrupulous in revenge. I have seen murder in his
+eyes a score of times in the last fortnight. If our lines had fallen in
+the pleasant Italian places, he would have invested twenty scudi long
+ago in hiring a dagger. As it is, civilization and the rural police
+stand our friends; but I have strongly advised Charley not to trust
+himself near him in cover. By G&mdash;d, I think, for once in his life, he
+would hold straight!"</p>
+
+<p>"You don't like him, that's evident."</p>
+
+<p>The pupils of Livingstone's eyes contracted ominously; a lurid flash
+shot out from under his black, bent brows, and there came on his lip
+that peculiar smile that we fancy on the face of Homeric heroes&mdash;more
+fell, and cruel, and terrible than even their own frown&mdash;just before
+they leveled the spear. He laid his broad hand, corded across with a
+net-work of tangled sinews, on the table before him, and the stout oak
+creaked and trembled.</p>
+
+<p>"If I were to strangle him," he said, "as I constantly feel tempted to
+do, I believe I should deserve well of the state. But, with all that, I
+don't like plotting against him under my own roof; it strikes me that is
+a phase of hospitality not strictly Arabian. My mother laments over him
+already as hardly dealt with. Then Uncle Henry is a great difficulty. He
+is not in the least one of the light comedy fathers who, during two
+acts, stamps about with many strange oaths and stormy denials, but in
+the last yields to fate and <i>soubrettes</i>, says 'Bless you, my children!'
+and hands out untold gold. There is no more appeal from his decisions
+than from Major A&mdash;&mdash;'s. He dislikes Bruce, of course; but he would just
+as soon think of objecting to a partner at whist as to a son-in-law
+because he happened to be unprepossessing. When the poor little
+Iphigenia is sacrificed on the shrine of expediency, you will see him,
+not veiling his face but taking snuff with the calm grace that is
+peculiar to him. Arguing with such a man is a simple absurdity."</p>
+
+<p>"I can not advise you," I answered, sadly; "but it seems hard on Miss
+Raymond, too."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course it is," Livingstone broke in; "and the worst of it is, the
+poor child looks to me to help her. I can't bear to think of what her
+life would be if she married Bruce. He would be constantly retaliating
+on her for what he is suffering now&mdash;for he does suffer. A pleasant idea
+that she, who is only meant to be petted, should be set up as a target
+for his jealousy and ill-humor! She would never be able to stand it, and
+Charley wouldn't if she could; and then there would be a <i>d&eacute;nouement</i>
+like that which ruined Ralph Mohun. If there <i>is</i> to be a row, it had
+better come before than after marriage. It's more moral, and saves an
+infinity of trouble. I think Charley is better away, too, just now.
+Parndon wants us both to stay with him. We'll go; and so my conscience
+will stand at ease for the present. When we are on neutral ground I can
+help them, or, at all events, 'let the justice of the king pass by.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Have you spoken to Forrester yet?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; but he will do as I advise, and temporize, I am sure, though he
+would hardly give up Bella, even if I asked him. He means business for
+once, evidently. They will have plenty of time to concert their plans
+before the summer. Charley wants no help in that. As to carrying them
+out&mdash;we shall see. Well, you will go to-morrow. I am very sorry, for all
+reasons. I hope you have not been much bored here. Kerton counts on you
+for next winter."</p>
+
+<p>I need not give my answer. I felt really loth to go; but, fortunately
+for my peace of mind, I could not guess at the changes that would be
+wrought in the hopes, the intentions, the destinies of all of us before
+I should stand in the fine old manor-house again.</p>
+
+<p>If adieus are painful in reality, they ate intensely stupid on paper&mdash;a
+landscape without a foreground&mdash;so I spare you next morning's
+leave-takings.</p>
+
+<p>Guy had said nothing to his cousin then of the plan he had determined
+on. I was glad of it. I was glad not to see, at parting, her sweet face
+so sad as I am sure it became when she heard that she was to struggle
+against Brace's persecutions and her own antipathies unaided and alone.</p>
+
+<p>I wandered through many counties, and then went to Ireland. During the
+next few months I saw the faces I had left behind me many times, but
+only in my dreams.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'><div class='i8'>"The only living thing he could not hate</div>
+<div class='i8'>Was reft at once&mdash;and he deserved his fate,</div>
+<div class='i8'>But did not feel it less; the good explore</div>
+<div class='i8'>For peace, these realms where guilt can never soar;</div>
+<div class='i8'>The proud&mdash;the wayward&mdash;who have fixed below</div>
+<div class='i8'>Their joy, and find this earth enough for woe,</div>
+<div class='i8'>Lose in that one their all&mdash;perchance a mite&mdash;</div>
+<div class='i8'>But who in patience parts with all delight?"</div></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>Pleasant days they were when, through the soft spring weather, I
+wandered round the coasts of Kerry, Clare, and Galway, hooking salmon in
+broad pools, where the vexed water rests a while from its labors under
+wooded cliffs, and at the tail of roaring rapids, specked with white
+foam-clots, or sea-trout in the estuaries where the great rivers hurry
+down to their stormy meeting with the Atlantic rollers.</p>
+
+<p>Every where I met the frank, cheery welcome that you must cross the
+Channel to find in its perfection.</p>
+
+<p>It is sad to see how widely over that fair land the abomination of
+desolation has cast its shadow. Many halls are tenantless besides those
+of Tara. The ancient owners of the soil&mdash;where are they? Not a country
+in Europe but is conscious of these restless, careless, homeless
+Zingari. In distant provincial towns of France you hear their enormous
+blunders in grammar and musical Milesian brogue breaking the uniformity
+of dull legitimist <i>soir&eacute;es</i>. Hombourg and Baden are irradiated with the
+glory of their whiskers. You find their blue eyes and open, handsome
+features diversifying the sameness of wooden-faced Austrian squadrons.
+Nay, has it not been whispered that the proudest name in Ireland
+attained a bad eminence in the Grecian Archipelago as the captain of the
+wickedest of those long low craft that, in the purple dawn or ivory
+moonlight, steal silently out from behind the headlands of the Cyclades?</p>
+
+<p>But let us do justice to those who remain behind.</p>
+
+<p>The sceptre of Connemara has passed away from the ancient dynasty. If
+the penultimate monarch could rise from his peaceful grave, his place
+would know him no more. If he traveled through all his thirty miles of
+seaboard, the Scotch laborers would doff their hats more respectfully to
+the steward of the "Law Life" than to the humane old homicide. The royal
+writ, which he defied from his place at St. Stephen's, might be served
+now, I imagine, without danger of the bailiff's breaking his fast on the
+same. Claret flows soberly from long-necked bottles whose corks bear the
+brand of the wine-merchant, high priced and legal, instead of from the
+cask of which the snug sandy cove and the roguish-looking hooker could
+have told tales. But, in spite of visionary rents, and poor-rates
+sternly real, the Irish squire still clings to the exercise of that
+hospitality which has been an heirloom with the tribes since the days of
+Strongbow.</p>
+
+<p>One of my longest halting-places was at Ralph Mohun's, by whom, though
+personally unknown to him, I was made very welcome as a friend of Guy's.
+My host deserves a more especial mention, for his history was a sad,
+though not an uncommon one.</p>
+
+<p>He began life in a Cavalry regiment, wherein he conducted himself with
+fair average propriety till he met Lady Caroline Desborough. He fell in
+love with her&mdash;most people did&mdash;but, unluckily, when she married Mr.
+Mannering, to whom she had been predestined since her <i>d&eacute;but</i>, he could
+not bring himself to wear the willow decently and in order, like her
+other disappointed admirers.</p>
+
+<p>It was the old unhappy story: her husband neglected Lady Caroline
+consistently&mdash;ill-treated her sometimes. Mohun pursued his purpose with
+the relentless obstinacy of his character. Eighteen months after her
+marriage they fled together.</p>
+
+<p>He was not rich, so that the trial which ensued, with its heavy damages,
+completely crippled him. The partner of his crime was absolutely
+penniless. They went to Vienna, and Ralph entered the Austrian
+Cuirassiers, where he had some interest to push him. He had lingered
+some time within reach of England, to give Mannering an opportunity of
+demanding satisfaction. But the injured husband knew his man too well to
+trust himself within fifteen paces of Mohun's pistol. He chose a surer,
+safer revenge in taking no steps to procure a divorce, and so debarring
+Ralph from his only means of atonement&mdash;marriage with his victim.</p>
+
+<p>He varied the dull routine of seducers, it is true, for he never wearied
+of, or behaved unkindly to, the woman he had ruined. Time brought many
+troubles on them, but never satiety or coldness. To the very last he
+worshiped her, and, to the utmost of his power, guarded her tenderly.
+Rough, and hard, and morose as he was to others, she never heard his
+lips utter one harsh word.</p>
+
+<p>But she was of a proud, sensitive spirit, and had miscalculated her
+strength when she thought she could bear dishonor. After that duel with
+which Austria rang, in which the best <i>schlager</i> in his brigade fell,
+horribly mangled, the day after he had whispered a jest about Caroline
+Mannering, men were very cautious how they even looked askance at her;
+but the women&mdash;who could bridle their tongues or blunt their scornful
+glances? Briareus, armed to the teeth, would not affright our modern
+dowagers, or deter them from their prey. Wherever the carcass of a fair
+fame lies, thither they flock, screaming shrilly in triumph,
+vulture-eyed, sharp-taloned&mdash;the choosers of the slain.</p>
+
+<p>I pity from my heart the frailest, the most utterly fallen of her sex,
+when once the social Nemesis hands her over to the chorus of the
+Eumenides.</p>
+
+<p>We deride the <i>subsignan&aelig;</i> who line the wall; we make a mock at their
+old-fashioned whist; we risk jokes whereat our partners smile
+approvingly on their false fronts and wonderful head-gears; but may the
+wittiest of us never know by experience how much worse is the bite than
+the bark of the Veteran Battalion!</p>
+
+<p>Caroline Mannering had all this to contend with, for Vienna was a
+favorite resort in those days for the English, and she was constantly
+encountering some of her old set. She bore up bravely for a while, but
+it killed her. She never wearied her lover with her self-reproach, but
+crushed back her sorrows into her heart, and met him always with a
+gentle smile. That same smile contrasted so sadly, at last, with the
+wan, worn features, that it often made him bend his bushy brows to
+conceal the rising tears.</p>
+
+<p>If her destiny had been different&mdash;if she had died ripe in years, after
+a life spent in calm matronly happiness, with all that she loved best
+round her, would she have been nursed so tenderly or mourned so bitterly
+by the nearest and dearest of them all as she was by her tempter to sin?
+I think not. I believe that in all the world there never was a greater
+sorrow than that which Mohun endured as he saw his treasure slowly
+escaping him; never a desolation more complete and crushing than that
+which fell upon him as he stood by her corpse, with dry eyes, folded
+arms, and a heavy, frowning brow. It was not only that he felt her place
+could never be filled again&mdash;many feel that, and find it turn out
+so&mdash;but a part of his being was gone: all that was soft, and kind, and
+tender in his nature died with Caroline Mannering. He never could get
+rid of a certain chivalry which was inherent in him, so sometimes he
+would do a generous thing; but he did it so harshly as to deprive the
+act of the semblance of good-nature. I think he very seldom again felt
+sympathy or compassion for any living creature. Perhaps he thought the
+world had behaved hardly to his dead love, and so never forgave it. She
+passed away very stilly and painlessly. She was leaning on his breast
+when he saw death come into her eyes: he shivered then all over, as if a
+cold wind had struck him suddenly, but spoke no word. She understood
+him, though. Her last motion was to draw his cheek down to hers with her
+thin, shadowy arm, and her last breath went up to the God who would
+judge them both in an unselfish prayer.</p>
+
+<p>"She was rightly served," says Cornelia; "such women ought to be
+miserable."</p>
+
+<p>O rigid mother of the Gracchi! how we all respect you, <i>tr&ocirc;nante</i> in the
+comfortable cathedra of virtue inexpugnable, perhaps unassailed. Your
+dictum must stand for the present. The court is with you. But I believe
+other balances will weigh the strength of temptation, the weakness of
+human endurance, the sincerity of repentance, and the extent of suffered
+retribution, when the Father of all that have lived and erred since the
+world began shall make up His jewels. In that day, I think, the light of
+many orthodox virgins and dignified matrons will pale before the softer
+lustre of Magdalene the Saint.</p>
+
+<p>Mohun remained in the Austrian service some time after Caroline
+Mannering's death, and, by dint of good service and interest, rose
+rapidly; but, about eight years before I saw him, a distant relation
+left him the estate in the west of Ireland, where he had resided ever
+since, making occasional visits to the Continent, and beating up his old
+quarters, but rarely coming to England.</p>
+
+<p>He did not mix much with the county society, such as it was; and his
+visitors were chiefly friends from England who had not forgotten him
+yet, or the military quartered in his neighborhood.</p>
+
+<p>It was a dreary, desolate old house where he lived&mdash;massive, square, and
+gray. There were wooded banks and hollows just round it; but farther
+afield the chill, bare moorland stretched away toward the sea, broken
+here and there by sullen sedgy tarns.</p>
+
+<p>Here he spent his monotonous existence, riding hard and drinking
+obstinately, but never, even in the latter case, rising into
+conviviality. A long, bushy beard, and portentous mustache, grizzled,
+though he was scarcely past middle age, which could not conceal a deep
+sabre-scar, gave him a grim, sinister expression; and his voice had that
+brief imperious accent which is peculiar to men for many years used to
+give the word of command.</p>
+
+<p>That worn, haggard face told a real tale. The furrows there had been
+plowed by an enduring remorse, very different from that comfortable,
+half-complacent regret which some feel at the retrospect of their
+youthful <i>fr&egrave;daines</i>.</p>
+
+<p>They shake their solemn old heads as they hold themselves up to us as a
+warning; they sermonize with edifying gravity on the impropriety of such
+misdemeanors; but we can trace through all this an under-current of
+satisfaction tenderly fatuitous, as they go back to the days of their
+gipsyhood, when Plancus was consul.</p>
+
+<p>I have been amused with watching these eminent but somewhat sensual
+Christians on such occasions, and seeing the dull eyes begin to glisten,
+and the lips wrinkle themselves into a fat, unpleasant smile. <i>They</i>
+have prospered since, and certainly it would be most absurd to torment
+themselves now about the souls and bodies which they once sacrificed to
+a whim. Over those ruins and relics the River of Oblivion has rolled
+long ago&mdash;let them sleep on there and take their rest.</p>
+
+<p>Have we not the bright example of the prototype of this class&mdash;the
+pious &AElig;neas? How creditable was his behavior when he looked back over
+the black water on the trail of flame stretching from the funeral pyre
+where Dido lay burning!</p>
+
+<p>"He knew," says his admiring biographer, "what the madness of women
+could do;" but the breeze was getting up astern, and favoring gods
+beckoned him on to Italy and fortune; so he sighed twice or
+thrice&mdash;perhaps he wept, for the amiable hero's tears were always ready
+on the shortest notice&mdash;and then, like the captain of the <i>Hesperus</i>,
+"steered for the open sea."</p>
+
+<p>Did he feel a pang of remorse or shame at that meeting in the twilight
+of Hades, when he called vainly on Elissa, and the dead queen, from
+where she stood by the side of Sych&aelig;us, who had forgiven her all, turned
+on him the disgust and horror of her imperial eyes? Who can tell? The
+greatest and best of men have their moments of weakness. If so, be sure
+he was soon comforted as he reviewed the shadowy procession of his
+posterity of kings. The episode of Byrsa would scarcely trouble his
+conjugal happiness, or make him more indulgent to the mildest flirtation
+of Lavinia.</p>
+
+<p>I fancy that poor princess&mdash;after listening to a long, intensely proper
+discourse from her immaculate husband, or when the young Iulus had been
+unusually disagreeable&mdash;gazing wistfully in the direction where, against
+the sky-line, rose the clump of plane-trees, under which hot-headed,
+warm-hearted Turnus was resting after his brief life of storms. Then she
+would think of that unhappy mother who, with every impulse of a willful
+nature, loved her child so dearly, till she would begin to doubt&mdash;it was
+very wrong of her&mdash;if Amata or the match-making gods were most right
+after all.</p>
+
+<p>The neighboring peasantry regarded Mohun with mingled dislike and
+terror&mdash;a feeling which was increased tenfold by an event which occurred
+about three years before my visit, in the height of the agrarian
+troubles. I can not do better than give it, as near as I can, in the
+words of one who was an actor in the scene.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'><div class='i8'>"Now what wouldst thou do, good my squire,</div>
+<div class='i10'>That rides beside my rein,</div>
+<div class='i8'>Wert thou Glenallan's earl to-day,</div>
+<div class='i10'>And I were Roland Cheyne?</div></div>
+
+<hr/>
+
+<div class='stanza'><div class='i8'>My horse should ride through their ranks sae rude,</div>
+<div class='i10'>As he would through the moorland fern,</div>
+<div class='i8'>And ne'er let the gentle Norman bluid</div>
+<div class='i10'>Grow cauld for the Highland kerne."</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<p>It was in the beginning of December, 184-(said Fred. Carew); we were
+sitting down to dinner after a capital day's cock-shooting&mdash;besides
+myself there were Lord Clontarf, Mohun, and Kate, my wife&mdash;when we were
+disturbed by a perfect hail of knocks at the hall door. Old Dan Tucker,
+or the Spectre Horseman, never clamored more loudly for admittance.
+Fritz, Mohun's old Austrian servant, went down to see what was up, and,
+on opening the door, was instantly borne down by the tumultuous rush of
+Michael Kelly, gentleman, agent to half a dozen estates, and attorney at
+law. In the two last capacities be had given, it seems, great umbrage to
+the neighboring peasantry, and they had caught him that night as he
+returned home, intending to put him to death with that ingenuity of
+torture for which the fine, warm-hearted fellows are justly celebrated.</p>
+
+<p>They did not wish to hurry over the entertainment, so confined him in an
+upper chamber, while they called their friends and neighbors to rejoice
+with them, carousing meantime jovially below. The victim contrived to
+let himself down from the window, and ran for his life to the nearest
+house, which, unluckily, happened to be the Lodge. Two boys, however,
+saw and recognized him as he entered the demesne, and raised a whoop, to
+show that they knew where the fox had gone to ground.</p>
+
+<p>This we made out from a string of incoherent interjections; and then he
+lay panting and contorting himself in an agony of fear.</p>
+
+<p>Mohun sat on the hall table, swinging his foot and regarding the
+spectacle with the indolent curiosity that one might exhibit toward the
+gambols of some ugly new importation of the Zoological Society. When the
+story was told he pointed coolly to the door.</p>
+
+<p>The shriek that the miserable creature set up on seeing that gesture I
+shall never forget.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think I shall turn my house into a refuge for destitute
+attorneys?" Ralph said, answering my look of inquiry. "If there were no
+other reason, I would not risk it, with your wife under my roof. A
+night-attack in the West is no child's play."</p>
+
+<p>Kate had come out, and was leaning over the gallery. She heard the last
+words, and spoke, flushing scarlet with anger.</p>
+
+<p>"If I thought that my presence prevented an act of common humanity, I
+would leave your house this instant, Colonel Mohun."</p>
+
+<p>Ralph smiled slightly as he bent his head in courteous acknowledgment of
+her interruption.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be indignant, Mrs. Carew. If you have a fancy for such an
+excitement, I shall be too happy to indulge you. It is settled, then? We
+back the attorney. Don't lie there, sir, looking so like a whipped
+hound. You hear? You are safe for the present." He had hardly finished,
+when there came a rustling of feet outside, then hurried whispers, then
+a knock, and a summons.</p>
+
+<p>"We'd like to spake wid the curnel, av ye plase."</p>
+
+<p>"I am here; what do ye want?" Mohun growled.</p>
+
+<p>"We want the 'torney. We know he's widin."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I'm afraid you'll be disappointed. It's not my fancy to give him
+up. I wouldn't turn out a badger to you, let alone a man."</p>
+
+<p>You see, he took the high moral ground now.</p>
+
+<p>"Then we'll have him out in spite of yez," two or three voices cried out
+together.</p>
+
+<p>"Try it," Ralph said. "Meantime I am going to dine; good-night."</p>
+
+<p>A voice that had not spoken yet was heard, with a shrill, gibing accent.
+"Ah! thin the best of appetites to ye, curnel, and make haste over yer
+dinner. It's Pierce Delaney that'll give ye yer supper." Then they went
+off.</p>
+
+<p>"The said Delaney is a huge quarryman," Ralph observed. "He represents
+the physical element of terror hereabouts, as I believe I do the moral.
+We shall have warm work before morning. He does not like me. Fritz, send
+Connell up; he is below somewhere."</p>
+
+<p>The keeper came, looking very much surprised. He had been in the
+stables, and had only just heard of the disturbance.</p>
+
+<p>"Get the rifles and guns ready, with bullets and buckshot," his master
+said. "We are to be attacked, it seems."</p>
+
+<p>The man's bold face fell blankly.</p>
+
+<p>"By the powers, yer honor, I haven't the value of an ounce of poudther
+in the house. I meant to get some the morrow morning, afore ye were up."</p>
+
+<p>Mohun shrugged his shoulders, whistling softly.</p>
+
+<p>"Man proposes," he said. "It's almost a pity we found so many cocks in
+the lower copse this afternoon. I have fifteen charges or so in my
+pistol-case. We must make that do, loading the rifles light." Then he
+went to a window, whence he could see down the road; the moon was
+shining brightly.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought so; they have got scouts posted already. The barbarians know
+something of skirmishing, after all. Maddox, come here." (The groom was
+a strong English boy, very much afraid of his master, but of nothing
+else on earth.) "Saddle Sunbeam, and go out by the back gates, keeping
+well under the shadow of the trees. When you clear them, ride straight
+at the rails at the end of the paddock. You'll get over with a scramble,
+I think. Keep fast hold of his head&mdash;you <i>mustn't</i> fall. Then make the
+best of your way to A&mdash;&mdash;, and tell Colonel Harding, with my
+compliments, that I shall be glad if he will send over a troop as
+quickly as possible. They ought to be here in two hours. And, mind,
+don't spare the horse going, but bring him back easy. You will be of no
+use here, and I won't have him lamed if I can help it. You'll have to
+risk a bullet or two as you get into the road; but they can't shoot.
+It's odds against their hitting you. Now go."</p>
+
+<p>The groom pulled his forelock as if the most ordinary commission had
+been given him, and vanished.</p>
+
+<p>"Connell," Ralph went on, "go and saw the ladders that are in the yard
+half through. They will hardly try the barred windows; but it looks more
+workmanlike to take all precautions. Then come back, and help Fritz to
+pile chairs and furniture all up the staircase, and about the hall near
+it. Line the gallery with mattresses, two deep, leaving spaces to fire
+through. Light all the lamps, and get more candles to fix about; we
+shall not see very clearly after the smoke of the first dozen shots.
+When you have finished, come to me. Now, shall we go back to dinner?"</p>
+
+<p>I am not ashamed to own I had little appetite; nevertheless, I sat down.
+Kate had gone to her room. If her courage was failing, she did not wish
+to show it.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly our host got up and went to the window. His practiced ear had
+caught the tread of the horse which Maddox was taking out as quietly as
+possible. We watched him stealing along under the trees till their
+shelter failed him. Then he put Sunbeam to speed, and rode boldly at the
+rails. A yell went up from the road, and we saw dark figures running;
+then came a shot, just as the horse was rising at the fence, he hit it
+hard, and the splinters flew up white in the moonlight, but he was over.
+We held our breath, while several flashes told of dropping shots after
+the fugitive. They did not stop him, though; and, to our great relief,
+we heard the wild rush of the frightened horse subside into a long
+stretching gallop, and the wind brought back a cheery hollo&mdash;"Forr'ard,
+forr'ard away!"</p>
+
+<p>"So far so good," said Ralph Mohun, as he sat down again, and went in
+steadily at a woodcock. "Don't hurry yourselves, gentlemen. We have
+three quarters of an hour yet; they will take that time to muster.
+Clontarf, some Hock?"</p>
+
+<p>The boy to whom he spoke held out his glass with a pleasant smile. The
+coming peril had not altered a tint on his fresh, beardless cheeks&mdash;rosy
+and clear as a page's in one of Boucher's pictures.</p>
+
+<p>A good contrast he made with the miserable attorney, who had followed us
+uninvited (it seemed he only felt safe in our presence), and who was
+crouching in a corner, his lank hair plastered round his livid convulsed
+face with the sweat of mortal fear.</p>
+
+<p>It struck Mohun, I think. He laid his hand on Clontarf's shoulder, and
+spoke with a kindliness of voice and manner most unusual with him&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'><div>"We'll quell the savage mountaineer,</div>
+<div class='i2'>As their Tinchell cows the game:</div>
+<div>They come as fleet as forest deer;</div>
+<div class='i2'>We'll drive them back as tame."</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<p>Even at that anxious moment I could not help laughing at the idea of
+Ralph quoting poetry&mdash;of that grim Saul among the prophets.</p>
+
+<p>I went in to keep up Kate's spirits. She bore up gallantly, poor child,
+and I left her tolerably calm. She believed in me as a "plunger" to an
+enormous extent, and in Mohun still more. When I returned my companions
+were in the gallery. This ran round two sides of the hall, which went up
+to the roof. The only access to the upper part of the house was by a
+stone staircase of a single flight. The kitchen and offices were on the
+ground floor, otherwise it was uninhabited.</p>
+
+<p>Ralph had his pistols by him, and his cavalry sword, long and heavy, but
+admirably poised, lay within his reach.</p>
+
+<p>"I have settled it," he said. "You and Connell are to take the guns.
+Smooth-bores are quickest loaded, and will do for this short distance.
+Clontarf, who is not quite so sure with the trigger, is to have the post
+of honor, and guard the staircase with his sabre. Throw another bucket
+of water over it, Connell&mdash;is it thoroughly drenched? And draw the
+windows up" (these did not reach to within ten feet of the floor); "we
+shall be stifled else. But there will be a thorough draft when the
+door's down, that's our comfort. One word with you, Carew."</p>
+
+<p>He drew me aside, and spoke almost in a whisper, while his face was very
+grave and stern.</p>
+
+<p>"You will do me this justice, whatever happens. Unless it had been
+forced upon me, I would not have risked a hair of your wife's head to
+save all the attorneys that are patronized by the father of lies. But,
+mark, me! if it comes to the worst, keep a bullet for <i>her</i>. Don't leave
+her to the mercy of those savage devils. I know them. She had better die
+ten times over than full into their brutal hands. You must use your own
+discretion, though. I shall not be able to advise you then. Not a man of
+them will be in this gallery till I am past praying for. Nevertheless, I
+hope and believe all will be right. Don't trouble yourself to reload;
+Fritz will do that for you. I have given him his orders. Aim very
+coolly, too; we must not waste a bullet. You can choose your own sword;
+there are several behind you. Ah! I hear them coming up. Now, men, to
+your posts."</p>
+
+<p>There was the tramp of many feet, and the surging of a crowd about and
+against the hall door. Then a harsh, loud voice spoke:</p>
+
+<p>"Onst for all, will ye give him up, or shall we take him, and serve the
+rest of yez as bad? Ye've got women there, too&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>I will not add the rest of the threat for very shame. I know it made me
+more wolfish than ever I thought it possible to feel, for I am a
+good-natured man in the main. Mohun, who is <i>not</i>, bit his mustache
+furiously, and his voice shook a little as he answered,</p>
+
+<p>"Do you ever say a prayer, Pierce Delaney? You need one now. If you live
+to see to-morrow's sunset, I wish my right hand may wither at the
+wrist."</p>
+
+<p>A shrill howl pealed out from the assailants, and then the stout oak
+door cracked and quivered under the strokes of a heavy battering-beam;
+in a hundred seconds the hinges yielded, and it came clattering in; over
+it leaped three wild figures, bearing torches and pikes, but their
+chief, Delaney, was not one of them.</p>
+
+<p>"The left-hand man is yours, Carew; Connell, take the middle one," said
+Ralph, as coolly as if we had sprung a pack of grouse. While he spoke
+his pistol cracked, and the right-hand intruder dropped across the
+threshold without a cry or a stagger, shot right through the brain. The
+keeper and I were nearly as fortunate. Then there was a pause; then a
+rush from without, an irregular discharge of musketry, and the clear
+part of the hall was crowded with enemies.</p>
+
+<p>I can't tell exactly what ensued. I know they retreated several times,
+for the barricade was impassable; and while their shots fell harmlessly
+on the mattresses, every one of ours told&mdash;nothing makes a man shoot
+straight like being short of powder&mdash;but they came on again, each time
+with added ferocity.</p>
+
+<p>I heard Mohun mutter more than once, in a dissatisfied tone, "Why does
+not that scoundrel show himself? I can't make out Delaney." All at once
+I heard a stifled cry on my right, and, to my horror, I saw Clontarf
+dragged over the balustrade in the gripe of a giant, whom I guessed at
+once to be the man we had looked for so long. Under cover of the smoke,
+he had swung himself up by the balustrade of the staircase, and,
+grasping the poor boy's collar as he looked out incautiously from his
+shelter, dropped back into the hall, carrying his victim with him.</p>
+
+<p>With a roar of exultation the wild beasts closed round their prey.
+Before I had time to think what could be done, I heard, close to my ear,
+a blasphemy so awful that it made me start even at that critical moment:
+it was Ralph's voice, but I hardly knew it&mdash;hoarse and guttural, and
+indistinct with passion. Without hesitating an instant, he swung himself
+over the balustrade, and lighted on his feet in the midst of the crowd.
+They were half drunk with whisky, and maddened by the smell of blood;
+but&mdash;so great was the terror of Mohun's name&mdash;all recoiled when they saw
+him thus face to face, his sword bare and his eyes blazing. That
+momentary panic saved Clontarf. In a second Ralph had thrown him under
+the arch of a deep doorway, and placed himself between the senseless
+body and its assailants. Two or three shots were fired at him without
+effect; it was difficult to take aim in such a tossing chaos; then one
+man, Delaney, sprung out at him with a clubbed musket. "At last!" we
+heard Mohun say, laughing low and savagely in his beard as he stepped
+one pace forward to meet his enemy. A blow that looked as if it might
+have felled Behemoth was warded dexterously by the sabre, and, by a
+quick turn of the wrist, its edge laid the Rapparee's face open in a
+bright scarlet gash, extending from eyebrow to chin.</p>
+
+<p>His comrades rushed over his body, furious, though somewhat disheartened
+at seeing their champion come to grief; but they had to deal with a
+blade that had kept half a dozen Hungarian swordsmen at bay, and, with
+point or edge, it met them every where, magically. They were drawing
+back, when Delaney, recovering from the first effects of his fearful
+wound, crawled forward, gasping out curses that seemed floating on the
+torrent of his rushing blood, and tried to grasp Mohun by the knees and
+drag him down.</p>
+
+<p>Pah! it was a sight to haunt one's dreams. (You might have filled my
+glass, some of you, when you saw it was empty.)</p>
+
+<p>Ralph looked down on him, and laughed again; his sabre whirled round
+once, and cleared a wide circle; then, trampling down the wounded man by
+main force, he drove the point through his throat, and pinned him to the
+floor. I tell you I heard the steel plainly as it grated on the stone.
+There was an awful convulsion of all the limbs, and then the huge mass
+lay quite still.</p>
+
+<p>Then came a lull for several moments. The Irish cowered back to the door
+like penned sheep; their ammunition was exhausted, and none dared to
+cross the hideous barrier that now was between them and the terrible
+Cuirassier.</p>
+
+<p>All this took about half the time to act that it does to tell. I was
+hesitating whether to descend or to stay where my duty called me&mdash;near
+my wife. Fritz knelt behind me, silent and motionless; he had got his
+orders to stay by me to the last; but the sturdy keeper rose to his
+feet.</p>
+
+<p>"Faix," he said, "I'm but a poor hand at the swoording, but I must help
+my master, anyhow;" and he began to climb over the breastwork. The
+colonel's quick glance caught the movement, and his brief imperious
+tones rang over the hubbub of voices loud and clear,</p>
+
+<p>"Don't stir, Connell; stay where you are. I can finish with these hounds
+alone."</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke, he dashed in upon them with lowered head and uplifted
+sword.</p>
+
+<p>I don't wonder that they all recoiled; his whole face and form were
+fearfully transfigured; every hair in his bushy beard was bristling with
+rage, and the incarnate devil of murder was gleaming redly in his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Just then there was a wild cry from without, answered by a shriek from
+my wife, who had been quiet till now. At first I thought that some
+fellows had scaled the window; but I soon distinguished the accents of a
+great joy. My poor Kate! She had roughed it in barracks too long not to
+know the rattle of the steel scabbards.</p>
+
+<p>When the dragoons came up at a hard gallop, there was nothing left in
+the court-yard but the dead and dying. Mohun had followed the flyers to
+get a last stroke at the hindmost. We clambered down into the hall, and,
+just as we reached the door, we saw a miserable crippled being clinging
+round his knees, crying for quarter. Poor wretch! he might as well have
+asked it from a famished jungle-tiger. The arm that had fallen so often
+that night, and never in vain, came down once more; the piteous appeal
+ended in a death-yell, and, as we reached him, Mohun was wiping coolly
+his dripping sabre: it had no more work to do.</p>
+
+<p>I could not help shuddering as I took his offered hand, and I saw
+Connell tremble for the first time as he made the sign of the cross.</p>
+
+<p>The Dragoons were returning from the pursuit; they had only made two
+prisoners; the darkness and broken ground prevented their doing more.
+Ralph went up to the officer in command.</p>
+
+<p>"How very good of you to come yourself, Harding, when I only asked you
+for a troop. Come in; you shall have some supper in half an hour, and
+Fritz will take care of your men. Throw all that carrion out," he went
+on, as we entered the hall, strewn with corpses. "We'll give them a
+truce to take up their dead."</p>
+
+<p>Clontarf came to meet us; he had only been stunned and bruised by the
+fall. His pale face flushed up as he said, "I shall never forget that I
+have to thank you for my life."</p>
+
+<p>"It's not worth mentioning," Mohun replied, carelessly. "I hope you are
+not much the worse for the tumble. Gad! it was a near thing, though. The
+quarryman's arms were a rough necklace."</p>
+
+<p>At that moment they were carrying by the disfigured remains of the dead
+Colossus. His slayer stopped them, and bent over the hideous face with a
+grim satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>"My good friend Delaney," he muttered, "you will own that I have kept my
+word. If ever we meet again, I think I shall know you. <i>Au revoir</i>," and
+he passed on.</p>
+
+<p>I need not go through the congratulatory scene, nor describe how Kate
+blushed as they complimented her on her nerve. Fortunately for her, she
+had seen nothing, though she had heard all. Just as we were sitting down
+to supper, which Fritz prepared with his usual stolid coolness, and when
+Kate was about to leave us, for she needed rest, we remarked the
+attorney hovering about us with an exultation on his face yet more
+servile and repulsive than its late abject terror.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Carew," said Mohun, "if you have quite done with your <i>prot&eacute;g&eacute;</i>, I
+think we'll send him down stairs. Give him something to eat, Fritz; not
+with the soldiers, though; and let some one take him home as soon as
+it's light. If you say one word, sir, I'll have you turned out <i>now</i>."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Kelly crept out of the room, almost as frightened as he had been two
+hours before.</p>
+
+<p>The supper was more cheerful than the dinner, though there was a certain
+constraint on the party, who were not all so seasoned as their host.
+<i>He</i> was in unusual spirits; so much so that Clontarf confided to a
+cornet, his particular friend, that "it was a pity the colonel could
+not have such a bear-fight once a fortnight, it put him into such a
+charming humor."</p>
+
+<p>We had nearly finished when, from the road outside, there came a
+prolonged ear-piercing wail, that made the window-panes tremble. I have
+never heard any earthly sound at once so expressive of utter despair,
+and appealing to heaven or hell for vengeance.</p>
+
+<p>We all started, and set down our glasses; but Mohun finished his slowly,
+savoring like a connoisseur the rich Burgundy.</p>
+
+<p>"It is the wild Irish women keening over their dead," he remarked, with
+perfect unconcern. "They'll have more to howl for before I have done
+with them. I shall go round with the police to-morrow and pick up the
+stragglers. Your men are too good for such work, Harding. There are
+several too hard hit to go far, and my hand-writing is pretty legible."</p>
+
+<p>The stout soldier to whom he spoke bent his head in assent, but with
+rather a queer expression on his honest face.</p>
+
+<p>"Gad!" he said, "you do your work cleanly, Mohun."</p>
+
+<p>"It is the best way, and the shortest in the end," was the reply; and so
+the matter dropped.</p>
+
+<p>The Dragoons left us before daybreak; their protection was not needed;
+we were as safe as in the Tower of London. The next morning, while I was
+sleeping heavily, Ralph was in the saddle scouring the country, with
+what success the next Assizes could tell.</p>
+
+<p>I go there again this winter for the cock-shooting, but I don't much
+think Kate will accompany me.</p>
+
+<p>Now who says "a rubber?" Don't all speak at once.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'><div class='i8'>"He has mounted her on a milk-white steed,</div>
+<div class='i10'>Himself on a dappled gray;</div>
+<div class='i8'>And a bugelet-horn hung down by his side</div>
+<div class='i10'>As lightly they rode away."</div></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>It is hard to describe the terrible <i>prestige</i> which, after the event I
+have been speaking of, attached itself to Ralph Mohun. As for attempting
+a second attack on the fatal house, the peasantry would as soon have
+thought of storming the bottomless pit. They did not even try a shot at
+him from behind a wall; considering him perfectly invulnerable, they
+deemed it a pity to waste good powder and lead that might be usefully
+employed on an agent or process server. As his gaunt, erect figure went
+by, the men shrunk out of his path, and the women called their children
+in hastily, and shut their cabin doors; the very beggars, who are
+tolerably unscrupulous, gave his gate a wide berth, crossing themselves,
+with a muttered prayer, "God stand betwixt us and harm." If Ralph
+perceived this, I think he rather liked it; at all events, he made no
+attempt, either by softening his manner or by any act of benevolence, to
+win the popular favor.</p>
+
+<p>Before going to the Lodge I had heard from Livingstone. He said that his
+cousin's affair with Charley was progressing satisfactorily (I knew what
+that meant), and that he was going himself to sell out. I was not
+surprised at this; for some time past even the light restraint of
+service in the Household Brigade had begun to bore him. But the
+intelligence conveyed in a brief note from him during my stay with Mohun
+startled me very much. It announced, without any preface or explanation,
+that he was engaged to Constance Brandon.</p>
+
+<p>I had observed that lately he never mentioned or alluded to Miss
+Bellasys, but he had been equally silent about his present betrothed. I
+told my host of the news directly.</p>
+
+<p>"I am very glad to hear it," he said. "I never heard any thing but good
+of his <i>fianc&eacute;e</i>. She is wonderfully beautiful, too, I believe, and her
+blood is unexceptionable. And yet," he went on musingly, "I should
+hardly have fancied that she would quite suit Guy. I don't know any one
+who would exactly. By-the-by, was there not a strong flirtation with a
+Miss Bellasys?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; so strong that I should have been less surprised to have seen her
+name in this letter."</p>
+
+<p>"Then he has not got out of that scrape yet," Mohun observed. "That girl
+comes of the wrong stock to give up any thing she has fancied without a
+struggle. I knew her father, Dick Bellasys, well. He contrived to
+compress as much mischief into his five-and-thirty years, before De
+Launy shot him, as most strong men can manage in double the time. He was
+like the Visconti&mdash;never sparing man in his anger, or woman in his
+love."</p>
+
+<p>I felt that he was right. I did not fancy the idea of Flora's state of
+mind when she heard that all her fascinations had failed, and that her
+rival had won the day.</p>
+
+<p>"I think I must leave you sooner than I had intended," I said; "I
+should like to be in England to see how things are going on."</p>
+
+<p>"You are right," answered Ralph, "though I shall be sorry to lose you.
+You have some influence with Livingstone, I know, though he is so hard
+to guide and self-reliant that advice is almost useless. If I had to
+give you a <i>consigne</i>, it would be&mdash;Distrust. If Miss Bellasys seems to
+take things pleasantly, be still more wary. I never saw a peculiarly
+frank, winning smile on her father's face without there being ruin to
+some one in the background. After all, you can do but little, I suppose.
+<i>Che sara, sara</i>." He said this drearily, and with something like a
+sigh.</p>
+
+<p>I had some business which detained me in Dublin, and it was nearly a
+fortnight after I received Guy's letter before I reached London.</p>
+
+<p>Early on the morning after my arrival I went down to his lodgings in
+Piccadilly. I found him at breakfast; after the first greetings, before
+I could say one word about his own affairs, he began to speak eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"What a pity you should have come too late for the catastrophe, when you
+had seen all the preface! Five days ago Bella and Charley made their
+great <i>coup</i>, and were married in Paris."</p>
+
+<p>"And Bruce?" I said, recovering from the intelligence, which was not so
+unexpected, after all.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! Bruce"&mdash;Guy replied; "I should be very glad if I knew what he <i>was</i>
+doing at this moment. I have been expecting him every day; but nothing
+has been heard of him since he left my mother's presence in a rabid
+state of fury. Did I tell you it was from Kerton they fled? I thought
+he must have come to me for an explanation, knowing that I was an
+accessory before the fact. Indeed, I lent Charley the sinews of war in
+the shape of a blank check, which I see this morning he has filled up
+for a thousand&mdash;just like his modesty. Well, I hope they'll amuse
+themselves! Bruce has never been near me. Suicide is the most charitable
+suggestion I've heard yet; but coroners are silent, and the Thames, if
+it is conscious of that unlucky though disagreeable man, keeps his
+secret so far!"</p>
+
+<p>Then he went on to give me more particulars of the <i>escapade</i>. It seems
+that Miss Raymond had gone out to walk alone, after luncheon, and that
+nothing more was heard of her till dinner-time, when a note was found on
+her dressing-table, addressed to her aunt, containing the intelligence
+of her flight with Forrester, and a little piece of ready-made
+penitence&mdash;the first for all whom it might concern, the second for her
+father.</p>
+
+<p>That placid Lord Ullin received the news by telegraph when he was well
+into his second rubber at the "Travelers;" he put the message into his
+pocket without remark, and won the rubber before he rose. It has been
+reported that he was somewhat absent during its progress, so much so as
+to rough his partner's strongest suit; but this I conceive to have been
+an after-thought of some one's, or a <i>canard</i> of the club. Impavid as
+the Horatian model-man&mdash;(just in all his <i>dealings</i>, and tenacious of
+the odd trick)&mdash;I can not imagine the convulsion of nature which would
+have made him jeopardize by any sin of omission or commission the
+winning of the long odds.</p>
+
+<p>He found Bruce that night, and told him all. He never would give an
+account of that interview: it must have been a curious one.</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'><div><i>"&#958;&#965;&#957;&#8061;&#956;&#959;&#963;&#945;&#957; &#947;&#8048;&#961;, &#8004;&#957;&#964;&#949;&#962; &#7956;&#967;&#952;&#953;&#963;&#964;&#959;&#953; &#964;&#8056; &#960;&#961;&#8054;&#957;,</i></div>
+<div><i>&#960;&#8166;&#961; &#954;&#945;&#8054; &#952;&#8049;&#955;&#945;&#963;&#963;&#945;&mdash;"</i></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'><div><i>"xunômosan gar, ontes echtistoi to prin,</i></div>
+<div><i>pur kai thalassa&mdash;"</i></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<p>Fancy the well-iced conventionalities of the one brought in contact with
+the other's savage temperament, maddened by baffled desires and the
+sense of shameful defeat.</p>
+
+<p>Before noon the next day it was announced to Lady Catharine, at Kerton
+Manor, that Bruce was waiting for her in the drawing-room. It was with a
+diffidence and sense of guilt very strange to her pure, straightforward
+nature that she obeyed the summons.</p>
+
+<p>His back was to the door as she entered.</p>
+
+<p>"I can not tell you how sorry I am," she began.</p>
+
+<p>Bruce turned toward her his ghastly face, ravaged and deformed by
+passion and sleeplessness, like a cane-brake in the Western Indies over
+which a tornado has passed. He did not appear to notice her words or her
+offered hand, but spoke in a strange, broken voice, after clearing his
+parched throat once or twice, huskily:</p>
+
+<p>"When did they go? At what hour?"</p>
+
+<p>She told him as well as she could.</p>
+
+<p>"Where have they gone to?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have not the least idea. Bella gave no hint of this. Would you like
+to see her note?" and she held it out to him.</p>
+
+<p>The name appeared to sting him like the cut of a whip, for he started
+convulsively as he took the scrap of paper. He read it through more than
+once, as if unable to comprehend it; the power of discrimination seemed
+blasted in his dry, red eyeballs; they could only glare.</p>
+
+<p>He made it out at last, and crumpled it up in his hand, clenching it
+till the knuckles became dead-white under the strain.</p>
+
+<p>"We were to have been married this day month," he said to himself, in a
+hoarse whisper; then raising his voice, "You can guess, at least, which
+route they have taken?"</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed I can not," she answered; "I would have done any thing to
+prevent this; but you must see that pursuit now would be worse than
+useless; it could only lead to fresh evils."</p>
+
+<p>Then the smouldering passion burst into a flame.</p>
+
+<p>"It is false," he cried out; "you would have done nothing. It is a plot.
+You are all in it; you, your son, and more that I will know soon. I saw
+it from the first moment I set foot in this cursed house. And you think
+I will not be revenged? Wait&mdash;wait and see!" He spoke rapidly, but it
+seemed as if the words could hardly force their way through his gnashing
+teeth.</p>
+
+<p>Good and kind-hearted as she was, there breathed no prouder woman than
+Lady Catharine Livingstone. Before he had ended her hand was on the
+bell.</p>
+
+<p>"Not even your disappointment can excuse your language," she said, in
+her clear, vibrating tones; "our interview is ended. I have pitied you
+hitherto, and blamed my niece; I do neither now: she knew you better
+than I. Not one word more. Mr. Bruce's carriage."</p>
+
+<p>Bruce glared at her savagely. He would have sold his soul, I believe,
+to have strangled her where she stood; but Guy's own peculiar look was
+in the cold, disdainful eyes, which met his without flinching or
+faltering. He knew that look very well, and quailed under it now, as he
+had done many times before.</p>
+
+<p>"A last piece of advice," Lady Catharine said, as he turned to go; "you
+had better curb your temper if you think of seeing my son. He may
+scarcely be so patient with you as I have been."</p>
+
+<p>If he heard it he did not notice the remark, but left the room slowly.
+He lifted his hand, but not his head, in a stealthy gesture of menace as
+he reached the door.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Catharine stood for some moments after his departure as if in
+thought, unconsciously retaining her somewhat haughty attitude and
+expression. Then she went to her room, and prayed, with many tears, that
+Isabel Raymond might never have to repent the step she had taken so
+rashly. I think a presentiment of danger made her pray for Guy too. But
+did she ever forget him when she was on her knees?</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, Bruce had not shown upon the scene since, so that they
+could not convey to him the intelligence when Isabel Forrester wrote
+from Paris to communicate her marriage.</p>
+
+<p>Guy went to Mr. Raymond as a plenipotentiary from the recently allied
+powers, to obtain, if possible, fair conditions of peace. His uncle was
+breakfasting alone, and received him with perfect good-temper.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear boy," he said, "it was a match of your poor aunt's making, not
+mine. If she had lived to see it broken off, I think she would have been
+very much provoked. (He gave a slight shudder of reminiscence here, and
+finished his chocolate.) But they say there is no marrying or giving in
+marriage where she is gone, so let us hope it will not seriously affect
+her now. As to me, I have never been angry since I was twenty-two.
+Personally, I very much prefer Forrester to Bruce as a connection. I
+should have allowed Bella &pound;300 a year, and I suppose the necessary
+outfit and presents would have cost me about &pound;500. I will do just the
+same now&mdash;neither more nor less. You can tell Charley he may draw for
+the last sum and for the first quarter when he pleases. They had better
+travel for a year or so, I think, till the people have stopped talking
+about them. Charley will sell out, of course?"</p>
+
+<p>"His papers are sent in," Guy replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Just so," Raymond went on. "If they are in a pleasant place, I may very
+likely go and see them this summer. Suggest Hombourg. I should like to
+try the waters. And tell Charley not to go about too much alone after
+nightfall. The deserted one is capable of laying a trap for him. I
+didn't like his look when I saw him last. That is all, I think. Do you
+go to Lady Featherstone's to-night?"</p>
+
+<p>Raymond appeared at his clubs and elsewhere with a face so impenetrably
+cheerful and complacent that his bitterest friend dared not venture on a
+condolence.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'><div class='i8'>"Tu mihi, tu cert&egrave; (memini), Gr&aelig;cine, negabas,</div>
+<div class='i8'>Uno posse aliquem tempore amare duas."</div></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>When I had heard all this, I questioned Guy about his own affairs. He
+was not very communicative, though he seemed perfectly happy and hopeful
+as to the future. He said that his marriage was not to take place till
+the autumn, when Miss Brandon's brother (they were orphans) was expected
+to return from India. I could not help asking what Flora Bellasys
+thought of it.</p>
+
+<p>Livingstone bit his lip and frowned slightly as he answered, "Well,
+there <i>was</i> a scene&mdash;rather a tempestuous one, to speak the truth, but
+we are perfectly good friends now. I wonder if she ever really expected
+me to marry her? She is the most amusing person alive to flirt with, but
+as for serious measures&mdash;" He shrugged his shoulders expressively.
+"Perhaps she <i>has</i> something to complain of; but if she has any
+conscience at all, she ought to recognize the <i>lex talionis</i>."</p>
+
+<p>I was not convinced or satisfied, but it was useless to pursue the
+subject then.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you ride to-day?" Guy asked. "There are always horses for you
+here. I should like to introduce you to Constance. We shall be in the
+Park about five."</p>
+
+<p>I accepted willingly, and left him soon afterward.</p>
+
+<p>A little after the hour he had named I saw Livingstone's tall figure
+turn the corner of Kensington Gardens, riding on Miss Brandon's right;
+on her left was her uncle, Mr. Vavasour, her usual escort.</p>
+
+<p>She was rarely lovely, certainly, as I was sure she would be, for Guy's
+taste in feminine beauty was undisputed. Her features were delicate, but
+very clearly cut; the nose and chin purely Grecian in their outline; the
+dark gray eyes met you with an earnest, true expression, as if they had
+nothing to conceal. Her broad Spanish hat suited her well, shading as it
+did cheeks slightly flushed by exercise, and shining tresses of that
+color which with us is nameless, and which across the Channel they
+call&mdash;<i>blond cendr&eacute;</i>. Her hand was strikingly perfect, even in its
+gauntlet. It might have been modeled from that famous marble fragment of
+which the banker-poet was so proud, and which Canova kissed so often.</p>
+
+<p>There is a face which always reminds me of hers, though the figure in
+the portrait is far more matured and developed than Constance's willowy
+form&mdash;the picture of Queen Joanna of Naples in the Palazzo Doria.</p>
+
+<p>I have stood before it long, trying in vain to read the riddle of the
+haughty lineaments, and serene, untroubled eyes. Gazing at these, who
+could guess the story of that most guilty woman and astute
+conspirator&mdash;unbridled in sensuality&mdash;remorseless in statecraft&mdash;who
+counted her lovers by legions, and saw, unmoved, her chief favorite torn
+limb from limb on the rack?</p>
+
+<p>But this is no singular instance. Marble and canvas are more discreet
+than the mask of the best trained living features. Messalina and Julia
+look cold and correct enough since they have been turned into stone.
+Only by the magic of her smile and by the glory of her golden hair do we
+recognize her who, if all tales are true, might have given a tongue to
+the walls of the Vatican. We forget the Borgia, with her laboratory of
+philtres and poisons&mdash;we only think that never a duke of all his royal
+race brought home a lovelier bride than Alfonso of Ferrara.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps it is best so. Why should a mark be set upon those whom, it may
+be, history has condemned unrighteously? Let us not be more uncharitable
+than the painter or the sculptor, but pass on without pausing to
+reflect&mdash;<i>Desinit in piscem</i>.</p>
+
+<p>If one had wanted to find a fault in Constance Brandon's beauty, I
+suppose it would have been that her forehead was too high, and her lips
+too thin and decided in their expression, especially when compressed
+under any strong feeling. But this defect it would have been hard to
+discover on this first occasion of our meeting. She looked so bright and
+joyous, and the light from her face seemed reflected on Guy's dark
+features, softening their stern outline, and making them radiant with a
+proud happiness. She received me very cordially, and I well remember the
+pleasant impression left on my ear by the first sound of her voice, soft
+and low as Cordelia's. In these two attributes it resembled that of
+Flora Bellasys, yet their tones were essentially different&mdash;as different
+as is to the taste a draft of pure sparkling water from one of strong
+sweet wine. We had taken two or three turns, when a large party
+approached us, in the centre of whom I recognized instantly Miss
+Bellasys. If possible, she looked handsomer than ever as she swept by at
+a sharp canter, sitting square and firmly, but yielding just enough to
+the stride of the horse&mdash;perfectly erect, but inimitably lithe and
+graceful.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing in her demeanor betrayed the faintest shade of emotion; but I
+remembered the old maxim of the fencing-school&mdash;"Watch your enemy's
+eyes, not his blade;" and I caught Flora's, as she raised her head after
+returning our salutation, before she had time to discipline them
+thoroughly. I saw them glitter with defiant hatred as they lighted on
+her rival. I saw them melt with passionate eagerness as for one brief
+moment they followed Guy's retreating figure and averted face. Half of
+Mohun's warning became superfluous after that. I was in no danger of
+being deceived by "Miss Bellasys taking things pleasantly."</p>
+
+<p>Yet, as time wore on, the idea forced itself on me more and more that
+Livingstone's choice was in some respects a mistake. They were <i>not</i>
+suited to each other. Constance was as unsuspicious and as free from
+commonplace jealousies as the merest child; but some of her lover's
+proceedings did not please her, and she told him so, perhaps without
+attending sufficiently to the "<i>suaviter in modo</i>"; for, when it was a
+question of duty, real or fancied, to herself and to others, she was
+rigid as steel. Besides this, she was a strict observer of all Church
+canons and rituals; and more than once, when Guy had proposed some plan,
+a vigil, or matins, or vespers came in the way. She did all for the
+best, I am certain, and judged herself far more severely than she did
+others, but she could not guess how any thing like an admonition or a
+lecture grated on the proud, self-willed nature that from childhood had
+been unused to the slightest control. To speak the truth, too, she was
+not exempt from that failing which brought ruin on the brightest of the
+angels, and punishment eternal on the Son of the Morning; so that pride
+may often have checked the evidence of the deep love she really felt,
+and made her manner seem constrained and cold.</p>
+
+<p>I only guess all this; for neither then, nor at any future time, did I
+ever hear from Guy the faintest whisper of accusation or complaint.</p>
+
+<p>I do not think he contradicted her often; I am quite sure it never came
+to a quarrel or even a dispute. They were not a couple likely to indulge
+in the <i>amantium ir&aelig;</i>; but sometimes, after quitting her, his brow was
+so ominously overcast that it would have gladdened the very heart of
+Flora Bellasys to have seen it. Once, I remember, after sitting some
+time in silence, his eyes turned toward a table, where, among other
+letters, lay a little triangular note unopened. He broke the seal and
+read it through, frowning still heavily; after a few moments of what
+looked like hesitation, he seemed to come to a decision, and burned it
+slowly at the flame of his spirit-lamp. Then he rose and shook all his
+mighty limbs&mdash;as the Danite Titan might have done before his locks were
+shorn&mdash;and sat down again with a long-drawn sigh, as of relief. I longed
+to interpose with a warning word, for in the handwriting I recognized
+the <i>griffe</i> of the fatal Delilah. But I knew how dangerous it was to
+attempt interference with Guy; and besides, this time, I felt sure he
+had escaped the toils. Yet my heart sank as I thought of the seductions
+and temptations that the future might have in store. I could hardly keep
+my temper that evening when I saw at the Opera Flora
+Bellasys&mdash;triumphant, as if she could guess what the morning's work had
+been&mdash;and then thought of the single, guileless heart whose happiness
+she was plotting to overthrow.</p>
+
+<p>She and Guy met constantly, for he still went every where, often
+accompanied by his <i>fianc&eacute;e</i>. They seemed to be on the most ordinary
+footing of old acquaintances, though it was remarked that no one could
+be said to have succeeded to the post of grand vizier at the Bellasys
+court, vacated by Livingstone. I can not trace the threads of the web of
+Circe. She concealed them well at the time; and since&mdash;between the
+knowledge of them and me is drawn the veil of a terrible remorse, which
+I have never tried to penetrate.</p>
+
+<p>I can only tell the end, which came very speedily.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'><div class='i8'>"'Tis good to be merry and wise;</div>
+<div class='i10'>'Tis good to be honest and true;</div>
+<div class='i8'>'Tis good to be off with the old love</div>
+<div class='i10'>Before you are on with the new."</div></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>There was a sound of revelry by night in Mrs. Wallace's villa at
+Richmond, and fair women and brave men mustered there strong. Every one
+liked those parties. The hostess was young and very charming, while her
+husband, a bald, inoffensive, elderly man, was equally eminent in his
+own department of the commissariat. His wines were things to dream of in
+after years, when, like Curran, "confined to the Port" of a remote
+country inn, one sacrifices one's self heroically on the altar of the
+landlord for the good of the house.</p>
+
+<p>The crowd was not so dense as at most London parties, and the
+temperature consequently something below that of a vapor-bath or of the
+<i>Piombi</i>, but the generality of the guests were either amusing, or
+pretty, or otherwise eligible. To be sure, it was rather an expedition
+and a question of passports to get down there, but the drive home
+through the cool dewy morning made you amends.</p>
+
+<p>Constance Brandon was present. I never saw her look so lovely as on
+this, her last appearance on the world's stage. No one could have
+guessed that, five hours later, the light was to die in her eyes and the
+color in her cheeks, never to return to either again till she shall
+wake on the Resurrection morning.</p>
+
+<p>Flora Bellasys was there too, in all the insolence of beauty, defying
+criticism, and challenging the admiration that was lavished on her. I
+should like to describe her dress; but I know how dangerous it is for
+the uninitiate to venture within the verge of those awful mysteries over
+which, as hierophants, Devy and Maradon-Carson preside. Conscious of my
+sex, I retire. Have we not read of Act&aelig;on?</p>
+
+<p>Still I may say that I have an impression of her being surrounded by a
+sort of cloud of pale blue <i>tulle</i>, over which bouquets of geranium were
+scattered here and there; and I remember perfectly a certain serpent of
+scarlet velvet and diamonds flashing amid the rolls and braids of her
+dark shining tresses.</p>
+
+<p>The evening began with private theatricals, which were most successful.
+There was a <i>soubrette</i>&mdash;provoking enough to have set all the
+parti-colored world by the ears&mdash;who traced her descent from a vavasor
+of Duke William the Norman, and an attorney's clerk, who had evidently
+mistaken his profession when he took a commission in the Coldstreams.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after the ball which followed had begun, Livingstone arrived. He
+had been dining at the mess of his old regiment. I never remember seeing
+him what is called the worse for liquor. His head was marble under the
+influence of wine and of yet stronger compounds; but the instant I met
+his eyes, I guessed from their unusual brilliancy, and from the slight
+additional flush on his brown cheeks, that the wassail had been deep.</p>
+
+<p>He paused for a moment to say a word or two to me, and I noticed that
+the first person whom his glance lighted on was, not his betrothed, but
+Flora Bellasys. The latter was resting after her first polka, with her
+usual staff of admirers round her. Guy watched the circle paying their
+homage, and I heard him mutter to himself the formula of the Roman
+arena&mdash;<i>Morituri te salutant</i>. Then he passed on; and, after retaining
+Constance for her first disengaged turn, he began talking to a lady,
+whom I have not noticed yet, but who merits to be sketched hastily.</p>
+
+<p>Rose Thornton was not clever. She was no longer in her first youth, and
+had never been pretty or very attractive. Her figure was neat, and her
+face had a sort of nervous deprecating expression, that made you look at
+it a second time. Nevertheless, she was always deeply engaged, and
+generally to the best goers in the room. She was a good performer
+herself, but this would not account for it; ninety-nine girls out of
+every hundred are that, after two seasons' practice. Those who were in
+the secret did not wonder at her luck. She was the <i>&acirc;me damnee</i> of Flora
+Bellasys.</p>
+
+<p>Whenever the latter ventured on any unusually daring escapade, she was
+always really accompanied by Miss Thornton, or supposed to be so. How
+the influence was originally acquired I know not; at the time I speak of
+she had no more volition left than a Russian Grenadier. She had some
+principles of action once, I suppose, and considered herself as an
+accountable being; but all such vanities her "dashing white sergeant"
+had drilled out of her long ago. Poor thing! It was no wonder that the
+frightened look had become habitual to her face, and that she always
+spoke with reserve and constraint, as if to guard against the
+chance-betrayal of some terrible secret. It was no sinecure, her
+office&mdash;alternately scapegoat and <i>confidante</i>. My own idea is, that
+having still a little feeble remnant of a conscience remaining, she
+suffered agonies of remorse at times in the latter capacity. Dancing was
+her great&mdash;almost her only pleasure, and Flora certainly provided her
+regularly with partners. Indeed, some one had irreverently designated
+Miss Thornton as The Turnpike, inasmuch as, before securing a waltz with
+the beauty, it was necessary to pay toll in the shape of a duty-dance
+with her <i>prot&eacute;g&eacute;e</i>. Rose's gratitude was boundless. She never wearied
+in rendering small services to her patroness. She would write her notes
+for her, as La Raff&eacute; did for Richelieu, and fetch and carry like the
+best of retrievers; venturing every now and then on a timid caress,
+which was permitted rather than accepted with an imperial nonchalance.
+The only subject on which she ever expanded into eloquence was the
+fascinations of her friend. She spent all her weak breath in blowing
+that laudatory trumpet, as if she expected the defenses of the best
+guarded heart to fall prostrate before it, like the walls of Jericho.
+And yet, if all the truth were known, I think she had as much reason to
+complain as the dwarf in the story who swore fellowship in arms with the
+giant.</p>
+
+<p>I was sorry to see Livingstone linger at her side, yet more sorry when,
+by an easy transition, he passed on to Flora's, and the circle around
+her, from old habit, made room for him to pass. He did not stay there
+long, though&mdash;only long enough to make future arrangements, I
+suppose&mdash;and then, for some time, I lost sight of him.</p>
+
+<p>I had been driving heavily through a quadrille in the society of a very
+foolish virgin, whose ideas of past, present, and future seemed bounded
+by the last Opera, which she had and I had not seen. A horror of great
+dullness had fallen upon me, and I went out to restore the tone of my
+depressed spirits by a libation, wherein I devoted, solemnly, my late
+partner to the infernal gods. When I returned they were playing "The
+Olga," and Flora was whirling round on Guy Livingstone's arm.</p>
+
+<p>Among her many perilous fascinations, have I ever mentioned her
+wonderful waltzing? She was as untiring as an Alm&egrave;; and when once fairly
+launched with a steerer who could do her justice, had a sway with
+her&mdash;to use an Americanism&mdash;like that of a clipper three points off the
+wind.</p>
+
+<p>As I watched her, almost reclining in her partner's powerful grasp, her
+lips moving incessantly, though audibly only to him, as her head leaned
+against his shoulder, I thought of the old Rhineland tradition of the
+Wilis; then the daughter of Herodias came into my mind; and then that
+scarcely less murderous <i>danseuse</i>, at whose many-twinkling feet they
+say the second Napoleon cast his frail life down.</p>
+
+<p>If, in his assault on St. Anthony, the Evil One mingled no Terpsichorean
+temptation, be sure it was because the ancient man had no ear for music,
+I do not think that weapon was forgotten when Don Roderick, who had once
+been a courtly king, did battle through a long winter's night with the
+phantasm of fair, sinful La Cava.</p>
+
+<p>The waltz was over, and I saw Guy and Flora disappear through the
+curtained door of the conservatory. If there was one thing Mrs. Wallace
+was prouder of than another, it was the arrangement of this sanctum.
+Very justly so; for it had witnessed the commencement and happy
+termination of more flirtations than half the ball-rooms in London put
+together. When you got into one of those nooks, contrived in artful
+recesses, shaded by magnolias, camellias, and the broad, thick-leaved
+tropical plants, lighted dimly by lamps of many-colored glass, you felt
+the recitation of some chapter in "the old tale so often told" a
+necessity of the position, not a matter of choice. Against eyes you were
+tolerably safe, though not against ears; but this is of very secondary
+importance. The man who would not assist a woman in distress (as the
+stage sailor has it) by adhering to the whisper appropriate to the
+imparting of interesting information, deserves to be&mdash;overheard.</p>
+
+<p>Flora sank down on a convenient <i>causeuse</i>, still panting slightly&mdash;not
+from breathlessness, but past excitement&mdash;the ground-swell after the
+storm.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! what a waltz!" she said, with a sigh. "And what a pity it is so
+nearly the last! I shall never find any one else who will understand my
+step and pace so well."</p>
+
+<p>"Why should it be nearly the last?" Guy asked, contemplating the varying
+expression of her face and the somewhat careless <i>pose</i> of her
+magnificent figure with more than admiration in his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>On se range,</i>" Flora answered, demurely. "And the first step in the
+right direction will be to give up one's favorite partners."</p>
+
+<p>He sat down by her with a short laugh that was rather forced.</p>
+
+<p>"Bah! do you think, because we are virtuous, there shall be no more
+cakes and ale?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I do. I could sketch your future so easily. It will be so
+intensely respectable. You will become a model country squire. You will
+hunt a good deal, but never <i>ride</i> any more. (You must sell the Axeine,
+you know.) You will go to magistrates' meetings regularly, and breed
+immense cattle; and you will grow very fat yourself. That's the worst of
+all. I don't like to fancy you stout and unwieldy, like Athelstan."</p>
+
+<p>She ended, pensively. The languor of reaction seemed stealing over her,
+but it only made her more charming as she leaned still farther back on
+the soft cushions, watching the point of her tiny foot tracing the
+pattern of the carpet.</p>
+
+<p>"What a brilliant horoscope!" said Guy; "and so benevolently sketched,
+too! Now your own, Improvisatrice."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall marry too," she answered, gravely. "I ought to have done so
+long ago. Perhaps I shall make up my mind soon. Evil examples are so
+contagious."</p>
+
+<p>"And who will draw the great prize?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have not the faintest idea. I suppose some fine old English
+gentleman, who has a great estate."</p>
+
+<p>"I only hope the said estate will be near Kerton," Livingstone
+suggested; and he drew closer to his companion.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! dear old Kerton," she said, sighing again, "I shall never go there
+any more."</p>
+
+<p>"The reason?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps because my husband, whoever he may be, will not choose to bring
+me."</p>
+
+<p>"Absurd!" Guy retorted, biting his lip hard. "As if that individual
+would have any will of his own. You want to provoke me, I see."</p>
+
+<p>The answer came in so low a whisper that, though he bent his ear down,
+he had almost to guess at the words.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I have never tried to do that, even during the last three months. I
+am not brave enough. Perhaps I should not come, because&mdash;I could not
+bear it."</p>
+
+<p>They were silent. She was so near him now that her quick breath stirred
+his hair, and he could feel the pulse of her heart beating against his
+own side. The fiery Livingstone blood, heated seven-fold by wine and
+passion, was surging through his veins like molten iron. Memory and
+foresight were both swept away like withered leaves by the strength of
+the terrible temptation.</p>
+
+<p>His arm stole round her waist, and he drew her toward him&mdash;close&mdash;closer
+yet; then she looked up in his face. The cloud of thoughtful gravity has
+passed away from hers, and the provocations of a myriad of coquettes and
+courtesans concentrated in her marvelous eyes.</p>
+
+<p>He bent down his lofty head, and instantly their lips met, and were set
+together fast.</p>
+
+<p>A kiss! Tibullus, Secundus, Moore, and a thousand other poets and
+poetasters, have rhymed on the word for centuries, decking it with the
+choicest and quaintest conceits. But, remember, it was with a kiss that
+the greatest of all criminals sealed the unpardonable sin&mdash;it was a kiss
+which brought on Francesca punishment so unutterably piteous that he
+swooned at the sight who endured to look on all other terrors of
+nine-circled hell.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'><div class='i12'>"God help thee, then!</div>
+<div class='i10'>I'll see thy face no more.</div>
+<div class='i8'>Like water spilled upon the plain,</div>
+<div class='i8'>Not to be gathered up again,</div>
+<div class='i10'>Is the old love I bore."</div></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>Before that long caress was ended, close behind them there broke forth a
+low, plaintive cry, such as might be wrung from the bravest of delicate
+women, in her extremity of pain, when stricken by a heavy brutal hand.</p>
+
+<p>The hot blood ebbed back in Guy Livingstone's veins, and froze at its
+fountain-head. His punishment had begun already. Before her face, white
+as the dress she wore, was revealed through a break in the dark green
+foliage of the camellias, he knew that he had trifled away his life's
+happiness, and lost Constance Brandon.</p>
+
+<p>She came forward slowly. With a valiant effort she had shaken off the
+first feeling of faintness that had crept over her, and there was
+scarcely a trace of emotion left on her features&mdash;calm and pale as the
+Angel of Death.</p>
+
+<p>Guy had risen, and stood still, with his head bent down on his breast.
+For the first time in his life he was unable to raise his eyes, weighed
+down by the heavy sense of bitter disgrace and forfeited honor.</p>
+
+<p>But the bright flush on Flora's cheek spoke more of exultation than of
+shame; the bouquet which she raised to her lips only half concealed a
+smile of triumph. She wreathed her slender neck haughtily while she met
+her rival's glance without flinching. She thought that, if she had
+played for a heavy stake&mdash;no less than the jeopardy of her fair
+fame&mdash;this time, at least, the game was her own.</p>
+
+<p>Constance spoke first, in a voice perfectly measured and composed. There
+was not a false note in the soft, musical tones. After once conquering
+her emotion, she would have dropped dead at Flora's feet sooner than
+betray how she was wounded.</p>
+
+<p>"When you have taken Miss Bellasys back, will you come to me for a
+moment, Mr. Livingstone? I will wait for you here."</p>
+
+<p>Flora rose before Guy could answer. "Don't trouble yourself," she said,
+gayly. "Here is my partner for the polka looking anxiously for me. I am
+ready, Captain Ravenswood."</p>
+
+<p>She turned, before reaching the door, to fire a last shot.</p>
+
+<p>"It is the next galop I am to keep for you, is it not?"</p>
+
+<p>This was to Guy; but there was no answer. He stood in precisely the same
+attitude, without a muscle of his face stirring or an eyelash quivering.</p>
+
+<p>In all the Rifle Brigade there was not a more reckless dare-devil than
+Harry Ravenswood, nor one who adhered more devoutly to the convenient
+creed, "All is fair in war or love." But he saw that something had
+happened quite out of his line; and he did not venture on a single
+allusion to it as he led his partner back to the dancing-room, with a
+perplexed expression on his cheery face, which amused Flora intensely
+when she remarked it. When the subject came on for discussion afterward
+in the smoking-room at his club, he thus expressed himself, in language
+terse and elegantly allegorical.</p>
+
+<p>"You see, Livingstone is a very heavy weight; a good deal better than
+most in the ring. When I saw him so floored as not to be able to come to
+time, I knew there had been some hard hitting going on thereabouts, so I
+kept clear."</p>
+
+<p>The two who were left alone in the conservatory remained silent for a
+few seconds. Then Guy roused himself, and offered his arm to his
+companion with an impulse of courtesy that was simply mechanical. She
+took it without remark, and they passed out through the door which led
+into the garden.</p>
+
+<p>There Constance left his side; and, for the first time, their eyes met
+as they stood face to face under the bright moon. Guy read his sentence
+instantly&mdash;a sentence from which there was no appeal. The very
+hopelessness of his situation restored its elasticity to the somewhat
+sullen pride which was the mainspring of his character. He stood,
+waiting for her to speak; and his eyes were not cast down now, but
+riveted on her face&mdash;gloomily defiant.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you will believe," Miss Brandon said, "that it was quite
+involuntarily I became a spy on your actions. I did not overhear one
+word; and my partner had that moment left me, when I saw&mdash;" Not all her
+self-command could check the shudder that ran through every limb, and
+the choking in her throat that would interrupt her.</p>
+
+<p>"I have very little to add," she went on, more steadily. "After what I
+witnessed, I need hardly say that we only meet again as the merest
+strangers. You might think meanly of me, indeed, if I ever allowed your
+lips to touch my cheek or my hand again. Remember, I told you from the
+first we were not suited to each other; perhaps I deserve all I have met
+with for allowing myself to be overruled. You can not contradict a word
+of this, or say that it is unjust or severe."</p>
+
+<p>Did she pause in the expectation or the hope of an excuse, or an appeal
+from her hearer? Only the hoarse answer came,</p>
+
+<p>"I have forfeited the right to defend myself or to gainsay you."</p>
+
+<p>"You would find it difficult to do either," Constance rejoined, rather
+more haughtily; perhaps she was disappointed in the tone of his reply.
+"One word more: if my name is ever called in question, I am sure no one
+will defend it more readily than yourself. My voice will never be heard
+against you; and if, hereafter, you shall desire my forgiveness more
+than you now do; remember, I have given it unasked and freely."</p>
+
+<p>Guy's tone was pregnant with cold, cruel irony as he answered,</p>
+
+<p>"I congratulate you on your position, Miss Brandon; it is quite
+unassailable. You are in the right now, as you always have been. You
+were right, of course, in always doling out the tokens of your love in
+such scanty measure as your pride and your priests would allow. They
+ought to canonize you&mdash;those holy men! I doubt if they have another
+disciple so superior to all human weaknesses. It must be very
+gratifying to so eminent a Christian to be able to forgive plenarily,
+without danger of the favor being returned. I have nothing to urge
+against your decision&mdash;that we part forever. You will have no difficulty
+in forgetting me, whom you ought never to have stooped to. Yet I will
+give you one caution. I am not romantic, as you know, and I generally
+mean what I say. If you should think hereafter of bestowing yourself on
+some worthier object, hesitate a little for <i>his</i> sake, or wait till I
+am dead; otherwise, the day that makes his happiness certain may bring
+him very near his grave."</p>
+
+<p>His voice had changed during the last words into a growl of savage
+menace, and his forehead was black and furrowed with passion.</p>
+
+<p>It might have been his own excited fancy, or the passing just then of a
+light cloud over the moon; but, for an instant, he thought he saw her
+steady lip quiver and tremble. If so, be very sure it was not fear which
+caused the emotion, though even that the circumstances might have
+excused; rather, I think, it was a pang of self-reproach&mdash;a
+consciousness of having acted unwisely, though for the best; perhaps,
+too, the stubbornness of the heart she had ruled once&mdash;so strong and
+proud even in its abasement&mdash;was congenial to her own besetting sin: she
+liked the fierce threat better than the cool sarcasm. At any rate, she
+answered more gently than she had yet spoken.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe you. But you know me better than to think a threat would
+influence me. Yet you need not fear my ever again trusting this world
+with my happiness. You will be very sorry hereafter for some things you
+have said to-night. Ask yourself&mdash;if I had loved you, as you seem to
+have expected, better than my own soul, would the result have been
+different? It is too late now to say any thing but&mdash;farewell. Will you
+not say it, as I do, kindly, or at least not in anger&mdash;Guy?"</p>
+
+<p>She paused between the two last words, and their imploring accent was
+almost piteous. There must have been a strange fascination about
+Livingstone, for, saint as she was, no other living creature would have
+won such a concession from the Christian charity of Constance Brandon.</p>
+
+<p>Had Guy spoken then, as he ought to have done, I believe all might have
+been amended; but an angry devil was busy within him, and would not let
+go his prey; he stood with his black brows downcast, and with folded
+arms, never seeming to notice the slender fingers that sought to touch
+his hand. True it is that nothing makes a man so unforgiving as the
+consciousness of having inflicted a bitter wrong. He heard a sigh, heavy
+and despairing as Francesca's when her dying prayer was spurned, a light
+shadow flitted across the streak of moonlit grass, and, when he raised
+his head, he was left alone, like Alp on the sea-shore, to judge the
+battle between a remorseful conscience and a hardened heart.</p>
+
+<p>Livingstone was seen no more that night; Constance glided in alone, and
+her absence had been scarcely noticed. During the short time that she
+remained, no one could have guessed from her face that her heart was
+broken, any more than did Napoleon that the aid-de-camp who brought the
+news of Lannes' victory had been almost cut in two by a grape-shot.</p>
+
+<p>I speak it diffidently, with the fear of the divine voice of the people
+before my eyes, as is but fitting in these equalizing days, when
+territories, the title to which is possession immemorial, are being
+plucked away acre by acre, and hereditary privileges mined one by one;
+but it seems to me, in this, perhaps, solitary attribute, "the brave old
+houses" still keep their pre-eminence.</p>
+
+<p>They are not better, nor wiser in their generation (forbid it,
+Manchester!), nor even more daring in confronting danger than the
+thousands whose grandsires are creations of a powerful fancy or of a
+complaisant king-at-arms. In that terrible charge which swept away the
+Russian cavalry at Eylau, three lengths in front of the best blood in
+France rode the innkeeper's son. The "First Grenadier" himself was not
+more splendidly reckless, though he was a La Tour d'Auvergne. But in
+passive uncomplaining endurance, in the power of obliterating outward
+tokens of suffering, physical or mental, may we not still say, <i>Noblesse
+oblige</i>?</p>
+
+<p>Hundreds of similar isolated instances may be quoted from the annals of
+the Third Estate; but, in the class I speak of, this quality seems a
+sixth sense wholly independent of, and often contradicting the rest of
+the individual's disposition.</p>
+
+<p>I remember meeting in France an old Italian refugee. He had not much
+principle and very little pride; he was ready <i>quidvis facere aut pati</i>
+to get a five-franc piece, which he would incontinently stake and lose
+at baccarat or ecart&eacute;, as he had done aforetime with a large ancestral
+inheritance; but his quiet fortitude under privations that were neither
+few nor light was worthy of Belisarius.</p>
+
+<p>Very often, I am sure, his evening meal must have been eaten with the
+Barmecide; but his pale, handsome face, finished off so gracefully by
+the white, pointed beard, still met you, courteous and unruffled, the
+idea of an exiled doge, or a Rohan in disgrace. Once only I saw him
+moved&mdash;when the landlord of our inn, a vast bloated <i>bourgeois</i>, smote
+the Count familiarly on the shoulder, and bantered him pleasantly on the
+brilliant prospects of his eldest son. It was not unkindly meant,
+perhaps, but the old man shrunk away from the large fat hand as if it
+hurt him, and turned toward us a look piteously appealing, which was not
+lost on myself or Livingstone. When mine host, later in the evening,
+shook in his gouty slippers before an ebullition of Guy's wrath, excited
+by the most shadowy pretext, I wonder if he guessed at the remote cause
+of that outpouring of the vials? Count Massa did, for he smiled
+intensely, as only an Italian can smile when amply revenged.</p>
+
+<p>One instance more to close a long digression. I have read of a baron in
+the fifteenth century who once in his life said a good thing. He was a
+coarse, brutal marauder, illiterate enough to have satisfied Earl Angus,
+and as unromantic as the Integral Calculus. He was mortally wounded in a
+skirmish; and when his men came back from the pursuit, he was bleeding
+to death, resting against a tree. When they lifted him up, they noticed
+his eyes fixed with a curious, complacent expression on the red stream
+that surged and gurgled out of his wound, just as a <i>gourmand</i> looks at
+a bumper of a rare vintage held up to the light. They heard him growl to
+himself, "<i>Qu'il coule rouge et fort, le bon vieux sang de Bourgogne</i>."
+And then he fell back&mdash;dead.</p>
+
+<p>O Publicola Thompson! Ph[=o]sphor to the Tower Hamlets and Boanerges of
+the platform&mdash;will you not allow that, amid a wilderness of weeds, this
+one fair plant flourishes under "the cold shade?"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'><div class='i8'>"Shy she was, and I thought her cold;</div>
+<div class='i10'>Thought her proud, and fled over the sea;</div>
+<div class='i8'>Filled I was with folly and spite,</div>
+<div class='i10'>When Ellen Adair was dying for me."</div></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>When I came to Livingstone's chambers on the following morning, I found
+him alone. His head was resting listlessly against the back of the vast
+easy-chair in which he was reclining, and his face, thrown out in relief
+against the crimson velvet, looked haggard and drawn. The calumet&mdash;not
+of peace&mdash;was between his lips, and the dense blue clouds were wreathing
+round him like a Scotch mist. On a table near lay a heap of gold and
+notes. He had finished the night at his club, where lansquenet had been
+raging till long after sunrise. Fortune had been more kind than usual,
+and the fruits of "passing" eight times lay before me. An open
+liqueur-case close at his elbow showed that play was not the only
+counter-excitement to which he had resorted.</p>
+
+<p>I hoped to have found him in a repentant mood, but his first words
+undeceived me: "I start for Paris by this evening's train;" and then I
+remarked all about me the signs of immediate departure.</p>
+
+<p>I only had a confused idea of what had happened, and was anxious to know
+the truth, but he was very brief in his answers: the particulars of what
+had passed I learned long afterward.</p>
+
+<p>"Can nothing be done?" I asked, when he had finished all he chose to
+tell me.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing!" replied Livingstone, decisively. "If excuse or explanation
+had been of any use, I think I should have tried them last night. You
+would not advise me to humiliate myself to no purpose, I suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>There is a certain scene in &AElig;schylus which came into my mind just then.</p>
+
+<p>A group of elderly men, with grave, rather vacuous faces, and grizzled
+beards, stand in the court-yard of an ancient palace. On one side is the
+peristyle, with its square stunted pillars, looking as if the weight
+above crushed them, though it wearies them no more than the heavens do
+Atlas; on the other, a gateway, vast, low-browed, shadowy with Cyclopean
+stones. Somewhat apart is a strange weird figure, ever and anon starting
+up and tossing her arms wildly as she utters some new denunciation, and
+then cowering down again in a despairing weariness. There are traces yet
+in the thin, wan face of the beauty which enslaved Loxian Apollo, and of
+the pride which turned his great love into a greater hate: round it hang
+the black elf-locks, disheveled, that have never been braided since the
+gripe of Telamonian Ajax ruffled them so rudely. In her great, troubled
+eyes you read terrible memories, and a prescience of coming
+death&mdash;death, most grateful to the dishonored princess, but before which
+the frail womanhood can not but shudder and quail. No wonder that the
+reverend men glance at her uneasily, scarcely mustering courage enough
+sometimes to answer her with a pious platitude. Alas! alas! Cassandra.</p>
+
+<p>While we gaze, forth from the recesses of the gyn&aelig;ceum there breaks a
+cry, expressing rather wrath and surprise than mere pain. Then there
+comes another, more plaintive&mdash;the moan of a strong man in the
+death-throe.</p>
+
+<p>We know that voice very well; we have heard it many times, calm and
+regal, above the wrangle of councils and the roar of battle; often it
+prayed for victory or for the people's weal, but it never yet called on
+earth or heaven to help Agamemnon. The Chorus hear it too; but they
+linger and palter, while each gives his grave sentence deliberately in
+his proper turn. One or two advise action and interference, and stand
+perfectly still. At last we hear a heavy, choking groan, and a great
+stillness follows. We know that all is over&mdash;we know that there is a
+stir already down there in Hades&mdash;we seem to catch a far-off murmur
+raised by a thousand weak, tremulous voices&mdash;the very ghost of a
+wail&mdash;as the shadows of those who died gallantly in their harness before
+Troy gather to meet their old leader, the mightiest Atride.</p>
+
+<p>In the background of all we fancy a hideous Eidolon, from whose side
+even the damned recoil in loathing. There is a grin on the lips yet red
+and wet with the traces of the unholy banquet. Thyestes exalts over the
+fulfillment of another chapter in the inevitable curse.</p>
+
+<p>Who has not grown savage over that scene? We hate the old drivelers less
+when, a few minutes later, they truckle and temporize with the awful
+shape, who comes forth with a splash of blood on her slender wrist, and
+a speck or two on her white, lofty forehead.</p>
+
+<p>Just so helpless and useless I felt at that moment. I was standing by
+while a foul wrong was being wrought. I saw nothing but ruin for Guy,
+and desolate misery for Constance, in the black future. Yet I could
+think of no argument or counsel that would in the least avail. I felt
+sick at heart. It was some minutes before I answered his last question.
+At last the words broke from me almost unconsciously: "Ah! how will you
+answer to God and man for last night's work?"</p>
+
+<p>I forgot that I was quoting the cry of the Covenanter's widow when she
+knelt by her husband's corpse, and looked up into Claverhouse's face
+with those sad eyes that were ever dim and cloudy after the carbines
+flashed across them. But Guy remembered it, and answered instantly in
+the words of his favorite hero,</p>
+
+<p>"I can answer it to man well enough, and I will take God in my own
+hand."</p>
+
+<p>Years afterward we both recalled that fatal defiance, when the speaker
+lay helpless, at the mercy of the Omnipotence whose might he challenged.
+Just then his servant, who was busily preparing for departure, entered
+the room.</p>
+
+<p>Willis was a slight, under-sized man, of about fifty; his complexion was
+muddy and indefinite; his small whiskers, of a grayish red, were trimmed
+and pruned as accurately as a box border-edging, and the partial absence
+of eyebrows and eyelashes gave his face a sort of unfinished look. The
+expression natural to it was, I think, a low, vicious cunning; but his
+features and little green eyes were so rigidly disciplined that, as a
+rule, neither had any characteristic save utter vacuity. In his own line
+he was perfect. No commission that could be intrusted to him would draw
+from him a remark or a look of surprise. He executed precisely what he
+was told, and fulfilled the minutest duties of his station
+irreproachably, with a noiseless, feline activity. He was like the
+war-horse of the Douglas:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'><div class='i2'>"Though somewhat old,</div>
+<div>Swift in his paces, cool, and bold."</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<p>He held a miniature-case in his hand as he entered. "Am I to put this
+in, sir?" he asked, in the slow, measured voice that was habitual to
+him.</p>
+
+<p>His master gazed sharply at him, as if trying to detect a covert
+sneer&mdash;it would have been safer to have stroked a rattlesnake's crest
+than to have trifled with Livingstone just then&mdash;but Willis's face was
+as innocent of any expression as a dead wall.</p>
+
+<p>"Put it down, and go on with your packing; you have no time to spare."
+The man laid the case on a marble table near, and went out.</p>
+
+<p>Guy took the miniature and regarded it steadfastly for some moments,
+then he looked up and caught my eye. Perhaps there was an eager appeal
+there (for I knew well whose likeness lay before him) which displeased
+and provoked his sullen temper; for he frowned darkly, and then his
+clenched hand fell with the crashing weight of a steam-hammer. Nothing
+but a heap of shivered wood, glass, and ivory remained of what had been
+the life-like image of Constance Brandon.</p>
+
+<p>A thrill of horror shot through me icily, and a low cry burst from my
+lips. I felt at that moment as if the blow had fallen, not on the
+portrait, but on the original.</p>
+
+<p>But I kept silence. The dark hour was on Saul, and I knew no spell to
+chase the evil spirit away.</p>
+
+<p>Guy spoke at last. His manner was unusually chill and constrained.</p>
+
+<p>"I expect to meet Mohun in Paris, and we shall probably go on to Vienna.
+I hardly like troubling you with commissions, but I must. Listen. I
+leave my own name&mdash;and another person's&mdash;in your keeping. I wish it to
+be clearly understood that the engagement was broken off by Miss
+Brandon, not by me. If you hear any man speak disparagingly of her in
+connection with what has passed, you can insult him on my behalf as
+grossly as you please. I will be here, as fast as steam can bring me, to
+back what you may have said or done. This is the only point in which I
+hope you will guard my honor. As for blaming <i>me</i>, they may say what
+they please. Do you quite understand? And will you promise?"</p>
+
+<p>I did promise; and so, after a few more last words, we parted, more
+coldly than we had ever done in all the years through which we had been
+intimate.</p>
+
+<p>Guy left England the same evening, and descended like a thunder-clap on
+the joyous little <i>m&eacute;nage</i> in the Rue de la Madeleine, where Forrester
+and his bride were still fluttering their wings in the honeymoon-shine
+of post-nuptial spring.</p>
+
+<p>They were miraculously happy, those two. Indeed, they seemed to have
+only one taste between them, and that was Charley's. If he felt
+inclined, which was not seldom, to utter inaction, his wife encouraged
+him in his laziness, sitting contentedly for hours on her footstool,
+with her silky hair just within reach of his indolent hand. If, after
+dinner, he suggested the "Italiens," or the "Bouffes," it was always
+precisely that theatre that she had been thinking of all the morning.
+She was in the seventh heaven when he won a hurdle-race in the Champ de
+Mars.</p>
+
+<p>They made excursions into the <i>banlieue</i>, and farther afield yet, like a
+couple of the <i>Pays Latin</i> in their first loves. The cabinets of Bercy
+and St. Cloud knew them; so did the arbors of Asni&egrave;res, where, in
+oilskin and <i>vareuse</i>, muster for their Sabbat the ancient mariners of
+the Seine. Nay, it has been whispered that more than once&mdash;close veiled
+and clinging tightly to her husband's arm&mdash;Isabel witnessed at <i>Mabille</i>
+and the <i>Chaumi&egrave;re</i> the choregraphic triumphs of <i>Frisette</i>, <i>Pomare</i>,
+and <i>Mogador</i>.</p>
+
+<p>My hand trembles while I record such enormities and backslidings. O
+Brougham-girls of Belgravia, who "never gave your mothers a moment's
+uneasiness"&mdash;stars of the Western hemisphere, who can be trusted any
+where without fear of your wandering from your orbits&mdash;think on this
+lost Pleiad, once your companion, and be warned. Men are deceivers ever,
+even when they mean matrimony; and the tender mercies of the Light
+Dragoon are cruel.</p>
+
+<p>Isabel was dreadfully startled at the sudden appearance of her cousin.
+Her notions of his power were quite unlimited and irrational, and I
+believe her first thought was that he had changed his mind about the
+propriety of her marriage, and was come to carry her back into the house
+of her bondage with the strong hand.</p>
+
+<p>When his curt sentences told her the facts, sorry as she was, it
+certainly was rather a relief to her. Charley was full of compassion
+too, but he only confided this to his wife. He knew better than to try
+condolence with Guy, and felt instantly that the case was far beyond his
+simple powers of healing.</p>
+
+<p>They did not see much of him. The contrast of their happiness with his
+own state must have grated on his feelings. His grim presence chilled
+and clouded their little banquets at the Trois Fr&egrave;res or the Caf&eacute; de
+Paris. He sat there among the bright lamps and flowers like a statue of
+dark marble that it is impossible to light up, drinking all the while,
+moodily, of the strongest wines to that portentous extent that it made
+Isabel nervous and her husband grave.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps Guy was conscious of the effect he produced; at all events, he
+rather avoided the Forresters, finding in Mohun more congenial society.
+The latter probably regretted what had happened; perhaps he felt an
+approach to sympathy, after his rough fashion, but with this mingled a
+dreary sort of satisfaction at the sight of a strong mind and hardy
+nature rapidly descending to his own misanthropical level. Such an
+exultation was breathed in that ghastly chorus of the dead kings and
+chief ones of the earth when they rose, each on his awful throne, and
+Hell beneath was moved at the advent of the Son of the Morning.</p>
+
+<p>These two did not stay long in Paris before they took their departure
+for Vienna.</p>
+
+<p>We who were left behind in England talked a little at first, of course,
+about the broken engagement, but I had no occasion to throw down the
+gauntlet that had been left in my hands. I never heard any thing more
+spiteful about Miss Brandon than that "she was never suited to her
+<i>fianc&eacute;</i>&mdash;far too good for him." Others "had always thought how it
+would be; it would take a good deal more yet to tame Livingstone." Sir
+Henry Fallowfield observed, "Nothing could be more natural and correct.
+The lady was a saint, and there is always a sort of incompleteness about
+saints if they are not made martyrs. Suffering is their normal state."</p>
+
+<p>It was remarked that he was unusually cheerful for some days afterward;
+and when Guy's conduct was canvassed, seemed inclined to quote the old
+school-master's words on witnessing his pupil's success, "Bless the boy!
+I taught him."</p>
+
+<p>Some other subject soon came up and replaced the week's wonder.</p>
+
+<p>Constance left town with her uncle almost immediately, and I heard
+nothing of her for many months. Miss Bellasys remained. Very few persons
+even guessed at the share she had had in breaking off the match; so her
+credit was not much impaired, and her campaign was as brilliantly
+successful as usual. If she felt any disappointment at Guy's abrupt
+departure, she concealed it remarkably well. In some things, though
+naturally impetuous and impatient, she was as cool as a Red Indian, and
+would wait and watch forever if she saw a prospect of ultimate success.
+So the days rolled on, bringing swiftly and surely the bitter
+harvest-time, when he who had sown the wind was to reap the whirlwind.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'><div class='i8'>"And from his lips those words of insult fell&mdash;</div>
+<div class='i8'>His sword is good who can maintain them well."</div></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>It was the middle of October; the reflux of the winter season was
+beginning to fill Paris, and thither Mohun and Livingstone had returned
+from their German tour, the latter decidedly the worse for his
+wanderings. He had not suffered much physically, for the hard living
+that would have utterly broken up some constitutions had only been able
+to make his face thinner, to deepen the bistre tints under the eyes, and
+to give a more angular gauntness to his massive frame.</p>
+
+<p>But morally he was not the same man. Play, which had formerly been only
+an occasional excitement, had now become a necessary part of his daily
+existence. Mohun would never say&mdash;perhaps he did not know&mdash;how much Guy
+had lost during those few months. In spite of several gigantic <i>coups</i>
+(he broke the bank both at Baden and Hombourg), the balance was
+fearfully on the wrong side, so much so that it entailed a heavy
+mortgage&mdash;the maiden one in his time&mdash;on the fair lands of Kerton Manor.</p>
+
+<p>I wonder people have not got tired of quoting "<i>Heureux en jeu;
+malheureux en amour</i>." It seems one of the least true of all stale,
+stupid proverbs. Luck will run itself out in more ways than one; and
+sometimes you will never hold a trump, however often the suit changes.
+The ancients knew better than we when they called the double-sixes
+"Venus's cast." The monotony of Guy's reckless dissipations was soon
+broken up by an event which ought to have sobered him.</p>
+
+<p>He had been dining with Mohun at the Trois Fr&egrave;res, and they were
+returning late toward the Boulevards, when their attention was attracted
+by a group in one of the narrow streets leading out of the Rue Vivienne.
+Five or six raffish-looking men had surrounded a fair, delicate girl,
+and were preparing to besiege her in form, deriving apparently intense
+amusement from the piteous entreaties of their victim to be released.
+Not the <i>rou&eacute;s</i> of the Regency after the suppers that have become a
+by-word&mdash;not the <i>mousquetaires</i> after the wildest of their orgies&mdash;were
+ever so unrelenting in brutality toward women quite lonely and
+undefended as those unshorn ornaments of Young France, when replete with
+a dinner at forty <i>sous</i>, and with the anomalous liquor that Macon
+blushes to own.</p>
+
+<p>In all Europe there is no more genial companion and gallant gentleman
+than the aristocrat of France <i>pur sang</i>&mdash;in all the world no more
+terrible adversary than her wiry, well-trained soldier; but, from the
+prolific decay of old institutions and prejudices, a mushroom growth has
+sprouted of child-atheists and precocious profligates, calculating
+debauchees while their cheeks are still innocent of down, who, after the
+effervescence of a foul, vicious youth has spent itself, simmer down
+into avaricious, dishonest <i>bourgeois</i> and bloated caf&eacute; politicians. The
+teeth of the Republican dragon have been drawn, but they are sown
+broadcast from Dan even to Beersheba. Ancient realm of Capet, Valois,
+and Bourbon&mdash;motherland of Du Guesclin and Bayard&mdash;you may well be proud
+of your Cadmean offspring!</p>
+
+<p>Guy was passing the scene with a careless side-glance when the accent of
+the suppliant caught his ear&mdash;not French, though she spoke the language
+perfectly.</p>
+
+<p>"By G&mdash;d," he said, dropping Mohun's arm, "I believe it's an
+Englishwoman they are bullying;" and three of his long strides took him
+into the midst of the group.</p>
+
+<p>Two of the aggressors reeled back, right and left, from the shock of his
+mighty shoulders; and griping another, the tallest, by the collar, he
+whirled him some paces off on his back in the streaming kennel, as one
+might do with a very weak, light little child. "<i>Au large, canaille</i>!"
+he said, as he advanced on the two who still kept their feet. These drew
+back from his path without a second warning. One indeed, eminent in the
+<i>savate</i>, made a demonstration for an instant; but his comrade, who had
+just gathered himself up, caught his arm, muttering "<i>Ne t'y frotte pas,
+Alphonse. C'est trop dur</i>." None of them fancied an encounter with the
+grim giant who confronted them, his muscles braced and salient, his eyes
+gleaming with the <i>gaudia certaminis</i>, and his nostrils dilated as if
+they snuffed the battle.</p>
+
+<p>So they made way for Guy and his charge to pass, only grinding out
+between their teeth the strange guttural blasphemies that characterize
+impotent Gallic wrath.</p>
+
+<p>Mohun, a reserve scarcely leas formidable, stood by all the while,
+looking on lazily; he saw that his companion was more than equal to the
+emergency.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you have not been much annoyed," Livingstone said, kindly.
+"Where were you going to? I shall be too happy to escort you, if you
+will allow me."</p>
+
+<p>She named the street, only a few hundred yards off, and tried to thank
+him gratefully, but her voice was broken and scarcely audible, and the
+blinding tears would rush into her eyes. Poor child! it was very long
+since she had heard gentle, courteous words in her mother-tongue. She
+recovered herself, however, during their short walk, and they had nearly
+reached her destination when Livingstone said, "Forgive me for being
+impertinent; I have no right to advise you; but I think you would find
+it better not to walk alone, often, at this hour. There is always a
+chance of something disagreeable."</p>
+
+<p>He could see her blush painfully as she answered, "I have no one to
+accompany me. I work hard at drawing and painting as long as there is
+light, and I had gone out to see if I could sell what I have done. But I
+fear I am a very poor artist; no one would offer me as much as they had
+cost me. And I tried at so many places!"</p>
+
+<p>It was piteous to hear the heavy, heart-broken sigh.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps I have better taste," replied Livingstone. "Those print-sellers
+are absurdly ignorant of what is good and anonymous. At all events, they
+will interest me, as a memorial of to-night. Will you give them to me? I
+will promise not to be too critical."</p>
+
+<p>He drew the roll out of her hand as he spoke, replacing it by his
+note-case; and before she could open it or make any objection, he
+followed Mohun (for they had reached the artist's door by this time),
+first raising his hat to her in adieu as courteously as he would have
+done to a reigning archduchess.</p>
+
+<p>How much did the case contain? Guy himself could hardly have told you.
+But be sure the Recorder of his many misdeeds knew, and reckoned it to
+the uttermost farthing when he wrote down that one kind action on the
+credit side.</p>
+
+<p>"Philanthropic, for a change!" Mohun remarked, when his companion joined
+him. "Well, it's not worse than many of your vagaries. We shall have you
+founding an asylum next, I suppose."</p>
+
+<p>In his heart the savage old cynic approved, but, for the life of him, he
+could not check the sneer.</p>
+
+<p>Livingstone made no reply. It was a habit of his very often not to
+answer Ralph, and the latter did not mind it in the least. In a few
+moments they reached Guy's apartments, where they found about a dozen
+men&mdash;French and English&mdash;awaiting their arrival to begin an unbridled
+lansquenet. It was a favorite rendezvous for this purpose. The
+thoroughbred gamblers preferred it to the brilliant entertainments of
+the Quartier Br&egrave;da. They liked to court or fight Fortune by themselves,
+without being congratulated in success or compassionated in defeat by
+the fair Phrynes and Aspasias, whose sympathy was somewhat expansive,
+inasmuch as they always would borrow from the heap whenever any one won,
+repaying the loan in kind by smiles and caresses, which cost the happy
+recipient about fifteen Napoleons apiece. Here was an Eden from which
+Eves were excluded; and on the nights of the <i>Mercurialia</i>, the
+brightest Peri that ever wore camellias might have knocked at the gate
+disconsolately, but in vain.</p>
+
+<p>While the tables were being prepared, Guy began to tell his late
+adventure. He spoke of it very lightly, but he thought, if he passed it
+over altogether, Mohun would probably betray him.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately there was a great cry for a sight of the performances of the
+unknown genius.</p>
+
+<p>Livingstone looked over the drawings himself carefully, and then passed
+them to the man who sat nearest him. "I have seen worse," he said.
+"There is no signature, and I shall not give you the address. You are
+none of you just the patrons she would fancy. You don't care much for
+high art."</p>
+
+<p>Among the guests was Horace Levinge, a pale, dark man, with a face that
+was decidedly handsome, in spite of its Jewish <i>contour</i>, and the
+excessive fullness of the scarlet, sensual lips. His grandfather, report
+said, had been a prize-fighting Israelite, and afterward a celebrated
+betting-man&mdash;equally eminent in either ring for an unscrupulous
+scoundrelism which made his fortune. His father had added to the family
+treasure and importance by cautious usury and adventurous stock-jobbing.
+Horace himself was a gentleman at large, with no other profession than
+the consistent pursuit of all kinds of debauchery. He was calculating
+even in his pleasures, and, they say, kept a regular ledger and daybook
+of the moneys disbursed in his vices.</p>
+
+<p>When the drawings came to him, he glanced at them for a moment, and
+then threw them down with a little contemptuous laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry to spoil your romance, Livingstone, but I have a pretty good
+right to recognize the artist's touch. You know her, some of you; it is
+Fanny Challoner."</p>
+
+<p>"What! the girl you sent away about three weeks ago?" some one asked.
+"Poor thing! she was not sorry, I should think. She had a hard time of
+it before she left you."</p>
+
+<p>"Precisely," Levinge replied. "Her modesty and high moral principles,
+which I never could quite subdue, gave a zest to the thing at first. You
+understand?&mdash;a sort of caviare flavor. But at last it bored me horribly.
+I really believe she had a conscience. Can you conceive any thing so out
+of place? I did offer her a little money when she went away, but she
+would not take any, and said she would try to maintain herself honestly.
+Bah! I defy her. She was a governess, you know, when I took her first,
+so she is trying some of the old accomplishments. I wish you joy of your
+<i>prot&eacute;g&eacute;e</i>, Livingstone; and as for her address, if any of you want it,
+I will give it you to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>Before Guy could reply Mohun broke in. While Levinge had been speaking,
+the colonel's face had grown very dark and threatening.</p>
+
+<p>"Did her father live near Walmer? And was he a half-pay officer?"</p>
+
+<p>"Quite correct," was the answer. "He died about eighteen months before I
+met Fanny. You knew him, perhaps? How interesting! Excuse my emotion."</p>
+
+<p>"I did know him," Ralph said. "He was a gentleman, and well born.
+Perhaps that was the reason you could not get on long with his
+daughter?"</p>
+
+<p>It is a popular error that a bully is always a coward. Certainly Horace
+was an exception to the rule, if such exists. Nothing could be more
+calmly insolent than his tone as he answered deliberately,</p>
+
+<p>"How admirable to find Colonel Mohun in the character of the Censor! A
+Clodius come to judgment. I should hardly have expected it, from his
+past life, either."</p>
+
+<p>The reply came from the depths of Ralph's chest, very distinct, but with
+a strange effect of distance and echo, as if the words had been spoken
+under the vault of some vast dome.</p>
+
+<p>"You will leave my past life alone, if you are wise. I don't preach
+against immorality; it is only brutality that I find simply disgusting."</p>
+
+<p>"Bah!" the other retorted; "it comes to the same thing. I should have
+thought Lady Caroline Mannering might have taught you to be less
+critical."</p>
+
+<p>The Cuirassier rose from his seat and strode a pace forward, the gray
+hair bristling round his savage face like a wild-boar's at bay.</p>
+
+<p>"If you dare to breathe that name again, except with respect and honor,
+I'll cram the words down your throat, by the eternal God!"</p>
+
+<p>Levinge crimsoned with passion. The brutal blood of the dead
+prize-fighter, who, when he "crossed" a fight, lost it ever by a foul
+blow, was boiling in his descendant. He had been drinking too, and, as
+the French say&mdash;<i>avait le vin mauvais</i>&mdash;so he answered coolly and
+slowly, letting the syllables fall one by one, like drops of hail,</p>
+
+<p>"I shall mention it just as often as it pleases me, and with just so
+much respect as is due to Mannering's cast-off wife and your&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The foul word that was on his lips never left them, for Mohun's threat
+was literally fulfilled. His right hand shot out from the shoulder with
+a sudden impulse that seemed rather mechanical than an action of the
+will, and, catching the speaker full in the mouth, laid him on the
+carpet senseless and streaming with blood.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'><div class='i8'>"Look doun, look doun now, ladye fair,</div>
+<div class='i10'>On him ye lo'ed sae weel;</div>
+<div class='i8'>A brawer man than yon blue corse</div>
+<div class='i10'>Never drew sword of steel."</div></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>The dead silence that ensued was broken first by Guy Livingstone. "It
+was well done! I say it and maintain it; Mohun, I envy you that blow!"
+He looked round as if to challenge contradiction; but evidently the
+general opinion was that Levinge had only got his deserts. By this time
+the fallen man had recovered his consciousness, and struggled up, first
+into a sitting posture, then to his feet; he stood leaning against a
+table, swaying to and fro, and staring about him with wild eyes half
+glazed. At last he spoke in a thick, faint voice, stanching all the
+while the gushing blood with his handkerchief.</p>
+
+<p>"Will any one here be my second, or must I look for a friend elsewhere?"</p>
+
+<p>There was a pause, and then from the circle stepped forth Camille de
+Rosny. He did not like Levinge, and thought in the present instance he
+had behaved infamously, but it was the fashion hereditary in his gallant
+house to back the losing side; so, when he saw every one else shrink
+from the appeal, he bowed gravely and said,</p>
+
+<p>"I shall have that honor, if you will permit me. In an hour I shall be
+at the orders of M. le Colonel's second. Where shall I find him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Here," replied Livingstone. "I think no one will contest my right to
+see my old friend through this quarrel."</p>
+
+<p>Mohun grasped his hand. "I would have chosen you among a thousand. You
+understand me, and know what I wish."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I shall expect you, De Rosny," Guy went on. The Frenchman assented
+courteously, and then, turning to his principal,</p>
+
+<p>"Let us go," he said. "My <i>coup&eacute;</i> is at your disposition, M. Levinge.
+<i>Messieurs, au plaisir.</i>"</p>
+
+<p>Horace followed him with a step that was still faltering and uncertain;
+but at the door he turned, and, straightening himself up, faced his
+adversary with such a look as few human countenances have ever worn.
+There was more in it than mortal hatred: it expressed a sort of devilish
+satisfaction and anticipation, as if he knew that his revenge was
+secured.</p>
+
+<p>Mohun read all this as plainly as if it had been written down in so many
+words; but he only smiled as he seated himself and lighted a cigar.</p>
+
+<p>There was an end of lansquenet for that night. An ordinary quarrel would
+have made little impression on those reckless spirits, who had, most of
+them, at one time or another, "been out" themselves; but they felt that
+what they had witnessed now was the prologue to a certain tragedy; there
+was a savor of death in the air; so they dropped off one by one, leaving
+Guy and Ralph alone; not before the latter had expressed, with much
+politeness, "his desolation at having been compelled to interrupt a
+<i>partie</i>, which he trusted was only deferred till the morrow."</p>
+
+<p>Before long De Rosny returned. The preliminaries were soon arranged.
+Pistols were necessarily to be the weapons, for Levinge had seldom
+touched a foil; and, as the Frenchman said with a bow that made his
+objection a compliment, "Colonel Mohun's reputation as a swordsman was
+European." An early hour next morning was fixed for the <i>venue</i>, in the
+Pr&eacute; aux Clercs of the nineteenth century&mdash;the Bois de Boulogne.</p>
+
+<p>When they were alone again Guy turned gravely to his companion. "It is a
+bad business, I fear, though you could not have acted otherwise; but I
+would rather your adversary were any other than Levinge. It is a
+murderous, unscrupulous scoundrel as ever lived. He can shoot&mdash;that's
+nothing; so can you, better than most men&mdash;but, mark me, Ralph, he has
+been out twice, and hit his man each time, the last mortally; but on
+neither occasion was <i>his fire returned</i>. Men say he has an awkward
+knack of pulling the trigger half a second too soon. I don't know if
+this is true, but I do know that Seymour, who seconded him at Florence
+when he killed O'Neill, has been more than cool to him ever since."</p>
+
+<p>"Faith, I can well believe it," Mohun answered, quietly, "and it is very
+probable I may get hard hit to-morrow; but of killing him I feel morally
+certain. Do you believe in presentiments? I do. Before that drunken
+brute had half done speaking, I saw imminent death written in his face
+as plainly as if I had possessed the Highland second-sight. I think I
+could almost tell you how it will look <i>after my shot</i>. Well, we must
+talk of business. My arrangements won't take me long. I have very little
+to dispose of; it is almost all entailed property. I shall leave you the
+choice of any thing among my goods and chattels. You will find some arms
+that you may fancy. But if my pistols fail me to-morrow, so that Levinge
+lives over it, do me the favor to throw them into the Seine; they
+deserve nothing better. As for the ready-money I have with me, and some
+more at my banker's&mdash;" he hesitated, and then went on in a gentler
+voice, "I should like it to go to that poor child whom we met to-night.
+If I live I will take care she is settled in England, where some one
+will be kind to her. Her father was a good soldier and a true-hearted
+gentleman. And, Guy, I am sorry that I sneered at you to-night; I hardly
+meant it when I said it."</p>
+
+<p>This was a great concession from Mohun, and his hearer thought so as he
+wrung his hand hard and replied,</p>
+
+<p>"Don't think of that again. I did you justice an hour ago."</p>
+
+<p>There was this peculiarity about Ralph; he was not only insensible to
+danger, like other men, but he absolutely seemed to revel in it. The
+genial side of his character came out at the approach of deadly peril,
+just as some morose natures will soften and brighten temporarily under
+the influence of strong wine.</p>
+
+<p>His mood seemed to change, however, suddenly; and when, after a long
+pause, he spoke again, it was in a low, broken voice, as if to himself.</p>
+
+<p>"'Be sure your sin will find you out.' It is thirty years since I heard
+that text; I forgot it the same day, and never thought of it again till
+now. There may be truth in that. It hunted <i>her</i> to her grave, and it
+will not leave her in peace even there. And yet she suffered enough to
+make atonement. She tried not to let me see how much, but I did see it;
+I watched her dying for a year and more. I am sure she is an angel now.
+I like to think so, though I shall never see her again. I would not
+believe otherwise if a thousand priests said it and swore it; for I
+never moved from her side, after she was dead, till I saw the smile come
+on her face. She must have been happy then; do you not think so? They
+would hardly have gone on punishing her forever. It was all my fault,
+you know."</p>
+
+<p>He gazed at Livingstone anxiously, almost timidly. Guy bowed his head in
+assent, but he could not find words to answer just then. There was
+something very terrible in that opening of the flood-gates when a life's
+pent-up remorse broke forth.</p>
+
+<p>"I think you will end better than I have done," Mohun went on, "though
+you are going down-hill fast now. But I have no right even to warn you.
+Only take care&mdash;" He broke off suddenly, and roused himself with an
+effort. "I shall go home and dress now, and get through what little I
+have to write, and then lie down for an hour or two. Nothing makes the
+hand shake like a sleepless night. I'll call for you in good time." So
+he went away.</p>
+
+<p>Livingstone sat thinking, without ever closing his eyes, till Mohun
+returned. The latter looked fresh and alert; he had slept for the time
+he had allotted to himself quite calmly and comfortably; the old habits
+of picket-duty had taught him to watch or sleep at pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>After Guy had made a careful toilette, at the special request of his
+principal they started, and in forty minutes were on the ground. Levinge
+and his second, with the surgeon, arrived almost immediately; the former
+stood somewhat apart, keeping the lower part of his face carefully
+muffled.</p>
+
+<p>It was a dull, chill morning; the sky of a steely-gray, without a
+promise of a gleam from the sun, which had risen <i>somewhere</i>, but was
+reserving himself for better times. There was a sort of desultory wind
+blowing, just strong enough at intervals to bring the moist brown leaves
+sullenly down.</p>
+
+<p>After the pistols had been scientifically loaded, the seconds placed
+their men fifteen yards apart&mdash;with such known shots it was not worth
+while shortening the distance.</p>
+
+<p>The sensations of ordinary mortals under such circumstances are somewhat
+curious. Very few are afraid, I think; but one has an impression that
+one's own proportions are becoming sensibly developed&mdash;"swelling
+wisibly," in fact, like the lady at the Pickwickian tea-fight&mdash;while
+those of our adversary diminish in a like ratio, so that he does not
+appear near so fair a mark as he did a few minutes ago. But, with all
+this, there is a quickening of the pulse not unpleasurable&mdash;something
+like the excitement of the "four to the seven" chance at hazard, when
+you are backing the In for a large stake.</p>
+
+<p>I do not believe Mohun felt any thing of this sort. It was not his own
+life, but his adversary's death he was playing for; the other was busy,
+too, with still darker thoughts and purposes.</p>
+
+<p>"Listen," Guy said in French; "M. de Rosny gives the signal, <i>un</i>,
+<i>deux</i>, <i>trois</i>; if either fires before the last is fully pronounced, it
+is murder." He looked sharply at Levinge, but the latter seemed
+studiously to avoid meeting his eye. Guy felt very uncomfortable and
+very savage.</p>
+
+<p>The men stood opposite to one another like black marble statues, neither
+showing a speck of color which might serve as a <i>point de mire</i>, each
+turning only a side-front to his opponent.</p>
+
+<p>De Rosny pronounced the two first words of the signal in a clear,
+deliberate voice; the last left his lips almost in a shriek, for, before
+it was half syllabled, his principal fired.</p>
+
+<p>Quick as the movement was, it was anticipated; as Levinge's hand
+stirred, Mohun made a half-face to the right, and looked his enemy
+straight between the eyes. That sudden change of position, or the
+consciousness of detection, probably unsettled the practiced aim, for
+the ball, that would have drilled Ralph through the heart, only scored a
+deep furrow in his side.</p>
+
+<p>No one could have guessed that he was touched; he brought his pistol to
+the level just as coolly as he would have done in the shooting-gallery,
+and, after the discharge, dropped his hand with measured deliberation.
+Before the smoke had curled a yard upward, Horace Levinge sprang into
+the air, and, with out-stretched arms, fell crashing down upon the
+grass&mdash;a bullet through his brain.</p>
+
+<p>They turned him over on his back. It was a ghastly sight; the ball had
+penetrated just below the arch of the right eyebrow, and all the lower
+features were swollen and distorted with the blow of last night, adding
+to the hideous disfigurement.</p>
+
+<p>Is that the face on which the dead man used to spend hours, tending it,
+like an ancient coquette, with washes and cosmetics, dreading the
+faintest freckle or sunburn which might mar the smoothness of the
+delicate skin? No need of the surgeon there. Cover it up quickly. The
+mother that bore him, if she should recognize him, would recoil in
+disgust and loathing.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>C'en est fini</i>," Livingstone said to De Rosny, who stood by shuddering
+in horror, not at the death, but at the treachery which had preceded it.</p>
+
+<p>None but a Frenchman could have given such an accent to the low, hissing
+reply, "<i>Je l'esp&eacute;re</i>."</p>
+
+<p>Then they looked to Mohun's wound; it was nothing serious: there were a
+dozen deeper on the warworn body and limbs. Indeed, I imagine his
+general health was materially benefited by the blood-letting. The first
+remark he made was when he was depositing his pistol in its
+case&mdash;tenderly as you would lay a child in its cradle&mdash;"Do you believe
+in presentiments <i>now</i>, Guy?"</p>
+
+<p>The sullen sun broke out just as they turned to go, and peered curiously
+through the boughs, till it found out and lighted on the angular ominous
+heap, shrouded with a cloak, that, ten minutes ago, was a strong,
+hot-blooded man.</p>
+
+<p>There the <i>garde</i> soon after discovered Horace Levinge; and, when he had
+been owned, they buried him in <i>P&egrave;re la Chaise</i>. Such events were common
+then, and the police gave themselves no trouble to trace who had slain
+the stranger. Among his tribes-men and kinsfolk in Houndsditch and the
+Minories there was great joy at first, and afterward bitter, endless
+litigation. They screamed and battled over the heritage like vultures
+over a mighty carrion, tearing it at length piecemeal. He did not keep a
+pet dog, and so no living creature regretted him, unless it were the
+thin, delicate girl, with white cheeks and hollow eyes, who came once,
+and knelt to pray by his grave for hours, her tears falling fast.</p>
+
+<p>Hard as they may find it to observe other precepts of the Great Master,
+this one, at least, most women have practiced easily and naturally for
+eighteen hundred years: "Forgive, until seventy times seven." The acts
+of some of these&mdash;how they warred with their husbands and were worsted;
+how they provoked the presiding Draco, and stultified the attesting
+policeman by obstinately ignoring their injuries, written legibly in
+red, and black, and blue; how they interceded with many sobs for the
+aggressor&mdash;are they not written in the book of the chronicles of
+Bow-street and Clerkenwell?</p>
+
+<p>This propensity leads them into scrapes, it is true, for our world, in
+its wisdom, will take advantage of such weakness. Perhaps the next will
+make them some amends.</p>
+
+<p>But the mourner strewed no flowers on the grave. It would have been too
+bitter a mockery; for, if there were sympathy in sweet roses and pure
+white lilies, on no other spot of God's earth would they have withered
+so soon: she hung up no wreath of <i>immortelles</i>; for, if such things
+could be, the dearest wish one could have formed for the dead man's soul
+would have been swift, utter annihilation.</p>
+
+<p>Yet Fanny Challoner would scarcely have accepted Mohun's good offices if
+she had guessed that the blood of her seducer and tyrant was on his
+hand. She never suspected it, and so went gratefully to the home he
+found for her; and there she lives yet, tranquil and contented, though
+always sad and humble, among people who know nothing of her history and
+love her dearly, trying her best to be useful in her generation&mdash;alone
+in her cottage, that nestles under a sunny cliff, just above the white
+spray-line of the Irish Sea.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'><div class='i8'>"Let me see her once again.</div>
+<div class='i8'>Let her bring her proud dark eyes,</div>
+<div class='i8'>And her petulant quick replies;</div>
+<div class='i8'>Let her wave her slender hand</div>
+<div class='i8'>With its gesture of command,</div>
+<div class='i8'>And throw back her raven hair</div>
+<div class='i8'>With the old imperial air;</div>
+<div class='i10'>Let her be as she was then&mdash;</div>
+<div class='i8'>The loveliest lady in all the land</div>
+<div class='i10'>Iseult of Ireland."</div></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>Mohun and Livingstone soon fell back into the groove of their old
+habits; if any thing, the former was more forbidding and morose, the
+latter more reckless than ever.</p>
+
+<p>Just at this time Mrs. Bellasys and her daughter arrived in Paris. It
+was Flora's <i>d&eacute;b&ucirc;t</i> there, and she had an immense success. The <i>jeunesse
+dor&eacute;e</i> of the Chauss&eacute;e d'Antin and the cavaliers of the Faubourg
+thronged about her, emulously enthusiastic. Her repartees and sarcasms
+were quoted like Talleyrand's. They never wearied in raving over her
+perfections, taking them in a regular catalogue&mdash;from her magnificent
+eyes and hair, that flashed back the light from its smooth bands like
+clouded steel, down to the small <i>brodequins</i> of white satin, which it
+was her fancy to wear instead of the ball-room <i>chaussure</i> of ordinary
+mortals. The intrigues to secure her for a waltz or a mazurka displayed
+diplomatic talent enough to have set half a dozen German principalities
+and powers by the ears. The succession of admirers was never broken; as
+fast as one dropped off, killed by her coldness or caprice, another
+stepped into his place. It reminded one of the old "Die-hards" at
+Waterloo, filling up their squares torn and ravaged by the pelting
+grape-shot.</p>
+
+<p>Here, as elsewhere, she pursued her favorite amusement remorselessly.
+Fallowfield called it "her cutting-out expeditions." She used to watch
+till a mother and daughter had, between them, secured a good matrimonial
+prize, and then employ her fascinations on the captured one&mdash;seldom
+without effect&mdash;so as to steal him out of their hands.</p>
+
+<p>Do you remember Waterton's story of the osprey? The hard-working bird,
+by dint of perseverance, has brought up a good fish. Just as it emerges
+from the water, there is heard a flap and a whistle of mighty pinions,
+and from his watch-tower on the cliff far above swoops down the great
+sea-eagle. The poor osprey <i>a beau crier</i>, it must drop its booty, and
+the strong marauder sails off with a slow and dignified flight, to
+discuss it in the wood at his leisure. The only fault in the parallel
+was that Flora always dropped the prey with the coolest disdain when it
+was once fairly within her clutches. How the match-makers did hate her!
+What vows for her discomfiture must have been breathed into bouquets
+held up to conceal the angry flush of disappointment or the paleness of
+despair!</p>
+
+<p>I own this practice of hers did not raise her in my opinion. I can not
+think so hardly as it is the fashion to do of the junior and working
+members, at least, of the man&oelig;uvring guild. It is not an elevating or
+very creditable profession, certainly, but it seems such a disagreeable
+one that none would take it up from choice. The chief fault, at all
+events, lies with the trainers; the jockeys (poor little things!) only
+ride to orders; and, by the way, I think they generally err in not
+knowing how to <i>wait</i>, and in making the running too strong at first.</p>
+
+<p>As I meet, year after year, one of these&mdash;to whom the seed sown in
+London ball-rooms and German watering-places had produced nothing yet
+but those tiresome garlands of the vestal&mdash;I look curiously to see how
+she wears, thinking of the courtier's answer to Louis XIV. when the
+latter asked if he was looking older: "Sire, I see some more victories
+written on your forehead." It is more defeats that one can read so
+plainly on poor Fanny Singleton's.</p>
+
+<p>How many shipwrecks close to port; how many races lost by a head, how
+many games by a point, she must have known before her silver laugh
+became so hollow, and her pleasant smile so evidently theatrical and
+lip-deep; before what once was chanceful became desperate, and she fell
+back into the ranks of the forlorn hope&mdash;of the "Lost Children!"</p>
+
+<p>On one of these occasions I met her. She was just beginning her
+<i>condotti&eacute;re</i> life then, and was very attractive even to those on whom
+she had no designs&mdash;believed in balls, and had an ingenious talent for
+original composition. I don't think those entertainments are dangerously
+exciting to her now; and Heaven forefend that she should write poetry!
+One shudders to think of what it would he. Well, she was returning to
+the house after a moonlight flirtation (if you can call it so when it
+was all on one side). She had been trying to fascinate a stupid, sullen,
+commercial Orson&mdash;a boy not clever, but cunning, who calculated on his
+share in the bank as a means of procuring him these amusements, as other
+men might reckon on their good looks or soft tongue. He had just left
+her, and I was wishing her good-night under the porch. She forgot her
+cue for a moment, and became natural. "I feel so very, very tired," she
+said. I remember how drearily she said it, and how the tears glittered
+in her weary eyes. I remember, too, how, ten minutes later, I heard that
+amiable youth boasting of what had happened, and giving a hideous
+travestie of her attempts to captivate him, till at last my wrath was
+kindled, and, to his great confusion (for he was of a timid
+disposition), I spoke, and sharply, with my tongue.</p>
+
+<p>Ah me! I mind the time when men used to waylay Fanny Singleton in the
+cloak-room, and shoot her flying as she went up the staircase, in their
+anxiety to secure her for a partner; and now she is a refuge for the
+destitute, except when some one, for old acquaintance' sake, takes a
+turn with one of the best waltzers in Europe.</p>
+
+<p>I like her for one thing&mdash;she has never tried the girlish dodge on yet.
+She has never been heard to say, "Mamma always calls me a wild thing."
+It is better that she should be bitter and sardonic, as she is
+sometimes, than that. Mars herself could hardly play the <i>ing&eacute;nues</i> when
+in mature age. Grisi's best part now is not Amina.</p>
+
+<p>The last thing I heard of Fanny was that she was about to unite herself
+(the <i>active</i> voice is the proper one) to a very Low-Church clergyman, a
+distinguished member of the Evangelical Alliance, pregnant with the odor
+of sanctity&mdash;<i>bouquet de Baptiste</i> treble distilled. I dare say they
+will get on well enough. If the holy man wants to collect "experiences,"
+his wife will be able to furnish them, that's certain. It will be very
+"sweet."</p>
+
+<p>I pity, but I condemn. In the name of Matuta and of common sense, is
+there an imperative necessity that all our maids should become matrons?</p>
+
+<p>If such exists, think, I beseech you, O virgins&mdash;pretty, but
+penniless&mdash;apt for the yoke, how many chances of subjection may turn up
+without rushing to put your necks under it. Is the aspiring race of
+H.E.I.C.S. cadets extinct? Are Erin's sons so good or so cold as not to
+be tempted by woman, even without the gold? Are there not soldiers still
+to the fore too inflammable to be trusted near an ammunition wagon? Are
+there not&mdash;the <i>bonne bouche</i> comes at last&mdash;priests and deacons? The
+instant a man takes orders, celibacy becomes intolerable to him. I
+firmly believe that half the offers made in the year throughout broad
+England emanate from those energetic ecclesiastics.</p>
+
+<p>After all, what specimens you do pick up sometimes in your haste! If you
+<i>are</i> to lead apes, is it not better to defer the evil day as long as
+possible, instead of parading the animals about by your sides here on
+this upper earth?</p>
+
+<p>My sermon is too long for the occasion&mdash;too short for the text. I close
+a discourse not much wiser, perhaps, than poor Wamba's, with his "<i>Pax
+vobiscum!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>Flora and Guy met with perfect composure on both sides. She did not
+appear to think that she had any claim upon him arising from what had
+passed, but it was evident that he was still the favorite, and that all
+others were complete "outsiders." No betting man would have backed the
+field for a shilling. She waltzed with him whenever he asked her, to the
+utter oblivion and annihilation of previous engagements, whereat the
+Frenchmen chafed inexpressibly, cursing and gnashing their teeth when,
+after the ball was over, they went forth into the outer darkness.
+Nothing but Livingstone's extraordinary reputation in the
+shooting-galleries, added to a certain ferocity of demeanor which had
+become habitual to him of late, saved him from more than one serious
+quarrel.</p>
+
+<p>He took it all as a matter of course. Flora amused him certainly; she
+sympathized with his tastes, and perhaps flattered his vanity. For
+instance, she always took an interest in his fortunes at play, watching
+and sometimes backing him at <i>ecart&eacute;</i>, and often inquiring the next
+morning how the battle had gone in her absence at the Board of Green
+Cloth.</p>
+
+<p>Once when an unfortunate adorer&mdash;in bitterness of spirit at being thrown
+over twice in one evening&mdash;hinted at some of the intrigues which had
+made Guy's name unenviably notorious (play was not the guiltiest of his
+distractions to thoughts that would come back), Miss Bellasys only
+smiled haughtily, and did not even deign to betray any curiosity on the
+subject. Those ephemeral passions were not the rivals she feared.</p>
+
+<p>Her mother all this time was very uncomfortable. Though herself
+perfectly innocent of any connivance in Flora's schemes, she was
+afflicted with a perpetual indistinct sort of remorse. Once or twice, I
+believe, she did venture on a remonstrance, but she was put down
+decisively, and did not try it again.</p>
+
+<p>One evening Guy had been lingering for some time in the Bellasys' box at
+the Opera. As he went out into the <i>foyer</i> he saw an old acquaintance
+coming toward him.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Killowen was past sixty: the world had used him roughly, and he had
+been ruined very early in life, but he bore both years and troubles
+lightly. Looking at his smooth forehead, and square, erect figure, and
+listening to his ready, cheery laugh, you would never have guessed how
+long he had led that guerrilla existence&mdash;for forty years keeping the
+bailiffs at bay. His nerve and his seat in the saddle were as firm as
+they were on the first night of his joining the &mdash;&mdash; Hussars, when he
+rode Kicking Kate over the iron pales round Hounslow Barrack-yard, and
+hit the layers of the long odds for a cool thousand.</p>
+
+<p>He had been intimate with Colonel Livingstone, and had known his son
+from childhood; but he was a still closer friend of the Brandon family,
+with whom, indeed, he was distantly connected. He had never seen Guy
+since the breaking off of the latter's engagement till this night, when
+he caught a glimpse of his lofty head bending over Flora Bellasys'
+chair.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Killowen's blood was as hot and his impulses as quick as if he had
+not yet seen his twentieth winter, and the chivalry within him was
+stirred at what he considered an insolent parade of treachery; for he
+had guessed much of what had happened, though he did not know all the
+truth; so he passed Guy's extended hand, turning his head studiously
+aside.</p>
+
+<p>The latter was startled for a moment, but he could not believe in an
+intentional "cut," and he knew his friend to be rather short-sighted; so
+with one stride he overtook him, and, touching him on the shoulder,
+said, "I must be very much changed if you do not know me, Lord
+Killowen."</p>
+
+<p>The brave old Irishman turned short upon his heel and confronted the
+speaker, bending on him all the light of his clear blue eyes: he drew
+himself up to the full height of a stature that nearly equaled
+Livingstone's, and said, coolly and slowly, "Pardon me, you are not
+changed in the least; I know you very well."</p>
+
+<p>The insult was palpable. Guy fairly staggered as if he had received a
+sword-thrust; then the angry blood rushed up to his temples, making the
+veins start out like muscles, and he spoke in a voice hoarse and
+indistinct with passion, "You will answer this."</p>
+
+<p>True, his antagonist was more than old enough to have been his father,
+but in feast, field, and fray, Lord Killowen remembered his own age so
+seldom that other men might be excused for forgetting it sometimes.</p>
+
+<p>The old man was going to answer eagerly, but he checked himself with an
+effort, as if repressing a strong temptation; when, after some seconds,
+he spoke, there was more of sadness and warning than of anger in his
+tone.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I will not fight, even in this quarrel, with your father's son;
+besides, I might be anticipating one who has a better right. Four days
+ago Cyril Brandon landed from India."</p>
+
+<p>It would have been difficult, I think, to have found another, among
+living men, both by constitution and temperament, so inaccessible to
+material terrors as Livingstone, yet when that name came upon him thus
+suddenly he felt a thrill and a start through his nerves, so
+unpleasantly like commonplace physical fear that ever, when he thought
+of it, it made his cheek burn with shame. He could not, after that,
+controvert gallant Lannes' maxim: "It is only a coward who says that he
+never was afraid."</p>
+
+<p>He stood silently, and allowed Lord Killowen to pass him, bowing
+courteously, though coldly, to him. The latter never knew what mischief
+he had done. After that momentary sensation had passed off, all the
+worst elements of Guy's stubborn, haughty nature rose in rebellion at
+what he deemed a despicable weakness. As if in defiance of the
+consequences, all that evening and on the succeeding days he devoted
+himself to Flora Bellasys with such unusual ardor that it made her
+nervous: she thought it was too good to last.</p>
+
+<p>When Mohun heard what had happened, he would not admit that there was
+the slightest chance of a meeting with Cyril Brandon, though he knew the
+character of the latter&mdash;fierce and intractable to a degree.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't flatter yourself you will wipe off the score in that way," he
+said to Guy, with his sardonic laugh. "Men will quarrel over cards and
+about <i>lorettes</i> easily enough, but who fights for a 'broken covenant'
+now? We live two hundred years too late."</p>
+
+<p>Ralph remembered how long he had lingered on the French seaboard
+waiting for a challenge from beyond the Channel which never came, though
+there was deeper provocation to justify it.</p>
+
+<p>A few mornings after this had occurred Livingstone found himself without
+a servant. His demeanor toward this estimable class had always been
+imperious and stern to a fault, but latterly they, as well as others,
+had felt the effects of his exasperated temper, and he was sometimes
+brutally overbearing in his reprimands. On this particular occasion he
+must have been unusually oppressive, for it exhausted the patience of
+the much-enduring Willis, so that the worm turned again&mdash;insolently.</p>
+
+<p>Before he had said ten words his master interrupted him, his eye turning
+toward a heavy horsewhip that lay near with an expression that made
+Willis retreat toward the door.</p>
+
+<p>"So you have robbed me of enough to make you independent? Very well;
+make your book up; the <i>ma&icirc;tre d'h&ocirc;tel</i> will settle with you. You will
+carry away some of my property, of course? I shall not trouble myself to
+have your trunks searched, but if you take any thing that I happen to
+want afterward, I'll have you arrested, wherever you are. Now go."</p>
+
+<p>The man left the room sulkily: an hour later he returned. "I am going
+this instant, Mr. Livingstone; but I could tell you something first that
+you ought to know, if you would promise not to be violent. I am very
+sorry now I did it." There was a curious expression&mdash;half spiteful, half
+frightened&mdash;on his cunning face as he spoke.</p>
+
+<p>Guy looked at him carelessly. "Thank you; I am in no humor to listen to
+your confessions. You may be quite easy; I give you credit for all
+imaginable rascality. Remember what I said: if I miss any thing, the
+police will be after you the same day. Now, once more, go. If I see your
+face about here again, it will be the worse for you."</p>
+
+<p>There was a good deal of meaning in Willis's smile, though, his lips
+were white with fear. "You will never miss what I was going to tell you
+about, sir," he said; and then faded away out of the room with his usual
+noiseless step, closing the door softly behind him.</p>
+
+<p>If his master could have guessed what was the secret he had refused to
+hear, haughty as he was, I do believe there is no earthly degradation to
+which he would not have abased himself to gain its knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>But the hour for the humbling of the strong, self-reliant nature had not
+come yet, though it was very near. The wild bull never saw the net till
+its meshes had trapped him fast.</p>
+
+<p>The same morning Guy, who was lounging an hour away at the Bellasys',
+mentioned to them what had occurred. If he had glanced at Flora's face
+just then, he would have been puzzled to guess what there was in the
+intelligence to turn her so deadly pale. It was only for an instant that
+the accomplished actress forgot her part, and when he looked at her next
+there was not a trace of emotion in her face.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you filled up his place?" she asked, carelessly.</p>
+
+<p>"I have ordered my landlord to provide me," replied Guy. "I shall find
+some well-trained scoundrel on my return, I hope. I shall never get
+another like Willis, though. It's just my luck. The great principle of
+the gazelle runs through life: When they come to know you well, &amp;c. What
+made you ask? Surely you have no <i>prot&eacute;g&eacute;</i> to recommend?"</p>
+
+<p>Flora laughed gayly as she answered in the negative, and so the subject
+dropped; but all the afternoon she was pensive and absent, and flashes
+of vexation gleamed every now and then fitfully in her stormy eyes.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'><div class='i12'>"Let none think to fly the danger,</div>
+<div class='i8'>For, soon or late, Love is his own avenger."</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<p>Christmas-tide had come round again, and hall, manor-house, and castle
+were filling fast. But the pheasants had a jubilee at Kerton, to the
+great discouragement of Mallett, who "could not mind such another
+breeding season." Foxes were strong and plentiful with the Belvoir and
+the Pytchley; and, during two months of open weather, many a
+straight-goer had died gallantly in the midst of the wide
+pasture-grounds, testifying with his last breath to the generalship of
+Goodall and Payne. But the best shot and the hardest rider in
+Northamptonshire lingered on still in Paris, wasting his patrimony in
+most riotous living, and trying his iron constitution presumptuously.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Catharine sat alone in the gray old house, paler and more care-worn
+than ever. I think she would have preferred the noisiest revel that ever
+broke her slumbers in the old times to the dead silence that brooded
+like a mist in the deserted rooms.</p>
+
+<p>Guy had always been a bad correspondent, and now he hardly ever wrote to
+her; but rumors of his wild life reached his mother often, though dimly
+and vaguely. It was best so; what would that poor lady have felt if she
+could have guessed at the scene in which her son was the principal
+figure as the Christmas morning was breaking?</p>
+
+<p>It is the close of a furious orgie; the Babel of cries, of fragments of
+songs, of insane, meaningless laughter, is dying away, through the pure
+exhaustion of the revelers; on the gay carpet and the rich damask are
+pools of spilled liquors, heaps of shivered glass, and bouquets and
+garlands that have ceased to be fragrant hours ago. All around, in
+different attitudes&mdash;ignoble and helpless&mdash;are strewn the bodies of
+those who have gone down early in the battle of the Bacchanals: they lie
+in their ranks as they fell. One figure towers above the
+rest&mdash;pre-eminent as Satan in the conclave of the ruined angels&mdash;the
+guiltiest, because the most conscious of his own utter degradation. The
+frequent draughts that have prostrated his companions have only brought
+out two round scarlet spots in the pale bronze of his cheeks; his voice
+retains still its deep, calm, almost solemn tone. Listen to it as he
+raises to his lips an immense glass brimming-full of Burgundy: "One
+toast more, and with funeral honors&mdash;'To the memory of those who have
+fallen gloriously on the 24th of December.'"</p>
+
+<p>Is it true that, six months ago, the soft, pure cheek of Constance
+Brandon rested often on the broad breast that pillows now the disheveled
+head of that wild-eyed, shrill-voiced M&aelig;nad? Draw the curtains closer
+yet; shut out the dawn of the Nativity for very shame.</p>
+
+<p>Mohun was breakfasting with Livingstone on a cold, gusty January
+morning, that succeeded a night of heavy drinking and heavier play. The
+colonel would see him through one of these readily enough, but if there
+was even a single female face present he would retreat in disgust and
+contempt unutterable. Guy had been hit so hard that it made him graver
+than usual as he thought of it, though he was tolerably inured and
+indifferent to evil fortune; so the conversation languished during the
+meal. After it was over, Mohun rose to light a cigar, while his
+companion took up a pile of letters and began to glance at them
+listlessly. Suddenly the former dropped the match from his hand,
+starting in irrepressible astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>He had seen strong men die hard, mangled and shattered by sabre or
+bullet, but he had never heard a sound so terribly significant of agony
+as the dull, heavy groan that just then burst from Livingstone's lips.</p>
+
+<p>In those few seconds his face had grown perfectly livid; his eyes were
+riveted upon a small note that he held in his shaking fingers; they
+glittered strangely, but there was no meaning or expression in their
+fixed stare.</p>
+
+<p>"In the name of God, what has happened?" Ralph asked.</p>
+
+<p>Guy's lips worked and moved, but no sound came from them, except an
+irregular catching of the breath and a gasping rattle in the throat.</p>
+
+<p>Mohun took the note from his hand without his seeming to be aware of it,
+and read it through. These were the words:</p>
+
+<p>"I have tried very hard to persuade myself that you never received the
+letter I wrote to you two months ago. I think you would have answered
+it, for you would know how much I must have suffered before my pride
+broke down so utterly. Yet I could not have risked being scorned a
+second time if I had not learned yesterday that my life must now be
+reckoned by weeks, if not by days. I do not know if I shall be allowed
+to see you if you come. But you will come; will you not? Dear, dear Guy,
+I can not die as I ought to do, contentedly, unless I speak to you once
+again. In spite of all, I will sign my last letter</p>
+
+<p class='center'>"Your own&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+<span class="smcap">Constance Brandon.</span>"</p>
+
+<p>It was dated Ventnor.</p>
+
+<p>Hard and cynical as he was, Mohun was thoroughly shocked and grieved;
+but the urgency of the crisis brought back the prompt decision of
+thought and purpose that were habitual to the trained soldier. He sprang
+to his feet, alert and ready for action, as he would have done in the
+old times, from his bivouac, to meet a night-surprise of the wild
+Hungarians.</p>
+
+<p>"Get every thing ready," he said to the servant, who entered at that
+moment; "your master is going to England immediately. The train starts
+for Havre at two o'clock. You will catch the night-boat for
+Southampton."</p>
+
+<p>When the man had left the room he turned to Guy: "Rouse yourself, man!
+There is all a lifetime for remorse, but only a few hours for the little
+amends you can make. You will be at Ventnor to-morrow; and mind&mdash;you
+<i>must</i> see her, whatever difficulties may be thrown in your way. You
+won't lose your temper if you meet her brother? Ah! I see you are not
+listening."</p>
+
+<p>Then Livingstone spoke for the first time, in a hoarse, grating
+whisper, articulating the words one by one with difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>"I never dreamed of this. I did not mean to kill her."</p>
+
+<p>Mohun knew his friend too well to attempt consolation or sympathy, even
+if these had not been foreign to his own nature; so he answered
+deliberately and coldly,</p>
+
+<p>"Of having brought bitter sorrow on Constance Brandon I do hold you
+guilty; of having caused her death, not, and so you will find when you
+know all. But her note of two months ago&mdash;of course you never saw it?
+You must have overlooked it; you are so careless with your papers."</p>
+
+<p>"It never reached me," Livingstone replied. "I have always looked at the
+outside of my letters, and I should have known that handwriting among
+ten thousand. Some one must have intercepted it. I wish I knew who." He
+was recovering from the first stunning effects of the shock, and the old
+angry light came back into his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I will find out when you are gone," said Mohun. "You have not a moment
+to spare. I won't ask you to write; I will join you in England in three
+days. Only remember one thing&mdash;keep cool. Yes, I know what you mean; but
+your patience may be tried more than you have any idea of." He was
+thinking of Cyril Brandon.</p>
+
+<p>The hurry of departure prevented any further conversation. At the
+station, just before the train started, Ralph said, grasping his
+comrade's hand as he spoke, "I did not think you loved her so dearly."</p>
+
+<p>It was very long before he forgot the dreary look which accompanied the
+answer, "I did not know it myself till now."</p>
+
+<p>"I must trace the note," the colonel muttered, as he strode away from
+the station. "That handsome tiger-cat has laid her claw on it, I am
+certain. But she won't confess; red-hot pincers would not drag a secret
+from her, if she meant to keep it. I doubt if she will even betray
+herself by a blush. Poor Constance! What chance had she against such a
+Machiavel in petticoats? I am bad at diplomacy, too. If I only had the
+slightest proof, or if she had any weak point&mdash;unless she loses her head
+when she hears where Guy is gone, I have no chance of finding out much
+in that quarter. There's Willis, to be sure&mdash;she bribed him, no doubt.
+D&mdash;n them both!" In this complimentary and charitable mood, he went
+straight to Flora Bellasys.</p>
+
+<p>He found her alone. She was sitting in her riding-dress, and the broad
+Spanish hat, with its curling plumes, lay close beside her, with the
+gauntlets and whip across it.</p>
+
+<p>She did not much like Mohun, for she had an idea that his sarcasms, with
+her for their object, had made Guy smile more than once approvingly. She
+knew, too, that all her fascinations recoiled harmlessly from that
+rugged block of ironstone. Whatever he might have been in early years,
+he was harder of heart than stout Sir Artegall now. Radigund, unhelming
+her lovely face, would never have tempted him to forego his advantage
+and throw his weapons down.</p>
+
+<p>However, she greeted him with perfect composure and satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you join our party this afternoon, Colonel Mohun? I expect them to
+call for me every moment. We are going to the Croix de Berny, to see the
+ground for the race next week. Mr. Livingstone was to have lunched here;
+but I never reckon on his keeping an engagement."</p>
+
+<p>There was something in Ralph's manner which made her uncomfortable. She
+took up her whip, and began twisting its slender stock rather nervously;
+you would not have thought there was so much strength in the delicate
+fingers.</p>
+
+<p>"You are right," he replied, coolly, "not to count too much on Guy's
+punctuality. He <i>is</i> very uncertain in his movements. I fear he can not
+accompany you this afternoon. He would have charged me with his excuses,
+I am sure, if he had not been so hurried."</p>
+
+<p>Flora looked up quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"It must have been something very sudden, then. Have you any idea where
+he is now?"</p>
+
+<p>Ralph consulted his watch. "About Mantes, I should imagine. He started
+for Havre by the last train. He will be at Southampton, to-morrow, and
+the same day he can reach&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He stopped, gazing at his companion with a cold, cruel satisfaction. The
+blood was sinking in her cheeks, not with a sudden impulse, but
+gradually&mdash;as the sunset rose-tints fade from the brow of the Jungfrau,
+leaving a ghastly opaque whiteness behind them. During the silence that
+ensued, a sharp tinkle might be heard as the jeweled head of the
+riding-whip, snapped by a convulsive movement, fell at Flora's feet.</p>
+
+<p>It <i>was</i> weak in her to betray such loss of self-command, but,
+remember, the blow came unexpectedly. She saw the edifice she had
+plotted, and toiled, and risked so much to build, ruined and shattered
+to its foundation-stone. How many whispers, and smiles, and eloquent
+glances had been lavished, only to end in this Pavia, where not even
+honor was saved from the utter wreck!</p>
+
+<p>Was not the perfect waxen mask of the first Napoleon shivered in that
+terrible abdication-night at Fontainebleau? Where was Cleopatra's
+queenly dignity when she heard that Antony had rejoined Octavia?</p>
+
+<p>"Why has he gone? What called him back?"</p>
+
+<p>Her voice had lost the clear ring of silver, and sounded dull and flat,
+like base metal.</p>
+
+<p>"Constance Brandon wrote to tell him she was dying. Do you wonder that
+he went to her?"</p>
+
+<p>A passing cloud of horror swept across Flora's pale face; but after it
+broke forth a gleam of strange, ferocious exultation, which stifled the
+rising pity in her hearer's breast, and changed it into contempt.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't believe it," she cried, passionately. "It is a trick. She was
+quite well two months ago. At least, she said nothing&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She checked herself, but too late. The practiced duelist laughed grimly
+in his mustache, as he might have done on discovering the weak point in
+his enemy's ward which laid him open to his rapier.</p>
+
+<p>"You make my task easier," he said; "I came to inquire about a note
+which miscarried about the time you speak of. I <i>will</i> know what became
+of it, Miss Bellasys, though I wish to spare you unnecessary exposure
+and shame."</p>
+
+<p>He had gained a momentary advantage, but it did not profit him much.
+There are swordsmen who will not own that they are touched, though their
+life-blood is ebbing fast. Flora rose without a sign of yielding or
+weakness in her dry eyes, drawing up her magnificent figure proudly.
+Ralph could not help thinking how like her father she was just then.</p>
+
+<p>"I will answer, though I deny your right to question me. I have not the
+faintest idea of what you refer to. I have seen no note, except such as
+were addressed to myself; and you will hardly think that Miss Brandon
+would choose me as a <i>confidante</i> or correspondent."</p>
+
+<p>Mohun saw that she would persist to the last, undaunted as Sapphira. So
+he rose to leave her, without another word.</p>
+
+<p>"You do not doubt me?" Flora asked, as he turned away after saluting
+her. It was a rash question, all things considered, and scarcely worthy
+of the accomplished speaker. There is no more useful maxim in diplomacy
+than this: <i>Quieta non movere</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Ralph faced her directly. "Miss Bellasys, when a lady tells me what I
+can not believe, I question&mdash;not her word, but&mdash;her agent." He was half
+way down stairs before she could answer or detain him.</p>
+
+<p>He found out Willis's direction at Guy's hotel, but he had to wait some
+time before obtaining it; and other things delayed him <i>en route</i>, so
+that it was nearly two hours before he reached the modest lodgings, <i>au
+quatri&egrave;me</i>, where the discharged valet was hiding his greatness.</p>
+
+<p>Willis had an extensive connection; this, and his well-known talents,
+made him tolerably sure of a situation whenever he chose to seek one. He
+had luxurious tastes, and thoroughly appreciated self-indulgence; so he
+determined to devote some time and a portion of his perquisites to
+relaxation before going into harness again.</p>
+
+<p>On this particular evening he had in prospect a little dinner at
+Philippe's&mdash;not uncheered by the smiles of venal beauty&mdash;and had just
+completed a careful toilette. He was above the small peculations of his
+order; indeed, had he been inclined to plunder his late masters
+wardrobe, the absurd disproportion in their size would have saved him
+from that vulgar temptation. He was somewhat choice in his tailors, and
+his clothes fitted him and suited him well. He was reviewing the general
+effect in the glass with a complacent and rather <i>&eacute;grillarde</i> expression
+in his little eyes, when between him and his <i>partie fine</i> rose the
+apparition of the colonel, like that of the commander before a bolder
+profligate. He knew that the interview must come, and did not wish to
+avoid it, but just at this moment it was singularly ill timed. What a
+contrast between the stern, fixed gaze that seemed to nail him to the
+spot where he stood and the well-tutored glances of fair, frail H&eacute;loise!
+He felt as if he had been put into the ice-pail by mistake for the
+Champagne. However, he met his ill luck placidly, and, handing his
+visitor a chair, begged to know "what he could do to serve him."</p>
+
+<p>"You can tell me what became of a letter from Miss Brandon, which ought
+to have reached yow master two months ago, and miscarried."</p>
+
+<p>Willis was forewarned and armed for the question; but, even with this
+advantage given in, his blank, unconscious look and start of
+astonishment did him infinite credit.</p>
+
+<p>"A letter, sir?" he said, vaguely, as if consulting his recollections.
+"From Miss Brandon? I have never seen or heard of such a thing. If I
+had, of course I should have given it to Mr. Livingstone. What else
+could I have done with it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will give a thousand francs for it," Mohun went on, without noticing
+the denial, "or for a written acknowledgment of how you disposed of it,
+and at whose orders." He laid the bank-note on the table.</p>
+
+<p>The flats changed; the look of bewilderment gave place to one of injured
+innocence&mdash;an appeal against manifest injustice. It was really
+artistically done.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry, sir, that you should think I want a bribe to serve you or
+Mr. Livingstone. It is quite out of my power now. I don't know what you
+refer to."</p>
+
+<p>"I have no time to bargain," Ralph growled, and his eyes began to
+glisten ominously. "Name your price, and have done with it."</p>
+
+<p>Finale and Grand Tableau&mdash;virtuous indignation&mdash;the faithful servant
+asserting his dignity as a man. There was a hitch here somewhere; the
+scene-shifter was hardly up to his work, so that it was rather a
+failure.</p>
+
+<p>"I have told you twice, sir, that I do not know any thing about it. I
+beg you will not insult me with more questions. You have no right to do
+so; I am neither in your service nor Mr. Livingstone's now."</p>
+
+<p>Mohun bent his bushy brows in some perplexity. After all, he had not a
+shadow of proof, though he felt a moral certainty. His sheet-anchor was
+the avarice of the scoundrel he was dealing with, and this seemed to
+fail. Evidently a strong counter-influence had been at work.</p>
+
+<p>"Curse her!" he muttered between his clenched teeth, "she has been here
+before me."</p>
+
+<p>Then he looked up suddenly, and what he saw caused the shallow cup of
+his patience at once to overflow.</p>
+
+<p>In Willis's eyes was an ill-repressed twinkle of exultation and
+amusement, and on his thin lips the dawning of an actual sneer. It was
+but seldom the trained satellite allowed himself the luxury of betraying
+any natural feeling. In truth, he chose his time badly for its
+exhibition now. Before he could collect himself so as to utter a cry, he
+lay upon his back on the carpet, a heavy foot on his chest; and the
+colonel was gazing down on him with a fell murderous expression, that
+made the victim's blood run cold.</p>
+
+<p>"By G&mdash;d!" Mohun said, in the smothered tones of concentrated passion,
+"if you trifle with me ten seconds longer&mdash;if you open your lips except
+to answer my question, I'll crush your breast-bone in."</p>
+
+<p>Willis knew the desperate character of the man who held him in his
+power; it was no vain threat he had just heard; the pressure on his
+chest was agonizing already.</p>
+
+<p>"For God's sake don't murder me!" he gasped out; "I&mdash;I gave it to Miss
+Bellasys."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you did," Mohun said, coolly; "I knew it all along. Now get
+up, and write that down."</p>
+
+<p>He spurned away the fallen man as he spoke till he rolled over and over
+on the floor.</p>
+
+<p>There is nothing which disconcerts a nature long used to obey like a
+sudden brutal <i>coup de main</i>. Remember the Scythians and their slaves.
+The rebels met their masters boldly enough on a fair field with sword
+and spear, but they cowered before the crack of the horsewhips.</p>
+
+<p>All the spider-webs of the unfortunate Willis's diplomacy were utterly
+swept away; his powers of thought and volition were concentrated now on
+one point&mdash;to get rid of his visitor as soon as possible.</p>
+
+<p>He rose slowly and painfully (for the mere physical shock had been
+heavy), and, placing himself at a table, tried to write the few words of
+acknowledgment that Mohun dictated; but his hand trembled so excessively
+that he could hardly form the letters. As he looked up in piteous
+deprecation, evidently fearing lest his inability to comply should be
+construed into unwillingness or rebellion, he presented a spectacle of
+degraded humanity so revolting in its abasement that even the cynic
+turned away in painful disgust.</p>
+
+<p>It was done at last. As Willis saw his confession consigned to Mohun's
+pocket-book, his avarice gave him courage to try one last effort to gain
+something by the transaction&mdash;a salve to his bruises&mdash;a set-off against
+the <i>relicta non bene parmula</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you will consider I have done all I can, sir," he said, looking
+wistfully at the bank-note, which still lay on the table. "I shall be
+ruined if this becomes known."</p>
+
+<p>The cast-steel smile which was peculiar to him hardened the colonel's
+face.</p>
+
+<p>"You must come down on Miss Bellasys for compensation. She pays well, I
+have no doubt. You never get another <i>sou</i> from our side, if it were to
+keep you from starving. My second thought was the best, after all; it
+saved time and&mdash;money. (He put the note back into his purse.) I'll give
+you one caution, though. Keep out of Mr. Livingstone's way. If he meets
+you, after hearing all this, he'll break your neck, I believe in my
+conscience." So he left him.</p>
+
+<p>For the second time that evening Willis looked in the glass&mdash;the
+reflection was not so satisfactory. Was that unseemly crumpled ruin the
+white tie, sublime in its scientific wrinkles, on which its author had
+gazed with a pardonable paternal pride? No wonder that he stamped in
+wrath, not the less bitter because impotent, while he shook off the dust
+from his garments as a testimony against Ralph Mohun.</p>
+
+<p>He repaired the damages, though, to the best of his power, and then went
+off to keep his appointment; but the <i>p&acirc;t&eacute;s &agrave; la bechamelle</i> were as
+ashes, and the <i>gel&eacute;e au marisquin</i> as gall to his parched, disordered
+palate. He made himself so intensely disagreeable that poor H&eacute;loise
+thenceforth swore an enmity against his compatriots, which endured to
+the end of her brief misspent existence. "<i>Gredin d'Anglais, va!</i>" she
+was wont to say, grinding her little white teeth melodramatically,
+whenever she recalled that dreary entertainment, and the failure of her
+simple stratagems to enliven her saturnine host.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'><div class='i8'>"Then let the funeral bells be tolled, a requiem be sung,</div>
+<div class='i8'>An anthem for the queenliest dead that ever died so young;</div>
+<div class='i8'>A dirge for her&mdash;the doubly dead, in that she died so young."</div></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>For the first few minutes after the train had moved off Guy was unable
+to collect his thoughts. As the tall figure of Mohun passed from his
+view, it seemed as if a sustaining prop had been suddenly cut away from
+under him, and he felt more than ever helpless. The stubborn strength of
+his character asserted itself before long, and he faced his great sorrow
+as he would have done an enemy in bodily shape; but neither then, nor
+for many days after, could he pursue any one train of reflection long
+unbroken.</p>
+
+<p>First he began to think how Constance would look when he saw her. Would
+she be much changed? How beautiful she was the night they parted, with
+the blue myosotis gleaming through her bright hair! Would her eyes be as
+cold as he remembered them then (he had not seen their <i>last</i> look), or
+would they forgive him at once, and tell him so? Not if she knew all.
+And then, in hideous contrast to her pure stately beauty, there rose
+before him faces and figures which had shared his orgies during the past
+months, gay with paint and jewels, and meretricious ornament. There was
+a deeper horror in those mocking shapes than in the most loathsome
+phantasms of corporeal corruption that feverish dreams ever called up
+from the grave-yard. If his lips were unworthy, months ago, to touch
+Constance's cheek or hand, what were they now? He ground his teeth in
+the bitterness of self-condemnation. It would be easier to bear, if she
+met him coldly and proudly, than if she yielded at once, as her letter
+seemed to promise. Her letter! What became of the first one? If that had
+reached him, how much had been saved! Perhaps Constance's
+life&mdash;certainly much of his own dishonor. The idea did cross him that
+Flora might have been concerned in intercepting it, but it seemed
+improbable, and he drove it away. With all his revived devotion to
+Constance, he did not like to think hardly of her rival; in a lesser
+degree he had wronged her too.</p>
+
+<p>You will rarely find the sternest or wisest of men disposed to be harsh
+toward errors that spring from a devotion to themselves. It is only
+just, as well as natural, that it should be so. If the second cause of
+the crime did not find an excuse for the defendant, I don't know where
+he or she would look for an advocate. St. Kevin need not have troubled
+himself: there were plenty of people ready to push poor Kathleen down. I
+think it is a pity they canonized him.</p>
+
+<p>Through all Guy's reflections there ran this under-current&mdash;"how easily
+all might have been avoided if the slightest things had turned out
+differently." Just so, after a heavy loss at play, a man <i>will</i> keep
+thinking how he might have won a large stake if he had played one card
+otherwise, or backed the In instead of the Out. I have heard good judges
+say that this pertinacious after-thought is the hardest part to bear of
+all the annoyance. Of course he worries himself about it, just as if
+"great results from small beginnings" were not the tritest of all
+truisms. I don't wish to be historical, or I would reflect how often the
+Continent has been convulsed by a dish that disagreed with some one, or
+by a ship that did not start to its time. The Jacobites were very wise
+in toasting "the little gentleman in black velvet" that raised the fatal
+mole-hill. Does not the old romance say that an adder starting from a
+bush brought on the terrible battle in which all the chivalry of England
+were strewn like leaves around Arthur on Barren Down?</p>
+
+<p>Guy could still hardly realize to himself the certainty of Constance's
+approaching death. He tried to fix his thoughts on this till a heavy,
+listless torpor, like drowsiness, began to steal over him. He roused
+himself impatiently, and began to think how slow they were going.
+Nevertheless, the green <i>coteaux</i> that swell between Rouen and the sea
+were flying past rapidly, and they arrived at Havre, as Mohun had said,
+just in time to catch the Southampton packet.</p>
+
+<p>There was threatening of foul weather to windward. The clouds, in masses
+of indigo just edged with copper, were banking up fast, and the "white
+horses," more and more frequent, were beginning to toss their manes
+against the dark sky-line.</p>
+
+<p>To the few travelers whom the stern necessities of business drove forth,
+lingering and shivering, from their comfortable inns on to the deck,
+already wet and unsteady, Livingstone was an object of great interest
+and many theories. His impatience to be gone was so marked that the
+conscientious official looked more than once suspiciously at his
+passport.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Phineas Hackett, of Boston, U.S., Marchand (so self-described in
+the Livre des Voyageurs at Chamounix), made up his mind that he saw
+before him the hero of some gigantic forgery, or a fraudulent bankrupt
+on a large scale; but, just as he had fixed on the astute question which
+was to drive the first wedge into the mystery, Guy turned in his quick
+walk and met him full. I doubt if he even saw the smooth-shaven, eager
+face at his elbow; but he was thinking again of the lost letter, and the
+savage glare in his eyes made the heart of the "earnest inquirer" quiver
+under his black satin waistcoat. "D&mdash;&mdash;d hard knot, that," he muttered,
+disconsolately, and retreated with great loss, to writhe during the rest
+of the passage in an orgasm of unsatisfied curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>The weather looked worse every moment as the wild north wind came
+roaring from seaward with a challenge to the vessels that lay tossing
+within the jetty to come forth and meet him. The waste-pipe of the
+<i>Sea-gull</i> screamed out shrilly in answer; and the brave old ship,
+shaking the foam from her bows after every plunge, as her namesake might
+do from its breast-feathers, steamed out right in the teeth of the gale.</p>
+
+<p>A regular "Channel night"&mdash;a night which Mr. Augustus Winder, Paris
+traveler to H&mdash;&mdash; and Co., the mighty mercers of Regent Street, spoke of
+in after days with a shudder of reminiscence mingling with the pride of
+one who has endured and survived great peril; who has gone down to the
+sea in ships, and seen the wonders of the deep. His associates&mdash;the
+<i>&eacute;lite</i> of the silk-and-ribbon department&mdash;youths of polished manners
+and fascinating address, than whom <i>non alii leviore saltu</i> took the
+counter in their stride&mdash;would gather round the narrator in respectful
+admiration, just as the young sea-dogs of Nantucket might listen to a
+veteran hunter of the sperm whale as he tells of a hurricane that caught
+him in the strait between the Land of Fire and terrible Cape Horn.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Winder represented himself as having assisted all on board, from the
+captain down to the cabin-boy, with his counsel and encouragement, and
+as having been materially useful to the man at the wheel. The fact was,
+that he cried a good deal during the night, and was incessant in his
+appeals to the steward and Heaven for help. In his appeals to the latter
+power he employed often a strangely modified form of the Apostles'
+Creed; for his religious education had been neglected, and this was his
+solitary and simple idea of an orison. However, no one was present to
+detract from his triumph or to controvert his concluding words:</p>
+
+<p>"An awful night, gents; but duty's duty, and the firm behaved handsome.
+Mr. Sassnett, I'll trouble you for a light, sir." And so he ignited a
+fuller-flavored Cuba, and drank, in a sweeter grog, "Our noble
+selves"&mdash;<i>olim h&aelig;c meminisse juvabit</i>.</p>
+
+<p>There was one striking contrast on board to the gallant Winder.
+Livingstone did not go below, but walked the deck all night long,
+straining his eyes eagerly forward through the thick darkness and the
+driving rain.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Weatherby regarded him approvingly, as, halting in his walk, Guy
+stood near him, upright and steady as a mainmast of Memel pine. "That's
+the sort I like to carry," the old sailor remarked confidentially to
+his second in command as they shared an amicable grog under the shelter
+of the companion.</p>
+
+<p>The wind abated toward morning; and, as the dawn broke, they were under
+the lee of the Wight, and moving steadily into the quiet Solent.</p>
+
+<p>Guy made his way straight to Ventnor. Twenty-four hours after her
+summons reached him, Constance knew that her lover had never received
+her first letter, and that now he was within five hundred yards of her,
+waiting to be called into her presence.</p>
+
+<p>It was long before her answer came. It only contained a few hurried
+words, saying that it was impossible for her to see him that day, and
+begging him not to be angry, but to wait. The hand-writing was far more
+faltering and uncertain than that which had struck him so painfully with
+its weakness the day before. It spoke plainly of the effort which it had
+cost the invalid to trace even those brief lines. He did not try to
+delude himself any more, but all that day remained alone, face to face
+with his despair.</p>
+
+<p>He went out after nightfall, and stole up cautiously to the house where
+Constance was staying.</p>
+
+<p>It is not only ghosts that <i>walk</i>. Men, as powerless to retrieve the
+past as if they were already disembodied spirits, <i>will</i> haunt the
+scenes and sepulchres of their lost happiness even before they die.
+Though the world was all before them where to choose, I doubt not that
+the exiles from Paradise lingered long just without the sweep of the
+flaming sword.</p>
+
+<p>Two rooms in the house were lighted, one with the faint glimmer peculiar
+to the shaded lamp of a sick-room. Guy's pulse bounded wildly at first,
+and then grew dull and still. In that room he knew Constance lay dying.
+The other window was brightly lighted, but half shaded by a curtain.
+While he gazed, this was torn suddenly aside, as if by an angry,
+impatient hand, and a man leaned out, throwing back the hair from his
+forehead, to catch the cold wind which was blowing sharply. Guy had
+never seen the dark, passionate face before, but he know whose it was
+very well, though there was little family likeness to guide him. Cyril
+Brandon's features were small and finely cut, like his sister's; but
+there the resemblance ended. His complexion, naturally sallow, had been
+burnt three shades deeper by the Indian sun. His fierce black eyes, and
+thin lips, that seemed always ready to curl or quiver, made the contrast
+with Constance very striking.</p>
+
+<p>Livingstone drew back into the farthest shadow of the garden trees. He
+knew how much reason Cyril had for hating him above all living men, and
+he did not wish to risk a meeting. Mohun's warning shot across his mind,
+and he felt it was rightly founded.</p>
+
+<p>Brandon looked out for some minutes without moving, then he dropped his
+head suddenly on his arms with a heavy groan. The bright light was
+behind him, and Guy could see his clasped fingers twisting and tearing
+at each other, as if he wished to distract mental agony by the sense of
+bodily pain. The gazer saw that another besides himself had given up all
+hope; and, with a heavier heart than over, he stole away home&mdash;not to
+sleep, but to think, and wait for the morning.</p>
+
+<p>About noon next day the expected message came:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Guy</span>,&mdash;I have got leave to see you at last, but it
+was very difficult to gain. It is only on these conditions: you are
+not to stay with me a moment beyond three hours, and you must leave
+Ventnor immediately afterward, and not return. I have promised all
+for you. It seems very hard; but we must not think of that now.
+Come directly. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;C.B."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Ten minutes later there was only a closed door between Livingstone, and
+the interview he longed for and dreaded so much. His steel nerves stood
+him in good stead then; it was not at the crisis that these were likely
+to fail. When Constance heard his step, it was measured and firmly
+planted as she always remembered it. So it would have been if he had
+been walking to meet the fire of a platoon. Her aunt, Mrs. Vavasour, was
+with her, but left the room, as Guy opened the door, and so they met
+again as they had parted&mdash;alone.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'><div class='i8'>"I charge thee, by the living's prayer,</div>
+<div class='i10'>By the dead's silentness,</div>
+<div class='i8'>To wring from out thy soul a cry</div>
+<div class='i10'>That God may hear and bless;</div>
+<div class='i8'>Lest heaven's own palm fade in my hand,</div>
+<div class='i8'>And, pale among the saints I stand</div>
+<div class='i10'>A saint companionless."</div></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>Constance was lying on a couch near the fire propped up by many pillows.
+She felt weaker than usual: what she had gone through in the morning had
+exhausted her. Guy never knew, till long after, that the effort she had
+made to secure the meeting with him had, in all human probability,
+shortened her life by weeks. She thought it cheaply purchased at that
+price&mdash;and she was right. Even the excitement of the moment had hardly
+brought a tinge of color into the pure waxen cheeks, but the beautiful
+clear eyes were more brilliant than ever. A ribbon of the blue which was
+Guy's favorite was twisted in her bright glossy hair.</p>
+
+<p>He saw nothing of this at first; he did not see her raise herself with a
+faint joyful cry as he advanced with his eyes cast down; he never knew
+how it was that he found himself kneeling by Constance, with her arms
+clinging fondly round his neck, and her voice murmuring in his ear, "I
+said you would come&mdash;I knew you would come."</p>
+
+<p>Though her soft cheek lay so very near his lips, they never touched it.
+He drew back, shuddering all over, and said, hoarsely,</p>
+
+<p>"I can not; I dare not; I am not worthy."</p>
+
+<p>I do not know if she guessed what he meant, but she tried to lift his
+head, which was bent down on the cushion beside her, so that he might
+look into her true eyes as she answered,</p>
+
+<p>"You must not think that&mdash;you must not say so. I know you have been
+angry and almost mad for many months, but you are not so now, and you
+never will be any more. It was my fault&mdash;yes, mine. If I had not been so
+cold and proud, you would never have left me. You thought I did not love
+you; but I did; my own, my darling, I did&mdash;so dearly!"</p>
+
+<p>All Guy's stout manhood was shivered within him, utterly and suddenly,
+as 4000 years ago the rock was cloven in Horeb, the Mount of God. Now,
+too, from the rift in the granite the waters flowed; the first tears
+that he had shed since he was a very little child&mdash;the last that any
+mortal saw there&mdash;streamed hot and blinding from his eyes down on the
+thin, transparent hand that he held fast.</p>
+
+<p>Would those with whom he was a by-word for hard sternness of character
+have known him then? They would have been almost as much surprised to
+see Constance Brandon&mdash;thought so haughty and cold&mdash;overcoming her
+terror at his passionate burst of grief, to soothe him with every
+tenderest gesture and with words that were each a caress, till the
+convulsion passed away, and calm self-government returned.</p>
+
+<p>Guy did not speak till he could quite control himself; then he said
+firmly, but with a sob in his voice still,</p>
+
+<p>"Yet I have killed you!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no," Constance answered, quickly; "indeed it is not so. A cold
+which attacked my chest caused this illness; but they say my lungs were
+affected long ago, and that I could hardly have lived many months. You
+must think of that, dear; and perhaps it is much better that it should
+be so. Life is very hard and difficult, I think, and I should never have
+been strong enough to bear my part in it well."</p>
+
+<p>Guy shook his head sadly, as if only half convinced, though he knew she
+would not have said an untrue word even to save him from suffering.</p>
+
+<p>"If you could only stay with me&mdash;if I could only keep you!" he cried
+out, and threw his arms round her, as if their strong clasp would hold
+her back one step on the road along which the messengers of God had been
+beckoning her for many days past.</p>
+
+<p>"Hush!" Constance whispered; "you must be patient. Yet I like to think
+that you will not forget me soon. Now listen&mdash;" and she held up her
+finger with something of the "old imperial air." "I have something to
+ask of you. Will you not like to do it for my sake, even if it is hard?"</p>
+
+<p>He did not answer; but she understood the pressure of his hand, and went
+on.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been fearing so much that something terrible will happen between
+you and Cyril. He is so passionate and willful, he will not listen to
+me, though he loves me dearly, and though I have tried every entreaty I
+could think of. (She grew paler than ever, and shuddered visibly.) And
+you are not patient, Guy, dear; but you would be this time, would you
+not? Only think how it would grieve me if&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The deep hollow cough that she had tried hard to keep back <i>would</i>
+break in here.</p>
+
+<p>"You can not doubt me," Guy replied, caressing her fondly: "I promise
+that nothing he can say or do shall tempt me to defend myself by word or
+deed. How could I, even if you had not asked this? Has he not bitter
+cause? Ask me something harder, my own!"</p>
+
+<p>Constance hesitated; then she spoke rapidly, as if afraid to pause when
+she had once made up her mind. The lovely color came and flickered for a
+moment on her cheek, and then went out again as suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>"I know it is easier for me to submit than for you, yet it is very hard
+to be obliged to leave you, Guy; it is harder still to leave you to
+Flora Bellasys. I hope my jealousy&mdash;I <i>am</i> jealous&mdash;does not make me
+unjust; but I don't think she will make you better, or even happier in
+the end. Now do forgive me; perhaps I ought not&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Guy interrupted her here: he had not stopped her till she began to
+excuse herself.</p>
+
+<p>"I must see her once again (the knitting of his black brows omened ill
+for the peace of that interview); afterward, on my honor and faith, I
+will never speak to her one word, or willingly look upon her face."</p>
+
+<p>O true heart! that had suffered so long, and hitherto unavailingly, till
+your life-blood was drained in the struggle, be content, for the victory
+is won at last. Never did loyalty and right triumph more absolutely
+since those who stood fast by their King in the <i>dies ir&aelig;</i> of the great
+battle saw the rebel angels cast headlong down.</p>
+
+<p>If, in the intense joy that thrilled through every fibre of Constance's
+frame, there mingled an element of gratified pride, who shall blame her?
+Not I, for fear of being less indulgent than I believe was her Eternal
+Judge when, not many days later, she stood before him.</p>
+
+<p>She needed no further protest or explanation; she never thought that,
+because her lover had once been entangled, there was danger of his
+falling into the net again; she never doubted for an instant&mdash;and she
+was right. The gaze of the spirit is far-seeing and rarely fallible when
+so near its translation as was hers.</p>
+
+<p>As she leaned her head against his shoulder, murmuring, "You have made
+me so very, very happy!" there were pleasant tears in the beautiful eyes
+that had known so many bitter ones, and had not lost their brightness
+yet.</p>
+
+<p>There was silence for some minutes; then Constance spoke again, looking
+wistfully, and more sadly than she had yet done, on her companion:</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know, Guy, I have been thinking that yours will not be a very
+long life? You are so strong that it seems foolish in me, but I can not
+help it."</p>
+
+<p>The faintest glimmer of satisfaction, like the ghost of a smile, came
+upon Livingstone's miserable, haggard face: there had been nothing like
+it there for many hours; there was nothing like it again for many days.</p>
+
+<p>"You may be right," he said, very calmly. "I trust in God you are."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," Constance went on; "but I was thinking more than that. I was
+hoping that perhaps, for my sake, if not for your own, you would try to
+grow better every day. Only think what it would be if, throughout all
+ages, we were never to meet after to-day." She drew him closer to her,
+and her voice almost failed her. "I don't believe you ever could be what
+is called a very religious character. I am so weak&mdash;strong-minded as you
+thought me&mdash;that I fear I have found an attraction in this fault of
+yours; but you could keep from great sins, I am sure. Try and be gentler
+to others first, and with every act of unselfish kindness you will have
+gained something. Any good clergyman will tell you the rest better than
+I. Remember how happy you will make me. I believe I shall see and know
+it all. It may be hard for you, dear, but it may not be for long."</p>
+
+<p>The same strange, wistful look came into her eyes again, as if shadows
+of the dim future were passing before them.</p>
+
+<p>Poor child! Pure as she was in principle and firm in truth, she would
+have made but a weak controversial theologian; but her simple words went
+straight to her hearer's heart, with a stronger power of conversion than
+could have been found in the discourses of all the surpliced Chrysostoms
+that ever anathematized a sinner or anatomized a creed.</p>
+
+<p>Yet Guy did not answer so soon this time. When he did, he spoke firmly
+and resolutely: "Indeed, indeed, I will try."</p>
+
+<p>Constance nestled down on his broad chest, wearily, but with a
+long-drawn breath of intense relief.</p>
+
+<p>"I have said all my say," she whispered; "I have not tired you? Now I
+will rest, and you shall pet me and talk to me as you used to do."</p>
+
+<p>What broken sentences&mdash;what pauses of silence yet more eloquent&mdash;what
+lavish, tender caresses passed between those two, over whom the shadow
+of desolation was closing fast, I have never guessed, nor, if I could,
+would I write them in these pages. I hold that there are partings
+bitterer to bear than a father's from his child, and sorrows worthier of
+the veil than those of Agamemnon.</p>
+
+<p>Though Guy repressed now all outward signs of painful emotion, he
+suffered, I believe, far the most of the two. It is always so with those
+whom death is about to divide. The agony is unequally distributed,
+falling heaviest on the one that remains behind. If the separation were
+for years, and both were healthy and hopeful, very often the positions
+would be reversed; but&mdash;whether it be that bodily weakness blunts the
+sharp sense of anticipated sorrow, or that, to eyes bent forward on the
+glories and terrors of the unknown world, earthly relations lessen by
+comparison&mdash;you will find that with most, however impetuous it may have
+been in mid-channel, the river of life flows calmly and evenly just
+before its junction with the great ocean stream. Besides, the dying girl
+had suffered so much of late that the present change left no room for
+other feelings than those of unalloyed happiness, and the words of love
+murmured into her ear brought with them a deeper delight than when she
+heard them for the first time from the same lips.</p>
+
+<p>Both were so engaged with their own thoughts and with each other that
+they never noted how the narrow space of time allotted to them was
+vanishing, rapidly as the last dry islet of sand when the spring-tide is
+flowing. They never heard the footsteps, more impatient at every turn,
+sounding from the room beneath, where Cyril Brandon paced to and fro.
+Constance had cut off one of her long sunny braids, and was twining it,
+in and out, in fetter-locks round Guy's fingers as she lay nestling in
+the clasp of his other arm: it was only their eyes that were speaking
+then. They started as the door opened suddenly, and Mrs. Vavasour came
+in, her face white, and her eyes wild with terror. She was too
+frightened to be gentle or considerate.</p>
+
+<p>"You must go this instant!" she cried out, catching Livingstone's arm.
+"Constance, make him go; he has staid too long already. You know you
+promised."</p>
+
+<p>"I did promise," Constance answered, calmly, almost proudly "and he will
+keep it."</p>
+
+<p>Then she turned to Guy, who was kneeling by her, and hid her face in his
+neck, locking her arms round him. Her aunt caught the words&mdash;"Not
+forget!" Beyond these her farewell was a secret known only to her lover
+and the angels.</p>
+
+<p>But the parting, which had come so suddenly, drained the last weak
+remnant of strength already taxed too hardly. Guy felt the lips that
+were murmuring in his car grow still at first, and then cold; the tender
+arms unknit themselves, and his imploring eyes could draw no answer from
+hers that were closed.</p>
+
+<p>"She has only fainted," Mrs. Vavasour said, answering his look: "I will
+recover her. But pray, pray go!"</p>
+
+<p>He laid the light burden that scarcely weighed upon his arm down on the
+pillows, very softly and gently, smoothing them mechanically with his
+hand. Then he stooped and pressed one kiss more on the pale lips; they
+never felt it, though the passion of that lengthened caress might almost
+have waked the dead. And so those two parted, to meet again&mdash;upon earth
+never any more.</p>
+
+<p>The next time woman's lips touched Guy Livingstone's they were his
+mother's, and he had been a corpse an hour.</p>
+
+<p>He went, without looking back; his step was slow and unsteady, very
+different from the firm, even tread of three hours ago. The power of
+volition and self-direction was very nearly gone. Through a half open
+door on the lower story he caught a glimpse of a haggard face lighted up
+by wolfish eyes, and heard a savage, growling voice. He felt that both
+eyes and voice cursed him as he passed; and afterward, recalling these
+things vaguely, as one does the incidents of a hideous dream, he knew
+that, for the second time, he had seen Cyril Brandon. Guy could hardly
+tell how he reached London that night, for the brain fever was coming on
+that the next morning held him in its clutches fast.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX.</h2>
+
+<p class='center'>"Quanto minus est cum reliquis versari, quam tui meminisse."</p>
+
+
+<p>The tidings of her son's illness reached Lady Catharine quickly at
+Kerton Manor. I did not hear of it till a day later, and when I arrived
+I found her nearly exhausted by sleeplessness and anxiety, though she
+had not been Guy's nurse for more than thirty-six hours.</p>
+
+<p>The sick-bed of delirium taxes the energies of the watcher very
+differently from any other. There is a sort of fascination in the roll
+of the restless head, tossing from side to side, as if trying to escape
+from the pressure of a heavy hot hand; in the glare of the eager eyes,
+that follow you every where, with a question in them that they never
+wait to have answered; in the incoherent words, just trembling on the
+verge of a revelation, but always leaving the tale half told, that
+creates a perpetual strain on the attention, enough to wear out a strong
+man.</p>
+
+<p>There have been men, they say, who, sensible of the approach of
+delirium, chose the one person who should attend them, and ordered their
+doors to be closed against all others, preferring to die almost alone to
+the risk of what their ravings might betray; but I have heard, also,
+that there are secrets&mdash;secrets shared, too, by many confederates&mdash;to
+which neither fever or intoxication ever gave a clew. The hot blood grew
+chill for an instant, and the babbling tongue was tied when the dreamer
+came near the frontier ground, where the oath reared itself distinct and
+threatening as ever, while all else was fantastic and vague.</p>
+
+<p>There was something of this in Guy's case. We could hear distinctly many
+of his broken sentences, relating sometimes to the hunting-field,
+sometimes to the orgies of wine or play. There were names, too,
+occurring now and then, which to his mother were meaningless, but to me
+had an evil significance. Once or twice&mdash;not oftener&mdash;he was talking to
+Flora Bellasys. But when the name of Constance Brandon came, the harsh
+loud voice sank into a whisper so low that if you had laid your ear to
+his lips you would not have caught one syllable. Very, very often I had
+occasion to remark this, and to wonder how the heart could guard its
+treasure so rigidly when the brain was driving on, aimless as a ship
+before the hurricane with her rudder gone.</p>
+
+<p>On the fifth day after Guy's illness began, an angel might have
+interceded for him in the stead of a pure true-hearted woman, for
+Constance was dead.</p>
+
+<p>I saw Lady Catharine tremble, and bend her head down low when she heard
+the news, as if herself crushed by the blow which would fall so heavily
+on her son. She had known but very little of Constance; that little had
+made her love her dearly&mdash;who could help doing that? Yet it was not
+Constance she was regretting then. I could see the same thought was in
+her mind as in mine&mdash;who will tell Guy this if he recovers? I did all I
+could to spare her; but the anxiety she felt when out of the sick-room
+tried her almost more than the bodily fatigue. It was best to let her
+have her way. I never guessed, till then, the extent of a weak woman's
+endurance.</p>
+
+<p>It was a close struggle, indeed, between life and death. The fire of the
+fever died out when there was little left for it to feed on. The arm
+which, a month ago, was fatal as old Front-de-B&oelig;uf's, had not
+strength enough in its loosened sinews to lift itself three inches from
+the coverlet.</p>
+
+<p>Guy had fallen at last into a heavy sleep. The doctors said it was the
+turning-point. If he woke quite calm and sane, the immense power of his
+constitution would probably enable him to rally; if not, the worst that
+could be feared was certain.</p>
+
+<p>He woke after many hours. There was such a stillness in the room as he
+unclosed his eyes that you might have heard his mother's heart beat as
+she sat motionless by his bedside. They recognized her at once&mdash;heavy
+and dim as they were&mdash;for he tried to turn his head to kiss her hand
+that lay on the pillow beside him. Then we knew that he was saved; and I
+saw, for the first time, tears stream down Lady Catharine's worn cheeks.
+She could check the evidence of her grief better than that of her joy.</p>
+
+<p>He saw me, too, as I came forward out of the shadow. "Is that you,
+Frank?" he said, faintly. "How very good of you to come." We would not
+let him speak any more.</p>
+
+<p>On the third day after the change for the better, I was alone with the
+invalid. He turned to me suddenly, and spoke in a low voice, but so
+steady that it surprised me. "Frank, what have you heard of Constance?"</p>
+
+<p>Had I been arming myself to meet that question&mdash;disciplining my voice
+and countenance for days, only to fail so miserably at last? I felt
+unspeakably angry and self-reproachful when I saw that my face had told
+him all.</p>
+
+<p>"When did she die?" He went on in the same measured tone, without taking
+his eyes off me. I think he had nerved himself just enough for the
+effort, and was afraid of breaking down if he paused.</p>
+
+<p>I could speak now, and told him. I was going on to tell him, too, how
+calmly and happily her life had ended (her aunt had written all this to
+Lady Catharine), when Guy stopped me&mdash;not coldly, but with a hopeless
+sadness in his accent very painful to hear. "Thank you; it is meant
+kindly, but I would rather not speak of this, even to you&mdash;at least for
+some time."</p>
+
+<p>His self-command carried him through bravely, but it only just lasted
+out. Then he turned his head aside and threw his arm across it. As I
+drew back to the window, I saw the quivering of the long, emaciated
+fingers that veiled his face. I did not look again till Guy's voice
+called to me, quite composedly, for I did not dare to pry into or meddle
+with the secrets of the strong heart that knew its own bitterness so
+well.</p>
+
+<p>I told Lady Catharine what had passed. She was very much relieved to
+hear that it was all over. She never opened her lips on the subject to
+her son; indeed, though those two understood each other thoroughly,
+there were wonderfully few confidences between them.</p>
+
+<p>Guy's convalescence was slow&mdash;far slower than we had hoped for. It
+seemed as if some spring was broken in his being not easily to be
+replaced. He was moody and listless always, speaking very seldom; but
+his words and manner, when he did talk, were gentler and more kindly
+than I ever remembered them.</p>
+
+<p>One of his first visitors was Colonel Mohun. He had been incessant in
+his inquiries, and had offered to share our watching, but Lady Catharine
+would not hear of it. She had a sort of dread at the idea of that grim
+face lowering over the sick man's bed.</p>
+
+<p>No one was present at their first interview. Ralph was more moved than
+he cared to show at his old friend's altered looks and ways; but he gave
+him the account of his search after the lost letter conscientiously,
+without sparing a single detail. "It must have gone hard with Guy," he
+remarked to me, thoughtfully, as he came away. "He's very far from right
+yet. When I told him what Willis had done, I made sure he would be very
+angry. He only said, 'Poor wretch! He acted under orders, and did not
+know what mischief he was doing.' He wants rousing; but I am sure I
+don't know what is to do it."</p>
+
+<p>Forgiveness and forgetfulness of injuries seemed to that hard old
+heathen the most dangerous sign of bodily and mental debility.</p>
+
+<p>He came almost daily after that, and I think his rough ways, and sharp,
+sarcastic remarks acted on Livingstone as a sort of tonic&mdash;bitter, but
+strengthening.</p>
+
+<p>A few days later Mrs. Vavasour called. She, too, saw Guy alone. She
+surely had a message to deliver, or she would not have ventured on an
+interview which must have been so painful to both. It did not last long;
+but when she came down, her thick black veil was drawn closely over her
+face, and that evening Guy was denied to Ralph Mohun.</p>
+
+<p>One afternoon Livingstone was quite by himself. The colonel had gone
+into Warwickshire for a few days' hunting; Lady Catharine had paid her
+usual visit and had gone back to her hotel, and I was out for an hour or
+two. We did not mind leaving him a good deal alone; indeed, he preferred
+it very often, and said so.</p>
+
+<p>His servant came in, looking rather puzzled, to say that a lady wished
+to see him. She would not give her name, but said that she would not
+detain him many minutes.</p>
+
+<p>Guy had not time to refuse admittance to the visitor, she followed so
+close upon her message. Though she was closely-wrapped in her mantle,
+and her veil fell in triple folds, there was no mistaking the turn of
+the haughty head, the smooth, elastic step, and the lithe undulations of
+a figure matchless between the four seas. No wonder that he drew his
+breath hard as he recognized Flora Bellasys.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>CHAPTER XXX.</h2>
+
+<p class='center'>Treu und fest.</p>
+
+
+<p>As the door closed, Flora advanced quickly. "Confess you are surprised
+to see me," she said, holding out her little gloved hand. The courtesy
+toward the sex, which was hereditary with the Livingstones, contrasting
+strangely with their fierce, ungovernable tempers, made him not reject
+it; but his lay passive and nerveless in her slender fingers, never
+answering their eager pressure; it had no longer the elastic quiver of
+repressed strength that she remembered and liked so well.</p>
+
+<p>"I am surprised to see you here, and so soon," he answered, coldly; "but
+I knew we should meet before long."</p>
+
+<p>"The surprise does not seem too charming," Miss Bellasys said, pouting
+her scarlet lip as she threw herself into a deep <i>berg&egrave;re</i> opposite to
+the couch on which Livingstone had already sunk down again&mdash;he was very
+weak and unsteady in his movements still.</p>
+
+<p>Was it by chance or calculation that a fold of her dress disarranged
+displayed the slender foot, with its arched instep&mdash;set off by the
+delicate <i>brodequin</i>, a labor of love to the Parisian Crispin&mdash;and the
+straight, beautifully-turned ankle, cased in dead-white silk? The
+latter, I think; for Flora knew how to fall as well as C&aelig;sar or
+Polyxena, and had studied her part to its minutest shade. It was by the
+senses that she had always been most successful in attacking Guy, and
+she knew that, in old days, no point of feminine perfection had a
+greater attraction for him.</p>
+
+<p>The temptation, if so it was intended, had about as much effect upon him
+now as it might have had on weather-beaten St. Simeon Stylites when his
+penances had lasted twenty years.</p>
+
+<p>After a minute's silence, during which Flora was gazing intently on her
+companion, leaning her chin upon her hand, she spoke again.</p>
+
+<p>"I fear you must have been very ill. How&mdash;how changed you are!"</p>
+
+<p>Livingstone was, indeed, fearfully altered. The healthy brown of his
+complexion had given place to a dull, opaque pallor; there were great
+hollows under the prominent cheek-bones, and his loose dressing-robe of
+black velvet hung straight down from the gaunt angles of the immense
+joints and bones. His voice sounded deeper than ever as he replied,</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I have been very ill, and I am utterly changed. But you must have
+had something more important to say to me, or you would hardly have
+ventured on this step."</p>
+
+<p>She was getting very nervous&mdash;inexplicably so for her, who generally
+kept her head, while she made others lose theirs,</p>
+
+<p>"No. I only wished&mdash;" she hesitated, trying to force a smile, and then
+broke off suddenly&mdash;"Guy, do speak kindly to me. Don't look at me so
+strangely."</p>
+
+<p>His answer came, brief and stern.</p>
+
+<p>"I will speak, then. Miss Bellasys, on what authority from me did you
+venture to interfere in my concerns so far as to intercept my
+correspondence?"</p>
+
+<p>She tried denial still; it was her way; she always <i>would</i> do it, even
+when it could avail nothing&mdash;perhaps to gain time.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know what you mean. I never&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Livingstone interrupted her, with a curl of contempt on his lip.</p>
+
+<p>"Stop, I beg of you. It is useless to stoop lower than you have done
+already. I have Willis's written confession here. Ah! I know your
+talents too well to accuse you without material proof."</p>
+
+<p>She raised her head, haughtily enough now. There was something Spartan
+about that girl. She had such an utter recklessness of exposure&mdash;it was
+in failure that she felt the shame.</p>
+
+<p>"At least <i>you</i> ought not to reproach me. You might guess my motive&mdash;my
+only one&mdash;without forcing me to confess it. Have I not gratified your
+pride enough already?"</p>
+
+<p>"You know that is not the question," Guy answered, gravely. "Yet you are
+half right. I could not reproach you for any fair, honest move. In much,
+I own myself more guilty than you. But this is very different. Miss
+Bellasys, you must have distrusted greatly your own powers of
+fascination before you stooped to such cruel treachery."</p>
+
+<p>"I did not know what I was doing," she whispered; "I did not know she
+was dying. Ah! Guy, have pity!"</p>
+
+<p>"But you knew it might kill her to find her letter&mdash;such a
+letter&mdash;unanswered. You knew what she must have suffered before she
+wrote it. You did all this in cold blood, and now you say to me, 'Have
+pity!' If an accountable being&mdash;not a woman and her miserable
+instrument&mdash;had wronged me so, I would have risked my soul to have
+revenge; and, because that is impossible, you think that I feel less
+bitterly? You might have known me better by this time."</p>
+
+<p>Instead of being softened by her appeal, his heart, features, and tone
+were hardening more and more.</p>
+
+<p>The sting of defeat, imminent and unavoidable, that, ere this, has
+driven strong and wise men headlong into the thickest of the battle to
+hunt for death there, proved too much for a temper never well regulated.</p>
+
+<p>"You have decided, then?" she cried, passionately, her eyes flashing and
+her lip quivering. "After all I have risked and borne for you, I am to
+be sacrificed to a shadow&mdash;a memory&mdash;the memory of that cold, pale
+statue of propriety?" She checked herself suddenly, only just in time.</p>
+
+<p>Guy had sprung to his feet, excitement bringing back for the moment all
+his lost strength. If Ralph Mohun had seen him, he would not have feared
+that the wrathful devil was cast out. It was raging within him then,
+untamed and dangerous as ever.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you dare to insult her now that she is dead&mdash;and to me, not a month
+after I have lost her? It is not safe: take care, take care!"</p>
+
+<p>The tempest of his passion made him forget, for the first time in his
+life, the weakness of her who had roused it.</p>
+
+<p>Flora was only a woman after all, though haughty and bold of spirit as
+any that had breathed. Her own outbreak of anger vanished before that
+terrible burst of wrath, just as the camp-fire, when the prairie is
+blazing, is swallowed up in the great roaring torrent of flame. She
+bowed her head on her hands, trembling all over in pure physical fear.
+Guy felt ashamed when he saw the effect of his violence, and spoke more
+gently than he had done yet.</p>
+
+<p>"Forgive me. I was very wrong; but I have not learned to control
+myself&mdash;I never shall, I fear; but you ought not to say such words, even
+if I could bear them better. Now it is time that we should part; you
+have staid here too long already. You must not risk your reputation for
+me, who can not even be grateful for the venture. We shall never meet
+again, if we can avoid it; it would be strange to do so as mere
+acquaintance, and in any other way&mdash;no, don't stop me&mdash;it is impossible.
+It will be long before I go much into society again, so I shall not
+cross your path."</p>
+
+<p>Flora knew it was hopeless then. She was quite broken down, and did not
+raise her head from her hand, through the fingers of which, half shading
+her face, the tears trickled fast. Guy heard her murmur, very low and
+plaintively, "I have loved you so long&mdash;so dearly!"</p>
+
+<p>Mistress as she was of every art that can deceive, I believe she only
+spoke the simple truth then. With all the energy of her strong and
+sensual nature, I believe she did worship Livingstone. To most men she
+would have been far more dangerous thus, in the abandonment of her
+sorrow, than ever she had been in the insolence of her splendid beauty.</p>
+
+<p>There are some women, very few (Johnson's fair friend, Sophy
+Streatfield, was one), whom weeping does not disfigure. Their eyelids do
+not get red or swollen; only the iris softens for a moment; and the
+drops do not streak or blot the polished cheeks, but glitter there,
+singly, like dew on marble; their sobs are well regulated, and follow in
+a certain rhythm; and the heaving bosom sinks and swells, not too
+stormily. It is a rare accomplishment. Miss Bellasys had not practiced
+it often, being essentially Democritian&mdash;not to say Rabelaisian&mdash;in her
+philosophy; but she did it very well. Like every other emotion, it
+became her.</p>
+
+<p>Guy hardly glanced at her, and never answered a word.</p>
+
+<p>She rose to go; then turned all at once to try one effort more. "Yes, we
+must part," she said. "I know it now. But give me a kind word to take
+with me. I shall be so lonely, now that you are my enemy. Will you not
+say you wish me well? Ah! Guy, remember all the hours that I have tried
+to make pleasant for you. Say 'Good-by, Flora,' only those two little
+words, gently." Her voice was broken and uncertain, but full of music
+still, like the wind wandering through an organ.</p>
+
+<p>Just at that moment I opened the door. (I had not an idea Livingstone
+was not alone.) I closed it before either had remarked my entrance, but
+not before I had caught sight of a very striking picture.</p>
+
+<p>Guy was leaning one arm against the mantel-piece; the other was crossed
+over his chest: on that arm Flora was clinging, with both her hands
+clenched in the passion of her appeal. Her slight bonnet had fallen
+rather back, showing the masses of her glorious hair, and all her
+flushed cheeks, and her eyes that shone with a strange lustre, though
+there were tears still on their long, trailing lashes. I saw the
+impersonation of material life, exuberant and vigorous, yet delicately
+lovely&mdash;the Lust of the Eye incarnate.</p>
+
+<p>He stood perfectly still, making no effort to cast her off. Had he done
+so with violence, it would scarcely have evinced more repulsion than did
+the expression of his face. There was no more of yielding or softening
+in the set features and severe eyes than you would find in those of a
+corpse three hours old, whose spirit has passed in some great anger or
+pain. Can you guess what made him more than ever hard and unrelenting?
+He was thinking <i>who</i> tried to win a kind farewell from him six months
+ago, and utterly failed. Should her rival have this triumph, too, over
+the dead?</p>
+
+<p>As he answered deliberately, each slow word shut out another hope, like
+bolts shot, one by one, in the lock of a prison door.</p>
+
+<p>"I remember nothing of the past except your last act, for which I will
+never, never forgive you. I form no wish for your welfare or for the
+reverse. There shall not stand the faintest shadow of a connecting link
+that I can break asunder. Between you and me there is the gulf of a
+fresh-made grave, and no thought of mine shall ever cross it&mdash;so help me
+God in Heaven!"</p>
+
+<p>Flora's last arrow was shivered: if she had had another in her quiver,
+she would have had no courage to try it after hearing those terrible
+words. She caught his hand, however, before he could guess her
+intention, and pressed her lips upon it till they left their print
+behind, and then she was gone. Her light foot hardly sounded as it
+sprang down the stairs, but its faint echo was the last living sound
+connected with Flora Bellasys that ever reached the ear of Guy
+Livingstone.</p>
+
+<p>When I heard more of the interview, I thought, and think still, that he
+erred on the side of harshness. He was so fixed and steady in his
+purpose that he could have afforded to have compromised a little in
+expressing it. But he did things in his own way, and fought with his own
+weapons&mdash;effective, but hardly to be wielded by most men, like the axe
+of the King-maker or the bow of Odysseus. In carrying out his will, he
+was apt to consider the softer feelings of others as little as he did
+his own. It was just so with him when riding to hounds: he went as
+straight as a line, and if he did not spare his horses, he certainly did
+not himself.</p>
+
+<p>To each man alive, one particular precept of the Christian code is
+harder to realize and practice than all the rest put together. It was
+this, perhaps, which drove the anchorites on from one degree of penance
+to another, and made them so savage in self-tormenting. When the
+macerated flesh had almost lost sensation, the thorn that had galled it
+sometimes in their hot youth rankled incessantly, more venomous than
+ever. That one injunction&mdash;"Forgive, as you would hope to be
+forgiven"&mdash;was ever a stumbling-block to Guy.</p>
+
+<p>Besides all this, he knew, better than any one, what sort of an
+adversary he was contending against; one with whom each step in
+negotiation or temporizing was a step toward discomfiture. It was like
+the Spaniard with his <i>navaja</i> against the sabre: your only chance is
+keeping him steadily at the sword's-point, without breaking ground; if
+he once gets under your guard, not all the saints in the calendar can
+save you.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps, then, he was right, after all. Certainly Ralph Mohun thought
+so, as he listened to a sketch of the proceedings with a grim
+satisfaction edifying to witness.</p>
+
+<p>As for me, before I went to bed that night, I read through those
+chapters in the "Mort d'Arthur" that tell how the long, guilty loves of
+Launcelot and Guenever ended. In the present case, there was certainly
+wonderfully little penitence on the lady's side, but yet there were
+points of resemblance which struck me. [I always think the queen must
+have been the image of Flora.] It is worth while wading through many
+chapters of exaggeration and obscurity to come out into the noble light
+of the epilogue at last.</p>
+
+<p>Good King Arthur is gone. It bit deep, that blow which Mordred, the
+strong traitor, struck when the spear stood out a fathom behind his
+back; and Morgan la Fay came too late to heal the grievous wound that
+had taken cold. The frank, kind, generous heart, that would not mistrust
+till certainty left no space for suspicion, can never be wrung or
+betrayed again. The bitter parting between the lovers is over too; and
+Launcelot is gone to his own place, without the farewell caress he
+prayed for when he besought the queen "to kiss him once and never more."
+After a very few short months, the beautiful wild bird has beaten
+herself to death against her cage, and the vision comes by night,
+bidding Launcelot arise and fetch the corpse of Guenever home. She
+wandered often and far in life, but where should her home be <i>now</i> but
+by the side of her husband? Hardly and painfully in two days, he and
+the faithful seven accomplish the thirty miles that lay between; so
+utterly is that unearthly strength, before which lance-shafts were as
+reeds, and iron bars as silken threads (remember the May night in
+Meliagraunce's castle), enfeebled and broken down. He stands in the
+nunnery-church at Almesbury; he hears from the queen's maidens of the
+prayer that was ever on her lips through those two days when she lay a
+dying, how "she besought God that she might never have power to see Sir
+Launcelot with her worldly eyes." Then, says the chronicler, "he saw her
+visage; yet he wept not greatly, but sighed. And so he did all the
+observance of the service himself, both the dirge at night and the mass
+on the morrow." Not till every rite was performed, not till the earth
+had closed over the marble coffin, did Launcelot swoon.</p>
+
+<p>I know nothing in fiction so piteous as the words that tell of his
+dreary, mortal sorrow. "Then, Sir Launcelot never after ate but little
+meat, nor drank, but continually mourned until he was dead; and then he
+sickened more and more, and dried and dwined away; for the bishop nor
+none of his fellows might make him to eat, and little he drank; so that
+he waxed shorter by a cubit than he was, and the people could not know
+him; for evermore day and night he prayed; but needfully as nature
+required, sometimes he slumbered a broken sleep; and always he was lying
+groveling on King Arthur's and Queen Guenever's tomb. And there was no
+comfort that his fellows could make him; it availed nothing."</p>
+
+<p>We know it can not last long; we know that the morning is fast
+approaching, when they will find him "stark dead, and lying as he had
+smiled;" when they will bear him forth, according to his vow, to his
+resting-place in Joyous Guard; when there will be pronounced over him
+that famous funeral oration&mdash;the truest, the simplest, the noblest, I
+think, that ever was spoken over the body of a sinful man.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXI" id="CHAPTER_XXXI"></a>CHAPTER XXXI.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'><div class='i8'>"I pray God pardon me,</div>
+<div class='i8'>That I no more, without a pang,</div>
+<div class='i9'>His choicest works can see."</div></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>It was long before Livingstone's health recovered the check to its
+improvement given by that interview. However, as the spring advanced he
+began to regain strength rapidly, and toward the end of May he and I
+started in the <i>Petrel</i>, which he had just bought, for a cruise in the
+Mediterranean.</p>
+
+<p>It would seem hard that any one, coasting for the first time along the
+shores of Italy, and penetrating ever and anon far into the interior,
+should not feel and display some interest in the succession of pictures,
+of living Nature and dead Art, that meet you at every step. I can not
+say that I ever detected the faintest symptom of such in my companion.
+He strayed with me through the old Forum, and through Adrian's Villa,
+and lingered by the Alban Lake; but it was more to keep me in
+countenance than any thing else. I liked them better this second time of
+seeing them than I did the first; I doubt if they left an impression on
+his mind equal to the dimmest photograph that ever was the pride of an
+amateur and the puzzle of his friends. The brilliant landscapes made up
+of bold headlands, hanging woods, and sunny bays fared no better. Guy
+did not come on deck for two hours after we cast anchor off Mola di
+Gaeta.</p>
+
+<p>Our <i>ciceroni</i> were much pained and scandalized at an indifference
+which exceeded all they had yet encountered in the matter-of-fact
+<i>Signori Inglesi</i>. I saw one of them look quite relieved when, after
+quitting us, he had to listen to an excitable young Jewess endeavoring
+to express her raptures in the most execrable Italian. The physical
+effort it cost her was awful to witness, especially as she was wintering
+in Italy for her lungs. O, long-suffering stones of the Coliseum! which
+returned the most barbarous echo&mdash;the growls from the cells when their
+tenants scented the Christian; the jargon of the Goth and the Hun; or
+the <i>lingua Anglo-Romana in bocca Bloomsburiana</i>? The two first-named
+classes, at all events, confined themselves to their own dialect, and
+spoke it, doubtless, with perfect propriety. However, in the present
+instance, the <i>custode</i> took the sentimental ebullition of the Maid of
+Judah for an <i>amende honorable</i>, and rubbed his key complacently.</p>
+
+<p>I do not believe that our travels brought to Guy a single distraction to
+the great sorrow that all the while held him fast.</p>
+
+<p>A German philosopher under similar circumstances would have written
+reams and spoken volumes (eating and drinking all the while
+Pantagruelically), theorizing and abstracting his emotions till they
+vanished into cloud and vapor. A true disciple of Rousseau or Lamartine
+would have analyzed his grief, dividing it into as many channels as
+Alexander did the Oxus, till the main stream was lost, and each
+individual rivulet might be crossed dry-shod. Both would have shed tears
+perpetual and profuse. I read the other day of a Frenchman who, in the
+midst of a mixed assembly, remembering that on that day ten years he had
+lost a dear friend, instantly went out and wept bitterly. He was so
+charmed with the happiness of the thought that, as he says, "I took the
+resolution henceforth to weep for all whom I have loved, each on the
+anniversary of their death."</p>
+
+<p>Can you conceive any thing more touching than the picture of the
+Bereaved One consulting his almanac and then "going at it with a will?"
+It <i>was</i> an athletic performance certainly; but remember what condition
+he must have been in from the constant training.</p>
+
+<p>From the episode of Niobe down to the best song in the "Princess," how
+many beautiful lines have been devoted to those outward and visible
+signs of sorrow?</p>
+
+<p>Sadder elegiacs, more pathetic threnodies might have been written on the
+tears that were stifled at their source, either from pride or from
+physical inability to let them flow. Great regrets, like great schemes,
+are generally matured in the shade. If I had to choose the tombs where
+most hopes and affections are buried, I should turn, I think, not to
+those with the long inscriptions of questionable poetry or blameless
+Latinity, but to where just the initials and a cross are cut on the
+single stone.</p>
+
+<p>The philosophical and poetical mourners hardly suffered much more than
+Guy did during those months, and for long after too, though he was
+always quite silent on the subject, and would speak cheerfully on others
+now and then, and though, from the day that he parted with Constance to
+that of his own death, his eyes were as dry as the skies over the Delta.
+He used to lie for hours in that state of utter listlessness which
+gives a reality to the sad old Eastern proverb, "Man is better sitting
+than standing, lying down than sitting, dead than lying down."</p>
+
+<p>With all this, however, his health improved every day. After the wild
+life he had led lately, the perfect rest and the clear pure air
+refreshed him marvelously. It had the effect of coming out of a room
+heated and laden with smoke into the cool summer morning. His strength,
+too, had returned almost completely. I found this out at Bai&aelig;.</p>
+
+<p>The guardian of the <i>Cento Camerelle</i>, a big <i>lazzarone</i>, became
+inordinately abusive. My impression is that he had received about
+fifteen times his due; but, seeing our yacht in the offing, he conceived
+the idea that we were princes in our own country, and ought to be robbed
+in his proportionally. Guy's eyes began to gleam at last, and he made a
+step toward the offender. I thought he was going to be heavily visited;
+but Livingstone only lifted him by the throat and held him suspended
+against the wall, as you may see the children in those parts pin the
+lizards in a forked stick. Then he let him drop, unhurt, but green with
+terror. A year ago, a straightforward blow from the shoulder would have
+settled the business in a shorter time, and worked a strange alteration
+in good Giuseppe's handsome sunburnt face. But the old hardness of heart
+was wearing away. I had another proof of this some days later.</p>
+
+<p>We were dropping down out of the Bay of Naples. Though we weighed anchor
+in early morning, it was past noon before we cleared the Bocca di Capri,
+for there was hardly wind enough to give the <i>Petrel</i> steerage-way. The
+smoke from our long Turkish pipes mounted almost straight upward, and
+lingered over our heads in thin blue curls; yet the sullen, discontented
+heave and roll in the water were growing heavier every hour. The black
+tufa cliffs crested with shattered masonry&mdash;the foundations of the sty
+where the Boar of Capre&aelig; wallowed&mdash;were just on our starboard quarter,
+when Riddell, the master, came up to Livingstone. "I think we'd better
+make all snug, sir," he said. "There's dirty weather to windward, and we
+haven't too much sea-room." He was an old man-of-war's boatswain, and
+had had a tussle, in his time, on every sea and ocean in the known
+world, with every wind that blows. He had rather a contempt for the
+Mediterranean, esteeming it just one degree above the Cowes Roads, and
+attaching about as much importance to its vagaries as one might do to
+the fractiousness of a spoiled child. If he had been caught in the most
+terrible tempest that ever desolated the shores of the Great Lake, I
+don't believe he would have called it any thing but "dirty weather." He
+was too good a sailor, though, not to take all precautions, even if he
+had been sailing on a piece of ornamental water; and he went quickly
+forward to give the necessary orders, after getting a nod of assent from
+Guy.</p>
+
+<p>The latter raised himself lazily on his arm, so as to see all round over
+the low bulwarks. There was a blue-black bank of cloud rolling up from
+the southwest. Puffs of wind, with no coolness in them, but dry and
+uncertain as if stirred by some capricious artificial means, struck the
+sails without filling them, and drove the <i>Petrel</i> through the water by
+fits and starts.</p>
+
+<p>"I really believe we are going to have a white squall," Guy remarked,
+indifferently. "Well, we shall see how the boat behaves. Riddell only
+spoke just in time."</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly his tone changed, and he said, quickly and decidedly, "Hold on
+every thing!"</p>
+
+<p>The master turned his weatherwise eye toward the quarter where the
+danger lay, and frowned. "We're none too soon with it, Mr. Livingstone.
+If there's a yard too much canvas spread when <i>that</i> reaches us, I won't
+answer for the spars."</p>
+
+<p>Deeper and deeper the blackness came rushing down upon us, an angry
+ridge of foam before it&mdash;the white squall showing its teeth.</p>
+
+<p>Guy took the old man by the arm, and pointed to an object to leeward
+that none on board had remarked yet. It was a small <i>barca</i> with four
+men in it. They were Capriotes, as we found afterward, the boldest
+boatmen in the Bay. Had they been pure-bred Neapolitans, they would have
+been down on their faces long ago, screaming out prayers to a long
+muster-roll of saints. As it was, they stood manfully to their oars,
+straining every muscle to reach us; there was no other safety for them
+then. "They will never get alongside in time, unless we bear down to
+meet them," Livingstone said, "and what chance will they have in ten
+minutes hence?"</p>
+
+<p>Riddell was only half satisfied. His creed evidently was that a sailor's
+first duty is to his own ship; but neither he nor any one else ever
+argued with Guy. "As you like, sir," he grumbled, somewhat
+discontentedly. "Keep her full, Saunders; we shall fetch them so."</p>
+
+<p>If a stitch of sail had been taken off our vessel she could never have
+reached the <i>barca</i>, though her crew strove hard to meet us. She forged
+down slowly enough as it was, but we were just in time to take them on
+board.</p>
+
+<p>"Reef every thing now!" Riddell shouted, leaping himself first into the
+rigging like a wild-cat. "Cheerily, men&mdash;with a will!" All his ill-humor
+was gone when the peril became imminent.</p>
+
+<p>We were strong-handed, and the four Capriotes did us seaman's service;
+but it was "touch and go." The last man had scarcely reached the deck
+when the line of foam was within half-cable's length. Then there came a
+sound unlike any I had ever heard before in the elements, beginning with
+a whistling sort of scream and deepening into a roar as of many angry
+voices, bestial and human, striving for the mastery; and then the
+<i>Petrel</i> staggered and reeled over almost on her beam-ends, in the midst
+of a white boiling caldron of mad water. She recovered herself, however,
+quickly, quivering and trembling as a live creature might do after
+severe punishment; and we drove on, the strong arms at the wheel keeping
+her well before the blast. In a very few minutes, I suppose (though it
+seemed very long), I heard old Riddell say, "Sharp while it lasted, Mr.
+Livingstone; but they're right to call it a squall. They've nothing down
+here-away like a good right down hard gale."</p>
+
+<p>I looked up, clearing my eyes, blinded with the hissing spray, just as
+Guy answered, coolly as ever. He had run his arm through a becket, and
+did not seem to have moved otherwise, whereas I disgraced myself by
+falling at full length as the squall struck us.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! you've got difficult to please; it's always so when one sees so
+much of life. Never mind, Riddell, the Mediterranean does its best, and
+perhaps we'll go and try your tornadoes some day. Where's the <i>barca</i>
+now?"</p>
+
+<p>Where? The eyes that could have told you that must have looked a hundred
+fathoms deep. There was not the faintest vestige of such a thing to be
+seen&mdash;not even a shivered plank. The poor Capriotes' "bread-winner" had
+gone the way of Antonio's argosies&mdash;another whet to the all-devouring
+appetite, for which nothing that swims is too large or too small.</p>
+
+<p>It was almost calm again when we landed the rescued men at Salerno; we
+were glad to get rid of them, for their gratitude was overpowering,
+especially as all the salt water that had soaked them could not disguise
+the savor of their favorite herb.</p>
+
+<p>You may break, you may ruin the clay if you will, but the scent of the
+garlic will cling to it still.</p>
+
+<p>Guy gave them enough to buy two such boats as they had lost&mdash;about as
+much as one wins or loses in an evening's whist, with fair luck and
+half-crown points.</p>
+
+<p>This incident showed the change that was coming over my companion. His
+principle had always been that a man who could not help himself was not
+worth helping. He never asked for aid himself, and never gave it to his
+own sex, as a rule. I believe his rescuing me at B&mdash;&mdash; was a solitary
+case, and I took it as a great compliment. You will say this one was
+only an act of common humanity. If you had known the man, you would have
+thought, as I did, that the words of her, who was an angel then, were
+bearing fruit already.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing happened of the slightest interest as we ran down through the
+Straits of Messina, and up the eastern coast of Calabria. We did not
+stay to see Sicily then, for we had settled to be in Venice by a certain
+day, to meet the Forresters.</p>
+
+<p>If I were to be seduced into "word-painting," the Queen of the Adriatic
+would tempt me. I know no other scene so provocative of enthusiasm as
+the square acre round St. Mark's. All things considered, the author of
+the "Stones of Venice" seems very sufficiently rational and
+cold-blooded.</p>
+
+<p>We can not all be romantic about landscapes. Nature has worshipers
+enough not to grudge a few to Art. For myself, admiring both when in
+perfection, I prefer hewn stones to rough rocks&mdash;the Canalazzo to <i>any</i>
+cascade. The glory of old days that clings round the Palace of the Doges
+stands comparison, in my mind's eye, with the Iris of Terni.</p>
+
+<p>But why trench on a field already amply cultivated? I will never
+describe any place till I find a virgin spot untouched by Murray, and
+then I will send it to him, with my initials. Does such exist in Europe?
+"Faith, very hardly, sir." <i>Nil intentatum reliquit.</i> What obligations
+do we not owe to the accomplished compilers? Rarely rising into poetry
+(I except "Spain"&mdash;the field, and bar one), never jocose, they move on,
+severe in simplicity, straight to their solemn end of enlightening the
+British tourist. Upright as Rhadamanthus, they hold the scales that
+weigh the merits of cathedrals, hotels, ruins, guides, pictures, and
+mountain passes, telling us what to eat, drink, and avoid. Let us repose
+on them in blind but contented reliance.</p>
+
+<p>I heard of one man, clever but eccentric, who became so exasperated at
+seeing the volumes in every body's hand, and hearing them in every
+body's mouth, that he conceived a sort of personal enmity to them,
+impiously dissenting from their conclusions and questioning their
+premises. The well-known red cover at last had the same effect on him as
+the scarlet cloak on the bull in the <i>corrida</i>, making him stamp and
+roar hideously. The angry gods had demented him. <i>V&aelig; misero!</i> How could
+such sacrilege end but badly? Braving and deriding the solemn warning of
+the prophet, he attempted a certain pass in the Tyrol alone, and, losing
+his way, caught a pleurisy which proved fatal. He died game, but, I am
+sorry to say, impenitent, speaking blasphemy against the book with his
+last breath. <i>Discite justitiam, moniti, et non temnere&mdash;</i></p>
+
+<p>Such heresy, be it far from me! If I had my will, I protest I would
+found a "Murray's Traveling Fellowship" in one or both of the
+Universities. If I had the poetic vein, I would indite a pendant to
+Byron's iambics to that enlightened bibliopole. He published "Childe
+Harold," and the Hand-book to Every Where. Could one man in one century
+do more for the Ideal and the Real?</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXII" id="CHAPTER_XXXII"></a>CHAPTER XXXII.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'><div class='i8'>"Sweetest lips that ever were kissed,</div>
+<div class='i9'>Brightest eyes that ever have shone,</div>
+<div class='i8'>May sigh and whisper, and <i>he</i> not list,</div>
+<div class='i8'>Or look away, and never be missed</div>
+<div class='i9'>Long or ever a month be gone."</div></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>It was a very curious <i>m&eacute;nage</i> that of the Forresters'. They were
+wonderfully happy, yet you could not call theirs <i>domestic</i> felicity.
+They went out perpetually every where, and were scarcely ever alone
+together at home. Tho cold-water cure of matrimony had not been able to
+cool either down into the dignity and steadiness befitting that
+honorable state. As far as I could see, Charley flirted as much as ever;
+the only difference was, that he stole upon his victims now with a sort
+of protecting and paternal air, merging gradually, as the interest
+deepened, into the old confidential style. The whole effect was, if any
+thing, more seductive than before.</p>
+
+<p>The fair Venetians admired him intensely. His bright, clear complexion
+and rich chestnut hair had the charm of novelty for them. Though without
+the faintest respect for grammar or idiom, he spoke their language with
+perfect composure, confidence, and self-satisfaction, and his tones were
+so well adapted to the slow, soft, languid tongue, that his blunders
+sounded better than other men's correctness of speech. <i>Mallem
+mehercule cum Platone errare</i>. When he said "<i>Si, Siora</i>," it seemed as
+if he were calling the lady by a pet name.</p>
+
+<p>Isabel did a good deal of mischief too in her unassuming way, but I
+think she confined her depredations chiefly to her compatriots.</p>
+
+<p>The best of it was, that neither objected in the least to the other's
+proceedings, appearing, indeed, to consider them rather creditable than
+otherwise. Perhaps it would be as well if this principle of reciprocal
+free agency were somewhat extended, though not quite to the latitude to
+which they carried it.</p>
+
+<p>We can not send our wives about surrounded by a detachment of semiviri
+to keep the peace; our climate is too uncertain, and influenza too
+prevalent, for us to watch their windows ourselves, as they do at Cadiz.
+Fancy mounting guard in Eaton Square at 4 P.M., shrouded in a yellow
+fog, on the chance of surprising a forbidden morning visitor!</p>
+
+<p>Supposing that we could adopt either of those methods, why should they
+prove more efficacious than they are said to be on their native soil? If
+the British husband will allow nothing for the principles, charitably
+supposed by others to be inherent in the wife of his bosom&mdash;nothing for
+the Damoclean damages hanging over the imaginary plotter against his
+peace&mdash;why should he depreciate his own merits and powers so completely
+as to consider himself out of the lists altogether? If he would only
+desist from making himself consistently disagreeable, I believe, in most
+cases, his substantial interest would be little endangered.</p>
+
+<p>That poor Heph&aelig;stus! The net was an ingenious device, and a pretty
+piece of workmanship, but&mdash;it didn't answer.</p>
+
+<p>In despite of Mrs. Ellis, there are women whose mission it is <i>not</i> to
+be good housewives; they can't be useful if they would, any more than
+May-flies can spin silk. Like them, they can attract fish (and sometimes
+get snapped up if they go too close), that's all. If you marry them, you
+must accept them as they are, and take your chance. Be generous, then,
+and don't stop their waltzing. I believe there may be flirting without
+the most distant idea of criminality&mdash;fencing with wooden foils, where
+no blood is drawn.</p>
+
+<p>A lady was asked the other day "what she did when an admirer became too
+lover-like." Her answer was, "I never had such a case." I think she
+spoke the truth; yet she was a coquette renowned through a good part of
+two hemispheres.</p>
+
+<p>As for the doubts and fears of the other sex, the subject is too vast
+for me. To the end of time there will be Deianiras (with imaginary
+Ioles), Zaras, and Mrs. Caudles. Tragedy and comedy have tried in vain
+to frighten or to laugh them out of the indulgence of the fatal passion,
+that wreaks itself indiscriminately on the beat and the worst, the
+youngest and the oldest, the simplest and the most guileful of adult
+males. Let us not attempt to argue, then, but, wrapping ourselves in our
+virtue, endure as best we may the groundless reproaches and accusations
+of our ox-eyed Junos.</p>
+
+<p>We <i>did</i> Venice very severely, with the exception of Forrester, who,
+after strolling once through the Palace of the Doges (a pilgrimage
+interrupted by many halts and profuse lamentations), declined seeing any
+thing more than what he could view from his gondola. I never saw any
+one so completely at home in that most delicious of conveyances. His
+Venetian friends encouraged and sympathized with him in his laziness,
+and pitied him with eyes and words, forever being teased about it.
+Indeed, he was generally left alone; but one day we were landing to see
+a church of great repute, and Miss Devereux made a strong appeal to him
+to follow her. She was a handsome, clever girl, a great favorite of
+Charley's. I believe they used to quarrel and make it up again about six
+times in every twenty-four hours. We saw that it was hopeless, but she
+was obstinate enough to try and persuade him.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Captain Forrester, you must come. I have set my heart upon it."</p>
+
+<p>He lifted his long eyelashes in a languid satisfaction. "Thank you very
+much; I like people to be interested about me; but you see it's simply
+impossible. Look at Rinaldo; there's a sensible example for you. He
+doesn't mean to stir till he is obliged to do so." The handsome
+gondolier had already couched, to enjoy a bask in the sun, which was
+blazing fiercely down on his brown face and magnificent black hair.</p>
+
+<p>"There is the most perfect Titian," she persisted.</p>
+
+<p>"No use. I should not appreciate it," he replied. "I have been through a
+gallery <i>with you</i> before. It's a delusion and a snare. I never looked
+at a single picture. The canvas won't stand the comparison."</p>
+
+<p>"I did not think you would have refused me," Miss Devereux went on,
+"particularly after last night, when you were so very&mdash;amusing." She
+hesitated out the last word with a blush. It evidently was not the
+adjective that ought to have closed the sentence.</p>
+
+<p>"Amusing!" replied Charley, plaintively. "You need not say any more. I
+am crushed for the day. I meant to be especially touching and pathetic.
+Well, there's some good in every thing, though. I entertained an angel
+unawares."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall know how far to believe you another time, at all events," she
+retorted, getting rather provoked.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be unjust," said Forrester, profoundly regardless of the fact
+that his wife was within three paces of them. "I said I was ready to die
+for you. So I am. You may fix the time, but I may choose the place. If
+you insist upon it, I'll make an end of it now&mdash;here." And he settled
+himself deeper into the pile of cushions.</p>
+
+<p>We had no patience to listen to any more, but went off to perform our
+duty. Long before he had exhausted his arguments against moving, we had
+returned. Margaret Devereux missed seeing the church and its Titian, but
+she got a "great moral lesson." She never wasted her pretty pleadings in
+such a hopeless cause again.</p>
+
+<p>I remember, when we mounted the Campanile, the solemn way in which he
+wished us <i>buon viaggio</i>. When we reached the top, we made out his
+figure reclining on many chairs in front of "Florian's."</p>
+
+<p>He saw us, too, and lifted the glass before him to his lips with a wave
+of approval and encouragement, just as they do at Chamounix when the
+telescopes make out a few black specks on the white crests of the
+mountain. When we came down, he stopped us before we could say one
+word. "Yes, I know&mdash;it was magnificent. Bella, I see you are going to
+rave about the view. If you do, I'll shut you up for a week <i>en
+penitence</i>, and feed you on nothing but 'Bradshaw' and water."</p>
+
+<p>We spent a very pleasant month in Venice. It did Guy good being with the
+Forresters. He had always been very fond of his cousin, and she seemed
+to suit him better than any one else now. She would sit by him for
+hours, talking in her low, caressing tones, that soothed him like a cool
+soft hand laid on a forehead fever-heated. Isabel was not afraid of him
+now, but a great awe mingled with her pity.</p>
+
+<p>It is curious, and tells well perhaps for our human nature; neither
+pride of birth, nor complete success, nor profound wisdom, surrounds a
+man with such reverence as the being possessed with a great sorrow. At
+least no one can envy him; and so those who were his enemies once&mdash;like
+the gallant Frenchman when he saw his adversary's empty sleeve&mdash;bring
+their swords to the salute, and pass on.</p>
+
+<p>At last we started for Rome, our party nearly filling two carriages.
+There are only two ways of traveling: in your own carriage, with courier
+and fourgon, like Russian or transatlantic noble, or with vetturino.
+This last mode, which was ours, is scarcely less pleasant, if you are
+not in a hurry. The charm of having, for a certain period, every care as
+to ways and means off your mind, compensates for the six-miles-an-hour
+pace. So we moved slowly southward through Verona, where one thinks more
+of the Avon than the Adige&mdash;where, in tombs poised like Mohammed's
+coffin, the mighty Scagliari sleep between earth and heaven, as if not
+quite fit for either&mdash;where are the cypresses in the trim old garden,
+soaring skyward till the eyes that follow grow dizzy, the trees that
+were green and luxuriant years before the world was redeemed. So through
+Mantua and Bologna down to Florence, where, I think, the spirits of
+Catharine and Cosmo linger yet, the women and the men all so soft-toned,
+and silky, and sinful, and cruel. We did not stay long there, for we had
+all visited it before once or twice, but kept on our way, by the upper
+road, to Rome, till we reached our last halting-place&mdash;Civita
+Castellana.</p>
+
+<p>We were gathered round the wood fire after dinner (for the October
+evenings grew chilly as they closed in); I don't know how it was that
+Forrester began telling us about their flight.</p>
+
+<p>"You ought to have seen Bella's baggage," he said, at last; "it was so
+compact. You can't fancy any thing so tiny as the <i>sac de nuit</i>. A
+courier's moneybag would make two of it. Then a vast cloak, and that's
+all. Quite in light marching order."</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder you are not ashamed to talk about baggage," his wife retorted.
+"When we got to Dover, there was his servant with four immense
+portmanteaus and a dressing-case nearly as large, waiting for us. Was it
+not romantic?"</p>
+
+<p>"Bah!" Charley said. "A man must have his comforts, even if he is
+eloping. I am sure I arranged every thing superbly. I don't know how I
+did it&mdash;an undeveloped talent for intrigue, I suppose."</p>
+
+<p>"Was it not kind of him to take so much trouble?" Isabel asked, quite
+innocently, and in perfect good faith, I am sure; but her husband
+pinched the little pink ear that was within his reach.</p>
+
+<p>"She means to be sarcastic," he said. "You've spoiled her, Guy. If I had
+had time to deliberate, though, I don't think I should ever have come to
+the post. I wonder how any one stands the training."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll tell you what would have suited you exactly," Livingstone
+remarked&mdash;"to have been one of those men in the Arabian Nights, who wake
+and find themselves at a strange city's gate, 10,000 leagues from home,
+to whom there comes up a venerable vizier, saying, 'My son, heaven has
+blessed me with one daughter, a very pearl of beauty; many have sought
+her in marriage, but in vain. Your appearance pleases me, and I would
+have you for my son-in-law.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly," said Forrester. "I should not have minded turning out
+somebody else's child eventually&mdash;(they all did that, didn't they?)&mdash;for
+such a piece of luck as to be taken in and done for off-hand, without
+the trouble of thinking about it."</p>
+
+<p>Instead of looking vexed, Isabel laughed merrily, and her eyes glittered
+as they rested on him, full of a proud, loving happiness.</p>
+
+<p>"The best of it was," Charley went on, "she was in the most dreadful
+state of alarm and excitement all the way to Dover, looking out at every
+station, under the impression that she should see the bridegroom there,
+'dangling his bonnet and plume' (though how he was to have got ahead of
+us, unless he came by electric telegraph, does not appear). What sport
+it would have been! I should have liked so to have seen the 'laggard in
+love' once more."</p>
+
+<p>"He was not quite <i>that</i>," Isabel interrupted, rather mischievously.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! I dare say you kept him up to the traces," her husband remarked,
+languidly. "You have a talent that way. What 'passages,' as Varney
+called them, there must have been, eh! Guy? We won't hear your
+confession now, Puss. In pity to Mademoiselle Agl&auml;e's eyes (which are
+very fine), if not to your own (which are very useful), I think you had
+better go to bed. That ferocious vetturino will have us up at unholy
+hours, and is not to be mitigated."</p>
+
+<p>We sat talking for a little while after Isabel left us; then Forrester
+rose and strolled to the window. The flood of light that poured in when
+he drew the curtain was quite startling, making the three beaked oil
+lamps look smoky and dim.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall smoke my last cigar <i>al fresco</i>," Charley said; "I suppose it's
+the correct thing to do, with such a moon as that. Won't you come, Guy?
+I must not tempt you out into the night air, Hammond."</p>
+
+<p>"Not to-night," Livingstone answered. "I am not in the humor for
+admiring any thing. I should be rather in your way."</p>
+
+<p>One of his gloomy fits was coming over him, at which times he always
+chose to be alone.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I shall go and consume the 'humble, but not wholly heart-broken
+weed of every-day life,' as Tyrrell used to say. (Don't you remember his
+double-barreled adjectives?) If you hear any one singing <i>very</i> sweetly,
+don't be alarmed; you'll know it is the harmless lunatic who now
+addresses you; the fit won't last more than an hour. We shall be in Rome
+to-morrow. The only thing on my mind now is whether I shall find any
+thing there to carry me across the Campagna. K&mdash;&mdash; has a very fair pack,
+I understand, and no end of foxes."</p>
+
+<p>Have you ever watched the completion of a photograph, when the nitrate
+of silver (or whatever the last lotion may be) is applied? First one
+feature comes out, that you may indulgently mistake for a tree, or a
+gable-end, or a mountain top; then another, till the whole picture
+stands out in clear, brilliant relief.</p>
+
+<p>Just so when I recall that scene&mdash;little heed as I took at the time of
+them&mdash;every gesture, and look, and tone of Forrester's becomes as
+distinct as if he stood in the body before me now. I can see him
+standing in the shadow of the doorway, the red glare from the blazing
+wood with which he was lighting his cigar falling over his delicate
+features and bright chestnut hair&mdash;I can hear his kind soft voice as he
+speaks these last two words, "<i>Al rivederci</i>."</p>
+
+<p>Whether that wish will be accomplished hereafter, God alone can tell; if
+so, it must be beyond the grave. In life we never saw him any more.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXXIII.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'><div class='i8'>"But time at length makes all things even,</div>
+<div class='i8'>And if we do but bide the hour,</div>
+<div class='i8'>There never yet was human power</div>
+<div class='i9'>That could evade, if unforgiven,</div>
+<div class='i8'>The patient search and vigil long</div>
+<div class='i8'>Of him who treasures up a wrong."</div></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>Three quarters of an hour later, Guy was sitting in his room, gazing at
+the embers on the hearth, in the attitude of moody thought that of late
+he was apt to fall into. Suddenly there came a timid knock at his door.
+When he opened it, his cousin stood on the threshold&mdash;ghost-like,
+against the background of darkness, with her white dressing-gown, pale
+cheeks, and long hair unbound.</p>
+
+<p>"Guy, don't be angry," she said; "it's very foolish of me, I know; but
+Charley has not come in yet, and just now I am certain there was a shot
+quite near. Agl&auml;e heard nothing, but I did. You know he always carries a
+pistol. I made him do so. It is nothing, I am sure; but I am so
+frightened. If you would&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She tried to smile, but that ghastly look of terror that he had seen
+once before, long ago, in the library at Kerton Manor, again swept over,
+and possessed all her face like a white chill mist.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be absurd, you silly child," Guy said, kindly. "Of course I'll go
+out directly, and bring him in in five minutes, to laugh at you. Now go
+back to your room; there's nothing on earth to be alarmed about."</p>
+
+<p>But the instant she had gone, I heard his voice quick and stern: "Frank,
+come here." There was a door of communication between our rooms, and,
+though it was closed, I had caught some words of this conversation, so I
+was ready nearly as soon as he. Guy only staid to take a short
+lance-wood club, headed with a spiked steel head, which was his constant
+traveling companion&mdash;a very simple weapon, but deadly in his hands as
+the axe of Richard the King&mdash;and then we sallied out, taking our
+servants and some other men that were below, with torches, in case the
+moon should fail us unexpectedly.</p>
+
+<p>Twice, three times, when we had gone a short distance, Livingstone
+shouted Forrester's name. His powerful voice rang far through the
+ravines, and struck against the rocks, rolling and reverberating in
+their hollows like a blast fired in a deep mine; but no answer came.</p>
+
+<p>I looked at my companion very nervously. He never spoke, but I saw him
+gnaw his under lip till the blood ran down.</p>
+
+<p>We had gone a hundred paces or so farther along a narrow path outside
+the town. On our right the cliff fell almost abruptly toward the river.
+Guy was a few paces in front, when suddenly there broke from his lips
+such a sound as I have never heard from those of any mortal before or
+since.</p>
+
+<p>It is impossible to describe it. It was utterly involuntary, as if some
+spirit had spoken within the man&mdash;a cry of horror and of unspeakable
+wrath, such as might have burst from the chest of one of the Old-World
+giants, when the rock fell from heaven that crushed him like a worm. The
+Italians, used to every tone that can express passion, shrunk and
+cowered back in terror.</p>
+
+<p>Our eyes all followed the direction of his, that were staring down upon
+a flat open space, clear from brush-wood, down in the hollow on our
+right. Our search was ended, and we knew it. The moon, that flickered
+and quivered elsewhere through bough and brake, settled there steadily
+on a single white spot.</p>
+
+<p>In all the world there is but one object on which she can cast so
+ghastly a reflection&mdash;a dead man's face.</p>
+
+<p>Guy recovered himself first, and plunged recklessly down the cliff side.
+When we reached him, he was supporting on his knee the head of poor
+Charley Forrester, stone dead, and foully murdered.</p>
+
+<p>The first glance told how unavailing all human aid must be. One small
+deep wound just above the left temple must have been fatal instantly.
+Close by his side lay the instrument of the slaughter&mdash;a thin,
+triangular piece of granite&mdash;and, ten paces off, his pistol, one barrel
+discharged. His watch and (as we afterward found) his purse were gone,
+but an emerald ring of great value was still untouched on his finger.</p>
+
+<p>I staggered back, heart-sick and faint. When I recovered I saw dimly the
+group of men, awe-stricken and whispering, and Guy still gazing down at
+the face that rested on his knee, as if it fascinated his eyes. I could
+not bear to look upon the piteous sight. All through the bright hair the
+dark blood had soaked, and a slow stream was stealing through it still;
+the fair features were all defaced and deformed with the wrath and
+agony of the last mortal struggle. Yet I do remember that, if any one
+definite expression still lingered there, it was bitter contempt and
+scorn.</p>
+
+<p>"In God's name, sir, what is to be done?" It was Hardy who spoke, poor
+Forrester's own servant, the only Englishman among our attendants. He
+was choking, and could hardly gasp out the words.</p>
+
+<p>Livingstone rose slowly, first pillowing the mangled head on a soft tuft
+of moss, tenderly as if it were conscious still. His nature was such
+that no shock, or pain, or sorrow to which humanity is liable, could
+bend or quell it, so as to deprive him, beyond a brief instant, of
+self-possession and calmness. It was not insensibility now, and hardly
+stoicism, but an elasticity of resistance and strength of endurance
+that, in my own knowledge, have never been matched. In history or in
+Indian life you might find many parallels.</p>
+
+<p>He answered quite steadily, though in a low tone, as if reverencing the
+presence of the dead.</p>
+
+<p>"There is no hope. It is useless to send for a surgeon. Hardy, you will
+take all the men whom you can collect and scour the country. Send to the
+<i>sbirri</i> immediately; they will go with you. There must be traces of the
+murderer. Frank, will you see that&mdash;he&mdash;is brought carefully to the
+house? I will"&mdash;he stopped, and drew a long, hard breath&mdash;"I will go and
+break it to Isabel." His hand, that happened to touch mine as he spoke,
+was damp and icy cold.</p>
+
+<p>In his life Guy Livingstone had done and dared more than most men, but
+he never ventured on any thing so thoroughly brave, and valiant, and
+strong-hearted as when he left me, without another word, on that
+errand. For myself, though weak both in body and nerve, I swear I would
+rather have gone up the breach at Badajoz with the forlorn hope, than up
+that bank with the certainty before me of what awaited him.</p>
+
+<p>Trees overhanging, and high walls on either side, and the change from
+the bright moonlight, made it so dark just as you approached the inn
+that Guy scarcely saw a white figure crouching down a few paces from the
+door till he was close upon it.</p>
+
+<p>He threw his arm round Isabel Forrester's waist before she could pass
+him. Half his task was done; there was nothing to break to her now. She
+understood all when she saw him come back alone.</p>
+
+<p>For a few moments, there they stood in the dark, no word passing between
+them; the only sound was her quick panting, as she struggled in his
+grasp, battling to get free.</p>
+
+<p>"Isabel," he said, at last, gravely, "come in; I must speak to you."</p>
+
+<p>No answer still, but the same desperate struggle to get loose. There was
+a savage, supernatural power in her writhings that taxed even his
+gigantic strength to hold her; as it was, he yielded unconsciously to
+her impulse so as to recede some paces till they issued out into the
+moonlight. He could scarcely recognize her features; they were all
+working and contorted, the lips especially horribly drawn back and
+tense. She bent her head down at last, and made her teeth meet in the
+arm that detained her.</p>
+
+<p>Guy never flinched nor stirred, but spoke again in the same slow,
+deliberate tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Isabel, come in. I swear that you shall see him when it is safe. They
+are bringing him back now."</p>
+
+<p>She ceased struggling and stood straight up, shaking all over, straining
+her eyes forward to the turning in the path where the torches began to
+gleam.</p>
+
+<p>"Is he not dead, then?" she said, in a strange, harsh voice, utterly
+unlike her own. Her cousin did not try to delude her; all the stern
+outline of his face softening in an intense pity told her enough.</p>
+
+<p>Such a scream&mdash;weird, long drawn out, and unearthly, such as we fancy the
+Banchee's&mdash;as that which pierced through my very marrow (though I stood
+three hundred yards away, as if it had been uttered close at my ear), I
+trust I shall never hear again.</p>
+
+<p>Then followed the contrast of a great stillness; for, as the last
+accents died away on her lips, Isabel sank down, without a struggle,
+into a dead swoon.</p>
+
+<p>A sad satisfaction came into Guy's face. "It is best so," he muttered;
+"I hope she won't wake for an hour," and he carried her into the house.
+They were trying to revive her, unsuccessfully, when I reached it with
+those who bore the corpse on a litter of pine branches. By Guy's
+directions, it was laid on his own bed; and there the Italian women
+rendered the last offices to the dead man, weeping and wailing over him
+as though he had been a brother or dear friend&mdash;only for his rare
+beauty&mdash;even as the Moorish girls mourned over that fair-faced Christian
+knight whom they found lying, rolled in blood, by the rock of Alpujarro.</p>
+
+<p>Soon they came to tell Guy that Isabel was recovering from her swoon.
+She was hardly conscious when he entered the room, and he heard her
+moaning, "I am so cold, so cold," shivering all over, though she was
+warmly wrapped in cloaks and shawls.</p>
+
+<p>The village doctor, a mild, helpless-looking man, was sitting by her
+bedside. He tried to feel her pulse just then, I suppose to show that he
+could be of some use; but she shrunk away from him, and beckoned to her
+cousin to come near. He motioned to the others to leave them alone, and,
+kneeling down by her, took her hand in his.</p>
+
+<p>"Guy, dear," she said, "I know I have been so very wicked and ungrateful
+to you; but you must not be angry. I have no one left to take care of me
+but you, now. I will try to be patient; indeed, indeed I will." Her
+voice was faint and exhausted, but as gentle as ever.</p>
+
+<p>He held her hand faster, and bent his forehead down upon it.</p>
+
+<p>"You are not wicked&mdash;only too weak to bear your sorrow. If I only knew
+what to do to comfort you! But I am so rough and harsh, even when I mean
+to be kind. I can say nothing, either. I suppose you ought to submit,
+but I can not tell you how; it is a lesson I have never been able to
+learn."</p>
+
+<p>"You can do this," she said. "Let me go to him. Ah! don't refuse. I will
+be calm and good. Indeed I will. But I must go"&mdash;she sank her voice into
+a lower whisper yet&mdash;"I have not kissed him to-night."</p>
+
+<p>There was something so unspeakably piteous in her tone and in her
+imploring eyes, that had grown quite soft again, though no tears had
+moistened them, that Guy could hardly answer her.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not mean to refuse you, dear," he said, at last. "I won't even
+ask you to wait. If you are not strong enough to walk, I will carry
+you."</p>
+
+<p>She rose slowly and painfully, as if her limbs were stiff with cold; but
+she could stand, and walk with his arm round her; and so these two moved
+slowly along the deserted passages toward the room where the corpse lay.</p>
+
+<p>There was nothing shocking in its appearance now. All the traces of
+murder had been washed away, and they had arranged the silky chestnut
+hair till it concealed the wound, and fell in smooth waves over the
+white forehead. That sweet calm which will sometimes descend on the face
+of the dead, even when their end has been violent&mdash;the sad <i>Alpen-gluth</i>
+that comes only when the sun has set&mdash;was there in all its beauty. Save
+that the features were somewhat sharper than in life, there was nothing
+to mar their pure classical outline. It was well, indeed, that Guy held
+her back two hours ago. If Isabel had looked on them then, I believe she
+would have gone mad with terror, if not with sorrow. It matters much,
+the expression of a face, when it is sure to mingle in our dreams for
+many after years.</p>
+
+<p>Guy led her up to the bedside, and left the room as she sank down on her
+knees. He remained outside the closed door, for he thought she might
+need help if her strength failed suddenly; and I joined him there.</p>
+
+<p>For some time we heard only the quick, stormy sobs, and the kisses
+showering down; then came the piteous, heart-broken wail that called
+upon her husband's name; and then the great gush of tears that saved
+her. After that there was a murmur, often broken off but always
+renewed: we both bowed our heads reverently, for we knew the widow was
+praying.</p>
+
+<p>She came forth at length, her head buried in her hands; but she could
+walk to her room unassisted, and allowed them to undress her there,
+without a word but thanks. Before long nature would have her way, and
+she was sleeping quietly.</p>
+
+<p>While we were waiting the return of the men who had gone out in pursuit,
+Livingstone went alone into the death-chamber. He staid there some
+minutes. When he came out his face was paler than ever, and there was a
+sort of horror in his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>He took my arm and led me into the room without speaking. "Do you see
+that?" he asked, lifting the hair gently that fell over the left check
+of the corpse.</p>
+
+<p>Distinctly and lividly marked on the waxen flesh were the five fingers
+of a man's <i>open hand</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think that was a brigand's work?" he went on, his gripe
+tightening till I could scarcely bear the pain. "They always strike with
+a weapon or with the clenched fist. Shall I tell you whose mark that is?
+Bruce's. If he did not murder him himself, he struck him after he was
+dead."</p>
+
+<p>"Impossible," I said; "how could he? He has never&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Livingstone cast my arm loose somewhat impatiently. "We shall know all
+some day," he growled, his whole face black with passion. "I am
+convinced of it. If he's on earth I'll find him; and when I do, if I
+show him mercy or let him go&mdash;" The imprecation that followed was not
+less solemn and terrible because it was muttered to his own heart.</p>
+
+<p>"We must never let Isabel guess the truth," he said, when he became
+calmer. "It would be worse than all. She would always think she had
+caused this, and she has enough to bear up against already. God help
+her!"</p>
+
+<p>Soon Agl&auml;e came to tell us that her mistress was asleep. The
+Frenchwoman's first impulse had been to be hysterical and helpless; it
+was only her terror of Guy prevailing over all others that made her, as
+she was, very useful.</p>
+
+<p>He went to the door for an instant, and looked at Isabel. Dreamland was
+kinder and pleasanter to her than real life, poor child, for there was a
+smile on her lips that, when she was waking, would be long in visiting
+them. How would ships or men ever last out if there were not some
+harbors of refuge to rest in before going out into the wild weather
+again? Truly she had won hers for the moment; it looked as if an angel
+had come down to smooth, this time, instead of troubling the waters.</p>
+
+<p>The pursuers came back empty-handed; they had not come upon the faintest
+trace, nor could they hear of any suspicious character having been seen
+in the neighborhood.</p>
+
+<p>Guy betrayed no impatience when he heard this; but he went out himself
+with some of the best men, and spent the rest of the night and all the
+following morning on the quest. All to no purpose. He returned about
+noon, with his companions quite fagged out; but fatigue and
+sleeplessness seemed to have no grasp upon his frame.</p>
+
+<p>Isabel was up, and had been asking for him several times. When he saw
+her, she offered no opposition to his wish to go on straight to Rome the
+next day. Neither then nor at any future time did she ever ask for any
+particulars of her husband's death.</p>
+
+<p>Her old child-like dependence and trust in her cousin had come back, and
+all through the journey she was quite tranquil. It is true, we hardly
+ever saw her face, for her veil was closely drawn. Her grief was not the
+less painful to witness because it was so little demonstrative. Very old
+and very young women, in the plenitude of their benevolence, are good
+enough to sympathize with any tale of woe, however absurdly exaggerated;
+but men, I think, are most moved by the simple and quiet sorrows. We
+smile at the critical point of a spasmodic tragedy, complacently as the
+Lucretian philosopher looking down from the cliff on the wild sea; we
+yawn over the wailings of Werter and Raphael, but we ponder gravely over
+the last chapters of the <i>Heir of Redclyffe</i>, and feel a curious
+sensation in the throat&mdash;perhaps the slightest dimness of vision&mdash;when
+we read in <i>The Newcomes</i> how that noble old soldier crowned the
+chivalry of a stainless life, dying in the Gray Brother's gown.</p>
+
+<p>There were many at Rome who had known Forrester and loved him well, and
+all these followed him to his grave. I do not think he had an enemy on
+earth except the man who slew him.</p>
+
+<p>What are the qualifications of a general favorite? Good looks, good
+birth, good-humor, and good assurance will do much; but the want of one
+or more of these will not invalidate the election, nor the union of all
+four insure it. It must be very pleasant to serve in the <i>compagnie
+d'&eacute;lite</i>. They have privileges to which the Line may not aspire. It does
+not much matter what they do. Their victories make them no enemies, and
+their defeats raise them up hosts of sympathizers and apologists. When
+they err gravely, if you hint at the misdemeanor, a "true believer"
+looks at you indignantly, not to say contemptuously, and says, "What
+could you expect? It's only poor&mdash;" Yes, it is a great gift&mdash;Amiability;
+and when the possessor dies, it is profoundly true that better men might
+be better spared.</p>
+
+<p>Very soon Raymond came to take his daughter back to England. That calm
+old calculating machine was more deranged and shocked by the catastrophe
+than I should have thought it possible he would have been by any earthly
+disaster. He was getting older now, and more broken, it is true, and so,
+perhaps, was more accessible to the weakness of sympathy. At all events,
+nothing could be kinder and more considerate than his conduct to Isabel.</p>
+
+<p>Guy and I still lingered on in Rome. He was untiring in his researches,
+but quite unsuccessful. Yet it was not that the police were remiss, or
+the country people inclined to shield the murderer. The best of them
+would have sold his own father to the guillotine for half the reward
+offered by Livingstone, for he lavished as much gold in trying to clear
+up that crime as in old days the Cenci or Colonna did to smother theirs.
+At length we were forced to give it up, and returned home in the
+<i>Petrel</i>. I own I despaired of ever being more successful; but my
+companion evidently had not done so, for I heard him, more than once,
+mutter to himself, in the same low, determined tone, "If he is on
+earth, I'll find him."</p>
+
+<p>Immediately on our arrival, Guy went up to Bruce's home in Scotland. He
+only learned that the latter had not been there for a long time; but
+that some months back, Allan Macbane, a sort of steward and old
+dependent of the family, had left suddenly, summoned, it was supposed,
+by his master. More the people could not or would not tell.</p>
+
+<p>At his banker's it was discovered that, immediately after the
+Forresters' marriage, he had drawn out a very large sum&mdash;not in letters
+of credit, but in bank-notes&mdash;and had not been heard of since. After
+much trouble, we did find out that one of the large notes had been
+changed at Florence about the time of the murder, but the description of
+the person did not answer in the least to that of Bruce or the man who
+was supposed to be his attendant. All trace stopped there. So the months
+rolled away. I constantly saw Guy, and sometimes was with him both in
+town and at Kerton, where Isabel was staying with Lady Catharine. He
+still appeared to have no doubt of the ultimate result of the search,
+which, personally or by deputy, he never intermitted for a day.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXXIV.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'><div class='i14'>"He threw</div>
+<div class='i8'>His wrathful hand aloft, and cried 'Away!</div>
+<div class='i8'>Earth could not hold us both, nor can one heaven</div>
+<div class='i8'>Contain my deadliest enemy and me.'"</div></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>We were sitting in Livingstone's chambers one night in the following
+March, and dinner was just over, when the detective was announced who
+for months had been in Guy's pay and on Bruce's track.</p>
+
+<p>He was a stout, hale man, rather past middle age, with a rosy face, a
+cheerful, moist eye, and full, sensual lips&mdash;just the proper person to
+return thanks for "The Successful Candidates" at an agricultural
+meeting. Originally of a kindly convivial nature, he had grown familiar
+with crime till he despised it. The reward set upon the criminal's
+capture was his only standard of guilt. He took a real pleasure in the
+chase, I imagine, but had no preference for any game in particular, and
+was quite indifferent whether the cover he had to draw was a saloon or a
+cellar. He would hunt a fraudulent bankrupt or a parricide with equal
+zeal, and, when he had caught him, be just as jocularly affable with the
+one as with the other. In a drama of life and death, the fierce passions
+of the actors were only so many gleams of light showing him where the
+right path lay, for which assistance he thanked them heartily. The
+foulest mysteries of the sinful human heart touched and shocked him no
+more than the evidences of disease do the dissecting surgeon: with both
+it was a simple question of defective organization. The possession of
+secrets, far less weighty than some that he never told, have made men
+look worn, and miserable, and gray; but he would pat his corpulent
+leather pocket-book with a self-sufficient satisfaction, scarcely
+hinting that the publication of its contents would have caused more
+devastation in some well-regulated families than the bursting of a
+ten-inch shell in their front drawing-room.</p>
+
+<p>His lips and eyes wore a smile pleasantly significant as he entered,
+and, before he could speak, Guy leaped up, waving his hand high in
+irrepressible triumph. "I told you so, Frank. I knew we should find him.
+Come&mdash;come quickly." He was more excited than I had seen him in the last
+dozen years.</p>
+
+<p>I exulted too, but I confess a certain repugnance and nervousness
+mingled with that feeling: it was a new thing to me to stand face to
+face with a murderer.</p>
+
+<p>Neither of us gave as much attention as it deserved to the narrative
+with which the officer favored us <i>en route</i>, of how he had been
+gradually getting the clew to the fugitive's many doublings and
+disguises till he came upon his retreat at last. "They mostly make for
+home when they're dead beat," he remarked, alluding to Bruce's having
+selected London as his final hiding-place.</p>
+
+<p>We soon reached the spot&mdash;one of those dreary by-ways that trend
+westward out of the Waterloo Road. As we drew up, the outline of a
+figure revealed itself out of the darkest nook of the dim street, and a
+man came forward and opened the door of the cab, interchanging a word
+or two with our companion.</p>
+
+<p>As we got out, the detective laid his hand on Guy's arm. "Gently, sir,"
+he said. "You must be careful. We've not quite so much proof as I could
+wish. It would be straining a point to arrest him as it stands. I'd do
+it though&mdash;<i>for you</i>. Get him to talk, and don't hurry him; he's safe to
+commit himself; and we'll nail him at the first word. My comrade says he
+has not left his bed since yesterday. Perhaps he's ill. All the better.
+We can frighten him if we get his man out of the way."</p>
+
+<p>Guy's hand was on the bell before the last words were said, and he rang
+it sharply. The two officers drew back into the shadow.</p>
+
+<p>In a few moments an old man opened the door, whom we guessed to be
+Bruce's attendant. He had one of those stubborn, rough-hewn faces that
+even white hair can not soften any more than hoar-frost can the outline
+of a granite crag.</p>
+
+<p>"What's ye're wull?" he drawled out, in the rugged Aberdeen Doric.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish to see Mr. Bruce."</p>
+
+<p>"No sic a pairson here," was the reply, accompanied by a vigorous effort
+to close the door.</p>
+
+<p>A heavy groan, proceeding from a room on the ground floor, gave him the
+lie as he spoke. Guy threw up his head like a hound breaking from scent
+to view, and thrust Macbane back violently. The old man staggered and
+fell; but he clung round Livingstone's knees, as he groveled, till he
+was actually trampled down. There was a difficulty in the lock
+somewhere; but bolt and staple were torn away in an instant by the
+furious hand that grasped the handle, and so at last we stood in the
+presence of the man we had sought so long.</p>
+
+<p>Do you remember that hideous picture in Hogarth's "Two Apprentices,"
+where the sleeping robber is alarmed by the crash in the chimney? That
+was exactly Bruce's attitude. He had started into a sitting posture, and
+was braced up on his hands, his face thrust forward, half covered by the
+straight unkempt hair. What a face it was! White and flecked with
+sweat-drops, marbled here and there with livid stains, the lips
+quivering and working till they twisted themselves sometimes into a
+ghastly mockery of a smile, the long teeth gleaming more wolfish than
+ever. The iris of the prominent eyes had grown yellowish, and the whites
+were bloodshot, so that the light seemed to flash from them <i>tawnily</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Bruce had always been very much afraid of Livingstone. His terror had
+gone on increasing during months of relentless pursuit; it had reached
+its climax now. Guy stood at the foot of the bed, contemplating the
+unhappy wretch with a cruel calmness that seemed to drive him wild. He
+writhed and cowered under the fixed gaze, as if it gave him physical
+pain.</p>
+
+<p>"What are you here for?" he screamed out at last.</p>
+
+<p>In strong contrast to the shrill, strained voice, the answer came slow
+and stern. "To arrest Charles Forrester's murderer."</p>
+
+<p>Then Bruce seemed to lose his head all at once, and began to rave. It is
+impossible to transcribe the string of protestations, prayers for mercy,
+and horrible blasphemies; but there was enough of self-betrayal to
+complete the proof we wanted ten times told. The detective chuckled
+more complacently than ever as he insinuated the handcuffs round
+Macbane's wrists. Over all Bruce's cries, I remember, the old man's
+harsh voice made itself heard, "Whisht, whisht, I tell ye, and keep a
+quiet tongue; they canna harm ye." The other did not seem to hear him,
+or to notice his removal by the officers, muttering, as he went, that
+"we had driven his master mad, and were killing him."</p>
+
+<p>Livingstone waited patiently till the outbreak had spent itself; then he
+said, "Get up, and come with us instantly. You shall finish your night
+in Newgate."</p>
+
+<p>Tho sick man lay back for some moments with his eyes closed, panting and
+evidently quite exhausted. When he opened his eyes there was a
+steadiness in them which surprised us. He spoke, too, quite calmly. "I
+do not mean to deny any thing, nor to resist, even if I could. I am
+tired of running away; it is as well over; but I was taken by surprise
+at first. Guy Livingstone, do you choose to listen to me for five
+minutes? My head is clear now. I do not know how long it will last; but
+I do know that, after to-night, I will never speak about Forrester's
+death one word."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you tell me how you killed him?" Livingstone asked, controlling
+his voice wonderfully.</p>
+
+<p>"That is what I wish to do," Bruce said. I believe he was glad of the
+opportunity of showing us how much we had misjudged him in thinking him
+harmless, for a curious sort of grin was hovering about his mouth. Guy,
+whose eyes were bent down at the moment, did not see it, or the tale
+would never have been told.</p>
+
+<p>"You know how you were all against me at Kerton," he began. "She did
+not care for me then, perhaps; but I would have been so patient and
+persevering that she must have loved me at last&mdash;only you never gave me
+fair play. Ah! do you think, because I was ugly and awkward, I had no
+chance?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; but because she knew you were a coward," Guy said.</p>
+
+<p>There was something grand in the utter indifference with which Bruce met
+the insult.</p>
+
+<p>"You are wrong," he replied, coolly; "she did not know it. You all did,
+and reckoned on my being long-suffering and inoffensive. I saw, at last,
+what Forrester had done; yet I never guessed but that she would marry
+me. I trusted to her father and her own fears for keeping her straight.
+After marriage I would have tried still what great love and tenderness
+could do. I meant&mdash;never mind what I meant&mdash;it's all over now. I was
+nearly mad for a week after their flight. Then I became quite cool, and
+I said, 'I will kill him myself.' And so I did. Mind, I swear, Allan
+knew nothing of it till all was done. I thought I should be brave enough
+for that. Fifty times during the months that I tracked them, always
+changing my disguise, I nearly caught him alone; but each time I was
+balked. Wherever they went, I watched under their windows for the chance
+of his coming out; but I only saw&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He gnashed his teeth, and rolled over and over in a paroxysm of jealous
+recollection. We guessed what he meant. Then he went on: "That night he
+sauntered backward and forward for some time. I thought he would not go
+far enough away, and I called to the devil to help me. He did; for, very
+soon, Forrester walked straight down the path. I crept after him till
+he had gone some hundred yards&mdash;my heart was beating so quickly that I
+could hardly breathe&mdash;then I ran forward and stood before him. I had
+taken off the black wig and beard that I always wore, and he knew me
+directly.</p>
+
+<p>"'Mr. Bruce, I believe?' he said, raising his hat, just as if he had met
+me by appointment.</p>
+
+<p>"'Yes,' I said. 'I have got you at last, as I wished.' I tried to speak
+as steadily as he had done; but, as the moment for action came near, my
+d&mdash;&mdash;d cowardice made me stammer.</p>
+
+<p>"'I am not invisible, as a rule,' he replied. 'You, or any friend of
+yours, might have found me long ago. You have been some time making up
+your mind. It's that unfortunate constitutional&mdash;caution, I suppose.
+Well, I'll meet you in Rome: it's more than you deserve.'</p>
+
+<p>"'You'll fight me here&mdash;now,' I said.</p>
+
+<p>"'I shall do nothing half so melodramatic,' he answered. 'I'll give you
+a fair chance on the ground; but, if you do not move out of my path now,
+I'll shoot you as I would any other disagreeable ruffian,' and he put
+his hand into his breast, where, I knew, he carried a pistol.</p>
+
+<p>"I <i>was</i> brave then. I sprang in upon him all at once. 'You may shoot
+now, if you like,' I said. 'I swear I am quite unarmed. But show <i>that</i>
+to your wife when you go back,' and I struck him with my open hand."</p>
+
+<p>(I remembered the mark on the corpse's cheek, and looked at Guy eagerly.
+I could not see his face, which was hidden by the curtain, but all his
+lower limbs were shaking and quivering.)</p>
+
+<p>"I thought how it would be," Bruce went on; "he drew his hand out with
+the pistol in it, but he only flung it over the bank&mdash;one barrel went
+off in the fall&mdash;then we grappled. After wrestling for a minute or two
+on the narrow path, we lost our footing and rolled down the rocks;
+neither quitted his hold, but I fell uppermost and kept him down. He
+struggled desperately at first; but when he found that I was much the
+stronger, he lay quite still, looking up into my face. I said, 'It's my
+turn at last. Do you think I'll let you off?'</p>
+
+<p>"He did not answer at first. I believe he would not till he had quite
+recovered his breath; then he said, coolly, 'No, I don't. Finish it
+quickly, if you can, that's all.' I would have delayed a little, to
+enjoy my triumph, but I thought the pistol-shot might bring some one; so
+I tightened my gripe on his throat, and looked round for a weapon. I
+found none at first, and my purpose actually began to soften when I saw
+him so helpless; but, as I relaxed my fingers, I heard him whisper to
+himself, 'Poor Bella! we have been very happy: I wish we had more
+time&mdash;' I got mad again directly. 'D&mdash;n you!' I cried out, 'I'll kill
+you now, and marry her some day.' His old insolent smile came on his
+lip. 'No you won't,' he said; 'you don't know how she hates you, and how
+we have laughed&mdash;' He had no time to say more, for I found my weapon
+then&mdash;a stone triangular and sharp-pointed like a dagger&mdash;and I struck
+him over the temple with all my force. He gave one convulsive spring
+that threw me clear of him, and never stirred again.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not repent when it was done; I have never repented since; I do
+not now. I only thought how best to escape the consequences. I took his
+watch and purse, that brigands might be suspected, and threw them into
+the river a mile off. I robbed him of one thing more&mdash;this!" All his
+haggard face was transfigured with a ghastly triumph as he opened a
+small leathern case that hung round his neck, and held up before us two
+locks of hair.</p>
+
+<p>There they were&mdash;the love-gift and the death-spoil&mdash;the memorials of
+defeat and of victory, of foiled affection and of gratified hate&mdash;the
+one, beguiled from Isabel by Bruce himself, with many earnest pleadings,
+in the early days of their engagement; the other, torn from her
+husband's temples before they were cold. The long light brown tress was
+scarcely more soft and satin-smooth than the chestnut curl; but one end
+of the last was matted, and discolored by a dark rusty stain&mdash;the stain
+that, the Greek poet said, all the rivers of earth flowing in one
+channel could never wash away&mdash;the testimony, to our ears mute enough
+now, but which, perhaps, will make itself heard above the Babel of all
+other cries at the Day of Judgment.</p>
+
+<p>The two tokens were twined together lovingly, as if they were sensitive
+and conscious still. Bruce plucked them asunder: "I never can keep them
+apart," he said, querulously. Then he put them back into the case
+separately, and began to mutter to himself many words that I could not
+distinguish.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you any thing more to say?" Livingstone asked. His lips were rigid
+and compressed like a steel-trap, opening and closing mechanically. As
+he spoke, he snatched the leathern bag from Bruce's hand and threw it
+into the blazing fire.</p>
+
+<p>A sharp howl, like a flogged hound's, broke from the sick man as he saw
+his treasure shrivel up in the flame. Then he began to whimper out all
+sorts of incoherent supplications, crying "that we did not know how much
+he had suffered before he killed Forrester, and since too; that he had
+been cruelly used from the beginning; that he was very, very ill now;
+would not we let him die in peace?" The tears were streaming down his
+face. It was a sight of abasement that sent a shiver through one's
+veins.</p>
+
+<p>Guy laid his hand on the miserable creature's shoulder. Though he
+scarcely touched it, I saw the great muscles starting out on his arm
+like ropes from the intensity of his suppressed emotion; his lower lip
+trembled, but his tones did not in the least. I can give no idea of
+their pitiless, deliberate ferocity.</p>
+
+<p>"Listen!" he said. "I told you before to get up and come with us&mdash;that
+is my answer now. If you have life enough left to be carried to the
+gallows-foot, you shall never cheat the hangman."</p>
+
+<p>Bruce looked up into the speaker's face for some moments. Gradually the
+agonized appeal in his wild eyes died away into vacancy; an expression,
+half cunning, half amused, stole over his face; and, leaning gently
+back, he began pulling threads out of the coverlet, laughing low.</p>
+
+<p>The blood gushed from Guy's clenched hand as he struck it furiously
+against the stone mantel.</p>
+
+<p>"By &mdash;&mdash;," he said, with a fearful oath, "he has escaped me, after all."</p>
+
+<p>It was so. The mind, worn and strained by the terrors of the long
+pursuit, perhaps by remorse not acknowledged even to himself; and by the
+last great effort at self-control, had given way at last&mdash;forever. God
+had recorded his verdict, and no earthly court could try the criminal
+again. Bruce is living now (and I dare say will outlive most of us, for
+his bodily health is perfect), vicious sometimes, but never conscious;
+hard to please, but easy to manage, so long as his attendant is a man,
+and a strong one; accessible only to the one emotion which drove him
+mad&mdash;physical fear.</p>
+
+<p>Livingstone called the officers; they came in with Macbane. The old man
+pretended to be very wroth when he saw his master's state, but I believe
+he rejoiced secretly. The credit of the family, with him, outweighed all
+considerations of personal attachment, and he would think public
+disgrace cheaply averted at any price.</p>
+
+<p>On our poor detective, perhaps, the blow fell heaviest; for, after some
+time, Guy did come round to my idea, that no punishment we could have
+brought about would have been so ample and terrible; but Mr. Fitchett
+could not see it in that light at all. Not only was the termination of
+the affair dreadfully unprofessional, but the little triumph he had
+anticipated at the trial was spoiled. If human weakness ever could touch
+this great man, it was when he heard the judge pay a compliment to "the
+sagacity and zeal of that most efficient officer." On such occasions,
+his bow of conscious merit abnegating praise was, I am told, wonderful
+to see. After a few words of explanation, he glanced wistfully at Bruce,
+and shook his head, like a broken-hearted Lord Burleigh. Then he
+unloosed the handcuffs from Macbane's wrists, whistling all the while
+softly a popular air, lively in itself, with a cadence so plaintive that
+it might have been a penitential psalm. No romantic school-girl opening
+the cage to her pet starling ever displayed more hesitation and
+reluctance than Mr. Fitchett setting that grim old bird free.</p>
+
+<p>In truth, there was no evidence to attach to the servant, so we left him
+and his master together. I could not have stood that room much longer.
+The ceaseless complacent chuckle of the idiot, and his fearful grimaces
+when he could not make the threads match, had the effect on my chest of
+a nightmare. Very slowly and silently we walked home through the
+darkness.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXV" id="CHAPTER_XXXV"></a>CHAPTER XXXV.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'><div class='i8'>"Be the day weary or never so long,</div>
+<div class='i8'>At length it ringeth to even song."</div></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>There is little to chronicle in the events of the next few years.
+Livingstone resided almost entirely at Kerton. He rode as hard, and
+distinguished himself in all other field-sports as much as ever. But
+even in these, his favorite pursuits, he had lost the intense faculty of
+enjoyment which once seemed a part of his powerful organization.</p>
+
+<p>Do you remember that scene in the &#925;&#8051;&#954;&#965;&#953;&#945; [Nekuia], where the Eidolon of
+Achilles comes slowly through the twilight to meet his old brother in
+arms? Not only are his form and features altered after so ghastly a
+fashion that even the wanderer, wave-worn and travel-stained, looks
+brilliant by comparison, but all his feelings are utterly and strangely
+changed. Listen! He asks after the father from whom he parted when quite
+a child; after the son, whom he never saw; but not one word of his fair
+first-love&mdash;not one of her who was the passion of his manhood, whom he
+bucklered once against ten thousand. He had rather hear of Peleus and
+Neoptolemus than of Deidamia or Briseis. Of Polyxena, be sure that he
+remembers nothing but that he was holding her hand when her brother slew
+him. Will he ever forgive her that? Not if she could have made amends by
+the sacrifice of ten lives instead of that one which she gave,
+willingly, on Sig&aelig;um. Has ambition any hold on him either? Only to
+breathe the fresh clear air above instead of that murky, heavy
+atmosphere, he would resign the empire of the dead, and be a drudge to
+the veriest boor. Yet once, if we remember right, he chafed fiercely
+enough at a word of authority uttered by the King of Men. One of his old
+tastes clings to him still&mdash;a very simple one. He has forgotten the
+savor of Sciote and Chian wine; but&mdash;were it only for the sake of the
+carouses they have had together&mdash;Odysseus will not grudge him another
+draught out of the black trench. It is so long since be tasted blood!</p>
+
+<p>Guy was no more like his former self than the shadow was like the
+substance of Pelides. He was not languid, but simply apathetic and
+indifferent, so that one could not help being constantly struck by the
+contrast between his moral and physical state: the latter was still the
+perfection of muscular power.</p>
+
+<p>He was every thing that was kind to his mother, and to Isabel Forrester
+too, who spent much of her time at Kerton, and whose health was very
+delicate. If Lady Catharine could only have seen him more cheerful, she
+would have been <i>too</i> happy. It was her great delight to try and spoil
+him, as she used to do when he was a child&mdash;trying to suit his tastes to
+the minutest shade. For instance, Guy was always finding in his own
+rooms some new ornament or addition to their comfort. Indifferent as he
+was to every thing, it was good in him that he never failed to remark
+these instantly. You would not have thought a cold, haughty face could
+light up so brilliantly as his mother's always did when he thanked her.
+Poor lady! Those last few years were her summer of St. Martin&mdash;not the
+less pleasant because winter was gathering already on the crests of the
+whitening hills.</p>
+
+<p>There were a good many guests in the house at times, almost invariably
+men, but none of the wild revels of the old days, very little hard
+drinking, and no play to speak of.</p>
+
+<p>One thing was remarkable&mdash;the great eagerness Guy displayed to keep the
+party together at night. He would engage us in arguments, and employ all
+sorts of ingenious devices to prevent us from going to bed, so that it
+became very trying to a weak constitution. I observed this to him one
+night when the rest had gone.</p>
+
+<p>The slight flush left by the excitement of conversation was vanishing
+rapidly from his cheeks, and a gray tinge was creeping over them like
+that which we see on a sick man very near his end.</p>
+
+<p>"It is too bad to keep you up, and too selfish," he said; "but I find
+the nights so long!"</p>
+
+<p>I left him without another word; but I lay long awake, haunted by that
+haggard face and dreary eyes. I wish I did not see them so often still
+in my dreams.</p>
+
+<p>There were changes in other houses besides Kerton Manor, and a vacancy
+in the most luxurious set of chambers in the Albany.</p>
+
+<p>Duns, and rheumatic gout, and satiety had proved too much at last for
+the patience of Sir Henry Fallowfield; so one night he preached his
+farewell sermon in the smoking-room of the &mdash;&mdash;, in which he was
+especially severe and witty on the absurdity and bad taste of a man
+condescending to suicide under any circumstances. The next morning they
+found him with&mdash;"that across his throat that you had scarcely cared to
+see." The hand whose tremor used to make him so savage when he was
+lifting a glass to his lips, had been strong and steady enough when it
+shattered the Golden Bowl and cut the Silver Cord asunder.</p>
+
+<p>Whether he was looking death in the face while he uttered those last
+cynicisms, and calculated on heightening the stage effect of the morrow,
+or whether a paroxysm of pain drove him mad, as it had done better men,
+who can tell? I think and hope the latter was the case, but&mdash;I doubt.
+Though Sir Henry Fallowfield had never read Aristotle, he had studied,
+all his life, the principles of the &#960;&#949;&#961;&#953;&#960;&#8051;&#964;&#949;&#953;&#945; [peripeteia].</p>
+
+<p>Godfrey Parndon no longer ruled over the Pytchley. He had backed his own
+opinions and other men's bills once or twice too often, and had retired
+temporarily into private life till he could get "his second wind." The
+new M.F.H. was his complete contrast&mdash;pale-faced, low-voiced, mild-eyed,
+and melancholy as a lotus-eater&mdash;one of the class of "weak-minded but
+gentlemanly young men" that Tom Cradock used to ask his friends to
+recommend to him as pupils. The farmers missed sadly Godfrey's bluff
+face and stalwart figure at the cover-side, while the "bruisers" from
+Leamington, and the "railers" from town, hearing no longer his great
+voice, good-naturedly imperative, adjuring them to "hold hard, and not
+to spoil their own sport," rode over the hounds rejoicing.</p>
+
+<p>Flora Bellasys was married.</p>
+
+<p>It was just the match I thought she would make. Sir Marmaduke
+Dorrillon's possessions were vast enough to satisfy any ambition, and
+his years put love out of the question.</p>
+
+<p>His friends had been as prophetic in their warnings as January's were,
+but even, they never guessed what he would have to endure at the hands
+of that cruel May. He tried very hard not to be jealous, but he could
+not help being sensitive; and so, day by day, she inflicted on him the
+<i>peine forte et dure</i>, "laying on him as much as he could bear, and
+more." It was sad to see how the kind old man withered and pined away;
+yet he never complained, and quarreled mortally with his best friend for
+daring to compassionate him.</p>
+
+<p>He was so courteous, and gentle, and chivalrous; so conscious of his own
+disadvantage in age; so generous in trusting her, and in hoping against
+hope; so considerate in anticipating all her wishes and whims, that it
+might have moved even Flora to pity. But her great disappointment had
+strangely altered and imbittered her character. She was <i>quite</i>
+merciless now, and never seemed really amused unless she was doing harm
+to some one.</p>
+
+<p>It was not that her manner had become harsh or repellent, or even more
+sarcastic; she wag to the full as fascinating as ever; but she was cool
+and calculating in her caprices. She took pains to make the momentary
+pleasure as exquisite as possible, that the after suffering might be
+more terrible; just like that ingenious Borderer who fed his enemy with
+all pungent and highly-seasoned dishes, and then left him to die of
+thirst.</p>
+
+<p>Yet all the while her own feelings must have been scarcely enviable.
+They say that great enchantresses, from Medea and Circe downward, have
+generally been unhappy in their loves. Either they could not raise the
+spirit, or it proved unmanageable; either their affection was not
+returned, or its object was unfaithful at last. In the single case where
+they put their science and their philtres aside, and were womanly, and
+natural, and sincere; where, to gain or to keep their treasure, they
+would gladly have broken their wand, they failed utterly, and found they
+were only half omnipotent. The justice was retributive, but it was very
+complete. Be sure, with those passionate natures, the honey of a
+thousand triumphs never deadened the sting of the one discomfiture.
+Suitors flocking from every shore and island of the &AElig;gean never made
+Sappho forget, for one hour, that stubborn impassible Phaon. No wonder
+such are cruel and unjust to their subjects in after days. Poor innocent
+&AElig;geus very often has to do penance for the infidelity of Jason.</p>
+
+<p>I have little more to tell, and that is of the sort that is best told
+briefly.</p>
+
+<p>The hounds met one morning not far from Kerton. A three-days' frost had
+broken up; but it was not out of the ground yet, making the "take-off"
+slippery, and the north side of the fences dangerously hard. Livingstone
+rode the Axeine that day. The chestnut was still his favorite, and the
+crack hunter of three counties, though he had never lost his habit of
+pulling.</p>
+
+<p>It was a large, straggling cover that we drew, but the fox went away
+very soon. From the lower end of the wood a great pasture sloped down,
+at the bottom of which was a flight of post-and-rails&mdash;very high, new,
+and strong, with a deep cutting on the farther side. At one end of this
+was an open gate, through which the whole field passed.</p>
+
+<p>The hounds were just settling to the scent, when I happened to turn my
+head, and saw Livingstone coming down at the rails. He had got a bad
+start, and saw that, by taking them straight in his line, he would gain
+greatly on the pack, which was turning toward him.</p>
+
+<p>As the Axeine tore down the hill at furious speed, pulling double, it
+was evident that neither he nor his rider had the remotest idea of
+refusing.</p>
+
+<p>It was the last fence that either of them ever charged. As the chestnut
+rose to the leap, his hind legs slipped; he chested the rail, which
+would not break, and turned quite over, crushing Guy beneath him.</p>
+
+<p>I had seen the latter fall a hundred times without feeling the
+presentiment that seemed to <i>tighten</i> round my heart as I galloped up to
+the spot. Many others must have felt the same, for they let the hounds
+go away without another glance, and some were before me there.</p>
+
+<p>The Axeine lay stone dead, with his neck broken, the huge carcass
+pressing on the legs of his rider. Guy was quite senseless; his face of
+a dull, ghastly white; there was a deep cut on his forehead; but we all
+felt we did not see the worst. With great trouble we drew him from under
+the dead horse. Still we could discover no broken bones or further
+external injury. We dashed water over him. In a few minutes he opened
+his eyes, and seemed to recognize every one directly, for he looked up
+into the frightened face of the first whip, who was supporting him, and
+said,</p>
+
+<p>"You always told me I went too fast at timber, Jack."</p>
+
+<p>I was sure, then, he was desperately injured, his voice was so weak and
+changed.</p>
+
+<p>"Where are you hurt, Guy?" some one asked. I could not speak myself.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," he said, looking down in a strange, bewildered way. "My
+head and arm pain me; but I feel nothing <i>below the waist</i>."</p>
+
+<p>His lower limbs were not much twisted or distorted, but they bore a
+horribly inert, dead appearance. There was not even a muscular quiver in
+them.</p>
+
+<p>I saw the Squire of Brainswick turn his head away with a shudder and a
+groan (he loved Guy as his own son), and I heard him mutter, "The
+<i>spine</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>It was so, and Livingstone soon knew it himself. He sighed once,
+drearily; but not a man there could have commanded his voice as he did
+when he said,</p>
+
+<p>"You must carry me home, heavy as I am. My walking days are ended."</p>
+
+<p>We made the best litter we could of poles and branches; and I remember,
+as we bore him past the carcass of the Axeine, he made us stop for an
+instant, and dropping his hand on the stiff, distorted neck, stroked it
+softly,</p>
+
+<p>"Good-by, old horse," he said. "It was no fault of yours. How well you
+always carried me!" He never spoke again till we reached Kerton Manor.</p>
+
+<p>Isabel Forrester was fortunately out, but Lady Catharine met us on the
+hall steps. She did not shriek or faint when she saw the horror, which
+had haunted her for years, fulfilled there to the uttermost. She knelt
+by her son when we laid him down, and wiped off a spot or two of blood
+from his forehead, and then kept his hand in hers, kissing it often. We
+had sent on before to warn the village doctor, and he visited Guy alone
+in his room.</p>
+
+<p>Powell had been a surgeon's mate in his youth, and was serving under
+Collingwood at Trafalgar when his ship stood first into action, and,
+like a sovereign of the old days, led the van of the battle. There was
+no shape of shattered and maimed humanity with which he had not been
+familiar, and my last hope died away when I saw him come forth,
+trembling all over, his rugged features convulsed with grief.</p>
+
+<p>"I saw him born," the old man sobbed out. "I never thought to see him
+die&mdash;and die <i>so</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>Guy had received a mortal injury in the spine, though how long he might
+linger none could tell.</p>
+
+<p>There broke from Lady Catharine's white lips one terrible heart-broken
+cry&mdash;"If God would only take me first!" Then her self-control returned,
+and she went into her son's room, outwardly quite calm.</p>
+
+<p>I have never tried to fancy what passed at the meeting of those two
+strong hearts, after the one had been brought suddenly, face to face,
+with an awful death, the other with a yet more awful sorrow.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXXVI.</h2>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Ah! Sir Launcelot, there thou liest, that never wert matched of
+earthly hands. Thou wert the fairest person, and the goodliest of
+any that rode in the press of knights; thou wert the truest to thy
+sworn brother of any that buckled on the spur; and thou wert the
+faithfullest of any that have loved <i>paramours</i>: most courteous
+wert thou, and gentle of all that sat in hall among dames; and thou
+wert the sternest knight to thy mortal foe that ever laid spear in
+the rest."</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>When Powell's self-command gave way so completely after he saw the
+nature of Guy's case, it was not because he knew it must end fatally,
+but because his skill told him what fearful agonies must precede the
+release. All the surgeons who were called in could do nothing but
+confirm these forebodings. The colossal strength and vital energy of
+Livingstone's frame and constitution yielded but slowly to a blow which
+would have crushed a weaker man instantly. All the outworks were ruined
+and carried, but Death had still to fight hard before he won the
+citadel. I can not go through the details; I will only say that,
+sometimes, none of us could endure to look upon sufferings which never
+drew a complaint or a moan from him.</p>
+
+<p>Almost every pleasure has been discussed and dissected, but we know
+comparatively nothing of the physiology of pain. There is no standard by
+which to measure it, even if the courage and endurance of any mortal man
+could enable him to analyze his own tortures philosophically. Was it not
+always supposed that the guillotine is merciful, because quick in
+annihilation? Look at Wiertz's pictures at Brussels. If his idea (shared
+too, now, by many clever surgeons) be true, you will see the amount of a
+long life's suffering exceeded by what seems to us a minute's agony. But
+it is like the Eastern king's gaining the experience of fifty years by
+dipping his head for a second in the magic water. For a soul in torment
+there is no horologe.</p>
+
+<p>Of one thing be sure; the strong temperaments who enjoy greatly, suffer
+greatly too&mdash;those who endure in silence, most of all. I think the
+wolf's death-pang is sharper than the hare's.</p>
+
+<p>But Guy was not only patient, he was actually more cheerful than I had
+seen him since Constance died. He liked to see his old friends, and to
+hear accounts of their sport with hound and gun. To do these justice,
+there was not one who would not give up, gladly, the best meet of the
+Pytchley, or the shooting of the best cover in the county, to sit for
+half a day in that sick-room. He talked, too, always pleasantly and
+kindly to his mother and his cousin.</p>
+
+<p>Poor Isabel Forrester was quite broken down by this second blow. Next to
+her dead husband, I believe, she loved Guy better than any one; not
+unnaturally, for he had petted and protected her all her life long. She
+could not help giving way, though she tried hard, for the sake of
+others. It was piteous to see her, sitting alone for hours, gazing out
+on the bleak winter landscape, while the tears welled slowly from under
+her heavy eyelids.</p>
+
+<p>Foster, who was still at Kerton, came often to visit Livingstone. No
+one could do him so much good. The curate was just as confident and
+uncompromising in the discharge of his office as he was yielding and
+diffident when only himself was in question. He was so honest, and
+straightforward, and true&mdash;so free from rant or cant&mdash;so strong in his
+simple theology, that Guy soon trusted him implicitly when he spoke of
+the past and of the future that was so near. The repentance that was
+begun by Constance's dying bed was completed, I am sure, on his own.</p>
+
+<p>"Frank," Guy said, one morning, suddenly, "I have written to ask Cyril
+Brandon to come to me. He will be here to-day. It would make me very
+happy if I could hear him say he forgave me."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think you will succeed?" I asked, sadly; for I felt a nervous
+certainty that the pain the interview must cost him would be unavailing.</p>
+
+<p>"I can not tell," he answered, firmly; "but Foster says, and I know,
+that it is my duty to try. You may be present, if you like, on one
+condition&mdash;you must promise, whatever he may say or do, not to interfere
+by a look or a word."</p>
+
+<p>I did promise; but I looked forward with dread to Brandon's coming. In
+an hour's time he was announced.</p>
+
+<p>It was the first time I had seen him; and I was much struck by the
+mingled expression of suffering and ferocity that sat, like a mask, on
+his worn dark face. I have seen its like but once&mdash;in a dangerous
+maniac's. He walked straight up to Guy's couch without noticing me, and
+stood there silent, glaring down on the sick man with his fiery black
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"It is very good of you to come," Guy said; "I scarcely hoped you
+would. I have wronged you, more deeply than any living man&mdash;so deeply
+that I could never have dared to ask your forgiveness if I had not been
+very near my death. Can you give me your hand? Indeed, indeed, I have
+repented sorely."</p>
+
+<p>Brandon's hoarse tones broke in:</p>
+
+<p>"I came, because, years ago, to see this sight, to see you lying there
+like a crushed worm, I would have sold my soul. Wronged me? Shall I tell
+you what you have done? There was only one creature on earth I cared
+for; that was my sister. All those years in India I had been fancying
+our meeting. I came back, and found her dying; more than that, I found
+her love turned away from me. You did <i>all</i> this. I tell you, I never
+could get one of her old fond looks or words from her all the time she
+was dying. She was only afraid of me. By hell! you stood between us to
+the last. Do you know that she dragged herself across the room at my
+knees&mdash;mine, who never refused to indulge her in a whim before&mdash;first to
+be allowed to see you, and then to make me swear not to attempt your
+life?"</p>
+
+<p>He stopped, gnashing his teeth.</p>
+
+<p>All Guy's features, wan and worn by pain, were lighted up with a
+tenderness and joy inexpressible as he heard what his dead love had
+borne and done for him. He would have hidden his face had he guessed how
+its expression would exasperate Cyril's furious temper.</p>
+
+<p>"D&mdash;n you!" he howled out, like a madman, "do you dare to triumph?" and,
+tearing off his glove, he struck Livingstone on the cheek with it a
+sharp blow.</p>
+
+<p>A great shudder swept through every fibre of the maimed giant's frame,
+in which sensation lingered still; the blood surged up to his forehead
+and ebbed again instantly, leaving even the lips deathly white; he
+raised his hand quickly, but it was only to warn me back; for, mild and
+peaceable as I am, I leaped up then, as savage as Cain. With that hand
+he caught Brandon's wrist. The latter stood with his eyes cast down,
+sullenly&mdash;already, I am sure, horror at the act of foul cowardice into
+which his passion had driven him was creeping over him&mdash;he did not try
+to disengage himself. Had he done so, thrice his strength would not have
+set him free.</p>
+
+<p>"I thank God, from my heart," Guy said, very slowly and steadily, "that,
+if I meet your sister hereafter, I shall not shrink before her, for I
+believe all I promised her has been kept. Listen! you would feel shame
+to your life's end thinking that you had struck a helpless, dying
+cripple. It is not so. You don't know what you risked. You were within
+arm's-length, and at close quarters I could be dangerous still. Look."</p>
+
+<p>He took up a small silver cup that lay near, and crushed it flat between
+his fingers.</p>
+
+<p>There was silence then; only Brandon's breath was heard, drawn hard and
+irregularly, as if he was trying to throw off a weight from his chest.</p>
+
+<p>Guy looked up at him, and said very gently, holding out his hand, "Once
+more, forgive me."</p>
+
+<p>Cyril answered in a thick, smothered voice,</p>
+
+<p>"I will not take your hand. I will never forgive you. But I forgive
+Constance; for&mdash;I understand her now."</p>
+
+<p>He turned on his heel, and left the room without another word, still
+with his head bent down, as if in thought. I gazed after him till the
+door shut softly. Then I looked round at Guy. His head had fallen back,
+and the features looked so drawn and changed that I cried out, thinking
+he was dead. It was only a long, long swoon.</p>
+
+<p>Just another scene, and my tale is told.</p>
+
+<p>I was reading in Guy's room one evening. He had not spoken for some
+time, and I fancied he was asleep. Suddenly he called to me,</p>
+
+<p>"Frank, come here&mdash;nearer. I have several things to say to you, and I
+feel I must make haste. No, don't call any one. I said farewell to my
+mother yesterday, and we must spare her all we can."</p>
+
+<p>In the presence of that sublime self-command, I <i>dared</i> not betray my
+grief by any outward sign. I knelt down by his side silently.</p>
+
+<p>He went on in a voice that, though hollow and often interrupted by
+failing breath, was perfectly measured and steady.</p>
+
+<p>"You can only be glad that the end has come at last, though it is well I
+have had time to prepare myself. Am I ready now? I can not tell. Foster
+says I ought to hope. I trust it is not wicked to say I do not <i>fear</i>. I
+have sinned often and deeply; but He who will judge me created me, and
+He knows, too, how much I have suffered. I do not mean from <i>this</i> (he
+threw his hand toward his crippled limbs with the old gesture of
+disdain), but from bitterness and loneliness of heart. More than all, I
+am sure my darling has been pleading for me ever since she died. I will
+not believe her prayers have been wasted.</p>
+
+<p>"I want to tell you what I have done. You know the direct line of my
+family ends with me. I am glad it does. The next in succession would be
+a cousin, who has taken to some trade in Edinburgh; a good man, I
+believe&mdash;but he would not do here. So I have left Kerton to my mother
+for her life, and then&mdash;to you. Hush! the time is too short for
+objections or thanks, and death-bed gifts show little generosity.
+Besides, I would have left it to Isabel, only it would be more a trouble
+to her than any thing else. You will take care of every thing and every
+body. Say farewell for me to my old friends, especially to Mohun. Poor
+Ralph! he will be sorry&mdash;though he will not own it&mdash;when he comes back
+from Bohemia and finds me gone."</p>
+
+<p>He raised himself a little, so as to rest his hand on my shoulder as I
+knelt, while his voice deepened in its solemn calm:</p>
+
+<p>"Dear Frank, one other word for yourself, who have borne so patiently
+with my perverse temper since we were boys together. I have been silent,
+but, indeed, not ungrateful. For all your kind, unselfish thoughts, and
+words, and deeds&mdash;for all the good you would have counseled&mdash;for all
+your efforts to stand between me and wrong-doing&mdash;tried friend, true
+comrade! I thank you now, heartily, and I pray God to bless you always."</p>
+
+<p>It was only self-control, almost superhuman, that enabled him to speak
+those words steadily, for the fierce death-throe was possessing him
+before he ended. Through the awful minutes that followed, not another
+sound than the hissing breath escaped through his set lips; his face was
+not once distorted, though the hair and beard clung round it, matted and
+dank with the sweat of agony. The brave heart and iron nerve ruled the
+body to the last imperially&mdash;supreme over the intensity of torture.</p>
+
+<p>When he opened his eyes, which had been closed all through the
+protracted death-pang, there was a look of the ancient kindness in them,
+though they were glazing fast. He found my hand, and grasped it, till I
+felt the life ebbing back in his fingers. I saw his lips syllable
+"Good-by;" then, he leaned his head back gently, and, without a sigh or
+a shiver, the strong man's spirit went forth into The Night.</p>
+
+<p>A sense of utter desolation, as it were a horror of great darkness,
+gathered all around me as I leaned my forehead against the corpse's
+cheek, sobbing like a helpless child.</p>
+
+<p>You will not care to hear how we all mourned him.</p>
+
+<p>Will you care to hear that, often as his mother visits his grave, there
+is <i>one</i> woman who comes oftener still?</p>
+
+<p>None of us have ever met her, for she comes always at late night or
+early morning. But finding, in the depth of winter or in the bleak
+spring, the ground about strewed with the choicest of exotic
+flowers&mdash;not carefully arranged, but showered down by a reckless,
+desperate hand&mdash;we know that Flora Dorrillon has been there.</p>
+
+<p>Do not laugh at her too much for clinging to the one romance of her
+artificial existence. Remember, while he lived, there was nothing so
+rare and precious&mdash;ay, even to the sacrifice of her own body and
+soul&mdash;that she would not have laid ungrudgingly at Guy Livingstone's
+feet.</p>
+
+
+<p class='center'>THE END.</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Guy Livingstone;, by George A. Lawrence
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GUY LIVINGSTONE; ***
+
+***** This file should be named 17084-h.htm or 17084-h.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/0/8/17084/
+
+Produced by David Garcia, Martin Pettit and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Kentuckiana Digital Library)
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+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
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+
+</pre>
+
+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/17084.txt b/17084.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..21e6234
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17084.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,9590 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Guy Livingstone;, by George A. Lawrence
+
+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: Guy Livingstone;
+       or, 'Thorough'
+
+Author: George A. Lawrence
+
+Release Date: November 17, 2005 [EBook #17084]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GUY LIVINGSTONE; ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Garcia, Martin Pettit and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Kentuckiana Digital Library)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+GUY LIVINGSTONE;
+
+OR,
+
+"THOROUGH."
+
+BY
+
+GEORGE A. LAWRENCE.
+
+
+ICH HABE GELEBT UND GELIEBT.
+
+
+NEW YORK:
+HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
+FRANKLIN SQUARE.
+1868.
+
+
+
+
+GUY LIVINGSTONE.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+     "Neque imbellem feroces
+     Progenerant aquilae columbam."
+
+
+It is not a pleasant epoch in one's life, the first forty-eight hours at
+a large public school. I have known strong-minded men of mature age
+confess that they never thought of it without a shiver. I don't count
+the home-sickness, which perhaps only affects seriously the most
+innocent of _debutants_, but there are other thousand and one little
+annoyances which make up a great trouble. If there were nothing else,
+for instance, the unceasing query, "What's your name?" makes you feel
+the possession of a cognomen at all a serious burden and bar to
+advancement in life.
+
+A dull afternoon toward the end of October; the sky a neutral tint of
+ashy gray; a bitter northeast wind tearing down the yellow leaves from
+the old elms that girdle the school-close of ----; a foul, clinging
+paste of mud and trampled grass-blades under foot, that chilled you to
+the marrow; a mob of two hundred lower boys, vicious with cold and the
+enforcement of keeping goal through the first football match of the
+season--in the midst, I, who speak to you, feeling myself in an
+eminently false position--there's the _mise en scene_.
+
+My small persecutors had surrounded me, but had hardly time to settle
+well to their work, when one of the players came by, and stopped for an
+instant to see what was going on. The match had not yet begun.
+
+There was nothing which interested him much apparently, for he was
+passing on, when my despondent answer to the everlasting question caught
+his ear. He turned round then--
+
+"Any relation to Hammond of Holt?"
+
+I replied, meekly but rather more cheerfully, that he was my uncle.
+
+"I know him very well," the new-comer said. "Don't bully him more than
+you can help, you fellows; I'll wait for you after calling over,
+Hammond. I should like to ask you about the squire."
+
+He had no time to say more, for just then the ball was kicked off, and
+the battle began. I saw him afterward often during that afternoon,
+always in the front of the rush or the thick of the scrimmage, and I
+saw, too, more than one player limp out of his path disconsolately,
+trying vainly to dissemble the pain of a vicious "hack."
+
+I'll try to sketch Guy Livingstone as he appeared to me then, at our
+first meeting.
+
+He was about fifteen, but looked fully a year older, not only from his
+height, but from a disproportionate length of limb and development of
+muscle, which ripened later into the rarest union of activity and
+strength that I have ever known. His features were very dark and pale,
+too strongly marked to be called handsome; about the lips and lower jaw
+especially there was a set sternness that one seldom sees before the
+beard is grown. The eyes were very dark gray, nearly black, and so
+deeply set under the thick eyebrows that they looked smaller than they
+really were; and I remember, even at that early age, their expression,
+when angered, was any thing but pleasant to meet. His dress was well
+adapted for displaying his deep square chest and sinewy arms--a
+close-fitting jersey, and white trowsers girt by a broad black belt; the
+cap, orange velvet, fronted with a silver Maltese cross.
+
+The few words he had spoken worked an immediate change in my favor. I
+heard one of my tormentors say, not without awe, "The Count knows his
+people at home;" and they not only left me in peace, but, a little
+later, some of them began to tell me of a recent exploit of Guy's, which
+had raised him high in their simple hero-worship, and which, I dare say,
+is still enumerated among the feats of the brave days of old by the fags
+over their evening small-beer.
+
+To appreciate it, you must understand that the highest form in the
+school--the sixth--were regarded by the fags and other subordinate
+classes with an inexpressible reverence and terror. They were considered
+as exempt from the common frailties of schoolboy nature: no one ventured
+to fix a limit to their power. Like the gods of the Lotus-eater, they
+lay beside their nectar, rarely communing with ordinary mortals except
+to give an order or set a punishment. On the form immediately below them
+part of their glory was reflected; these were a sort of hemitheoi,
+awaiting their translation into the higher Olympus of perfected
+omnipotence.
+
+In this intermediate state flourished, at the time I speak of, one
+Joseph Baines, a fat, small-eyed youth, with immense pendent pallid
+cheeks, rejoicing in the _sobriquet_ of "Buttons," his father being
+eminent in that line in the Midland Metropolis. The son was Brummagem to
+the back-bone. He was intensely stupid; but, having been a fixture at
+---- beyond the memory of the oldest inhabitant, he had slowly
+gravitated on into his present position, on the old Ring principle,
+"weight must tell." I believe he had been bullied continuously for many
+years, and now, with a dull, pertinacious malignity, was biding his
+time, intending, on his accession to power, to inflict full reprisals on
+those below him; or, in his own expressive language, "to take it out of
+'em, like smoke." He was keeping his hand in by the perpetration of
+small tyrannies on all whom he was not afraid to meddle with; but
+hitherto, from a lingering suspicion, perhaps, that it was not quite
+safe, he had never annoyed Livingstone.
+
+It was on a Saturday night, the hebdomadal Saturnalia, when the week's
+work was over, and no one had any thing to do; the heart of Joseph was
+jocund with pork chops and mulled beer, and, his evil genius tempting
+him, he proposed to three of his intimates "to go and give the Count a
+turn." Nearly every one had a nickname, and this had been given to Guy,
+partly, I think, from his haughty demeanor, partly from a prevalent idea
+that this German dignity was dormant somewhere in his family. When the
+_quartette_ entered, Guy knew perfectly what they came for, but he sat
+quite still and silent, while two of them held him down by the arms in
+his chair.
+
+"I think you'd look very well with a cross on, Count," Baines said, "so
+keep steady while we decorate you."
+
+As he spoke he was mixing up a paste with tallow and candle-snuff, and,
+when it was ready, came near to daub the cross on Livingstone's
+forehead.
+
+The two who held him had been quite deceived by his unexpected
+tranquillity, and had somewhat relaxed their gripe as they leaned
+forward to witness the operation; but the fourth, standing idle, saw all
+at once the pupils of his eyes contract, and his lips set so ominously,
+that the words were in his mouth, "Hold him fast!" when Guy, exerting
+the full force of his arms, shook himself clear, and grasping a
+brass-candlestick within his reach, struck the executioner straight
+between the eyes. The effort of freeing himself to some extent broke the
+force of the blow, or the great Baines dynasty might have ended there
+and then; as it was, Buttons fell like a log, and, rolling once over on
+his face, lay there bleeding and motionless.
+
+While the assistants were too much astounded to detain him, Guy walked
+out without a glance at his prostrate enemy; and going straight to the
+head of the house, told him what had happened. The character of the
+aggressor was so well known, that, when they found he was not seriously
+hurt, they let Guy off easy with "two books of the _Iliad_ to write out
+in Greek." Buttons kept the sick-room for ten days, and came out looking
+more pasty than ever, with his pleasant propensities decidedly checked
+for the time.
+
+In his parish church at Birmingham, two tons of marble weighing him
+down, the old button-maker sleeps with his father (to pluralize his
+ancestors would be a grave historical error), and Joseph II. reigns in
+his stead, exercising, I doubt not, over his factory-people the same
+ingenuity of torture which in old times nearly drove the fags to
+rebellion. He is a Demosthenes, they say, at vestries, and a Draco at
+the Board of Guardians; but in the centre of his broad face, marring the
+platitude of its smooth-shaven respectability, still burns angrily a
+dark red scar--Guy's sign-manual--which he will carry to his grave.
+
+The exultation of the lower school over this exploit was boundless.
+Fifty energetic admirers contended for the honor of writing out the
+punishment inflicted on the avenger; and one sentimentalist, just in
+Herodotus, preserved the fatal candlestick as an inestimable relic,
+wreathing its stem with laurel and myrtle, in imitation of the honors
+paid by Athens to the sword that slew the Pisistratid.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+     "My only books
+     Were woman's looks,
+       And folly all they taught me."
+
+
+The Count bore his honors very calmly, though every week some fresh feat
+of bodily strength or daring kept adding to his popularity. It was no
+slight temptation to his vanity; for, as some one has said truly, no
+successful adventurer in after-life ever wins such undivided admiration
+and hearty partisans as a school hero. The _prestige_ of the liberator
+among the Irish peasantry comes nearest to it, I think; or the feeling
+of a clan, a hundred years ago, toward their chief. It must be very
+pleasant to be quoted so incessantly and believed in so implicitly, and
+to know that your decisions are so absolutely without appeal. From that
+first day when he interfered in my favor, Guy never ceased to accord me
+the aegis of his protection, and it served me well; for, then as now, I
+was strong neither in body nor nerve. Yet our tastes, save in one
+respect, were as dissimilar as can be imagined. The solitary conformity
+was, that we were both, in a desultory way, fond of reading, and our
+favorite books were the same. Neither would do more school-work than was
+absolutely necessary, but at light literature of a certain class we read
+hard.
+
+I don't think Guy's was what is usually called a poetical temperament,
+for his taste in this line was quite one-sided. He was no admirer of
+the picturesque, certainly. I have heard him say that his idea of a
+country to live in was where there was no hill steep enough to wind a
+horse in good condition, and no wood that hounds could not run through
+in fifteen minutes; therein following the fancy of that eminent French
+philosopher, who, being invited to climb Ben Lomond to enjoy the most
+magnificent of views, responded meekly, "_Aimez-vous les beautes de la
+Nature? Pour moi, je les abhorre_." Can you not fancy the strident
+emphasis on the last syllable, revealing how often the poor materialist
+had been victimized before he made a stand at last?
+
+All through Livingstone's life the real was to predominate over the
+ideal; and so it was at this period of it. He had a great dislike to
+purely sentimental or descriptive poetry, preferring to all others those
+battle-ballads, like the _Lays of Rome_, which stir the blood like a
+trumpet, or those love-songs which heat it like rough strong wine.
+
+He was very fond of Homer, too. He liked the diapason of those sonorous
+hexameters, that roll on, sinking and swelling with the ebb and flow of
+a stormy sea. I hear his voice--deep-toned and powerful even at that
+early age--finishing the story of Poseidon and his beautiful
+prize--their bridal-bed laid in the hollow of a curling wave--
+
+     _"Porphureon d' ara kuma peristathe, ourei ison,
+     Kurtothen, krupsen de Theon thneten te gunaika."_
+
+And yet they say that the glorious old Sciote was a myth, and the
+Odyssey a magazine worked out by clever contributors. They might as well
+assert that all his marshals would have made up one Napoleon.
+
+I remember how we used to pass in review the beauties of old time, for
+whom "many drew swords and died," whose charms convulsed kingdoms and
+ruined cities, who called the stars after their own names.
+
+Ah! Gyneth and Ida, peerless queens of beauty, it was exciting,
+doubtless, to gaze down from your velveted gallery on the mad tilting
+below, to see ever and anon through the yellow dust a kind, handsome
+face looking up at you, pale but scarcely reproachful, just before the
+horse-hoofs trod it down; ah! fairest Ninons and Dianas--prizes that,
+like the Whip at Newmarket, were always to be challenged for--you were
+proud when your reckless lover came to woo, with the blood of last
+night's favorite not dry on his blade; but what were your fatal honors
+compared to those of a reigning toast in the rough, ancient days? The
+demigods and heroes that were suitors did not stand upon trifles, and
+the contest often ended in the extermination of all the lady's male
+relatives to the third and fourth generation. People then took it quite
+as a matter of course--rather a credit to the family than otherwise.
+
+Guy and I discussed, often and gravely, the relative merits of Evadne
+the violet-haired, Helen, Cleopatra, and a hundred others, just as, on
+the steps of White's, or in the smoking-room at the "Rag," men compare
+the points of the _debutantes_ of the season.
+
+His knowledge of feminine psychology--it _must_ have been theoretical,
+for he was not seventeen--implied a study and depth of research that was
+quite surprising; but I am bound to state that his estimate of the
+strength of character and principle inherent in the weaker sex was any
+thing but high; nearly, indeed, identical with that formed by the
+learned lady who, to the question, "Did she think the virtue of any
+single one of her sisterhood impregnable?" replied "_C'est selon_." He
+often used to astonish my weak mind by his observations on this head. I
+did not know till afterward that Sir Henry Fallowfield, the Bassompierre
+of his day, came for the Christmas pheasant-shooting every year into
+Guy's neighborhood, and that he had already imbibed lessons of
+questionable morality, sitting at the gouty feet of that evil Gamaliel.
+
+He spoke of and to women of every class readily whenever he got the
+chance, always with perfect _aplomb_ and self-possession; and I have
+heard older men remark since, that in him it did not appear the
+precocity of "the rising generation," but rather the confidence of one
+who knew his subject well. Perhaps the fact of his father having died
+when he was an infant, and his having always been suzerain among his
+women at home, may have had something to do with this. An absurd
+instance of what I have been saying happened just before Guy left.
+
+By time-honored custom, four or five of the Sixth were invited every
+week to dine with the head master. They were not, strictly speaking,
+convivial, those solemn banquets; where the host was condescendingly
+affable, and his guests cheerful, as it were, under protest; resembling
+somewhat the entertainments in the captain's cabin, where the chief is
+unpopular.
+
+Our Archididascalus was a kind-hearted, honest man, albeit, by virtue
+of his office, somewhat strict and stern. You could read the
+_Categories_ in the wrinkles of his colorless face, and contested
+passages of Thucydides in the crows'-feet round his eyes. The
+everlasting grind at the educational tread-mill had worn away all he
+might once have had of imagination; he translated with precisely the
+same intonations the Tusculan _Disputations_ and--_Eros anikate machan._
+
+He had lately taken to himself a wife, his junior by a score of years.
+The academic atmosphere had not had time then to freeze her into the
+dignity befitting her position; when I met her ten years later, she was
+steady and staid enough, poor thing, to have been the wife of Grotius.
+
+Guy sat next to her that evening, and before the first course was over a
+decided flirtation was established. The pretty hostess, albeit wife of a
+doctor and daughter of a dean, had evidently a strong coquettish element
+in her composition, and a very slight spark was sufficient to relight
+the _veteris vestigia flammae._
+
+For some time her husband did not seem to realize the position; but
+gradually his sentences grew rare and curt; he opened his mouth, no
+longer to let fall the pearls of his wisdom, but to stop it with savory
+meat; finally this last resource failed, and he sat, looking wrathfully
+but helplessly on the proceedings at the other end of the table--a
+lamentable instance of prostrated ecclesiastical dignity. His disgust,
+however, was far exceeded by the horror of one of the party, a meek,
+cadaverous-looking boy, whose parents lived in the town, and who was
+wont to regard the head master as the vicegerent of all powers, civil
+and sacerdotal--I am not sure he did not include military as well. I
+caught him looking several times at the door and the ceiling with a
+pale, guilty face, as if he expected some immediate visitation to punish
+the sacrilege. However, heaven, which did not interrupt the feast of
+Atreus or of Tereus (till the dessert), allowed us to finish our dinner
+in peace. During the interval when we sat alone over his claret, our
+host revived a little; but utterly relapsed in the drawing-room, where
+things went on worse than ever. Guy leaned over the fair Penelope (such
+was her classical and not inappropriate name) while she was singing, and
+over her sofa afterward, evidently considering himself her legitimate
+proprietor for the time, and regarding the husband, as he hovered round
+them, in the light of an unauthorized intruder. The latter would have
+given any thing, once or twice, to have interfered, I am sure; but,
+apart from, the extreme ridicule of the thing, he was in his own house,
+and as hospitable as Saladin.
+
+It was a great scene, when, at parting, she gave Guy the camellia that
+she wore at her breast; the doctor gasped thrice convulsively and said
+no word; but I wonder how she accounted afterward for the smile and
+blush which answered some whispered thanks? There are certain limits
+that even the historian dares not transgress; a veil falls between the
+profane and the thalamus of an LL.D.; but I rather imagine she had a
+hard time of it that night, the poor little woman! Let us hope, in
+charity, that she held her own.
+
+When the Count was questioned as to the conversation that had passed,
+he declined to give any particulars, merely remarking that "he had to
+thank Dr. ---- for for a very pleasant evening, and he hoped everyone
+had enjoyed themselves very much"--which was philanthropic, to say the
+least of it.
+
+I don't know if it was our imagination, but we fancied that when the
+head master called up Livingstone in form after this, he did so with an
+air of grave defiance, such as a duelist of the Old Regime may have worn
+when, doffing his plumed hat, he said to his adversary, "_En garde!_"
+
+There was little time to make observations, for shortly afterward Guy
+went up to Oxford, whither, six months later, I followed him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+     "Through many an hour of summer suns,
+       By many pleasant ways,
+     Like Hezekiah's, backward runs
+       The shadow of my days."
+
+
+When I came up, I found Guy quite established and at home. He was a
+general favorite with all the men he knew at college, though intimate
+with but very few. There was but one individual who hated him
+thoroughly, and I think the feeling was mutual--the senior tutor, a
+flaccid being, with a hand that felt like a fish two days out of water,
+a large nose, and a perpetual cold in his head. He consistently and
+impartially disbelieved every one on their word, requiring material
+proof of each assertion; an original mode of acquiring the confidence of
+his pupils, and precluding any thing like an attempt at deception on
+their part. I remember well a discussion on his merits that took place
+in the porter's lodge one night just after twelve. When several had
+given their opinions more or less strongly, some one asked the gate-ward
+what he thought of the individual in question, to which that eminent
+functionary thus replied: "Why, you see, sir, I'm only a servant, and,
+as such, can't speak freely, but I wish he was dead, I do."
+
+As I have said, Livingstone disliked Selkirk heartily, and did not take
+the trouble to conceal it. He used to look at him sometimes with a
+curious expression in his eyes, which made the tutor twirl and writhe
+uncomfortably in his chair. The latter annoyed him as much as he
+possibly could, but Guy held on the even tenor of his way, seldom
+contravening the statutes except in hunting three days a week, which he
+persisted in doing, all lectures and regulations notwithstanding. He
+rode little under fourteen stone even then; but the three horses he kept
+were well up to his weight, and he stood A 1 in Jem Hill's estimation as
+"the best heavy-weight that had come out of Oxford for many a day;" for
+he not only went straight as a die, but rode _to_ hounds instead of
+_over_ them. I suppose this latter practice is inherent in University
+sportsmen. I know, in my time, the way in which they pressed on hounds,
+for the first two fields out of cover or after a check, used to make the
+gray hairs, which were the brave old huntsman's crown of glory, stand on
+end with indignation and terror, so that he prayed devoutly for a big
+fence which, like the broken bridge at Leipsic, might prove a stopper to
+the pursuing army. There was the making of a good rider in many of them,
+too; they only wanted ballast, for they knew no more of fear than Nelson
+did, and would grind over the Vale of the Evenlode and the Marsh Gibbon
+double timber as gayly and undauntedly as over the accommodating
+Bullingdon hurdles. And what screws they rode! ancient animals bearing
+as many scars as a _vieux de la vieille_, that were considered short of
+work if they did not come out five days a fortnight. This was Guy's
+favorite pursuit; but he threw off the superfluity of his animal
+energies in all sorts of athletics: in sparring especially he attained a
+rare excellence; so well-known was it, indeed, that he passed his first
+year without striking a blow in anger, through default of an antagonist,
+except a chance one or two exchanged in the _melee_ which is imperative
+on the 5th of November.
+
+I did not hunt much myself, for my health was far from strong, and, I
+confess, my University recollections are not lively.
+
+After the first flush of novelty had worn off, they bored one
+intensely--those large wines and suppers where, night by night, a score
+of Nephelegeretae sat shrouded in smoke, chanting the same equivocal
+ditties, drinking the same fiery liquors miscalled the juice of the
+grape, villainous enough to make the patriarch that planted the vine
+stir remorsefully in his grave under Ararat--each man all the while
+talking "shop," _a l'outrance_. The skeleton of ennui sat at these
+dreary feasts; and it was not even crowned with roses. I often used to
+wonder what the majority of my contemporaries conversed about, when in
+the bosom of their families, during the "long." They couldn't _always_
+have been inflicting Oxford on their miserable relatives; the weakest of
+human natures would have revolted against such tyranny; and yet the
+horizon of their ideas seemed as utterly bounded by Bagley and
+Headington Hill as if the great ocean-stream had flowed outside those
+limits. Some adventurous spirits, it is true, stretched away as far as
+Woodstock and Abingdon, but I doubt if they returned much improved by
+the grand tour.
+
+One of their most remarkable characteristics was the invincible terror
+and repugnance that they appeared to entertain to the society of women
+of their own class. When the visitation was inevitable, it is
+impossible to describe the great horror that fell on these unfortunate
+boys. The feeling of Zanoni's pupil, as the Watcher on the Threshold
+came floating and creeping toward him, was nothing to it.
+
+For example, at Commemoration--to which festival "lions" from all
+quarters of the earth resorted in vast droves--when one of this class
+was hard hit by the charms of some fair stranger, he never thought of
+expressing his admiration otherwise than by piteous looks, directed at
+her from an immense distance, out of shot for an opera-glass; when in
+her immediate vicinity his motto was that of the Breton baron--_mourir
+muet_. Claret-cup flowed and Champagne sparkled, powerless to raise him
+to the audacity of an avowal. Under the woods of Nuneham, in the gardens
+of Blenheim, amid the crowd of the Commemoration ball, the same deep
+river of diffidence flowed between him and his happiness. My own idea is
+that, after all was over, the silent ones, like Jacques' stricken deer,
+used to "go weep" over chances lost and opportunities neglected. With
+waitresses at wayside inns, _et id genus omne_, they were tolerably
+self-possessed and reliant; though even there "a thousand might well be
+stopped by three," and I would have backed an intelligent barmaid
+against the field at odds; indeed, I think I have seen a security nearly
+allied to contempt on the fine features of a certain "lone _star_" as
+she parried--so easily!--the compliments and repartees of a dozen
+assailants at once, accounted, in their own quadrangles, Millamours of
+the darkest dye.
+
+Guy accounted for this unfortunate peculiarity by saying that a cigar
+in the mouth was the normal state of many of these men; so that, when
+circumstances debarred them from the Havana courage, they lost all
+presence of mind, and, being unable to retreat under cover of the smoke,
+lapsed instantly into a sullen despair, suffering themselves to be shot
+down unresistingly. Perhaps some future philosopher will favor us with a
+better solution to this important problem in physics; I know of none.
+
+After all, the reading men did best, though we did not think so then,
+when we saw them creeping into morning chapel jaded and heavy-eyed,
+after a debauch over Herodotus or the Stagyrite. They had a purpose in
+view, at all events, and, I believe, were placidly content during the
+progress of its attainment--in the seventh heaven when their hopes were
+crowned by a First, or even a Second. True; the pace was too good for
+some of the half-bred ones, and such as could not stand the training,
+who departed, to fade away rapidly in the old house at home, or to pine,
+slowly, but very surely, in remote curacies.
+
+Some of these, I fancy, must have sympathized with Madame de Stael's
+consumptive niece, who answered to the question, "Why she was weeping
+all alone?" "_Je me regrette._" When, resting in their daily walk,
+shortened till it became a toil to reach the shady seat under the elms
+at the garden's end, they watched the stalwart plowmen and drovers go
+striding by, without a trouble behind their tanned foreheads except the
+thought that wages might fall a shilling a week, was there no envy, I
+wonder, as they looked down on the wan hands lying so listless across
+their knees? Would they not have given their First, and their fellowship
+in embryo to boot, to have had the morning appetite of Tom Chauntrell,
+the horse-breaker, after twelve pipes overnight, with gin and water to
+match, or to have been able, like Joe Springett, the under keeper, to
+breast the steepest brae in Cumberland with never a sob or a painful
+breath? Did they never murmur while thinking how brightly the blade
+might have flashed, how deftly have been wielded, if the worthless
+scabbard had only lasted out till, on some grand field-day, the word was
+given, "Draw swords?" Some felt this, doubtless; but the most part, I
+imagine, were possessed with a comfortable assurance that their short
+life had been useful, if not ornamental; and so, to a certain extent,
+they had their reward. At any rate, their ending was to the full as
+glorious as that of some other friends of ours, who crawl away from the
+battle-ground of the _Viveurs_ to die, or to linger on helpless
+hypochondriacs.
+
+If I have spoken depreciatingly or unfairly of the mass of my college
+coevals (and it may well be so), I do full justice, in thought at least,
+to some brilliant exceptions. I founded friendships there which, I
+trust, will outlive me.
+
+I do not forget Warrenne, too good for the men he lived with, a David in
+our camp of Kedar--always going on straight in the path he thought
+right--though ever and anon his hot Irish blood would chafe fiercely
+under the curb self-imposed--and laboring incessantly, with all
+gentleness, to induce others to follow; a Launcelot in his devotion to
+womankind; a Galahad in purity of thought and purpose. I have never
+known a man of the world so single-hearted, or a saint with so much
+_savoir vivre_.
+
+I see before me now Lovell, with his frank look and cheery laugh, the
+model of a stalwart English squirehood; and Petre, equal to either
+fortune; in reverse or success calm and impassible as Athos the
+mousquetaire; regarding money simply as a circulating medium, with the
+profoundest contempt for its actual value--_se ruinant en prince_. He
+edified us greatly, on one occasion, by meeting his justly offended
+father with a stern politeness, declining to hold any communication with
+him by word or letter till he (the sire) "could express himself in a
+more Christian spirit."
+
+Then there was Barlowe, the pearl of gentlemen riders, the very apple of
+Charles Symond's eye; unspoiled by a hundred triumphs, and never
+degenerating into the professional, though I believe his idea of earthly
+felicity was,
+
+A match for L50, 10 st. 7 lb. each. Owners up. Over 4 miles of a fair
+hunting country.
+
+I see him, too, with his pleasant face, round, rosy, and beardless as a
+child-cherub of Rubens, tempting pale men with splitting heads to throw
+boots at him in the bitterness of their envy as he entered their rooms
+on the morning after a heavy drink, his eyes so clear and guileless that
+you would never guess how sharp they could be at times when a dangerous
+horse was coming up on his quarter. A strange compound his character was
+of cool calculation and sentimental simplicity. The most astute of
+trainers never got the better of him in making a match; and I am sure,
+to this day, he believes in ----'s poetry, and in the immutability of
+feminine affection.
+
+How agreeable he was about the small hours, chirping over his grog;
+alternating between reminiscences of "My tutor's daughter" and recitals
+of choice morsels in verse and prose; misquoting, to the utter
+annihilation of rhythm and sense, but all with perfect gravity, good
+faith, and satisfaction!
+
+_Nec te, memorande, relinquam_--true Tom Lynton! not clever, not even
+high-bred, but loved by every one for the honestest and kindest heart
+that ever was the kernel of a rough rind.
+
+Do we not remember that supper where the Fathers of England were being
+discussed? Every one, drawn on by the current, had a stone to throw at
+his relieving officer, the complaint, of course, being a general
+tightness in the supplies. At last, Tom, who, though his own sire was an
+austere man, could not bear to hear the absent run down, broke in,
+gravely remonstrating,
+
+"Well, gentlemen," he said, "remember they're our _fellow-creatures_, at
+all events."
+
+They drank "Lynton and the Governors" with a compound multiplication of
+cheers.
+
+I might mention more; but a face rises just now before me which makes me
+close the muster-roll--the face of one who united in himself many, very
+many of the best qualities of the others; of one whom I shrink from
+naming here, lest it should seem that I do so lightly--a face that I saw
+six hours before its features became set forever.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+     _"De tot' anaschomeno, ho men elase dexion omon
+     Iros, ho d' auchen' elassen hup' ouatos, ostea d' eiso
+     Ethlasen; autika d' elthen ana stoma phoinion haima."_
+
+
+Toward the end of my second year an event came off in which we were all
+much interested--a steeplechase in which both Universities were to take
+part. The stakes were worth winning--twenty sovs. entrance, h.f., and a
+hundred sovs. added; besides, the _esprit de corps_ was strong, and men
+backed their opinions pretty freely. The venue was fixed at B----; the
+time, the beginning of the Easter vacation.
+
+The old town was crowded like Vanity Fair. There was a railway in
+progress near, and the navvies and other "roughs" came flocking in by
+hundreds, so that the municipal authorities, justly apprehensive of a
+row, concentrated the cohorts of their police, and swore in no end of
+specials as a reserve.
+
+The great event came off duly, a fair instance of the "glorious
+uncertainty" which backers of horses execrate and ring-men adore. All
+the favorites were out of the race early. Our best man, Barlowe, the
+centre of many hopes, and carrying a heavy investment of Oxford money,
+was floored at the second double post-and-rail. The Cambridge cracks,
+too, by divers casualties, were soon disposed of. At the last fence, an
+Oxford man was leading by sixty yards; but it was his maiden race, and
+he lost his head when he found himself looking like a winner so near
+home. Instead of taking the stake-and-bound at the weakest place, he
+rode at the strongest; his horse swerved to the gap, took the fence
+sideways, and came down heavily into the ditch of the winning field. The
+representative of Cambridge, who came next, riding a good steady hunter,
+not fast, but safe at his fences, cantered in by himself. I remember he
+was so bewildered by his unexpected victory that one of his backers had
+to hold him fast in the saddle, or he would have dismounted before
+riding to scale, and so lost the stakes.
+
+Well, the race was over and the laurels lost, so we had nothing to do
+but pay and look pleasant, and then adjourn to the inevitable banquet at
+"The George." There was little to distinguish the proceedings from the
+routine of such festivals. The winners stood Champagne, and the losers
+drank it--to any amount. The accidents of flood and field were discussed
+over and over again; and, I believe, every man of the twenty-three who
+had ridden that day could and did prove, to his own entire satisfaction,
+that he must have won but for some freak of fortune totally unavoidable,
+and defying human calculation.
+
+About nine o'clock I went out with another man to get some fresh air,
+and something I wanted in the town. At the corner of every street there
+was a group of heavy, sullen faces, looking viciously ready for a row,
+while out of the windows of the frequent public houses gushed bursts of
+revelry hideously discordant, from the low-browed rooms where the wild
+Irish sat howling and wrangling over their liquor. However, we got what
+we wanted, and were returning, when, in a street on our left, we heard
+cries and a trampling of many feet. Two figures, looking like University
+men, passed us at speed, and, throwing something down before us, dived
+into an alley opposite, and were lost to sight. My companion picked up
+the object; and we had just time to make out that it was a bell-handle
+and name-plate, when the pursuers came up--six or seven "peelers" and
+specials, with a ruck of men and boys. We were collared on the instant.
+The fact of the property being found in our possession constituted a
+_flagrans delictum_--we were caught "red-handed." It was vain to argue
+that, had we been the delinquents, we should scarcely have been standing
+there still, awaiting discovery. The idea of arguing with a rural
+policeman, when, by a rare coincidence, popular feeling is with him! The
+mob regarded our capture, exulting like the Romans over Jugurtha in
+chains. It was decided "we were to go before the Inspector." We were
+placed in the centre of a phalanx of specials, each guarded by two
+regulars; and so the triumph, followed by a train that swelled at every
+turning, moved slowly along the Sacred Way toward the temple of the
+station-house, where the municipal Jupiter Capitolinus sat in his glory.
+
+Before we had proceeded three hundred yards there was a shout from the
+crowd, "Look out! here come the 'Varsity!" and down a cross street
+leading from the inn, two hundred gownsmen, wild with wrath and wassail,
+came leaping to the rescue.
+
+In the van of all I caught sight of two figures--one that I knew very
+well, towering, bareheaded, a hand's-breadth above the throng; the
+other, something below the middle height, but shaggy, vast-chested, and
+double-jointed as a red Highland steer--M'Diarmid of Trinity, glory of
+the Cambridge gymnasium, and "5" in the University eight. They were not
+shouting like the rest, but hitting out straight and remorselessly; and
+before those two strong Promachi, townsman and navvy, peeler and
+special, went down like blades of corn. Close at their shoulder I
+distinguished Lovell, his clear blue eyes lightening savagely; and stout
+Tom Lynton, a deeper flush on his honest face, hewing away with all the
+unscientific strength of his nervous arm.
+
+But my two guards, very Abdiels in their duty, never let me go; on the
+contrary, one tightened his gripe on my throat suffocatingly, while the
+other, though I remained perfectly quiescent, kept giving me gentle
+hints to keep the peace with the end of his staff. I was getting sick
+and dizzy, when something passed my cheek like the wind of a ball; there
+was a dull, crashing sound close at my ear; the grasp on my neck relaxed
+all at once; I felt something across my feet, and saw a dark blue mass,
+topped by the ruin of a shiny hat, lying there quite still; an arm was
+round my waist like the coil of a cable, and I heard Guy's voice
+laughing loud,
+
+"My dear Frank," he said, as he dragged me away toward the inn, "the
+centre of a row, as usual. _Que, diable, allait il faire dans cette
+bagarre?_"
+
+I hardly heard him, for my senses were still confused; but in thirty
+seconds I was under the archway of "The George." As the heroines of the
+Radcliffe romances say, "I turned to thank my preserver, but he was
+gone."
+
+When I recovered my breath, I went up to a balcony on the first floor
+and looked out. The tide of the affray was surging gradually back into
+the wide open space before the inn, and very shortly this was filled
+with a chaos of furious faces and struggling arms. The University were
+evidently recoiling, pressed back by the sheer weight of their
+opponents; but soon came a re-enforcement of grooms and stable-men,
+lightweights, active and wiry; and these, with their hunting-crops and
+heavy cutting-whips used remorselessly--like Caesar's legionaries, they
+struck only at the face--once more re-established the balance of the
+battle.
+
+Suddenly the _melee_ seemed to converge to one point--the mid-eddy, as
+it were, of the whirlpool; then came a lull, almost a hush; and then
+fifty strong arms, indiscriminately of town and gownsmen, were locked to
+keep the ground, while a storm of voices shouted for "A ring!"
+
+In that impromptu arena two men stood face to face under the full glare
+of the gas-lamps--one was Guy Livingstone; the other a denizen of the
+Potteries, yclept "Burn's Big 'un," who had selected B---- as his
+training quarters, in preparation for his fight to come off in the
+ensuing week with the third best man in England for L100 a side.
+
+They made a magnificent contrast. Guy, apparently quite composed, but
+the lower part of his face set stern and pitiless; an evil light in his
+eyes, showing how all the gladiator in his nature was roused; his left
+hand swaying level with his hip; all the weight of his body resting on
+the right foot; his lofty head thrown back haughtily; his guard low. The
+professional, three inches shorter than his adversary, but a rare model
+of brute strength; his arms and neck, where the short jersey left them
+exposed, clear-skinned and white as a woman's, through the perfection of
+his training; his hair cropped close round a low, retreating forehead;
+his thick lips parted in a savage grin, meant to represent a smile of
+confidence. So they stood there--fitting champions of the races that
+have been antagonistic for four thousand years--Patrician and
+Proletarian.
+
+Suddenly there was a commotion at one corner of the ring, and I saw a
+small, bullet-headed man, with a voice like a fractious child, striving
+frantically to force his way through. "Don't let 'em fight!" he
+screamed: "it's robbery, I tell you. There's hundreds of pounds on him
+for Thursday next, I'm his trainer; and I daren't show him with a
+scratch on him."
+
+A great roar of laughter answered his entreaties, and twenty arms thrust
+the little man back; but his interesting charge seemed to ponder and
+hesitate, when a drawling nasal voice spoke from the opposite corner:
+"Ah! you're right; take him away; don't show his white feather till
+you're druv to it." That turned the wavering scale. The Big 'un ground
+his teeth with blasphemy, and set-to.
+
+I need not go through the minutiae of the fight; it was all one way. The
+professional did his best, and took his punishment like a glutton; but
+he could do nothing against the long reach of his adversary, who stopped
+and countered as coolly as if he had only the gloves on.
+
+It was the beginning of the sixth round; our champion bore only one
+mark, showing where a tremendous right-hander had almost come home--a
+cut on his lower lip, whence the bright Norman blood was flowing freely.
+I will not attempt to describe the hideous changes that ten minutes had
+wrought in his opponent's countenance; but I think I was not the only
+spectator who felt a thrill of fear mingling with disgust as the Big 'un
+made his despairing effort, and fought his way in to the terrible
+"half-arm rally." In truth, there was something unearthly and awful in
+the sight of the maimed and mangled Colossus; his huge breast heaving
+with wrath and pain; his one unblinded eye glaring unutterably; his
+crushed lips churning the crimson foam. It was the last rash of the
+Cordovan bull goaded to madness by picador and chulo; but Guy's fatal
+left met him, straight, unyielding as the blade of the matador; twice he
+reeled back wellnigh stunned; the third time he dropped his head
+cleverly, so as to avoid the blow, and grappled. For some seconds the
+two were locked together, undistinguishably; then we saw Guy's right
+hand, never used till then save as a guard, rise and fall twice with a
+dull, smashing sound, which was bad to hear; then the huge form of the
+prize-fighter was whirled up unresistingly over his antagonist's hip,
+and fell crashing down at his feet, a heap of blind, senseless, bleeding
+humanity.
+
+"Time!" You must call louder yet before he will hear, and lance a vein
+in the throat before he will answer.
+
+Then, in the old market-place of B----, there went up such a shout as I
+think it has never heard since Vikings and Berserkyr caroused there
+after storming the town. The gownsmen, as they will do on slighter
+provocation, screamed themselves hoarse and voiceless with delight; and
+their late opponents--the honest Saxon's love of a fair fight overcoming
+the spirit of the partisan--echoed and prolonged the cheer.
+
+There was no more thought of battle or broil; and there were as many
+navvies as University men among the enthusiasts who bore the champion on
+their shoulders into "The George."
+
+How we reveled on that night of victory, especially when Guy, after
+necessary ablutions and change of raiment, joined us, calm and
+self-possessed as ever, only slightly swelled about the lower lip, and a
+dark red flush on his forehead! He had satisfactory accounts of his
+adversary, the said amiable individual having so far recovered, under
+the surgeon's hands, as to swear thrice--"quite like hisself," the
+messenger said--and to call for cold brandy and water.
+
+Livingstone's health was proposed twice--the first time by a fellow of
+King's, with a neat talent for classical allusions, who remarked that,
+"if the olive-crown of the Hippodrome had fallen to the lot of
+Cambridge, none would deny her sister's claim to the parsley of the
+caestus." The second time was very late in the evening, by M'Diarmid. It
+must be confessed that gallant chieftain was somewhat incoherent, and
+amid protestations of admiration and eternal friendship, much to our
+astonishment, wept profusely. Still later, he got very maudlin indeed,
+and was heard to murmur, looking at his scarred knuckles, that "he was
+afraid he must have hurt some one that night," with an accent of
+heartfelt sorrow and contrition which was inimitable.
+
+We heard afterward that the taunt which made the fight a certainty came
+from the commissioner of the party who stood heavily against the Big
+'un, sent down to watch him in his training, and spy out the joints in
+his harness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+     "As he rode down the sanctified bends of the Bow,
+     Each carline was flyting and shaking her pow;
+     But the young Plants of Grace they looked couthie and slee,
+     Saying, 'Luck to thy bonnet, thou bonnie Dundee.'"
+
+
+In the autumn of that year my chest became so troublesome that I was
+obliged to try Italy. Thither I went; and, about the same time, Guy was
+gazetted to the ---- Life Guards. The struggle between climate and
+constitution was protracted, and for a long time doubtful; but winters
+without fog, and springs without cold winds, worked wonders, and at last
+carried the day. In the fourth year they told me I might risk England
+again. Moving homeward slowly, I reached London about the beginning of
+December--a most unfavorable season, it is true; but I was weary of
+foreign wandering, and wanted to spend Christmas somewhere in the
+fatherland, though where I had not yet determined.
+
+I had heard tolerably often from Livingstone during my absence. His
+letters were very amusing, containing all sorts of news, and remarks on
+men and manners. They would have pleased me more if they had not
+indicated a vein of sarcasm deepening into cynicism.
+
+I stand very much alone in this world, and had few family visits to
+detain me; so, on the morning after my arrival, I went down to the
+Knightsbridge barracks, where Guy's regiment happened to be quartered.
+
+It was a field-day, his servant said, and his master was out with his
+troop; but he expected him in very shortly. Captain Forrester was
+waiting breakfast for him up stairs.
+
+As I entered the room, its occupant turned his head languidly on the
+sofa-cushion which supported it; but when he saw it was a stranger, sat
+up, and, on hearing my name, actually rose and came toward me.
+
+"Livingstone will be charmed to find you here, Mr. Hammond," he said, in
+a voice that, though slightly affected and _trainante_, was very
+musical. "I don't know if he ever mentioned Charley Forrester to you,
+who must do the honors of the barrack-room in his absence?"
+
+I had heard of him very often; and, though my expectations as to his
+personal appearance had been raised, I own the first glance did not
+disappoint them. He was about three-and-twenty then, rather tall, but
+very slightly built; his eyes long, sleepy, of a violet blue; features
+small and delicately cut, with a complexion so soft and bright that his
+silky, chestnut mustache hardly saved the face from effeminacy; his
+hands and feet would have satisfied the Pacha of Tebelen at once as to
+his purity of race; indeed, though Charley was not disposed to
+undervalue any of his own bodily advantages, I imagine he considered his
+extremities as his strong point. His manner was very fascinating, and,
+with women, had a sort of caress in it which is hard to describe, though
+even with _them_ he seldom excited himself much, preferring,
+consistently, the passive to the active part in the conversation.
+Indeed, his golden rule was the Arabic maxim, _Agitel lil
+Shaitan_--Hurry is the Devil's--so, in the flirtations which were the
+serious business of his life, he always let his fish hook themselves,
+just exerting himself enough to play them afterward.
+
+In ten minutes we were very good friends, talking pleasantly of all
+sorts of things, though Forrester had resumed his recumbent posture, and
+I could not help fearing it was only a strong effort of politeness or
+sense of duty which enabled him always to answer at the right time.
+
+Before long we heard the clatter of horses' hoofs and the rattle of
+steel scabbards, and I looked out at the squadrons defiling into the
+barrack-yard. My eye fell upon Livingstone at once: it was not difficult
+to distinguish him, for few, if any, among those troopers, picked from
+the flower of all the counties north of the Humber, could compare with
+him for length of limb and breadth of shoulder. I felt proud of him, as
+the hero of my boyhood, looking at him there, on his great black
+charger, square and steadfast as the keep of a castle.
+
+His servant spoke to him as he dismounted. I saw his features soften and
+brighten in an instant; in five seconds he was in the room, and the
+light was on his face still--I like to think of it--the light of a
+frank, cordial welcome, as he griped my hand.
+
+He was changed, certainly, but for the better. The features, which in
+early youth had been too rugged and strongly marked, harmonized
+perfectly with the vast proportions of a frame now fully developed,
+though still lean in the flanks as a wolf-hound. The stern expression
+about his mouth was more decided and unvarying than ever--an effect
+which was increased by the heavy mustache that, dense as a Cuirassier's
+of the Old Guard, fell over his lip in a black cascade. It was the face
+of one of those stone Crusaders who look up at us from their couches in
+the Round Church of the Temple.
+
+Before our first sentences were concluded, Forrester had nerved himself
+to the effort of rising, and turned to go.
+
+"You must have fifty things to say to each other," he said. "You'll find
+me in the mess-room. But, Guy, don't be long; I've no appetite myself
+this morning, and it will refresh me to see you eat your breakfast;" and
+so faded away gradually through the door.
+
+"How do you like him?" Livingstone called out from the inner room, where
+he was donning the "mufti." "He's not so conceited as he might be,
+considering how the women spoil him; and, lazy as he looks, he is a very
+fair officer, and goes across country like a bird. Did I ever tell you
+what first made him famous?"
+
+"No; I should like to hear."
+
+"Well, it was at a picnic at Cliefden. Charley was hardly nineteen then,
+and had just joined the ----th Lancers at Hounslow; he wandered away,
+and got lost with Kate Harcourt, a self-possessed beauty in high
+condition for flirting, for she had had three seasons of hard training.
+When they had been away from their party about two hours, she felt, or
+pretended to feel, the awkwardness of the situation, and asked her
+cavalier, in a charmingly helpless and confiding way, what they were to
+do. 'Well, I hardly know,' Forrester answered, languidly; 'but I don't
+mind proposing to you, if that will do you any good.' A fair performance
+for an untried colt, was it not? Miss Harcourt thought so, and said so,
+and Charley woke next morning with an established renown. Shall we go
+and find him?"
+
+After breakfast we went with Guy to his room, to do the regulation
+cigar.
+
+"I know you've made no plans, Frank," Livingstone said, "so I have
+settled every thing for you already. You are coming down to Kerton with
+us. We have just got our long leave, and our horses went down three days
+ago."
+
+"It's very nice of him to say 'our horses,'" interrupted Forrester.
+"Mine consist of one young one, that has been over about eight fences in
+his life, and a mare, that I call the Wandering Jewess, for I don't
+think she will ever die, and I am sure she will never rest till she
+does: what with being park-hack in the summer and cover-hack in the
+winter, with a by-day now and then when the country's light, she's the
+best instance of perpetual motion I know. Well, it's not my fault the
+chief won't let us hunt our second chargers--that's the charm of being
+in a crack regiment--I always have one lame at least, and no one will
+sell me hunters on tick."
+
+"Don't be so plaintive, Charley; you've nearly all mine to ride: it's a
+treat to them, poor things, to feel your light weight and hand, after
+carrying my enormous carcass. That's settled, then, Frank; you come with
+us?" Guy said.
+
+"I shall be very glad. I only want a day to get my traps together." So
+two days afterward we three came down to Kerton Manor. It was not my
+first visit to Livingstone's home, but I have not described it before.
+
+Fancy a very large, low house, built in two quadrangles--the offices and
+stables forming the smaller one farthermost from the main entrance--of
+the light gray stone common in Northamptonshire, darkened at the angles
+and buttresses into purple, and green, and bistre by the storms of three
+hundred years; on the south side, smooth turf, with islands in it of
+bright flower-beds, sloped down to a broad, slow stream, where grave,
+stately swans were always sailing to and fro, and moor-hens diving among
+the rushes; on the other sides, a park, extensive, but somewhat
+rough-looking, stretched away, and, all round, lines of tall avenue
+radiated--the bones of a dead giant's skeleton--for Kerton once stood in
+the centre of a royal forest.
+
+You entered into a wide, low hall, the oak ceiling resting on broad
+square pillars of the same dark wood; all round hung countless memorials
+of chase and war, for the Livingstones had been hunters and soldiers
+beyond the memory of man.
+
+Often, passing through of a winter's evening, I have stopped to watch
+the fitful effects of the great logs burning on the andirons, as their
+light died away, deadened among brown bear-skins and shadowy antlers, or
+played, redly reflected, on the mail-shirt and corslet of Crusader or
+Cavalier.
+
+There were many portraits too; one, the most remarkable, fronted you as
+you came through the great doorway, the likeness of a very handsome man
+in the uniform of a Light Dragoon; under this hung a cavalry sword, and
+a brass helmet shaded with black horse-hair. The portrait and sword were
+those of Guy's father; the helmet belonged to the Cuirassier who slew
+him.
+
+It was in a skirmish with part of Kellermann's brigade, near the end of
+the Peninsular war; Colonel Livingstone was engaged with an adversary in
+his front, when a trooper, delivering point from behind, ran him through
+the body. He had got his death-wound, and knew it; but he came of a race
+that ever died hard and dangerously; he only ground his teeth, and,
+turning short in his saddle, cut the last assailant down. Look at the
+helmet, with the clean, even gap in it, cloven down to the
+cheek-strap--the stout old Laird of Colonsay struck no fairer blow.
+
+It was curious to mark how the same expression of sternness and decision
+about the lips and lower part of the face, which was so remarkable in
+their descendants, ran through the long row of ancestral portraits. You
+saw it--now, beneath the half-raised visor of Sir Malise, surnamed
+_Poing-de-fer_, who went up the breach at Ascalon shoulder to shoulder
+with strong King Richard--now, yet more grimly shadowed forth, under the
+cowl of Prior Bernard, the ambitious ascetic, whom, they say, the great
+Earl of Warwick trusted as his own right hand--now, softened a little,
+but still distinctly visible, under the long love-locks of Prince
+Rupert's aid-de-camp, who died at Naseby manfully in his harness--now,
+contrasting strangely with the elaborately powdered peruke and delicate
+lace ruffles of Beau Livingstone, the gallant, with the whitest hand,
+the softest voice, the neatest knack at a sonnet, and the deadliest
+rapier at the court of good Queen Anne. Nay, you could trace it in the
+features of many a fair Edith and Alice, half counteracting the magnetic
+attraction of their melting eyes.
+
+On the sunny south side, looking across the flower-garden, were Lady
+Catharine Livingstone's rooms, where, diligent as Matilda and her
+maidens, in summer by the window, in winter by the fire; the pale
+chatelaine sat over her embroidery. What rivers of tapestry must have
+flowed from under those slender white fingers during their ceaseless
+toil of twenty years!
+
+The good that she did in her neighborhood can not be told. She was kind
+and hospitable, too, to her female guests, in her own haughty,
+undemonstrative way; nevertheless, the wives and daughters of the
+squirearchy regarded her with great awe and fear. Perhaps she felt this,
+though she could not alter it, and the sense of isolation may have
+deepened the shades on her sad face. She had only one thing on earth to
+centre her affections on, and that one she worshiped with a love
+stronger than her sense of duty; for, since his father died, she had
+never been able to check Guy in a single whim.
+
+When he had a hunting-party in the house, she sometimes would not appear
+for days; but, however early he might start for the meet, I do not think
+he ever left his dressing-room without his mother's kiss on his cheek.
+She knew, as well as any one, how recklessly her son rode; nothing but
+his science, coolness, and great strength in the saddle could often have
+saved him from some terrible accident. Many times, in the middle of the
+day's sport, the thought has come across me piteously of that poor lady,
+in her lonely rooms, trembling, and I am very sure praying, for her
+darling.
+
+On the opposite side of the court were Guy's own apartments: first, what
+was called by courtesy his study--an armory of guns and other weapons, a
+chaos _e rebus omnibus et quibusdam aliis_, for he never had the
+faintest conception of the beauty of order; then came the smoking-room,
+with its great divans and scattered card-tables; then Livingstone's
+bed-room and dressing-room.
+
+Did the distance and the doors always deaden the sounds of late revels,
+so as not to break Lady Catharine's slumbers? I fear not.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+     "Thou art not steeped in golden languors;
+     No tranced summer calm is thine,
+     Ever-varying Madeline."
+
+
+
+It was a woodland meet, a long way off, the morning after we arrived, so
+we staid at home; and, after breakfast, Guy having to give audience to
+keepers and other retainers, I strolled out with Forrester to smoke in
+the stables. I have seldom seen a lot which united so perfectly bone and
+blood. Livingstone gave any price for his horses; the only thing he was
+not particular about was their temper; more than one looked eminently
+unsuited to a nervous rider, and a swinging bar behind them warned the
+stranger against incautious approach.
+
+After duly discussing and admiring the stud, we established ourselves on
+the sunniest stone bench in the garden, and I asked my companion to tell
+me something of what Guy had been doing during my absence.
+
+"Well, it's rather hard to say," answered Charley. "He never takes the
+trouble to conceal any thing; but then, you see, he never tells one any
+thing either; so it's only guess work, after all. He lives very much
+like other men in the Household Brigade; plays heavily, though not
+regularly; but he always has two _affaires de coeur_, at least, on
+hand at once; that's his stint."
+
+"So he still persecutes the weaker sex unremittingly?" I asked,
+laughing.
+
+"In a way peculiar to himself," said Forrester; "he is always strictly
+courteous, but decidedly sarcastic. Poor things, they are easily imposed
+upon; he very soon has them well in hand, and they can never get their
+heads up afterward. I suppose they like it, for it seems to answer
+admirably. Last season he divided himself pretty equally between
+Constance Brandon and Flora Bellasys--quite the two best things out,
+though as opposite to each other in every way as the poles. To do Miss
+Brandon justice, I don't think she knew much of the other flirtation;
+she always went away early, and he used to take up her rival for the
+rest of the evening."
+
+"But the said rival--how did she like the divided homage?"
+
+"Not at all at first; at least, she used to look revolvers at Guy from
+time to time--(ah! you should see the Bellasys' eyes when they begin to
+lighten)--but he always brought her back to the lure, and at last she
+seemed to take it quite as a matter of course, keeping all her
+after-supper waltzes for him religiously, though half the men in town
+were trying to cut in. I can't make out how he does it. Do you think his
+size and sinews can have any thing to do with it?" He said this gravely
+and reflectively.
+
+"Not unlikely," I replied; "the _fortiter in re_ goes a long way with
+women apparently, even where there is not a tongue like his to back it.
+Don't you remember Juvenal's strong-minded heroine, who left husband and
+home to follow the scarred, maimed gladiator? I doubt if the Mirmillo
+was a pleasant or intellectual companion. Now I want you to tell me
+something about Guy's cousin and her father; they are coming here
+to-day, and I have never met them."
+
+"Mr. Raymond is very like most calm, comfortable old men with a life
+interest in L2000 a year," Charley said; "rather more cold and
+impassible than the generality, perhaps. He _must_ be clever, for he
+plays whist better than any one I know; but not brilliant, certainly.
+His daughter is"--the color deepened on his cheek perceptibly--"very
+charming, most people think; but I hate describing people. I always
+caricature the likeness. You'll form your own judgment at dinner. Shall
+we go in? We shoot an outlying cover after luncheon, and the blackthorns
+involve gaiters."
+
+We had very fair sport, and were returning across the park, picking up a
+stray rabbit every now and then in the tufts of long grass and patches
+of brake. One had just started before Forrester, and he was in the act
+of pulling the trigger, when Livingstone said suddenly,
+
+"There's my uncle's carriage coming down the north avenue."
+
+It was an easy shot in the open, but Charley missed it clean.
+
+"What eyes you have, Guy," he said, pettishly; "but I wish you wouldn't
+speak to a man on his shot."
+
+Guy's great Lancaster rang out with the roar of a small field-piece, and
+the rabbit was rolling over, riddled through the head, before he
+answered,
+
+"Yea, my eyes _are_ good, and I see a good many things, but I _don't_
+see why you should have muffled that shot, particularly as my
+intelligence was meant for the world in general, and it was not such an
+astounding remark, after all."
+
+Charley did not seem ready with a reply, so he retained his look of
+injured innocence, and walked on, sucking silently at his cigar. The
+Raymonds reached the house before us; but, not being in a presentable
+state, I did not see them before dinner.
+
+Forrester was right; there was nothing startling about Mr. Raymond. He
+had one of those thin, high-bred looking faces that one always fancies
+would have suited admirably the powder and ruffles of the last century.
+It expressed little except perfect repose, and when he spoke, which was
+but seldom, no additional light came into his hard blue eyes. His
+daughter was his absolute contrast--a lovely, delicate little creature,
+with silky dark-brown hair, and eyes _en suite_, and color that deepened
+and faded twenty times in an hour, without ever losing the softness of
+its tints. She had the ways of a child petted all its life through, that
+a harsh word would frighten to annihilation. She seemed very fond of
+Guy, though evidently rather afraid of him at times.
+
+Nothing passed at dinner worth mentioning; but soon after the ladies
+left us, Mr. Raymond turned lazily to his nephew to inquire,
+
+"If he would mind asking Bruce to come and stay at Kerton, as he was to
+be in the neighborhood soon after Christmas."
+
+He did not seem to feel the faintest interest in the reply.
+
+"I shall be too glad, Uncle Henry," answered Guy (he did not look
+particularly charmed though), "if it will give you or Bella any
+pleasure. Need he be written to immediately?"
+
+"Thank you very much," said Raymond, languidly. "I know he bores you,
+and I am sure I don't wonder at it; but one must be civil to one's
+son-in-law that is to be. No, you need not trouble yourself to invite
+him yet. Bella can do it when she writes. I suppose she _does_ write to
+him sometimes."
+
+I looked across the table at Forrester. This was the first time I had
+heard of Miss Raymond's engagement. He met my eye quite unconcernedly,
+pursuing with great interest his occupation of peeling walnuts and
+dropping them into Sherry. It did not often happen to him to blush
+_twice_ in the twenty-four hours. Directly afterward we began to talk
+about pheasants and other things.
+
+After coffee in the drawing-room Guy sat down to piquet with his uncle.
+Raymond liked to utilize his evenings, and never played for nominal
+stakes. He was the _beau ideal_ of a card-player, certainly; no
+revolution or persistence of luck could ruffle the dead calm of his
+courteous face. He would win the money of his nearest and dearest
+friend, or lose his own to an utter stranger with the same placidity. To
+be sure, to a certain extent, he had enslaved Fortune; though he always
+played most loyally, and sometimes would forego an advantage he might
+fairly have claimed, his rare science made ultimate success scarcely
+doubtful. He never touched a game of mere chance.
+
+I heard a good story of him in Paris. They were playing a game like
+Brag; the principle being that the players increase the stakes without
+seeing each other's cards, till one refuses to go on and throws up, or
+shows his point. Raymond was left in at last with one adversary; the
+stakes had mounted up to a sum that was fearful, and it was his choice
+to double or _abattre_. Of course, it was of the last importance to
+discover whether the antagonist was strong or not; but the Frenchman's
+face gave not the slightest sign. He was _beau joueur s'il en fut_, and
+had lost two fair fortunes at play. Raymond hesitated, looking steadily
+into his opponent's eyes. All at once he smiled and doubled instantly.
+The other dared not go on; he showed his point, and lost. They asked
+Raymond afterward how he could have detected any want of confidence to
+guide him in a face that looked like marble.
+
+"I saw three drops of perspiration on his forehead," he said; "and I
+knew my own hand was strong."
+
+Lady Catharine was resting on a sofa: she looked tired and paler than
+usual, not in the least available for conversation. Miss Raymond had
+nestled herself into the recesses of a huge arm-chair close to the
+fire--she was as fond of warmth, when she could not get sunshine, as a
+tropical bird--and Forrester was lounging on an ottoman behind her, so
+that his head almost touched her elbow. When I caught scraps of their
+conversation it seemed to be turning on the most ordinary subjects; but
+even in these I should have felt lost--I had been so long away from
+England--so I contented myself with watching them, and wondering why
+discussions as to the merits of operas and inquiries after mutual
+acquaintances should make the fair cheeks hang out signals of distress
+so often as they did that evening.
+
+I lingered in the smoking-room about midnight for a moment after
+Forrester left us.
+
+"So your cousin is really engaged?" I asked Guy.
+
+"_Tout ce qu'il y a du plus fiance_," was the answer. "It was one of the
+last affairs of state that my poor aunt concluded before she died. Bruce
+is a very good match. I don't think Bella worships him, though I have
+scarcely ever seen them together, and I am sure he is not a favorite
+with Uncle Henry; but nothing on earth would make him break it off;
+indeed, I know no one who would propose such a thing to him--not his
+daughter, certainly. There's no such hopeless obstacle as the passive
+resistance of a thoroughly lazy man. Good-night, Frank. I've sent the
+Baron on for you to-morrow. We must start about nine, mind, for we've
+fifteen miles to go to cover."
+
+I went to bed, and dreamed that Raymond was playing _ecarte_ with
+Forrester for his daughter, who stood by blushing beautifully--and never
+held a trump!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+     "She has two eyes so soft and brown;
+                     Take care!
+     She gives a side glance, and looks down;
+                     Beware! beware!
+     Trust her not; she is fooling thee."
+
+
+So the days went on. The stream of visitors usual in a country house
+during the hunting season flowed in and out of Kerton Manor without any
+remarkable specimen showing itself above the surface. One individual,
+perhaps, I ought to except, the curate of the parish, who was a very
+constant visitor.
+
+His appearance was not fascinating: he had a long, narrow head, thatched
+with straight, scanty hair; little, protruding eyes, and a complexion of
+a bright unvarying red--in fact, he was very like a prawn.
+
+It was soon evident that the Rev. Samuel Foster was helplessly smitten
+by Miss Raymond, or, as Forrester elegantly expressed it, "hard hit in
+the wings, and crippled for flying!" Helplessly, I say, but not
+hopelessly; for that wicked little creature, acting perhaps under
+private orders, gave him all sorts of treacherous encouragement. I never
+saw any human being evolve so much caloric under excitement as he did,
+except one young woman whom I met ages ago--(a most estimable person;
+her Sunday-school was a model)--whose only way of evincing any emotion,
+either of anger, fear, pain, or pleasure, was--a profuse perspiration.
+Mr. Foster not only got awfully hot, but electrical into the bargain.
+His thin hairs used to stand out distinctly and in relief from his head
+and face, just like a person on the glass tripod. Charley suggested
+insulating him unawares, and getting a flash out of his knuckles, if not
+out of his brain. In truth, it was piteous to see the struggle between
+passion and nervousness that raged perpetually within him. He would
+stand for some time casting _lamb's_-eyes at the object of his
+affections--to the amorous audacity of the full-grown sheep he never
+soared--then suddenly, without the slightest provocation, he would
+discharge at her a compliment, elaborate, long-winded, Grandisonian, as
+a raw recruit fires his musket, shutting his eyes, and incontinently
+take to flight, without waiting to see the effect of his shot. If he had
+spent half the time and pains on his sermons that he did on his
+small-talk (I believe he used to write out three or four foul copies of
+each sentence previously at home), what a boon it would have been to his
+unlucky audience on Sundays!
+
+Why is it that the great proportion of our pastors seem to conspire
+together with one consent to make the periodical duty of listening to
+them as hard as possible? Can they imagine there is profit or pleasure
+in a discourse wandering wearily round in a circle, or dragging a slow
+length along of truisms and trivialities? In the best of congregations
+there can be but few alchemists; and, without that science, who is to
+extract the essence of Truth from the _moles incongesta_ of crass
+moralities?
+
+To persuade or dissuade you must interest the head or the heart. I
+admire those who can do either successfully, but I do protest against
+those clerical tyrants who shelter themselves behind their license to
+fire at us their ruthless platitudes. If such could only struggle
+against that strong temptation of our fallen nature--the delight of
+hearing one's own sweet voice--so as to concentrate now and then! The
+best orators, spiritual and mundane, have been brief sometimes.
+
+I am no theologian, but I take leave to doubt if, in the elaborate
+divinity of fourteen epistles, the apostle of the Gentiles ever went so
+straight to his hearer's heart as in that farewell charge, when the
+elders of Ephesus gathered round him on the sea-sand, "Sorrowing most of
+all for the words that he spake, that they should see his face no more."
+
+Do you remember Canning and the clergyman? When the latter asked him,
+"How did you like my sermon? I endeavored not to be tedious;" I always
+fancy the statesman's weary, wistful look, which would have been
+compassionate but for a sense of personal injury, as he answered, in his
+mild voice, "And yet--_you were_."
+
+Well, the flirtation went on its way rejoicing, to the intense amusement
+of all of us, especially of Forrester, till one day his cousin came into
+Guy's study, who had just returned from hunting, looking rather
+frightened, like a child who has let fall a valuable piece of china--it
+was only an honest man's heart that she had broken. Slowly the truth
+came out; Mr. Foster had proposed to her that afternoon in the park.
+
+We, far off in the drawing-room, heard the shrill whistle with which
+Livingstone greeted the intelligence.
+
+"You accepted him, of course?" he said.
+
+"O Guy!" Miss Raymond answered, blushing more than ever. (I'll back a
+woman against the world for expressing half a chapter by a simple
+interjection; Lord Burleigh's nod is nothing to it.) "But, indeed," she
+went on, "I'm very sorry about it; I never saw any one look so unhappy
+before. Do you know I think I saw the tears standing in his eyes; and I
+only guessed at the words when he said 'God bless you!'"
+
+"Ah bah!" replied Guy, with his most cynical smile on his lip; "he'll
+recover. Who breaks his heart in these days, especially for such little
+dots of things as you? But, Bella mia, how do you think Mr. Bruce would
+approve of all these innocent amusements?"
+
+It was no blush now, but a dead waxen whiteness, that came over the
+beautiful face, even down to the chin. The soft brown eyes grew fixed
+and wild with an imploring terror. "You won't tell him?" she gasped out;
+and then stood quivering and shuddering. Guy was very much surprised: he
+had never believed greatly in his cousin's affection for her betrothed;
+but here there were signs, not only of the absence of love, but of the
+presence of physical fear.
+
+"My dear child," he said, very kindly, "don't alarm yourself so
+absurdly. I have not the honor of Mr. Bruce's confidence; and if I had,
+how could I tell him of an affair where _I_ have been most to blame?
+I'll speak to Foster; he must not show his disappointment even before
+Uncle Henry. You will be quite safe, you see. But, mind, I won't allow
+_any one_ to frighten or vex my pet cousin." His countenance lowered as
+he spoke, and there was a threat in his eyes.
+
+As the cloud darkened on his face, the light came back on Isabel
+Raymond's. She took his hand--all fibre and sinew, like an
+oak-bough--into her slender fingers and pressed it hard. In good truth,
+a woman at her need could ask no better defender than he who stood by
+her side then, tall, strong, black-browed, and terrible as Saul. "Thank
+you so much, dear Guy," she whispered. "If you speak to Mr. Foster, you
+will tell him how _very_ sorry I am!" and then she left him.
+
+Guy did speak to the curate, I hope gently. At all events, we never
+laughed at him again. How could we, when we saw him going about his
+daily duties, honestly and bravely, and always, when in presence,
+struggling with his great sorrow, so as not by word or look to
+compromise the thoughtless child who had won his heart for her
+amusement, and thrown it away for her convenience?
+
+I have been disciplined since by what I have felt and seen, and I see
+now how ungenerous we had been.
+
+What right had we to make of that man a puppet for our amusement,
+because he was shy, and stupid, and slow? He was as true in his
+devotion, as honorable in all his wishes, as confident in his hopes till
+they were blasted, as any one that has gone a wooing since the first
+whisper of love was heard in Eden. If his despair was less crushing than
+that of other men, it was because his principles were stronger to
+endure, and perhaps because his temperament was more tranquil and cold.
+As I have said, he did his day's work thoroughly, and that helped him
+through a good deal. But, to the utmost of his nature, I believe he did
+suffer. And could the long train of those whom disappointment has made
+maniacs or suicides do more?
+
+Let us not trust too much to the absence of feeling in these seemingly
+impassive organizations.
+
+I wonder how often the executors of old college fellows, or of
+hard-faced bankers and bureaucrats, have been aggravated by finding in
+that most secret drawer, which ought to have held a codicil or a jewel,
+a tress, a glove, or a flower? The searcher looks at the object for a
+moment, and then throws it into the rubbish-basket, with a laugh if he
+is good-natured, with a curse if he is vicious and disappointed. Let it
+lie there--though the dead miser valued it above all his bank-stock, and
+kissed it oftener than he did his living and lawful wife and
+children--what is it worth now? Say, as the grim Dean of St. Patrick
+wrote on _his_ love-token, "Only a woman's hair."
+
+Now these men, unknown to their best friend perhaps, had gone through
+the affliction which is so common that it is hard to speak of it without
+launching into truisms. This sorrow has made some men famous, by forcing
+them out into the world and shutting the door behind them. It has made
+the fortunes of some poets, who choose the world for their confidant,
+setting their bereavement to music, and bewailing Eurydice in charming
+volumes, that are cheap at "3_s._ 6_d._ in cloth, lettered." It has made
+some--I think the best and bravest--somewhat silent for the rest of
+their lives. I read some lines the other day wise enough to have sprung
+from an older brain than Owen Meredith's.
+
+     "They were pedants who could speak--
+     Grander souls have passed unheard;
+     Such as felt all language weak;
+     Choosing rather to record
+     Secrets before Heaven, than break
+     Faith with angels, by a word--"
+
+Yes, many men have their Rachel; but--there being a prejudice against
+bigamy--few have even the Patriarch's luck, to marry her at last; for
+the wife _de convenance_ generally outlives her younger sister; and so,
+one afternoon, we turn again from a grave in Ephrata-Green Cemetery,
+somewhat drearily, into our tent pitched in the plains of Belgravia,
+where Leah--(there was ever jealousy between those two)--meets us with a
+sharp glance of triumph in her "tender eyes."
+
+We have known pleasanter _tete-a-tetes_--have we not?--than that which
+we undergo that evening at dinner, though our companion seems disposed
+to be especially lively. We have not much appetite; but our _carissima
+sposa_ tells us "not to drink any more claret, or we shall never be fit
+to take her to Lady Shechem's _conversazione_." Of all nights in the
+year, would she let us off duty on this one? "There are to be some very
+pleasant people there," she says, "though none, perhaps, that _you
+particularly care about_." (Thank you, my love; I understand that
+good-natured allusion perfectly, and am proportionately grateful.) Her
+voice sounds shriller than usual as she says this, and leaves us to put
+some last touches to her toilette. So we order a fresh bottle,
+notwithstanding the warning, and fall to thinking. How low and soft
+_that other_ voice was, and, even when a little reproachful, how rarely
+sweet! _She_ would scarcely have invented that last taunt if matters
+had turned out differently. Then we think of our respected
+father-in-law, Sir Joseph Leyburn, of Harran Park--a mighty county
+magistrate and cattle-breeder. He got Ishmael Deadeye, the poacher,
+transported last year, and took the prize for Devons at the Great
+Mesopotamian Agricultural with a brindled bull. We remember his weeping
+at the wedding-breakfast over the loss of his eldest treasure, and
+wonder if he was an arrant humbug, or only a foolish, fond old man,
+inclining morosely toward the former opinion. We don't seem to care much
+about Sir Roland de Vaux, the celebrated geologist, whom we shall have
+the privilege of meeting this evening. What are strata to us, when our
+thoughts will not go lower than about _eight feet_ underground? We shall
+be rather bored than otherwise by Dr. Sternhold, that eminent Christian
+divine, who passes his leisure hours in proving St. Paul to have been an
+unsound theologian and a weak dialectician. Why should Mr. Planet, the
+intrepid traveler, be always inflicting Jerusalem upon us, as if no one
+had ever visited the Holy Land before him? Our ancestors did so five
+hundred years ago, and did not make half the fuss about it; and _they_
+had a skirmish or two there worth speaking of, while we don't believe a
+word of Planet's encounter with those three Arabs on the Hebron road.
+Pooh! there's no more peril in traversing the Wilderness of Cades than
+in going up to the Grands Mulets. We are not worthy of those
+distinguished men, and would prefer the society of hard-riding Dick
+Foley of the Blues. He had a few feelings in common with us once on a
+certain point (how we hated him then), and he won't wonder if we are
+duller than usual this evening. Perhaps his own nerve will scarcely be
+as iron as usual in the Grand Military, to come off in the course of the
+week.
+
+Well, the bottle is out, and Mademoiselle Zelpa comes to say that
+"Madame is ze raidee." So one glass of Cognac neat, as a _chasse_ (to
+more things than good Claret), and then--let us put on our whitest tie
+and our most attractive smile, and "go forth, for she is gone."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+     "A man had given all other bliss
+     And all his worldly worth for this,
+     To waste his whole heart in one kiss
+       Upon her perfect lips."
+
+
+We were asked to dine and sleep at Brainswick, where the hounds met on
+the following morning. Mr. Raymond could not make up his mind to the
+exertion, so Forrester and I accompanied Guy alone.
+
+"By-the-by," the latter observed, as we were driving over in his
+mail-phaeton, "I wonder if we shall see the Bellasys to-night? I know
+they were to come down about this time. Steady, old wench! where are you
+off to?" (This was to the near wheeler, who was breaking her trot.) "I
+think you'll admire her, Frank; but, _gare a vous_, she's dangerous. Eh,
+Charley?"
+
+"Well, you ought to know," answered Forrester; "I never tried her much
+myself. She's two or three stone over my weight. I wonder what she has
+been doing lately? They sent her down to rusticate somewhere at the end
+of the season. She ought to be in great condition now, with a summer's
+run."
+
+Livingstone smiled, complacently I thought, as if some one had praised
+one of his favorite hunters, but did not pursue the subject.
+
+When I came down before dinner he was talking to a lady in dark blue
+silk, with black lace over it, a wreath curiously plaited of natural ivy
+in her hair. I guessed her at once to be Flora Bellasys.
+
+Let me try to paint--though abler artists have failed--the handsomest
+brunette I have ever seen.
+
+She was very tall; her figure magnificently developed, though
+slender-waisted and lithe as a serpent. She walked as if she had been
+bred in a _basquina_, and her foot and ankle were hardly to be matched
+on this side of the Pyrenees; the nose slightly aquiline, with thin,
+transparent nostrils; and the forehead rather low--it looked more so,
+perhaps, from the thick masses of dark hair which framed and shaded her
+face. Under the clear, pale olive of the cheeks the rich blood mantled
+now and then like wine in a Venice glass; and her lips--the outline of
+the upper one just defined by a penciling of down, the lower one full
+and pouting--glistened with the brilliant smoothness of a pomegranate
+flower when the dew is clinging. Her eyes--the opium-eaters of Stamboul
+never dreamed of their peers among the bevies of hachis-houris. They
+were of the very darkest hazel; one moment sleeping lazily under their
+long lashes, like a river under leaves of water-lilies; the next,
+sparkling like the same stream when the sunlight is splintered on its
+ripples into carcanets of diamonds. When they chose to speak, not all
+the orators that have rounded periods since Isocrates could match their
+eloquence; when it was their will to guard a secret, they met you with
+the cold, impenetrable gaze that we attribute to the mighty mother,
+Cybele. Even a philosopher might have been interested--on purely
+psychological grounds, of course--in watching the thoughts as they rose
+one by one to the surface of those deep, clear wells (was truth at the
+bottom of them?--I doubt), like the strange shapes of beauty that
+reveal themselves to seamen, coyly and slowly, through the purple calm
+of the Indian Sea.
+
+Twice I have chosen a watery simile; but I know no other element
+combining, as her glances did, liquid softness with lustre.
+
+When near her, you were sensible of a strange, subtle, intoxicating
+perfume, very fragrant, perfectly indefinable, which clung, not only to
+her dress, but to every thing belonging to her. From what flowers it was
+distilled no artist in essences alive could have told. I incline to
+think that, like the "birk" in the ghost's garland,
+
+     "They were not grown on earthly bank,
+     Nor yet on earthly sheugh."
+
+Guy took Miss Bellasys in to dinner, and I found myself placed on her
+other side. I had been introduced to her ten minutes before, but had
+little opportunity for "improving the occasion," as the Nonconformists
+have it, for she never once deigned a look in my direction.
+
+My right-hand neighbor was an elderly man of a full habit, whom it would
+have been cruel to disturb till the rage of hunger was appeased, so I
+was fain to seek amusement in the conversation going on on my left.
+There was no indiscretion in this, for I knew Guy would never touch
+secrets of state in mixed company.
+
+For some time they talked nothing but commonplaces, evidently feeling
+each other's foils. The real fencing began with a question from
+Flora--if he was not surprised at seeing her there that evening.
+
+"Not at all," was the reply; "I knew we must meet before long. It is
+only parallels that don't; and there is very little of the right line
+about either you or me."
+
+"Speak for yourself," Miss Bellasys said; "I consider that a very rude
+observation."
+
+"Pardon me," retorted Guy; "I seldom say rude things--never
+intentionally. I don't know which is in worst taste, that, or paying
+point-blank compliments. Without being mathematical, you may have heard
+that the line of beauty is a curve."
+
+Flora laughed.
+
+"It is difficult to catch you. What have you been doing since we
+parted?"
+
+"That is just the question that was on my lips, so nearly uttered that I
+consider I spoke first. Now, will you confess, or must I cross-question
+some one else? I _will_ know. It is easy to follow you, like an invading
+army, by the trail of devastation."
+
+"So you do care to know?" the soft voice said, that could make the
+nerves of even an indifferent hearer thrill and quiver strangely.
+
+After once listening to it, it was very easy to believe the weird
+stories of Norse sorceresses, and German wood-spirits and pixies, luring
+men to death with their fatally musical tones.
+
+"Simple curiosity," Guy replied, coolly, "and a little compassion for
+your victims. They might be friends of mine, you know."
+
+Miss Bellasys bit her lip, half provoked, half amused, apparently, as
+she answered, "The dead tell no tales."
+
+"No, but the wounded do, and they cry out pretty loudly sometimes. I
+suppose all the cases did not terminate fatally. Will you confess?"
+
+"I have nothing to tell you," Flora said, very demurely and meekly,
+only for once her eyes betrayed her. "Mamma took me down into
+Devonshire, where we have an aunt or two, for sea-breezes and seclusion.
+I rather liked at first having nothing on earth to do, and nothing--yes,
+I understand--really nothing to think about. I used to sleep a great
+deal, and then drive a little obstinate pony, to see views. But I don't
+care much about views--do you? Then mamma was always wanting me to help
+her look for shells and wild-flowers; and the rocks hurt my feet, and
+the bushes never would leave me alone in the woods." She shuddered
+slightly here.
+
+"The Bushes! a Devonshire family of that name, I presume?" Guy
+interrupted, with intense gravity. "How wrong of them! They are very
+ill-regulated young men down in those parts, I believe."
+
+"Don't be absurd; I never saw a creature for months between fifteen and
+fifty. Are not those ages safe?" (A shake of the head from Livingstone.)
+"I began to be very unhappy; I had no one to tease; my aunts are too
+good-natured, and mamma is used to it. At last I had the greatest mind
+to do something desperate--to write to you, for instance--merely to see
+the household's horror when your answer came. You would have answered,
+would you not? I should not have opened it, you know, but given it to
+mamma, like a good child."
+
+"Of course; I know you show all your letters to your mother. But that
+ruralizing must have been fearful for you, _poverina_! People were
+talking a good deal of agricultural distress, but this is the most
+piteous case I've heard of. So there were really no men to govern in
+that wood?"
+
+"Not even a little boy," said Flora, decisively. "There were two or
+three from Oxford in the neighborhood; I used to see them sitting
+outside their lodgings in the sun, like rabbits, but they always ran in
+before--"
+
+"Before you could get a shot at them, you mean?" broke in Guy; "you
+ought to have crept up, and stalked them cleverly."
+
+Flora threw hack her handsome head. "I don't war with children. It went
+on just as I tell you till we left for our round of winter visits, which
+have been very stupid and correct--till now."
+
+I hardly caught the two last words, she spoke them so low. There was
+silence for several minutes, and then Guy leaned back to address me.
+
+"Do you remember Arthur Darrell, of Christchurch, Frank, the man that
+used to speak at the Union, and was always raving about ebon locks and
+dark eyes?"
+
+"I remember him well. I have not seen him for years; but I heard he was
+getting on well in the law."
+
+"He'll have time to get tired of brunettes--if any one ever _does_ get
+tired of them--before he comes back," said Guy. "He's just gone out to
+try the Indian bar."
+
+"What could have put such an idea into his head?" I asked, very
+innocently.
+
+"I can't say," was the reply; "men do take such curious fancies. It was
+a sudden determination, I believe. The beauties of the Eastern
+hemisphere began to develop themselves to his weak mind last summer
+while he was down with his people in--Devonshire."
+
+Involuntarily I looked at Miss Bellasys. She saw she was detected; but,
+instead of betraying any embarrassment, she turned upon Guy a queer
+little imploring look, not indicative in the least of shame or
+repentance, but such as might be put on by one of those truly excellent
+people who do good by stealth and blush to find it known, when some of
+their benevolent acts have come to light, and they wish to deprecate
+praise.
+
+Livingstone gazed piercingly at her for several instants without moving
+a muscle of his face; suddenly its fixed and stern expression--you could
+not say softened, but--broke up all at once like a sheet of ice
+shivering.
+
+"Let there be peace," he said, sententiously. "We forgive all the errors
+of your long vacation in consideration of the good it has evidently done
+you. You are looking brilliantly!"
+
+There was an unusual softness, almost a tremor, in his deep voice as he
+spoke the last words, and a look in his bold eyes that many trained
+coquettes would have shrunk from--a look that I should be sorry and
+angry to see turned on any woman in whom I felt an interest--a look such
+as Selim Pasha might wear as the Arnauts defile into his harem-court,
+bringing the fair Georgians home.
+
+Flora Bellasys only smiled in saucy triumph.
+
+"You say you never pay compliments," she answered, "and I always _try_
+to believe you. We will suppose this one is only the truth extorted. My
+glove--thank you." The same smile was on her lip as she turned her head
+once in her haughty progress to the door.
+
+As Guy sat down again, and filled a huge glass with claret, I heard him
+mutter between his teeth, "_Royale, quand meme_!"
+
+"Close up, gentlemen, close up!" broke in the cheery voice of our rare
+old host. "Livingstone, if you begin back-handing already, you'll never
+be able to hold that great raking chestnut I saw your groom leading this
+evening. The man looked as if he thought he would be eaten before he got
+in."
+
+"Whatever you do, drink fair," Guy answered, laughing; "so saith the
+immortal Gamp. The squire's beginning to tremble for his '22 wine."
+
+"I don't wonder," said Godfrey Parndon, the M.F.H. "I've always observed
+that, after flirting disgracefully at dinner, you drink harder
+afterward. It's to drown remorse, I suppose. So you ride that new horse
+of yours to-morrow? My poor hounds!"
+
+"Don't be alarmed," cried Guy; "he never kicks hounds, and I won't let
+him go over them; it's only human strangers the amiable animal can't
+endure: that's why I call him the Axeine. He is worth more than the L300
+I gave for him."
+
+"Well, he nearly spoiled two grooms for Hounscott," Parndon said. "The
+stablemen at Revesby had a great beer the day they got rid of him."
+
+"He wouldn't suit every one," remarked Livingstone--"not you, for
+instance, Godfrey, who always ride with a loose rein. I was obliged to
+give him his gallops myself at first; he's a devil to pull, and if he
+once gets away with you, you may 'write to your friends.' But I've
+nothing like him in my stable."
+
+Then the conversation became general, revolving in a circle of
+hound-and-horse talk, as it will do now and then in the shires.
+
+"Guy," whispered Forrester, as we went up stairs, "there's a little
+woman here who says she used to know you very well: won't you go and
+talk to her?"
+
+"Many little women say that," answered Guy; "it's a way they have. Which
+is it, now?"
+
+Charley pointed out a small, plump, rather pretty blonde, with long
+ringlets, and light, laughing blue eyes. It seemed the lady's
+reminiscences were well founded, for in five minutes Livingstone and she
+were talking like old friends.
+
+In the course of the evening I found myself near Miss Bellasys. This
+time she did me the honor to address me, and soon began asking me more
+questions than I could answer, even had she waited a reply. Did I like
+Kerton Manor? Had there been many agreeable people there yet? Not any
+remarkably so! She was surprised at that. Miss Raymond was there _en
+permanence_, of course? She was such a favorite with her (Flora), and
+with her cousin too, she thought. Was Mr. Livingstone always playing
+with his uncle, and always losing? She supposed he liked losing--at
+play. Did I know the lady in pink, with twenty-five flowers in her hair?
+She had counted them. Yes, that was her husband, the stout man looking
+uncomfortable, in the corner--an old friend of Mr. Livingstone's? He had
+so many old friends; but he did not always talk to them for a whole
+evening without intermission. Ah! she was going to sing; that is, if
+Mr. Livingstone had quite finished with her, and would let her go.
+Little women with pink cheeks and dresses always _did_ sing, and never
+had any voice.
+
+I don't know how many more questions she put to me in the same quiet,
+clear tones; but just then I happened to look down on the handkerchief
+she held in her hand, and I saw a long rent in its broad Valenciennes
+border that I am very sure was not there an hour ago; for Flora's
+toilette, morning and evening, was faultless to a degree.
+
+I had hardly time to remark this when Guy lounged up to us. My
+companion's dark eyes were more eloquent than her lips, which quivered
+slightly as she said,
+
+"I wonder you have not more consideration. A new arrival in the county,
+and compromised irretrievably! Look at Mr. Stafford now."
+
+"The husband?" Guy said, with intense disdain; "the husband's helpless.
+He may sharpen his--tusks, but he'll never come to battle. How good and
+great you are! It is quite refreshing to hear your strictures on
+innocent amusements. But I beg you will speak of that lady with due
+respect; she is the first--yes, positively the first--woman I ever
+loved."
+
+"_Monseigneur, que d'honneur!_" Flora said, curling her haughty lip.
+
+"It is true," Guy went on. "At a children's ball, about fifteen years
+ago, I met my fate. She was in white muslin, with a velvet bodice (Flora
+shuddered visibly); for a year after I pictured to myself the angels in
+no other attire, and now--years vitiate one's tastes so--I can fancy
+nothing but a jockey in 'black body and white sleeves.' I suppose she
+was very pretty; let us hope so; it is my only excuse for being
+enchanted in ten minutes, and stupidly enslaved in half an hour. The
+thing would not have been complete without a rival; he came--a plump,
+circular-faced boy, with severely flaxen hair. No, you need not look
+across the room--not the least like what she is now! Great jealousy may
+make me unjust, but I don't think he had any advantage over me save one,
+and he used that mercilessly. He wore collars boldly erect under his fat
+checks, while those of the rest of us lay prostrate, after the simple
+fashion of my childhood. The _prestige_ was too much for Ellen's weak
+mind. (Did I tell you her name was Ellen?) Bottom monopolized Titania
+for the rest of the evening. I could have beaten him with ease and
+satisfaction to myself, but I refrained; and, rushing into the
+supper-room, drained three glasses of weak negus with the energy of
+despair.
+
+"I have never suffered any thing since like the torment of the next two
+hours. I saw her several times afterward, and might have made play,
+perhaps, but the phantom of a round red face, with collars starched _a
+l'outrance_, always came between us. It is only a slight satisfaction to
+hear that she has utterly lost sight of my rival, and promises to cut
+him dead the first time they meet. There's the history of a young heart
+blighted--of a crushed affection! I am not aware if there is any moral
+in it; if there is, you are very welcome to it, I am sure. You might
+look a little more sympathizing, though, even if I _have_ bored you."
+
+Flora tried to look grave, but the dancing light in her rebellious eyes
+betrayed her, even before her merry musical laugh broke in.
+
+"It is far the most touching thing I ever heard. Poor child, how you
+must have suffered! I wonder you ever smiled again. How well she sings,
+does she not? when she does not try to go too high."
+
+"Don't be severe," Guy retorted; "you may have to sing yourself some
+day. You prefer talking, though? Well, with a well-managed _contralto_,
+it comes nearly to the same thing, and I suppose you consider the world
+in general is not worthy of it?"
+
+Almost imperceptibly, but very meaningly, her glance turned to where I
+sat close beside her.
+
+"How absurd! you know why I don't sing often. To-night it would be--too
+cruel. (Flora's idea of modest merit was peculiar.) Now tell me, what
+are you going to ride to-morrow? We shall all go and see them throw
+off."
+
+Without answering her question, he leaned over her, and said something
+too low for me to hear, which made her color brighten.
+
+From a distant corner two ancient virgins, long past "mark of mouth,"
+surveyed the proceedings with faces like moulds of lemon-ice. Flora
+glanced toward them this time, and said demurely, making a gesture of
+crossing her arms a _a la Napoleon I._, "Take care; from the summit of
+yonder sofa forty ages behold you."
+
+The caution was a challenge; and so her hearer interpreted it as he sank
+down beside her.
+
+I seemed to be lapsing rapidly into the terrible _third_ that spoils
+sport, so I left them; but not all the adjurations of Godfrey Parndon
+invoking his favorite antagonist to the whist-table could draw Guy from
+his post again that evening.
+
+I know men who would have given five years of life for the whisper that
+glided into his ear as he gave Miss Bellasys her candle on retiring, ten
+for the Parthian glance that shot its arrow home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+     "I know the purple vestment;
+       I know the crest of flame;
+     So ever _rides_ Mamilius,
+       Prince of the Latian name."
+
+
+The next was a perfect hunting morning; a light breeze, steady from the
+southwest, and not too much sun; the very day when a scent, in and out
+of cover, would be a certainty, if there were any calculation on this
+contingency. Let us do our sisters justice--there is _one_ thing in
+nature more uncertain and capricious than the whims of womankind.
+
+The hounds had come up with their usual train of officials, and of those
+steady-going sportsmen who love the pack better than their own children,
+and can call each individual in it by his name. Godfrey Parndon was
+doing the civil to the "great men in Israel," his heaviest subscribers;
+pinks were gleaming in every direction through the clumps and belts of
+plantation, as the men came up at a hard gallop on their cover-hacks, or
+opened the pipes of their hunters by a stretch over the turf of the
+park.
+
+On the hall steps stood Flora Bellasys--Penthesilea in a wide-awake and
+plume; a dozen men were round her, striving emulously for a word or a
+smile, and she held her own gallantly with them all. She was waiting
+patiently till Guy had lighted an obstinate cigar, and was ready to
+mount her. He understood putting her up better than any one else, she
+said. Perhaps he did; but, though he swung her into the saddle with one
+wave of his mighty arm as lightly as Lochinvar could have done, the
+arrangement of the skirt and stirrup seemed a problem hardly to be
+solved.
+
+If there was any truth in the old Courland superstition that the display
+of a lady's ankle to the hunters before they started brought them luck,
+we ought to have had the run of the season that day.
+
+He rode by her side, too, as near as the plunges of the chestnut would
+allow, till we reached the gorse that we were to draw; once there, the
+stronger passion prevailed. Aphrodite hid her face, and the great
+goddess Artemis claimed her own. As the first hound whimpered, he drew
+off toward a corner, where a big fence would give a chance of shaking
+off the crowd, and I do not think he turned his head till the fox went
+away.
+
+The last thing I remember there was the anxious look in two beautiful
+hazel eyes as they gazed after the Axeine, charging his second fence
+with the rush of an express train.
+
+The _fetiche_ did not fail us; we had a wonderful run, of which only
+five men saw the end. I confess, the second brook stopped me and many
+others. Forrester got over with a fall; but they were preparing to break
+up the fox, when he came up first of the second flight.
+
+Guy came home in great spirits; he had been admirably carried. He and
+the first whip, a ten-stone man, were head and head at the last fence,
+while the hounds were rolling over their fox, a hundred yards farther,
+in the open.
+
+After dinner he amused himself with teasing his cousin. At last he
+asked her if she would lend him Bella Donna to hack to cover, as his own
+favorite was rather lame.
+
+Miss Raymond's indignation was superb; for, be it known, she was prouder
+of the said animal than of any thing else in the world.
+
+She (the mare, not the lady) was a bright bay, with black points, quite
+thorough-bred, and as handsome as a picture. Livingstone had bought her
+out of a training-stable, and had given her to his cousin, after having
+broken her into a perfect light-weight hunter.
+
+One of the few extravagances in which Mr. Raymond indulged his daughter
+was allowing her to take Bella Donna wherever she went.
+
+"Don't excite yourself, you small Amazon!" replied Guy to her indignant
+refusal. "How you do believe in that mare! I wonder you don't put her
+into some of the great Spring Handicaps! You would get her in light, and
+might win enough to keep you in gloves for half a century."
+
+"Well, I don't know," Forester's slow, languid voice suggested; "I think
+she's faster, for three miles, than any thing in your stable. I should
+like to run the best you have for L50, weight for inches."
+
+"I am not surprised at your supporting Bella's opinion," said Guy, with
+a shade of sarcasm in his voice, "but I did not expect you would back
+it. Come, I'll make this match, if you like; you shall ride
+catch-weight, which will be about 11 st. 7 lb., and I'll ride the Axeine
+at 14 st. 7 lb.: I must take a 7 lb. saddle to do that. They are both in
+hard condition, so it can come off in ten days; and I'll give the
+farmers a cup to run for at the same time. Is it a match?"
+
+"Certainly, if Miss Raymond will trust me with Bella Donna."
+
+Isabel's eyes sparkled--so brilliantly! as she answered, "I should like
+it, of all things."
+
+"Now, Puss," Guy went on, "you ought to have something on it. There is a
+certain set of turquoises and pearls that I meant to give you whenever
+you had been good for three weeks consecutively; it is no use waiting
+for such a miracle, so I'll bet you these against that sapphire and
+diamond ring you have taken to wearing lately."
+
+His cousin looked distressed and confused. "Any thing else, Guy," she
+said. "I can not risk that; it was a present from--from Mrs. Molyneux."
+
+"I don't think," Charley suggested, very quietly, "Mrs.--Molyneux, was
+it not?--could object to your investing her present on such a certainty.
+I really believe we shall bring it off; and if not--" He checked himself
+with a smile.
+
+"Oh, if you think so," answered Isabel, blushing more than ever, "I will
+venture my ring. But you _must_ win; I don't know what I should do if I
+lost it." So it was settled.
+
+"You seem confident," I remarked to Livingstone, later in the evening. I
+remember the peculiar expression of his face, though I did not then
+understand it, as he answered gravely,
+
+"Bella ought to be; for--she has laid long odds."
+
+There was great excitement in the neighborhood when the match, and the
+farmers' race to follow, became known. Half the county was assembled on
+the appointed morning, an off-day with the Pytchley. Godfrey Parndon was
+judge, and had picked the ground--a figure of 8, with 17 fences, large
+but fair for the most part; the horses were to traverse it twice,
+missing the brook (16 feet of clear water) the second time.
+
+I wish they were not getting so rare, those purely country meetings,
+where three wagons with an awning make the grant stand; where there are
+no ring-men to force the betting and deafen you with their blatant
+proffers--"to lay agin any thing in the race;" where the bold yeomen, in
+full confidence that their favorite will not be "roped," back their
+opinions manfully for crowns.
+
+Livingstone's great local renown, and the reputation of the Axeine for
+strength and speed (though no one knew how fast he _could_ go), made the
+betting 5 to 4 on him; but takers were not wanting, calculating on the
+horse's truly Satanic temper. Miss Bellasys, who, with her mother, had
+arrived at Kerton the night before, laid half a point more--_not_ in
+gloves--on the heavy-weight.
+
+The bell for saddling rang, and the horses came out. The mare stripped
+beautifully, as fine as a star--no wonder her mistress was proud of her;
+and I think she had, to the full, as many admirers as the Axeine.
+
+The latter was a dark chestnut with a white fetlock, standing full 16
+hands (while the mare scarcely topped 15), well ribbed up, with a good
+sloping shoulder, immense flat hocks, and sinewy thighs; his crest and
+forehand were like a stallion's; and, when you looked at his quarters,
+it was easy to believe what the Revesby stablemen said, "They could
+shoot a man into the next county."
+
+He was "orkarder than usual that morning," the groom remarked; perhaps
+he did not fancy the crowd without the hounds, for he kept lashing out
+perpetually, with vicious backward glances from his red eyes.
+
+Then the riders showed: Livingstone in his own colors, purple and
+scarlet cap, workmanlike and weather-stained; Forrester in the fresh
+glories of light blue with white sleeves, his cap quartered with the
+same.
+
+Charley lingered a minute by Miss Raymond's side, taking her last
+instructions, I suppose. She looked very nervous and pale, her jockey
+pleasantly languid as ever.
+
+The instant the chestnut was mounted he reared, and indulged in two or
+three "buck-jumps" that would have made a weaker man tremble for his
+back-bone, and then kicked furiously; but Guy seemed to take it all as a
+matter of course, sitting square and erect; all he did was to drive the
+sharp rowels in repeatedly, bringing a dark blood-spot out with each
+stroke. It was not by love certainly that he ruled the Axeine. Then came
+the preliminary gallops, the mare going easily on her bit, gliding over
+the ground smoothly and springily; the horse shaking his head, and every
+now and then tearing madly at the reins, without being able to gain a
+hair's breadth on the iron hands that never moved from his withers.
+
+"They're off!" Guy taking the lead; well over the first two fences, fair
+hunting ones; the third is a teaser--an ugly black bulfinch, with a
+ditch on the landing side, and a drop into a plowed field. The
+chestnut's devil is thoroughly roused by this time. When within sixty
+yards of the fence, he puts on a rush that even his rider's mighty
+muscles can not check: his impetus would send him through a castle wall;
+but he hardly rises at the leap, taking it, too, where there is a
+network of growers--a crash that might be heard in the grand stand--and
+horse and man are rolling in the field beyond.
+
+Flora Bellasys strikes her foot angrily with her riding-whip, and turns
+very pale.
+
+Ten lengths behind, the mare comes up, well in hand, and slips through
+the bulfinch without a mistake--hardly with an effort--just at the only
+place where you can see daylight through the blackthorn.
+
+What is Guy doing? Even in that thundering fall he has never let the
+reins go. Horse and rider struggle up together. A dozen arms are ready
+to lift him into the saddle, and a cheery voice says in his ear, "Hold
+up, squire; keep him a going, and you'll catch the captain yet!" He
+hardly hears the words though, for his head is whirling, and he feels
+strangely sick and faint; but before he has gone a hundred yards his
+face has settled into its habitual resolute calmness, only there is a
+thin thread of blood creeping from under his cap, and his brow is bent
+and lowering.
+
+A fall, which would have taken the fight out of most horses, has only
+steadied the Axeine; and, as we watch him striding through the deep
+ground, casting the dirt behind him like a catapult we think and say,
+"The race is not over yet."
+
+They are over the brook without a scramble. Forrester still leads,
+riding patiently and well. He knows better than to force the running,
+even with the difference in weight, for the going is too heavy quite to
+suit his mare.
+
+As Livingstone passed the spot where Miss Raymond was stationed, he
+turned half round in his saddle, and looked curiously in her face. She
+did not even know he was near. All her soul was in her eyes, that were
+gazing after Forrester with an anxiety so disproportioned to the
+occasion that her cousin fairly started.
+
+"Poor child," he said to himself, all his angry feelings changing, "she
+seems to have set her heart so upon winning, it would be sad if she were
+disappointed. No one has much on it; shall I try 'Captain Armstrong' for
+once? It would make her very happy. Bar accidents, I must win. They do
+not know that the chestnut has not extended himself yet."
+
+We lose sight of the horses for a little. When we see them a gain, the
+mare has decidedly gained ground; and, to our astonishment, the Axeine
+swerves, and refuses at rather an easy fence.
+
+Miss Bellasys' cheek flushes this time. She goes off at a sharp canter
+through a gate that takes her into a field where the horses must pass
+her close; several of her attendants follow. Charley comes up, looking
+rather more excited and happy than usual. He has made the pace better
+for the last half mile, and still seems going at his ease. More than a
+distance behind is the chestnut, evidently on bad terms with his jockey;
+he is in a white lather of foam, and changes his leg twice as he
+approaches. Guy has his face turned slightly aside as he nears the spot
+where Miss Bellasys waits for him, in the midst of her body-guard. For
+the first time since the race began, her voice was heard, cutting the
+air with its clear mocking tones, like the edge of a Damascus sabre,
+"The chestnut wins--hard held!"
+
+Guy's kindly impulses vanished instantly before the sarcasm latent in
+those last two words. He could sacrifice his own victory and the hopes
+of his backers, but he would not give a chance to Flora's merciless
+tongue. We saw him change his hold on the reins, and, with a shake and a
+fierce thrust of the spurs, he set the Axeine fairly going.
+
+Every man on the ground, including his late owner [who hated himself
+bitterly at that moment for parting with him], was taken by surprise by
+the extraordinary speed the horse displayed. He raced up to Bella Donna
+just before the last fence, at which she hangs ever so little, while he
+takes it in his swing, covering good nine yards from hoof to hoof.
+Nothing but hurdles now between them and home. The down-hill run-in
+favors his vast stride. A thousand voices echo Flora's words, "The
+chestnut wins!" Charley made his effort exactly at the right time, and
+the brave little mare answered gallantly; but it was not to be. He shook
+his head, and never touched her with whip or spur again.
+
+The race was over. No one disputed the judge's fiat: "The Axeine by six
+lengths."
+
+Up to the skies went the hats and the shouts of the sturdy yeomen, who
+"know'd he couldn't be beat," exulting in the success of their
+favorite. Round winner and loser crowded their friends, congratulating
+the one, condoling with the other, praising both for their riding. At
+that moment I do not think any one except myself remarked Isabel
+Raymond, who sat somewhat apart, her tears falling fast under her veil
+as she looked upon her lost ring.
+
+Just then Forrester rode up. "Woe to the vanquished!" he said. "All is
+lost but honor. Will you say something kind to me after my defeat, Miss
+Raymond? You will find your pet not punished in the least, and without a
+scratch on her."
+
+Without answering, she held out her hand. As he bent over it, and
+whispered, what I could not hear, I saw her eyes sparkle, and a happy
+consciousness flush her cheeks, till they glowed like a sky at sunset
+when a storm is passing away in the west. Then I knew that he had won a
+richer prize than ever was set on a race since the first Great
+Metropolitan was run for at Olympia.
+
+Livingstone had washed away the traces of his fall (his wound was only a
+cut under the hair, above the temple), and was going to get the horses
+in line to start them for the farmers' cup. As he passed Miss Bellasys
+he checked his horse for an instant, and said, very coldly,
+
+"You are satisfied, I trust?"
+
+"All's well that ends well," answered Flora; "but I began to tremble for
+my bets. I thought you were waiting too long."
+
+Guy did not wish to pursue the subject apparently, for he rode on
+without reply. Flora made no attempt to detain him. She had studied the
+signs of the times in his countenance long enough to be weather-wise,
+and to know that the better part of valor was advisable when the
+quicksilver had sunk to Stormy.
+
+The cup was a great success. Eleven started, and three made a most
+artistic finish--scarcely a length between first and third. The farmers
+of the present day ride very differently from their ancestors of fifty
+years ago, whose highest ambition was to pound along after the slow,
+sure "currant-jelly dogs."
+
+Go down into the Vale of Belvoir; watch one of the duke's tenants
+handing a five-year old over the Smite, and say if the modern
+agriculturists might not boast with Tydides,
+
+     _"hemeis de pateron meg' ameinones euchometh' einai."_
+
+They are getting so erudite, too, that I dare say they would quote it in
+the original.
+
+When all was over, and they were returning to Kerton, Guy ranged up to
+his cousin's side. He looked rather embarrassed and penitent--an
+expression which sat upon his stern, resolute face very strangely. But
+Isabel was radiant with happiness, and did not even sigh as she held out
+the forfeited ring. He put it back with a decided gesture of his hand,
+and, leaning over her, whispered something in her ear. I don't know how
+they arranged it; but Miss Raymond wore the turquoises at the next
+county ball--the ring, to her dying day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+     "Souvent femme varie;
+     Bien fol est, qui s'y fie."
+
+
+We sat by the firelight in the old library of Kerton Manor. The dreary
+January evening was closing in, with a sharp sleet lashing the windows
+and rattling on their diamond panes, but the gleams from the great
+burning logs lighted up the dark crimson cushions of Utrecht and the
+polished walnut panels so changefully and enticingly that no one had the
+heart to think of candles.
+
+All the younger members of the party were assembled there, with Mrs.
+Bellasys to play propriety. It was her mission to be chaperon in
+ordinary to her daughter and her daughter's friends, and she went
+through with it, admirable in her patient self-denial. May they be
+reckoned to her credit hereafter--those long hours, when she sat sleepy,
+weary, uncomplaining, with an aching head but a stereotyped smile.
+
+Let us speak gently of these maternal martyrs, manoeuvring though they
+be. If they have erred, they have suffered. I knew once a lady with a
+lot of six, nubile, but not attractive, all with a decided bias toward
+Terpsichore and Hymen. Fancy what she must have endured, with those
+plain young women round her, always clamoring for partners, temporary or
+permanent, like fledglings in a nest for food. Clever and unscrupulous
+as she was--they called her the "judicious Hooker"--she must have been
+conscious of her utter inability to satisfy them. She knew, too, that
+if, by any dispensation, one were removed, five daughters of the
+horse-leech would still remain, with ravenous appetites unappeased. Yet
+the poor old bird was cheerful, and sometimes, after supper, would chirp
+quite merrily. _Honneur au courage malheureux._ Let us stand aside in
+the cloak-room, and salute her as she passes out with all the honors of
+war.
+
+Mrs. Bellasys was a little woman, who always reminded me of a certain
+tropical monkey--name unknown. She wore her hair bushily on each side of
+her small face, just like the said intelligent animal, and had the same
+eager, rather frightened way of glancing out of her beady black eyes,
+accompanied by a quick turning of the head when addressed. She had her
+full share of troubles in her time, but she took them all
+contentedly--not to say complacently--as part of the day's work. Her
+husband was not a model of fidelity, nor, indeed, of any of the conjugal
+or cardinal virtues. He was a sort of Maelstrom, into which fair
+fortunes and names were sucked down, only emerging in unrecognizable
+fragments. His own would have gone too, doubtless; but he had been lucky
+at play for a long time--too constantly so, some said--and a pistol
+bullet cut him short before he had half spent his wife's money, so that
+she was left comfortably off, and her daughter was a fair average
+heiress. She had long ago abdicated the government in favor of Flora,
+who treated her well on the whole, _en bonne princesse_.
+
+It is an invariable rule that, if there is a delicate subject which we
+determine beforehand to avoid, this particular one is sure
+imperceptibly to creep into the conversation.
+
+Mr. Bruce was to arrive before dinner, an event which we guessed would
+not add materially to the comfort of two of our party (how silent those
+two were in their remote corner where the firelight never came), so of
+course we found ourselves talking of ill-assorted marriages.
+
+"You count _mesalliances_ among such?" Guy asked, at length. "Yes, you
+are right; but I know a case where 'a man's being balked in his
+intention to degrade himself' ruined him for life. Ralph Mohun told me
+of it. It was a nine-days' wonder in Vienna soon after he joined the
+Imperial Cuirassiers. A Bohemian count flourished there then--a great
+favorite with every one, for he was frank and generous, like most boys
+well-born and of great possessions, who have only seen things in general
+on the sunny side. While down at his castle for the shooting, he fell in
+love with the daughter of one of his foresters. The man was a dull,
+brutal cur, and, when drunk, especially savage. His daughter was rarely
+beautiful; at all events, the count, a good judge, thought her peerless.
+
+"He meant fairly by the girl from the first, and promised her marriage,
+actually intending to keep his word. Still there were arrangements to be
+made before he could introduce such a novel element into blood that for
+centuries had been pure as the _sangue azzura_. He went up to Vienna for
+that purpose, leaving his design a profound secret to all his
+dependents. If these thought about it at all, they probably believed
+their master's intentions to be--like Dick Harcourt's toward the Irish
+lady--'strictly dishonorable.'
+
+"One night during his absence shrieks came from the cottage where the
+forester lived alone with his daughter. Those who heard them made haste;
+but it was a desolate spot, far from any other dwelling, and they came
+too late.
+
+"They found the girl lying in her blood, not a feature of her pretty
+face recognizable. Near her were the butt of a gun shivered, and her
+father senselessly drunk. He had evidently finished the bottle after
+beating her to death.
+
+"Whether it was merely an outbreak of his stupid ferocity, or if she had
+exasperated him by her threats and taunts, for she was of a haughty
+spirit, poor child! and perhaps rather elevated by the thought of the
+coming coronet, will never be known. The murderer was in no state to
+make a confession, and he remained obstinately silent in prison till his
+lord's return."
+
+"How very horrible!" Mrs. Bellasys cried out, shuddering; "was not the
+count very angry?"
+
+"Well, he _was_ rather vexed," replied Guy, coolly. "They are high
+justiciaries on their own lands, those great Bohemian barons, and so he
+gave the forester a fair trial. It was soon over; the man denied
+nothing, only whining out, in excuse, that he thought his daughter was
+dishonored. The shadow of death was closing round him, and he was nearly
+mad with fear.
+
+"The old steward saw a strange sort of smile twist his master's white,
+quivering lips when he heard this, but he never said a word. I imagine
+he thought to reveal his purpose now that it was crushed too great a
+sacrifice even to clear the dead girl's fair fame; perhaps, though, he
+could not trust his voice, for he did not announce the sentence in
+words, but wrote it down: his hand shook very much, and it never carried
+a full glass unspilled to his mouth again.
+
+"The court broke up at midday, and the man went straight, unconfessed,
+to the place of his punishment. They tied him to the tree nearest his
+own door, and the count sat by while he howled his life out under the
+lash. He was hardly dead by sundown."
+
+"It was revenge, not justice," Mrs. Bellasys said, more firmly than was
+her wont. I saw the quick, impatient movement of her daughter's little
+foot; she did not appreciate her mother's moralities.
+
+The answer came in the deepest of Livingstone's deep, stern tones.
+
+"He was no saint, but a man, and a very miserable one; he acted
+according to his light, and in his despair caught at the weapon that was
+nearest to his hand. After all, the blood of a base, brutal hound, take
+it in what fashion you will, is a poor compensation for one life cut
+short in agony, and another blasted utterly.
+
+"Mohun knew the count's family. Some of them, maiden aunts I suppose,
+were devotees of the first order: these came in person, or sent their
+pet priests, to argue with him on his unchristian habits of sullen
+solitude. The men of his old set came too, to laugh him out of the
+horrors. Saint and sinner got the same answer--a shake of the head, a
+curse, a threat if he were not left alone, growled out between deep
+draughts of strong Moldavian wine. They went, and were wise; for his
+pistols lay always beside him--in case his servants offended him, or if
+he should take a sudden fancy to suicide--and the shaking finger could
+have pulled a trigger still.
+
+"After a little he left Vienna, shut himself up in his castle, and would
+see no one.
+
+"In England they would have tried at the '_de lunatico_' statute; but
+his next of kin left him in peace, biding their time as patiently as
+they could. They had not to wait long; in four years a good constitution
+broke up, suddenly at last, and the count exchanged stupor for a sleep
+with his fathers, without benefit of clergy. Perhaps they would not have
+given him absolution, for he died certainly not in charity with all
+men."
+
+"I don't know," Mrs. Bellasys objected, with a timid obstinacy; "I can
+not argue with you; but I am sure it was very wrong."
+
+I struck in to the meek little woman's rescue.
+
+"That's right, Mrs. Bellasys, don't let him put you down with the high
+hand; it's always his way when truth is against him; but I never knew
+him break down a stubborn fact yet."
+
+Guy turned upon me directly.
+
+"Frank, I have often remarked in you, with pain, quite a feminine
+propensity to theorize. Women _will_ do it. My dear Mrs. Bellasys, don't
+look so dreadfully like an accusing angel about to bring me to book; you
+know I am a hopeless heretic. They get up a sort of _Memoria Technica_
+in early youth, and it clings to them all their life through. If they go
+astray, they never cease proclaiming aloud that 'they know it's very
+wrong;' though eminently unpractical, they think it due to themselves to
+pet certain abstract truths (circumstances don't affect them in the
+least), like that priestess of Cotytto, who said to the magistrate,
+through her tears, 'I may have been unfortunate, but I've always been
+respectable!' Sometimes principle gets the pull over passion, but, in
+such a case, regrets come as often afterward as remorse does in the
+reverse. I was reading a French story the other day--" He checked
+himself with a laugh. "Bah! I am in the prosaic vein, it seems,
+anecdoting like the old knave of clubs."
+
+"Will you go on?" Flora said, leaning over toward him, her eyes
+glittering in the firelight.
+
+The thrill in her voice--strangely contagious it was--told how much she
+was interested. I do not wonder at it. There was only one man on earth
+for whom she had ever really cared--he sat beside her then--and, I
+believe, what attracted her most in him was the daring disregard of
+opinions, conventionalities, and more sacred things yet, which carried
+him on straight to the accomplishment of his thought or purpose. In
+those days, if either were an obstacle, he flinched no more before a
+great moral law than at a big fence.
+
+"Well," Guy went on, "it is the simple history of Fernande, an _ange
+dechue_ of the Quartier Breda. She had formed a connection with a man
+who suited her perfectly in every way, and they went on in happy
+immorality, till she found out that Maurice had a wife somewhere, a very
+charming person, who loved him dearly; perhaps she thought that the
+possession of two such affections by one man was _de luxe_; at all
+events, she cut him at once, refusing consistently to see him again.
+Maurice, after trying all other means to move her in vain, resorted to
+the expedient of a brain fever. When his wife and mother saw him very
+near his end, they sent for Fernande as a last resource. They ought to
+have preferred death to dishonor, of course; but, my dear Mrs. Bellasys,
+they were not strong-minded. What would you have? There are women and
+women.
+
+"She came and nursed him faithfully; when he got better, though still
+very weak, she took advantage of his unprotected position to inflict on
+him the longest lectures, replete with good sense and good feeling, as
+to his conjugal duties, proprieties, and so forth. He gave in at last,
+on the principle of 'any thing for a quiet life,' and promised to behave
+himself like a decent head of a family. When the balance of power was
+thoroughly re-established, she left him, first entreating him, when he
+found himself really in love with his wife, and happy, to write and tell
+her so. This was to be her reward, you know. The others went to Italy,
+Fernande to a place she had in Brittany, where she put herself on a
+strict _regime_ of penitence, attending matins regularly, and doing as
+much good in her neighborhood as Lady Bountiful, or--my mother. In about
+a twelvemonth the letter came; Maurice was devoted to his wife, and
+great on the point of domestic felicity. Then Fernande went into her
+oratory and prayed. What do you think was the substance of her prayer?"
+
+"That she might go mad or die," was the quick answer: it came from Flora
+Bellasys.
+
+"How good of you," Guy said, "to let me finish that long story, when you
+knew it by heart."
+
+I think no ear but his and mine caught the whisper--"I never read or
+heard of it till now."
+
+He bent his head in assent, as if the intelligence did not surprise him
+much, and then spoke suddenly,
+
+"Charley, will you make an observation? You have been displaying that
+incontestable talent of yours for silence long enough."
+
+Very seldom was Forrester taken by surprise, but this time his reply was
+not ready. There was an embarrassing pause, broken by a _Deus ex
+machina_,--the butler announcing that Mr. Bruce had arrived, and was in
+the drawing-room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+     "And now thou knowest thy father's will,
+       All that thy sex hath need to know:
+     'Twas mine to teach obedience still--
+       The way to love thy lord may show."
+
+
+From that dark distant corner I heard a sigh, ending in a nervous
+catching of the breath, and then a muttered word unpleasantly like an
+oath, as Forrester sprang to his feet.
+
+Livingstone rose slowly.
+
+"I'll go and receive him. Let Mr. Raymond know, Wise. I suppose he will
+not care to see any one else before dressing-time; it must be near that
+now."
+
+As he passed his cousin, he whispered something inaudible to us; and I
+saw his heavy hand fall on Charley's shoulder, crushing him down again
+like a child.
+
+Then Flora went to Miss Raymond, and asked her, with more kindness in
+her manner than usual, to come to her rooms for some tea; they always
+seriously inclined to the consumption of that cheerful herb about this
+hour. Isabel clung to her companion as they went out with a meek
+helplessness which was sad to see.
+
+Charley had vanished before them. After that first involuntary movement
+he had become _nonchalant_ as ever, so I remained alone to ruminate. I
+confess, after some thought, I was still in the dark as to where things
+would end.
+
+The meeting had been got over somehow, for, when I came down before
+dinner, Bruce was sitting on a sofa by Miss Raymond's side.
+
+Why does a man in such a position invariably look as if he were on the
+stool of repentance, expiating some misdeed of unutterable shame? He has
+sat by the same woman before, when it was only a strong flirtation; more
+eyes, curious and spiteful, were upon him then, and he met them with
+perfect self-possession. Now that he is in his right, why does he look
+blushingly uneasy, as if he would call on the curtains to hide him, and
+the cushions to cover him? Have any mortals existed so good, or great,
+or wise, as to be exempt from that dreadful poll-tax levied on all males
+unprivileged to woo by proxy--the necessity of looking ridiculous from
+the moment their engagement is announced to that when they leave the
+church as Benedicts? I should like to have watched Burke, or Herschel,
+or the Iron Duke, or _any_ Archbishop of Canterbury, through the ordeal
+of a recognized courtship. Would the dignity of the statesman, the sage,
+the soldier, or the saint have been sustained? I trow not.
+
+In truth, it is a sight full of sad warning, that ever-recurring
+spectacle of an engaged man (the lady is always provokingly at her ease)
+in general society. His friends turn away in compassion and charity; the
+girls, whom he ought to have married and--didn't, look on, exchanging
+smiles with their mothers; it is their hour of savage triumph. The
+French manage things more comfortably, I think. The promessi sposi meet
+so seldom before the contract is signed--between sentence and execution
+the time is so brief that there is little space for intermediate
+terrors.
+
+Nature had not been bountiful to Mr. Bruce in externals. He was very
+tall, with round shoulders, long, lean limbs, large feet and hands, and
+immense joints. There was a good deal of strength about him, but it
+wanted concentration and arrangement. His features were rather
+exaggerated and coarse in outline, with the high cheek-bones common on
+the north side of the Tweed; his hair of an unhappy vacillating color
+that could not make its mind up to be red; and his eyes, that rarely met
+you fairly, of a light cold gray. About the mouth, in particular, there
+was a very unpleasant expression, alternately vicious and cunning.
+
+I do not believe that his intimates, if he had any, in their wildest
+moments of conviviality, ever called him "Jack;" nor his mother, in his
+earliest childhood, "Johnnie." Plain "John Bruce" was written
+uncompromisingly in every line of his face; just the converse of
+Forrester, whom old maids of rigid virtue, after seeing him twice, were
+irresistibly impelled to speak of as "Charley."
+
+I wish some profound psychologist would give us his theory on the
+question of "The influence of nomenclature on disposition and destiny."
+It is all very well to ask, "What's in a name?" I think there is a great
+deal; and that our sponsors have much to answer for in indulging their
+baptismal fancies. Not to go into the subject (which some have already
+done without exhausting it), have you not remarked that Georgiana is
+always pretty and slightly sarcastic; that Isabella has large, soft,
+lustrous eyes--generally they are dark; that Fanny invariably flirts;
+and that Kate is decided in character, if not haughty?
+
+Tragedy and comedy both are forced to observe these nominal
+proprieties. Who was it that illuminated his house, and had the church
+bells rung, on finding a name for his hero? We should never have
+believed in Iago's treacheries if he had appeared before us as simple
+"James."
+
+The new arrival seemed to have chilled us all into stupidity. Dinner
+languished; and afterward, Guy, after trying at first to be laboriously
+civil--the sense of duty was painfully evident--lapsed into silence,
+passing the claret rather faster than usual, so that Mr. Raymond, to his
+intense disgust, had to make an effort and force the conversation.
+
+When we entered, Isabel was nestling under Miss Bellasys' wing, from
+which shelter she had to emerge at Bruce's request for some music. She
+went directly, and played several pieces that he asked for straight
+through, while he stood gravely behind her with a complacent air of
+proprietorship which was inexpressibly aggravating.
+
+When her task was done she went back to her sofa again; there she was
+safe, for all Bruce's devotion to his ladye-love and stubbornness of
+character could not give him courage enough to affront, at close
+quarters, the mingled dislike and scornful humor that played round
+Flora's lips, and gleamed in her eyes like summer lightning. He had to
+retreat upon Lady Catharine, who, thinking him hardly used, in her
+inextinguishable charity exerted herself to entertain him.
+
+We were all glad when that first evening was over, and we got into the
+smoking-room, whither Mr. Bruce was not entreated to follow. It was
+always an augury of foul weather in Livingstone's temper when, instead
+of the decent evening cigar, he smoked the short black _brule-gueule_,
+loaded to the muzzle with cavendish. He sat thus for some minutes,
+rolling out stormy puffs from under his mustache, and then broke out,
+
+"I haven't an idea what to do with him" (there was no need to name the
+object of his thoughts); "I made up my mind to risk a horse or two, for,
+of course, he would have broken their knees; but when I offered him a
+mount, he thanked me and said, 'He didn't hunt.' It would have got him
+away from home, at all events. Poor Bella! how heavy on hand she _will_
+find him."
+
+"Ah! and he might have come to a timely end over timber; Providence does
+interfere so benevolently sometimes." This was Forrester's pious
+reflection.
+
+"Well, that's over," Guy went on. "He must shoot, though; every one
+shoots, or thinks he does. We have all the pheasants to kill yet
+(by-the-by, Fallowfield comes over on Thursday for the Home Wood); that
+will keep him employed for some time; but it's only putting off the evil
+day. My match-making aunt, of blessed memory, how much she has to answer
+for! I hate to think of Bella's _mignonne_ face alongside of that
+flinty-cheeked Scotchman's."
+
+"Don't be angry, Guy," suggested Charley, with some diffidence; "but, if
+it's not an impertinent question, do you think he ever tries to kiss
+your cousin?"
+
+"I never thought of that," replied Livingstone, not without an oath;
+"there's another pleasant reflection. No, I should think not. He _is_
+ceremonious, to give the devil his due. I'll find out to-morrow, though,
+without making Bella blush. Miss Bellasys is sure to know. I saw them
+exchanging confidences all this evening, and I am certain there were
+instigations to rebellion. Flora would delight in an _emeute_; she's a
+perfect Red Republican, that girl."
+
+"The opposition seems organizing," I remarked; "ministers will find
+themselves soon, I fear, without a working majority."
+
+"Not unlikely," said Guy, filling another pipe; "but they won't resign.
+Some men never know when they are beaten. Well, he who lives will see.
+If this wind lasts, we shall have a cracker from Lilbourne to-morrow.
+You ride the young one, don't you, Charley?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+                            "A life whose waste
+     Ravaged each bloom by which its path was traced,
+     Sporting at will, and moulding sport to art,
+     With what sad holiness--the human heart."
+
+
+It is a bright, crisp morning, and there is a gathering round the hall
+door of Kerton Manor.
+
+To the right is Sir Henry Fallowfield, already established on the broad
+tack of his shooting pony, an invaluable animal, that can leap or creep
+wherever a man can go, and steady under fire as old Copenhagen. The
+baronet is very gouty. The whip made out of his favorite vices cuts him
+up sharply at times, and he does not like it alluded to. I never saw him
+look so savage at Guy as when the latter quoted, _"Raro antecedentem
+scelestum Deseruit pede poena claudo."_ Of course, he can not walk
+much; but, placed in a ride, or at the corner of a cover, he rolls over
+the hares and pulls down the pheasants unerringly as ever; when you come
+up, you will find him surrounded by a semicircle of slain, and not a
+runner among them.
+
+The battle of life has left its tokens on the face of the strong,
+skillful Protagonist. The features, once so finely cut, are somewhat
+full and bloated now; but it is a magnificent ruin, and there are traces
+yet of "the handsomest man of his day." Very expressive are his glances
+still; a little too much so, some people think, when he is criticising a
+figure or a face; but, to do him justice, _gourmandise_ is his pet
+weakness now, a comparatively harmless one; and a delicate _entremet_
+will bring the light into his eyes that only war or love could do in the
+old days.
+
+By Sir Henry's side, encouraging him with great prophecies of sport,
+stands Mallett, the head-keeper. What a contrast his fresh, honest face
+makes with the veteran _roue's_! He is the elder of the two by a good
+ten years, and there is scarcely a wrinkle on his ruddy cheeks and
+smooth forehead. Wind and weather have used him with a rough kindness,
+and his foot is almost as light, his hand quite as heavy, as when he
+entered the service of Guy's grandfather half a century ago. For
+generations his family have been devoted to the preservation of game;
+his six stalwart sons are all eminent in that line; and the "Kerton
+breed" of keepers is renowned throughout the Midland shires. He is a
+prime favorite with the village children and their mothers, for, in all
+respects save one, his heart is as soft as a woman's; to poachers it is
+as the nether millstone. There is the stain of a "justifiable homicide"
+on the old man's hands--the blood of an antagonist slain in fair fight,
+in those rough times when the forest was, and marauders came out by
+scores to strike its deer. I do not think the deed has weighed heavily
+on his conscience (though he never has spoken of it since), or troubled
+his healthy, honest slumbers.
+
+To the left is Guy, repressing the attentions of four couple of strong
+red and white spaniels, but _not_ those of Miss Bellasys, who, standing
+at the oriel window of the library, is good-natured enough to fasten the
+band of his wide-awake for him, which has come undone. As he stands
+with his towering head a little bent, murmuring the "more last words,"
+Sir Henry, contemplating the picture with much satisfaction, smacks his
+lips, and suggests "Omphale."
+
+Last of all, Mr. Raymond comes slowly down the staircase, followed by
+his son-in-law that is to be. Forrester and I have been ready long ago,
+so we start.
+
+Bruce did shoot, certainly, if discharging his gun on the slightest
+provocation constituted the fact; but he shot curiously ill. Indeed, he
+might have formed a pendant to that humane sportsman who, having taken
+to rural sports _sero sed serio_, said, in extreme old age, "that it was
+a satisfaction to him to reflect that he could not charge himself with
+having been, wittingly, the death of more than a dozen of his
+fellow-creatures."
+
+It was a problem whereon Mallett ruminated gravely long
+afterward--"Wherever Mr. Bruce's shot do go to?" He could not conceive
+so much lead being dispersed in the atmosphere without a more adequate
+result. This want of dexterity, too, was thrown into strong relief that
+day; for all the other men, putting myself out of the question, were
+rare masters of the art.
+
+Livingstone headed the list, though Fallowfield ran him hard. He got the
+most shots, indeed; for his knowledge of the woods and great strength
+enabled him always to keep close to the spaniels. He was a sight to
+marvel at, as he went crashing through bramble and blackthorn with a
+long even stride, just as if he had been walking through light springs.
+
+At the end of the day we were all assembled outside the cover, where the
+game was being counted, except Bruce, who was still in the wood. A stray
+shot every now and then gave notice of his approach.
+
+
+     "We heard but the distant and random gun
+     That the foe was sullenly firing,"
+
+
+Guy quoted, laughing.
+
+"Random! you may say that," remarked Fallowfield. "That man ought to be
+in a glass case, and ticketed; he's a natural curiosity. His bag to-day
+consists of one hare, one hen, and one--sex unknown, for no one saw it
+rise or tried to pick it up; it was blown into a cloud of feathers
+within six feet of his muzzle. Here he comes; don't ask him what he's
+done--it's cruelty."
+
+Bruce came up to us, looking rather more discontented than usual, but
+not nearly so savage as the keeper who had attended him all day, who
+immediately retreated among his fellows to relieve himself, by many
+oaths, of his suppressed disgust and scorn. They offered him beer, but
+it was no use. I heard him growl out, "That there muff's enough to spile
+one's taste for a fortnit."
+
+It was the hour of the wood-pigeons coming in to roost, and several were
+wheeling over our heads at a considerable height.
+
+"There's something for you to empty your gun at, Bruce," Sir. Raymond
+said, pointing to one that came rather nearer than the rest.
+
+He was leveling, when Forrester cried out, "Five-and-twenty to five on
+the bird!"
+
+"Done!" answered Bruce, as he pulled the trigger. It was a long and not
+very easy shot, but the pigeon came whirling down through the tranches
+with a broken pinion.
+
+"You are unlucky in your selection, Captain Forrester," the successful
+shot remarked, coolly. "You might have won a heavy stake by laying the
+same odds all day."
+
+"It serves you right," interposed Guy, "for speaking to a man on his
+shot. Don't you remember quarreling with me the other day for doing so,
+Charley?"
+
+Charley's face of perplexity and disgust was irresistible. We all
+laughed. "What a _guignon_ I have," he said. "Mr. Raymond, I believe you
+were in the robbery."
+
+"Not I," was the answer. "I was as much surprised as any one. I think,"
+he went on, lowering his tone, "Guy is right; he changed his aim, as you
+spoke, involuntarily, or he _must_ have missed."
+
+Then we turned homeward through the twilight.
+
+I do not know if the reminiscence of his lost "pony" was rankling in
+Forrester's mind, or if he was only affected by the presence of Sir
+Henry Fallowfield--an immoral Upas, under whose shadow the most
+flourishing of good resolutions were apt to wither and die; but
+certainly, after dinner, he broke through the cautious reserve which he
+had always in public maintained toward Miss Raymond since Bruce's
+arrival. He not only talked to her incessantly, but tempted her to sing
+with him, during which performance they seemed rapidly lapsing into the
+old confidential style.
+
+Bruce sat apart, the shades on his rugged face gradually deepening from
+sullenness into ferocity. He looked quite wolfish at last, for it was a
+habit he had to show his white teeth more when he was savage than when
+he smiled. But the music went on its way rejoicing,
+
+
+     "Unconscious of their doom,
+     The little victims played."
+
+
+Isabel was too happy, and Charley too careless to be prudent. Once I
+caught his glance as it crossed with Bruce's scowl. There was an
+expression on his pleasant face that few men had ever seen there,
+approaching nearly to an insolent defiance. Looking at those two, a
+child might have known that between them there was bitter hate.
+
+But what of that? Are not the laws of society and the amenities of
+civilized life supreme over such trifles as personal animosities? How
+many women are there who never meet without mingling in a close embrace,
+when each is to the other a Brinvilliers in heart? My gentle cousin
+Kate, only last night I saw you greet your intimate enemy. It was the
+moat gushing thing I ever imagined. The kisses were profuse and
+tantalizing in the extreme; yet I wish, if thoughts could kill, dearest
+Emma's neck would have been safer in the hug of a Norway bear than in
+the clasp of your white willowy arms.
+
+Are there not men, sitting constantly at each other's tables, who, in
+the Golden Age, when people spoke and acted as they felt, would only
+have encountered at the sword's point?
+
+If we hear that our mortal foe is ruined irretrievably, we betray no
+indecorous exultation, but smile complacently and say, "We are not
+surprised;" or, if we have the chance, give him a last push to send him
+over the precipice on whose brink he is staggering. But as for any
+violent demonstration--bah! the _Vendetta_ is going out of fashion, even
+in Corsica, nowadays; only on the boards of the "Princess's" does it
+have a run.
+
+It is better so. Is it not far more creditable and less ridiculous for
+two of our reverend seniors, between whom there exists a deadly feud, to
+comport themselves with decent reserve toward each other, than to go
+vaporing about on crutches, stamping the foot that is not gouty, and
+blaspheming in a weak, cracked treble, like Capulet and Montague? Hot
+rooms and cold draughts are dangerous, but not so fatal as the Aqua
+Tofana, and other pleasant beverages more revolting and rapid in their
+effects. Could any thing be more harrowing to a well regulated mind than
+to see, in the midst of a neatly-turned compliment, one's partner
+literally _look black_ at one, and expire incontinently in great
+torments?
+
+It is less romantic, but I prefer to be given an unmedicated rose. When
+I win a pair of gloves, it is a satisfaction to me to reflect that in
+Houbigant or Pivert there is no venom or guile.
+
+All these consoling thoughts, and more, passed through my mind that
+evening; yet I could not get rid of a strange, indistinct impression
+that it was only the presence of Livingstone which averted some great
+danger imminent over his cousin and Forrester.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+                                "This is all
+     The gain we reap, from all the wisdom sown
+     Through ages. Nothing doubted those first sons
+     Of time; while we, the schooled of centuries,
+     Nothing believe--"
+
+
+We were scattered round the smoking-room, about midnight, in different
+attitudes of repose. Bruce was of the party, decidedly out of his
+element. He did not like tobacco much, and only took a cigar as a
+sacrifice to the exigencies of the occasion, consuming the same with
+great toil and exertion of the lungs, and when he removed it from his
+lips, holding it at arm's length, like a viper or other venomous beast.
+
+"Charley," asked Fallowfield, at length, from the depths of his divan,
+"how is the regiment going on? Insolvent as ever?"
+
+"More so," was the reply. "When I came away they were thinking of
+framing a L5 note, and hanging it up in the ante-room, to show that we
+had _some_ money--just like the man who pitched loaves over the
+city-walls when they were dying of famine--but there was a difficulty
+about procuring one. However, we have been promised the son of an
+opulent brewer or distiller (I forget which, but I know he makes
+something to drink), who is to join before Easter. Perhaps he may set us
+afloat again."
+
+"Yes," Guy remarked; "fortunately, a martial spirit is abroad in the
+Third Estate. _Walbrook s'en va t'en guerre_. If there is one moneyed
+man in the lot, it seems sufficient to keep the others going. I often
+wonder how you manage; for, to do you justice, you don't plunder your
+Croesus. You deserve statues--as Sydney Smith would have said--_aeris
+alieni_."
+
+"I am not the rose, but I have lived with her," responded Forrester,
+sententiously. "That's the principle of the thing. When a subaltern
+arrives laden with gold, the barrack-yard is a perfect garden of
+Bendemeer to the tradesmen."
+
+"I believe it is precisely such regiments," remarked Bruce, "that the
+political economists have in view when they attack the army estimates."
+
+The observation was aggressive; but Charley's countenance was unruffled
+as the Dead Sea as he answered, "Personal, but correct. You are intimate
+with Joseph Hume, probably? You look as if you were." (These last words
+were a stage aside, not quite so inaudible as could be wished.) "I think
+we should fight, if we had a chance, though."
+
+His lip wore a curious smile, and he raised himself on his arm to look
+the last speaker full in the face.
+
+"Of course you would," broke in Sir Henry; "that's not a peculiarity of
+crack regiments or second sons. It's only in their baptism of fire that
+the young ones shrink and start; after that, the meekest of men develop
+themselves wonderfully. I heard an old Indian, the other day, speak of a
+case in point.
+
+"There was an officer in his service, mild and stupid to a degree. He
+had been a butt all his life; bullied at school, at Addiscombe, and in
+his corps worst of all.
+
+"They were attacking a hill-fort, and the fire from wall-pieces and
+matchlocks was so heavy that the storming-party would not face it. Among
+those who retreated were two of his superior officers and chief
+tormentors. The junior lieutenant saw them cowering away to seek
+shelter, and laughed out loud; then he flung his shako before him into
+the fort, and led the sepoys back to the charge, and right over the
+breastwork--bareheaded and cheering. He was shot down inside, and lived
+only a few hours, all the time in horrible agony; but Western told us
+that Bayard or Sidney could have made no braver or calmer ending."
+
+"You are right," Livingstone said. "The Roundheads fought fully as well
+as the Cavaliers. I only know of two instances where the thoroughbreds
+had the advantage of a contrast. One was when the Scottish regiment took
+the island in the Rhine; the other was the exploit of the _Gants
+Glaces_. Don't you know it? It's worth hearing.
+
+"They were attacking some town in the wars of the Fronde. The breach was
+scarcely practicable, and the best of the besieging army had recoiled
+from it with great loss. The Black Mousquetaires stood by in all the
+coquetry of scarf, and plume, and fringed scented gloves, laughing
+louder at each repulse of the Linesmen. The soldiers heard them and
+gnashed their teeth. At last there was a murmur, and then a shout--_'En
+avant les Gants Glaces!'_ They wanted to see 'the swells' beaten too.
+Then the Household Brigade went up and carried the breach, leaving a
+third of their number on it. The general in command made the whole army
+defile past their _guidon_, and salute it with sloped standards.
+
+"No; very few men are physical cowards in battle, whatever they may be
+across country. I don't believe Paris was, when he ran from Menelaues;
+and Helen did not think so, though she teased him about it, or she would
+never have spoken to him again. I rather imagine his feeling was that of
+a certain Guardsman of our acquaintance, who said, declining the ordeal
+of combat, that 'his first duty was to his partners, and this did not
+allow him to risk a black eye.'"
+
+"Might not remorse at the sight of the man he had injured have had
+something to do with his flight?" Bruce asked.
+
+He was full of moral sentiments--that man; only you could not look at
+him without fancying that they sprung more from an inclination to be
+contradictious and disagreeable than from any depth of principle.
+
+"Absurd," Guy retorted. "Wasn't he a heathen, and rather an immoral one?
+It was of profligates with far greater advantages of education that some
+one said, '_'Le remords nait de l'abandon, et non de la faute_.' The
+walls of Troy were strong then, and the Destroyer-of-ships safe behind
+them, 'getting herself up alarmingly' for his return. No wonder Menelaues
+was eager for the duel: he was staking his loneliness against Paris's
+nine points of the law."
+
+Sir Henry Fallowfield smiled approvingly.
+
+"Yes," he observed, not answering what had been said, but evidently
+following out a train of his own thought. "Modern exquisites have
+courage, and self-possession, and conceit--great elements of success
+with women, I own--but they have not much more. I am certain Charley,
+who is a favorable specimen of the class, often affects silence because
+he has nothing on earth to say. There is a decadence since my younger
+days (I hope I speak dispassionately), and how very far we fell short of
+the _roues_ of the Regence! We could no more match them than a
+fighting-man in good training could stand up to one of the old Pict
+giants. Look at Richelieu: good at all points--in the battle, in the
+boudoir, in the Bastille--a dangerous rival at the two ages of ordinary
+men's first and second childhood."
+
+"He was a great man in his way," I assented. "Do you remember his answer
+to the Duchesse de Maine, when she asked him, for a political purpose,
+if he could remain faithful for one week to an intrigue then twenty-four
+hours old? '_Madame, quand une fois j'embrasse un parti, je suis capable
+des plus grandes sacrifices pour le soutenir._' The object of that
+heroic constancy was the Marechale de Villars, one of the loveliest
+women in France. It was the sublime of fatuity--was it not?"
+
+"Well, I don't know," said Charley, settling himself comfortably in his
+cushions, and glancing almost imperceptibly at Bruce; "they seem to
+fancy us, notwithstanding. We have only one great obstacle--the mothers
+that _bore_ us."
+
+Be it known that "they," used simply, stood in his vocabulary for the
+fair sex in general.
+
+"Nonsense," replied Fallowfield; "don't be so ungrateful. You don't know
+what you owe to those anxious parents. It helps you enormously, being
+the objects of perpetual warnings from husbands and chaperons, the
+first considering you _mauvais sujets_, the last _mauvais partis_; for
+you _are_ 'detrimentals,' for the most part, you will own."
+
+"_Vetitum ergo cupitum_," interrupted Livingstone. "A good many
+moralists before and since old Rabelais have discoursed on that text.
+The Chief of Errington was probably much more agreeable, besides being a
+better match than Jock of Hazeldean, who clearly was what an old
+Frenchman lately described to me--'_un vaurien, mon cher, qui court les
+filles et qui n'a pas le son_.' But then poor Frank was the government
+candidate; so, of course, in a popular election, he went to the wall."
+
+Sir Henry's face grew more pensive and grave as he said, "It is very
+hard on the women, certainly, that our race should have degenerated so,
+for I believe in my conscience they are as clever and wicked, and
+appreciate temptation as much as ever." (The gusto with which he said
+this is indescribable.) "There is the Bellasys, for instance, with a
+calculating sensuality, an astuteness of stratagem, an utter contempt of
+truth, and a general aptitude for making fools of men, that poor Philip
+the Regent would have worshiped. When she had no one better to corrupt,
+I have seen her take in hand an older, sadder, wiser, uglier man than
+myself, and in three days bring him to the verge of insanity, so that he
+would scowl at his wife, his companion for forty years, the blameless
+mother of six grown-up children, with a hideous expression indicative of
+carving-knives and strychnine. Guy suits her best. His thews and sinews
+awe her a little sometimes; and he has a certain hardness of character
+and pitilessness of purpose, improved by my instructions, which will
+carry him far, but not far enough, I think. You're right not to look
+flattered" (Guy's face had moved no more than the marble Memnon's); "you
+are only a shade better than the rest. Our effete world is not worthy of
+that rare creature: she was born a century too late."
+
+"I quite differ with you," Bruce said, in his harshest voice; "I am
+certain the great plurality of the women of our day would resist any
+temptation, from fear of the consequences, if not from principle."
+
+Fancy the feelings of the Greek professor interrupted in his lecture by
+a controverting freshman, and you will have some idea of Fallowfield's.
+His eye lighted on the last speaker, glittering like a hooded snake's,
+as it were caressing him with a lambent scorn.
+
+I never guessed how much sneering provocation could reside in tones
+usually so very soft and musical till I heard him answer, "I suppose you
+_do_ differ with me. We probably both speak from experience. On one
+point you are scarcely practical, though. You think you can frighten a
+woman into propriety. Try it."
+
+"Are you not too general in your strictures or encomiums?" I suggested,
+wishing to relieve the awkwardness which ensued; "surely there are many
+instances to the contrary. Take Lady Clanronald, for instance, married
+to a man her elder by twenty years, and not very clever or agreeable, I
+should think. No one ever breathed a whisper against her, and it has not
+been through default of aspirants."
+
+An evil smile curled round the old _roue's_ sensual mouth, radiating
+even to the verge of the forest of his iron-gray whiskers.
+
+"Clanronald not clever?" he replied. "The cleverest man I know. He knew
+how his wife would be tempted, and he has taken the greatest pains to
+encourage a counteracting influence--family pride. Don't you know she is
+a Hautagne? It is a tradition with that race that their women never go
+wrong--under a prince of the blood. None of these are available just
+now, so she is still '_Une Madeleine, dans la puissance de son mari, et
+dans l'impuissance de se repentir_.'"
+
+It was worse than useless to argue with Fallowfield. All your own best
+hits were turned aside by the target of his cynicism and unbelief, while
+his sophistries and sarcasms often came home. Like old wounds, they
+would begin to shoot and rankle in after years, just when it was most
+important and profitable to forget them.
+
+We separated soon after this. Sir Henry's face wore an expression of
+placid self-congratulation. He thought the conversation had been rather
+improving, I believe, and that some of the ideas and illustrations had
+been rather neatly put; so he laid his head down that night with the
+calm, satisfied feeling of a good man who has done his duty and not lost
+a day.
+
+He was not more ingenious in overcoming the scruples of others than in
+silencing his own conscience, though of late years this last had
+probably ceased to give him much trouble. Finer feelings with him were
+only "sensations morbidly exaggerated," and he made no sort of
+allowance for such; among others, utterly ignoring remorse, I doubt if
+he ever looked forward; I am sure he never looked back. A parody on the
+"tag" which was given to Cambronne would sum up his terribly simple and
+consistent creed--_La femme se rend, mais ne meurt pas_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+     "I hold him but a fool, that would endanger
+     His body for a girl that loves him not."
+
+
+Fallowfield left us the next morning, the Bellasys later in the same
+day. They were to pay divers visits, and then return to Kerton. Lady
+Catharine pressed them to do so; though she liked the daughter less than
+the mother, she was so anxious Guy should marry some one that I think
+she would have accepted even Flora with thankfulness.
+
+It is a favorite delusion with the British parent that marriage will
+work a miracle, and steady their children for life, by casting forth the
+_lutins_ who beset them. A thousand failures have not convinced the good
+speculative matrons of the hazard of the experiment, nor will as many
+more do so; they will go on match-making and blundering to the end of
+time. For a very brief space the evil spirits are exorcised; but before
+the gloss is off the new-married couple's new furniture, one of the band
+creeps back and opens the door to his fellows. These hardly know their
+old quarters at first, but they soon begin to like them better than
+ever--are they not swept and garnished? "So they enter in and dwell
+there, and"--I need not finish the sentence; a thousand sweet though
+somewhat shrill voices will save me that trouble--a doleful music--an
+ancient tale of wrong--the Song of the Brides! They used to say that a
+man never went so hard to hounds after entering the holy estate. If
+this be so, I fear it is the only comforting result which follows of
+course.
+
+What Flora and Guy said to each other at parting I can not guess.
+Neither was of the sentimental order, and both might have taken for
+their motto, "Lightly won and lightly lost." Her hand lingered somewhat
+long in his as they said farewell, but she was smiling, if any thing,
+more saucily than ever. So she went, leaving behind her no tangible
+token, except a tiny pearl-colored glove, which Guy twisted rather
+pensively between his fingers as he stood on the hall steps, and watched
+the carriage disappear down the avenue. Mr. Bruce exulted after his
+saturnine fashion, and Isabel Raymond trembled; the one had lost a
+strong, unscrupulous ally, the other a formidable enemy.
+
+"Why don't you open those letters, Charley?" Livingstone asked at
+breakfast, next morning, pointing to a pile that lay unopened by the
+letters plate.
+
+"My dear boy, I haven't the heart to do it," was the reply. "They are
+all expressive, I know, of different phases of mercantile despair. I
+believe these men keep a supplicant, as Moses maintains a poet. The last
+appeal from my saddler was perfectly heartrending: he could not have
+written it himself, for he looks as tough as his own pig-skin. If he
+had, he would be _impayable_ in more ways than one. What can I do? I
+can't come down on the poor old man who has the misfortune to be my
+father for more supplies when rents are being reduced fifteen per cent.
+The tradesmen must learn to endure. They have a splendid chance of
+attaining the victory of suffering."
+
+Bruce smiled complacently to himself, and then superciliously at
+Charley. He had just received a letter from his banker, consulting him
+as to the disposal of a superfluous thousand or so, and he was
+hesitating between some dock shares and a promising railway.
+
+"Yes," Forrester went on, "it's very well for you to talk in that
+hardened way, as you did the other night, about detrimentals and second
+sons. I wonder how you would like to have an elder brother, a pillar of
+learned societies, and as tenacious of life as one of his pet zoophytes?
+He used to consume quantities of medicine, which was encouraging; but
+lately he has taken to homoeopathy, which was quite out of the match.
+He told me, lately, that 'four hundred a year and my pay was affluence.'
+Affluence!"
+
+It is impossible to describe the cadence of plaintive indignation which
+he gave to the last word. The recollection of his wrongs had made him
+almost energetic: we listened to his eloquence in respectful surprise.
+
+"It was adding insult to injury," answered Guy. "If Parliament does not
+do something for you all soon, there will be another exodus of the
+Parthenidae."
+
+Charley looked at his friend admiringly, as he always did when Guy was
+classical in his allusions; but the unwonted effort had evidently
+exhausted him, and he lapsed into silence.
+
+We rode out that afternoon to make some calls in the neighborhood, and,
+in returning, Livingstone proposed a short cut through a line of gates,
+with a short interval of cross-country work.
+
+His cousin looked delighted, Bruce decidedly uncomfortable, though, of
+course, he could not refuse. He was riding Kathleen, an Irish mare, one
+of the quietest in the Kerton stable, where none were very steady. The
+fences were nothing at first; at last we came to a brook. It was not
+broad, but evidently deep, with high, rotten banks. However, as we were
+going at a fair hunting pace, all, including Bella Donna and her
+mistress, took it in their stride, but pulled up at once, seeing that
+Bruce was left behind, with the groom who was following us.
+
+The first time he came at it, it was a clear case of "craning." He was
+hauling nervously at the reins, and would not let the mare have it.
+
+Guy regarded him with intense contempt. "By G--d," he muttered, "I
+believe the man's afraid!"
+
+Forrester laughed so unrestrainedly that Isabel looked at him
+beseechingly, in evident dread of the consequences.
+
+"My dear Miss Raymond," he said, answering her frightened glance, "don't
+alarm yourself. Do you think I am a Quixote, to war with windmills?"
+
+No one could look at Bruce's long arms and legs, all working at once,
+without owning the aptness of the simile.
+
+For the third time he came down at the brook, and, I really believe,
+meant going; but Kathleen, unused to such vacillating measures, had got
+sulky, and swerved on the very brink, almost sliding over it. Her rider
+lost his seat, rolled over her shoulder, and for an instant disappeared
+in the water.
+
+Achelous or Tiber, emerging from his native waves, crowned with aquatic
+plants, presented, I doubt not, an appearance at once dignified and
+becoming, but I defy any ordinary non-amphibious mortal to look, under
+similar circumstances, any thing but supremely ridiculous. The wrathful
+face framed in dripping hair and plastered whiskers--the movements of
+the limbs, awkward and constrained--the rivulets distilling from every
+salient angle, turning the victim into a walking Lauterbrunnen--when we
+saw all these absurdities exaggerated before us, no wonder that from the
+whole party, including the groom, there broke "unnumbered laughters."
+
+"Curse the mare!" Bruce hissed out. The words came crushed and broken,
+as it were, through the white ranges of his grinding teeth.
+
+Livingstone's face hardened directly. "Swear as much as you think the
+circumstances require, or as my cousin will allow," he said, "but be
+just before you're generous: don't anathematize Kathleen. It was no
+fault of hers. I never saw her refuse before; but she is used to be put
+straight at her fences. Hold her still, Harry" (to the groom on the
+farther side, who had caught the mare's rein); "I'll ride her at it
+myself."
+
+He threw his bridle to Forrester, and, dismounting, cleared the brook at
+a bound. Then he went up to Kathleen, and began to coax her with voice
+and hand.
+
+"I'll bet an even fifty he takes her over the first time," said Charley.
+
+Bruce nodded his head, without speaking, to show that he took the bet. I
+thought he had the best of it, for the mare was so savage and sulky
+still that a refusal seemed a certainty.
+
+Guy had mounted by this time, and, after taking a wide sweep in the
+field, came down at the brook. Kathleen was curling her back up, and
+going short, with the most evident intention of balking; but swerving
+was next to impossible, for she was fairly held in a vice by her rider's
+hands and knees. The whip fell heavily twice on either shoulder, and,
+just at the water's edge, Livingstone drove his heels in and lifted her.
+It was almost a standing leap, and, as Kathleen landed, a fragment of
+the bank went crashing into the water from under her hind hoofs, and she
+went down on her head; but Guy recovered her cleverly, and, turning
+again, sent her over it twice, backward and forward. The first time the
+mare did not try to refuse again, but rushed at it, snorting wrathfully,
+with her head in the air; the second she was quite tamed, and took it
+evenly in her stride.
+
+"Give Mr. Bruce your horse, Harry, and take the Czar," Guy said. "I'll
+ride Kathleen home. Steady, old lady--don't fret. We are friends again
+now."
+
+"So you have got your pony back," I remarked to Forrester.
+
+"Yes, and with interest," was the quiet reply. "I don't think he will
+owe me much when I have done with him."
+
+Though I had nothing on earth to do with it, I felt something like
+compunction as I guessed what he meant.
+
+Bruce's was a hard, money-loving nature, unromantic to a degree; but I
+believe he would gladly have waked to find himself a houseless, landless
+beggar, if he could thus have regained what Charley, with his soft
+voice, and eyes, and manner, had stolen from him long ago.
+
+Am I right in saying "stolen?" Perhaps he never had it; at all events,
+he thought he had, which comes to nearly the same thing.
+
+It is true that, unraveling the cord of a man's existence, you will
+generally find the blackest hank in it twined by a woman's hand, but it
+is not less common to trace the golden thread to the same spindle.
+
+Great warrior, profound statesman, stanch champion of liberty as he was,
+without Edith of the Swan's-neck, Harold would scarcely have risen into
+a hero of romance. We do not quite despise Charles VII. when we think
+how faithfully, in loneliness and ruin, the Lady of Beauty loved her
+apathetic, senseless, discrowned king. Others never found it out, but
+there must have been something precious hid in a dark corner of his
+wayward heart near which Agnes nestled so long. We look leniently on
+Otho--parasite and profligate--when we see him lingering on his last
+march, on the very verge of the death-struggle, in the teeth of Galba's
+legions, to decorate Popaea's grave. More in pity than in scorn, be sure,
+did Tacitus, the historic epigrammatist, write "_Ne tum quidem veterum
+immemor amorum_."
+
+Was it in remorseful consciousness of having inflicted a deep,
+irreparable wrong, that Isabel rode so constantly by Bruce's side,
+striving, by all means of timid propitiation, to chase the cloud
+lowering on his sullen face as we returned slowly home?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+     _"To de prokluein,
+       Epei genoit' an elusis, prochaireto;
+           Ison de to prostenein,
+         Toron gar exei sunorthron augais."_
+
+
+My stay at Kerton Manor was drawing to a close. I had lingered there too
+long already, and letters from neglected relatives and friends came,
+reproachful, with every post. The day before I went, Guy called me into
+his study.
+
+"Frank," he said, "I am in a great strait of perplexity; my uncle has
+been attacking me this morning about Isabel and Charley. Bruce puts him
+up to it, of course."
+
+"I thought it would come; but why on earth did not Bruce speak to you,
+if not to Forrester, himself? Perhaps it was from delicacy, though. Let
+us hope so."
+
+"How philanthropic we are!" Guy retorted. "I don't believe any other man
+would have spoken of delicacy and that rough-hewn log of Scotch-fir in
+the same breath. My dear boy, the thing is as simple as possible--the
+man is a coward. He is as careful of that precious person of his as if
+it were worth preserving, so he shoots his arrows from behind Uncle
+Henry's Telamonian shield. Nothing is so acute and right-judging as the
+instinct of fear. He knows that if he had a fancy for a quarrel, either
+Charley or I would be too happy to indulge him."
+
+"He can't be such a dastard," I said.
+
+"I am sure of it; but he is not the less dangerous for that. Such men
+are always the most unscrupulous in revenge. I have seen murder in his
+eyes a score of times in the last fortnight. If our lines had fallen in
+the pleasant Italian places, he would have invested twenty scudi long
+ago in hiring a dagger. As it is, civilization and the rural police
+stand our friends; but I have strongly advised Charley not to trust
+himself near him in cover. By G--d, I think, for once in his life, he
+would hold straight!"
+
+"You don't like him, that's evident."
+
+The pupils of Livingstone's eyes contracted ominously; a lurid flash
+shot out from under his black, bent brows, and there came on his lip
+that peculiar smile that we fancy on the face of Homeric heroes--more
+fell, and cruel, and terrible than even their own frown--just before
+they leveled the spear. He laid his broad hand, corded across with a
+net-work of tangled sinews, on the table before him, and the stout oak
+creaked and trembled.
+
+"If I were to strangle him," he said, "as I constantly feel tempted to
+do, I believe I should deserve well of the state. But, with all that, I
+don't like plotting against him under my own roof; it strikes me that is
+a phase of hospitality not strictly Arabian. My mother laments over him
+already as hardly dealt with. Then Uncle Henry is a great difficulty. He
+is not in the least one of the light comedy fathers who, during two
+acts, stamps about with many strange oaths and stormy denials, but in
+the last yields to fate and _soubrettes_, says 'Bless you, my children!'
+and hands out untold gold. There is no more appeal from his decisions
+than from Major A----'s. He dislikes Bruce, of course; but he would just
+as soon think of objecting to a partner at whist as to a son-in-law
+because he happened to be unprepossessing. When the poor little
+Iphigenia is sacrificed on the shrine of expediency, you will see him,
+not veiling his face but taking snuff with the calm grace that is
+peculiar to him. Arguing with such a man is a simple absurdity."
+
+"I can not advise you," I answered, sadly; "but it seems hard on Miss
+Raymond, too."
+
+"Of course it is," Livingstone broke in; "and the worst of it is, the
+poor child looks to me to help her. I can't bear to think of what her
+life would be if she married Bruce. He would be constantly retaliating
+on her for what he is suffering now--for he does suffer. A pleasant idea
+that she, who is only meant to be petted, should be set up as a target
+for his jealousy and ill-humor! She would never be able to stand it, and
+Charley wouldn't if she could; and then there would be a _denouement_
+like that which ruined Ralph Mohun. If there _is_ to be a row, it had
+better come before than after marriage. It's more moral, and saves an
+infinity of trouble. I think Charley is better away, too, just now.
+Parndon wants us both to stay with him. We'll go; and so my conscience
+will stand at ease for the present. When we are on neutral ground I can
+help them, or, at all events, 'let the justice of the king pass by.'"
+
+"Have you spoken to Forrester yet?"
+
+"No; but he will do as I advise, and temporize, I am sure, though he
+would hardly give up Bella, even if I asked him. He means business for
+once, evidently. They will have plenty of time to concert their plans
+before the summer. Charley wants no help in that. As to carrying them
+out--we shall see. Well, you will go to-morrow. I am very sorry, for all
+reasons. I hope you have not been much bored here. Kerton counts on you
+for next winter."
+
+I need not give my answer. I felt really loth to go; but, fortunately
+for my peace of mind, I could not guess at the changes that would be
+wrought in the hopes, the intentions, the destinies of all of us before
+I should stand in the fine old manor-house again.
+
+If adieus are painful in reality, they ate intensely stupid on paper--a
+landscape without a foreground--so I spare you next morning's
+leave-takings.
+
+Guy had said nothing to his cousin then of the plan he had determined
+on. I was glad of it. I was glad not to see, at parting, her sweet face
+so sad as I am sure it became when she heard that she was to struggle
+against Brace's persecutions and her own antipathies unaided and alone.
+
+I wandered through many counties, and then went to Ireland. During the
+next few months I saw the faces I had left behind me many times, but
+only in my dreams.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+     "The only living thing he could not hate
+     Was reft at once--and he deserved his fate,
+     But did not feel it less; the good explore
+     For peace, these realms where guilt can never soar;
+     The proud--the wayward--who have fixed below
+     Their joy, and find this earth enough for woe,
+     Lose in that one their all--perchance a mite--
+     But who in patience parts with all delight?"
+
+
+Pleasant days they were when, through the soft spring weather, I
+wandered round the coasts of Kerry, Clare, and Galway, hooking salmon in
+broad pools, where the vexed water rests a while from its labors under
+wooded cliffs, and at the tail of roaring rapids, specked with white
+foam-clots, or sea-trout in the estuaries where the great rivers hurry
+down to their stormy meeting with the Atlantic rollers.
+
+Every where I met the frank, cheery welcome that you must cross the
+Channel to find in its perfection.
+
+It is sad to see how widely over that fair land the abomination of
+desolation has cast its shadow. Many halls are tenantless besides those
+of Tara. The ancient owners of the soil--where are they? Not a country
+in Europe but is conscious of these restless, careless, homeless
+Zingari. In distant provincial towns of France you hear their enormous
+blunders in grammar and musical Milesian brogue breaking the uniformity
+of dull legitimist _soirees_. Hombourg and Baden are irradiated with the
+glory of their whiskers. You find their blue eyes and open, handsome
+features diversifying the sameness of wooden-faced Austrian squadrons.
+Nay, has it not been whispered that the proudest name in Ireland
+attained a bad eminence in the Grecian Archipelago as the captain of the
+wickedest of those long low craft that, in the purple dawn or ivory
+moonlight, steal silently out from behind the headlands of the Cyclades?
+
+But let us do justice to those who remain behind.
+
+The sceptre of Connemara has passed away from the ancient dynasty. If
+the penultimate monarch could rise from his peaceful grave, his place
+would know him no more. If he traveled through all his thirty miles of
+seaboard, the Scotch laborers would doff their hats more respectfully to
+the steward of the "Law Life" than to the humane old homicide. The royal
+writ, which he defied from his place at St. Stephen's, might be served
+now, I imagine, without danger of the bailiff's breaking his fast on the
+same. Claret flows soberly from long-necked bottles whose corks bear the
+brand of the wine-merchant, high priced and legal, instead of from the
+cask of which the snug sandy cove and the roguish-looking hooker could
+have told tales. But, in spite of visionary rents, and poor-rates
+sternly real, the Irish squire still clings to the exercise of that
+hospitality which has been an heirloom with the tribes since the days of
+Strongbow.
+
+One of my longest halting-places was at Ralph Mohun's, by whom, though
+personally unknown to him, I was made very welcome as a friend of Guy's.
+My host deserves a more especial mention, for his history was a sad,
+though not an uncommon one.
+
+He began life in a Cavalry regiment, wherein he conducted himself with
+fair average propriety till he met Lady Caroline Desborough. He fell in
+love with her--most people did--but, unluckily, when she married Mr.
+Mannering, to whom she had been predestined since her _debut_, he could
+not bring himself to wear the willow decently and in order, like her
+other disappointed admirers.
+
+It was the old unhappy story: her husband neglected Lady Caroline
+consistently--ill-treated her sometimes. Mohun pursued his purpose with
+the relentless obstinacy of his character. Eighteen months after her
+marriage they fled together.
+
+He was not rich, so that the trial which ensued, with its heavy damages,
+completely crippled him. The partner of his crime was absolutely
+penniless. They went to Vienna, and Ralph entered the Austrian
+Cuirassiers, where he had some interest to push him. He had lingered
+some time within reach of England, to give Mannering an opportunity of
+demanding satisfaction. But the injured husband knew his man too well to
+trust himself within fifteen paces of Mohun's pistol. He chose a surer,
+safer revenge in taking no steps to procure a divorce, and so debarring
+Ralph from his only means of atonement--marriage with his victim.
+
+He varied the dull routine of seducers, it is true, for he never wearied
+of, or behaved unkindly to, the woman he had ruined. Time brought many
+troubles on them, but never satiety or coldness. To the very last he
+worshiped her, and, to the utmost of his power, guarded her tenderly.
+Rough, and hard, and morose as he was to others, she never heard his
+lips utter one harsh word.
+
+But she was of a proud, sensitive spirit, and had miscalculated her
+strength when she thought she could bear dishonor. After that duel with
+which Austria rang, in which the best _schlager_ in his brigade fell,
+horribly mangled, the day after he had whispered a jest about Caroline
+Mannering, men were very cautious how they even looked askance at her;
+but the women--who could bridle their tongues or blunt their scornful
+glances? Briareus, armed to the teeth, would not affright our modern
+dowagers, or deter them from their prey. Wherever the carcass of a fair
+fame lies, thither they flock, screaming shrilly in triumph,
+vulture-eyed, sharp-taloned--the choosers of the slain.
+
+I pity from my heart the frailest, the most utterly fallen of her sex,
+when once the social Nemesis hands her over to the chorus of the
+Eumenides.
+
+We deride the _subsignanae_ who line the wall; we make a mock at their
+old-fashioned whist; we risk jokes whereat our partners smile
+approvingly on their false fronts and wonderful head-gears; but may the
+wittiest of us never know by experience how much worse is the bite than
+the bark of the Veteran Battalion!
+
+Caroline Mannering had all this to contend with, for Vienna was a
+favorite resort in those days for the English, and she was constantly
+encountering some of her old set. She bore up bravely for a while, but
+it killed her. She never wearied her lover with her self-reproach, but
+crushed back her sorrows into her heart, and met him always with a
+gentle smile. That same smile contrasted so sadly, at last, with the
+wan, worn features, that it often made him bend his bushy brows to
+conceal the rising tears.
+
+If her destiny had been different--if she had died ripe in years, after
+a life spent in calm matronly happiness, with all that she loved best
+round her, would she have been nursed so tenderly or mourned so bitterly
+by the nearest and dearest of them all as she was by her tempter to sin?
+I think not. I believe that in all the world there never was a greater
+sorrow than that which Mohun endured as he saw his treasure slowly
+escaping him; never a desolation more complete and crushing than that
+which fell upon him as he stood by her corpse, with dry eyes, folded
+arms, and a heavy, frowning brow. It was not only that he felt her place
+could never be filled again--many feel that, and find it turn out
+so--but a part of his being was gone: all that was soft, and kind, and
+tender in his nature died with Caroline Mannering. He never could get
+rid of a certain chivalry which was inherent in him, so sometimes he
+would do a generous thing; but he did it so harshly as to deprive the
+act of the semblance of good-nature. I think he very seldom again felt
+sympathy or compassion for any living creature. Perhaps he thought the
+world had behaved hardly to his dead love, and so never forgave it. She
+passed away very stilly and painlessly. She was leaning on his breast
+when he saw death come into her eyes: he shivered then all over, as if a
+cold wind had struck him suddenly, but spoke no word. She understood
+him, though. Her last motion was to draw his cheek down to hers with her
+thin, shadowy arm, and her last breath went up to the God who would
+judge them both in an unselfish prayer.
+
+"She was rightly served," says Cornelia; "such women ought to be
+miserable."
+
+O rigid mother of the Gracchi! how we all respect you, _tronante_ in the
+comfortable cathedra of virtue inexpugnable, perhaps unassailed. Your
+dictum must stand for the present. The court is with you. But I believe
+other balances will weigh the strength of temptation, the weakness of
+human endurance, the sincerity of repentance, and the extent of suffered
+retribution, when the Father of all that have lived and erred since the
+world began shall make up His jewels. In that day, I think, the light of
+many orthodox virgins and dignified matrons will pale before the softer
+lustre of Magdalene the Saint.
+
+Mohun remained in the Austrian service some time after Caroline
+Mannering's death, and, by dint of good service and interest, rose
+rapidly; but, about eight years before I saw him, a distant relation
+left him the estate in the west of Ireland, where he had resided ever
+since, making occasional visits to the Continent, and beating up his old
+quarters, but rarely coming to England.
+
+He did not mix much with the county society, such as it was; and his
+visitors were chiefly friends from England who had not forgotten him
+yet, or the military quartered in his neighborhood.
+
+It was a dreary, desolate old house where he lived--massive, square, and
+gray. There were wooded banks and hollows just round it; but farther
+afield the chill, bare moorland stretched away toward the sea, broken
+here and there by sullen sedgy tarns.
+
+Here he spent his monotonous existence, riding hard and drinking
+obstinately, but never, even in the latter case, rising into
+conviviality. A long, bushy beard, and portentous mustache, grizzled,
+though he was scarcely past middle age, which could not conceal a deep
+sabre-scar, gave him a grim, sinister expression; and his voice had that
+brief imperious accent which is peculiar to men for many years used to
+give the word of command.
+
+That worn, haggard face told a real tale. The furrows there had been
+plowed by an enduring remorse, very different from that comfortable,
+half-complacent regret which some feel at the retrospect of their
+youthful _fredaines_.
+
+They shake their solemn old heads as they hold themselves up to us as a
+warning; they sermonize with edifying gravity on the impropriety of such
+misdemeanors; but we can trace through all this an under-current of
+satisfaction tenderly fatuitous, as they go back to the days of their
+gipsyhood, when Plancus was consul.
+
+I have been amused with watching these eminent but somewhat sensual
+Christians on such occasions, and seeing the dull eyes begin to glisten,
+and the lips wrinkle themselves into a fat, unpleasant smile. _They_
+have prospered since, and certainly it would be most absurd to torment
+themselves now about the souls and bodies which they once sacrificed to
+a whim. Over those ruins and relics the River of Oblivion has rolled
+long ago--let them sleep on there and take their rest.
+
+Have we not the bright example of the prototype of this class--the
+pious AEneas? How creditable was his behavior when he looked back over
+the black water on the trail of flame stretching from the funeral pyre
+where Dido lay burning!
+
+"He knew," says his admiring biographer, "what the madness of women
+could do;" but the breeze was getting up astern, and favoring gods
+beckoned him on to Italy and fortune; so he sighed twice or
+thrice--perhaps he wept, for the amiable hero's tears were always ready
+on the shortest notice--and then, like the captain of the _Hesperus_,
+"steered for the open sea."
+
+Did he feel a pang of remorse or shame at that meeting in the twilight
+of Hades, when he called vainly on Elissa, and the dead queen, from
+where she stood by the side of Sychaeus, who had forgiven her all, turned
+on him the disgust and horror of her imperial eyes? Who can tell? The
+greatest and best of men have their moments of weakness. If so, be sure
+he was soon comforted as he reviewed the shadowy procession of his
+posterity of kings. The episode of Byrsa would scarcely trouble his
+conjugal happiness, or make him more indulgent to the mildest flirtation
+of Lavinia.
+
+I fancy that poor princess--after listening to a long, intensely proper
+discourse from her immaculate husband, or when the young Iulus had been
+unusually disagreeable--gazing wistfully in the direction where, against
+the sky-line, rose the clump of plane-trees, under which hot-headed,
+warm-hearted Turnus was resting after his brief life of storms. Then she
+would think of that unhappy mother who, with every impulse of a willful
+nature, loved her child so dearly, till she would begin to doubt--it was
+very wrong of her--if Amata or the match-making gods were most right
+after all.
+
+The neighboring peasantry regarded Mohun with mingled dislike and
+terror--a feeling which was increased tenfold by an event which occurred
+about three years before my visit, in the height of the agrarian
+troubles. I can not do better than give it, as near as I can, in the
+words of one who was an actor in the scene.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+     "Now what wouldst thou do, good my squire,
+       That rides beside my rein,
+     Wert thou Glenallan's earl to-day,
+       And I were Roland Cheyne?
+
+            *       *       *       *       *
+
+     My horse should ride through their ranks sae rude,
+       As he would through the moorland fern,
+     And ne'er let the gentle Norman bluid
+       Grow cauld for the Highland kerne."
+
+
+It was in the beginning of December, 184-(said Fred. Carew); we were
+sitting down to dinner after a capital day's cock-shooting--besides
+myself there were Lord Clontarf, Mohun, and Kate, my wife--when we were
+disturbed by a perfect hail of knocks at the hall door. Old Dan Tucker,
+or the Spectre Horseman, never clamored more loudly for admittance.
+Fritz, Mohun's old Austrian servant, went down to see what was up, and,
+on opening the door, was instantly borne down by the tumultuous rush of
+Michael Kelly, gentleman, agent to half a dozen estates, and attorney at
+law. In the two last capacities be had given, it seems, great umbrage to
+the neighboring peasantry, and they had caught him that night as he
+returned home, intending to put him to death with that ingenuity of
+torture for which the fine, warm-hearted fellows are justly celebrated.
+
+They did not wish to hurry over the entertainment, so confined him in an
+upper chamber, while they called their friends and neighbors to rejoice
+with them, carousing meantime jovially below. The victim contrived to
+let himself down from the window, and ran for his life to the nearest
+house, which, unluckily, happened to be the Lodge. Two boys, however,
+saw and recognized him as he entered the demesne, and raised a whoop, to
+show that they knew where the fox had gone to ground.
+
+This we made out from a string of incoherent interjections; and then he
+lay panting and contorting himself in an agony of fear.
+
+Mohun sat on the hall table, swinging his foot and regarding the
+spectacle with the indolent curiosity that one might exhibit toward the
+gambols of some ugly new importation of the Zoological Society. When the
+story was told he pointed coolly to the door.
+
+The shriek that the miserable creature set up on seeing that gesture I
+shall never forget.
+
+"Do you think I shall turn my house into a refuge for destitute
+attorneys?" Ralph said, answering my look of inquiry. "If there were no
+other reason, I would not risk it, with your wife under my roof. A
+night-attack in the West is no child's play."
+
+Kate had come out, and was leaning over the gallery. She heard the last
+words, and spoke, flushing scarlet with anger.
+
+"If I thought that my presence prevented an act of common humanity, I
+would leave your house this instant, Colonel Mohun."
+
+Ralph smiled slightly as he bent his head in courteous acknowledgment of
+her interruption.
+
+"Don't be indignant, Mrs. Carew. If you have a fancy for such an
+excitement, I shall be too happy to indulge you. It is settled, then? We
+back the attorney. Don't lie there, sir, looking so like a whipped
+hound. You hear? You are safe for the present." He had hardly finished,
+when there came a rustling of feet outside, then hurried whispers, then
+a knock, and a summons.
+
+"We'd like to spake wid the curnel, av ye plase."
+
+"I am here; what do ye want?" Mohun growled.
+
+"We want the 'torney. We know he's widin."
+
+"Then I'm afraid you'll be disappointed. It's not my fancy to give him
+up. I wouldn't turn out a badger to you, let alone a man."
+
+You see, he took the high moral ground now.
+
+"Then we'll have him out in spite of yez," two or three voices cried out
+together.
+
+"Try it," Ralph said. "Meantime I am going to dine; good-night."
+
+A voice that had not spoken yet was heard, with a shrill, gibing accent.
+"Ah! thin the best of appetites to ye, curnel, and make haste over yer
+dinner. It's Pierce Delaney that'll give ye yer supper." Then they went
+off.
+
+"The said Delaney is a huge quarryman," Ralph observed. "He represents
+the physical element of terror hereabouts, as I believe I do the moral.
+We shall have warm work before morning. He does not like me. Fritz, send
+Connell up; he is below somewhere."
+
+The keeper came, looking very much surprised. He had been in the
+stables, and had only just heard of the disturbance.
+
+"Get the rifles and guns ready, with bullets and buckshot," his master
+said. "We are to be attacked, it seems."
+
+The man's bold face fell blankly.
+
+"By the powers, yer honor, I haven't the value of an ounce of poudther
+in the house. I meant to get some the morrow morning, afore ye were up."
+
+Mohun shrugged his shoulders, whistling softly.
+
+"Man proposes," he said. "It's almost a pity we found so many cocks in
+the lower copse this afternoon. I have fifteen charges or so in my
+pistol-case. We must make that do, loading the rifles light." Then he
+went to a window, whence he could see down the road; the moon was
+shining brightly.
+
+"I thought so; they have got scouts posted already. The barbarians know
+something of skirmishing, after all. Maddox, come here." (The groom was
+a strong English boy, very much afraid of his master, but of nothing
+else on earth.) "Saddle Sunbeam, and go out by the back gates, keeping
+well under the shadow of the trees. When you clear them, ride straight
+at the rails at the end of the paddock. You'll get over with a scramble,
+I think. Keep fast hold of his head--you _mustn't_ fall. Then make the
+best of your way to A----, and tell Colonel Harding, with my
+compliments, that I shall be glad if he will send over a troop as
+quickly as possible. They ought to be here in two hours. And, mind,
+don't spare the horse going, but bring him back easy. You will be of no
+use here, and I won't have him lamed if I can help it. You'll have to
+risk a bullet or two as you get into the road; but they can't shoot.
+It's odds against their hitting you. Now go."
+
+The groom pulled his forelock as if the most ordinary commission had
+been given him, and vanished.
+
+"Connell," Ralph went on, "go and saw the ladders that are in the yard
+half through. They will hardly try the barred windows; but it looks more
+workmanlike to take all precautions. Then come back, and help Fritz to
+pile chairs and furniture all up the staircase, and about the hall near
+it. Line the gallery with mattresses, two deep, leaving spaces to fire
+through. Light all the lamps, and get more candles to fix about; we
+shall not see very clearly after the smoke of the first dozen shots.
+When you have finished, come to me. Now, shall we go back to dinner?"
+
+I am not ashamed to own I had little appetite; nevertheless, I sat down.
+Kate had gone to her room. If her courage was failing, she did not wish
+to show it.
+
+Suddenly our host got up and went to the window. His practiced ear had
+caught the tread of the horse which Maddox was taking out as quietly as
+possible. We watched him stealing along under the trees till their
+shelter failed him. Then he put Sunbeam to speed, and rode boldly at the
+rails. A yell went up from the road, and we saw dark figures running;
+then came a shot, just as the horse was rising at the fence, he hit it
+hard, and the splinters flew up white in the moonlight, but he was over.
+We held our breath, while several flashes told of dropping shots after
+the fugitive. They did not stop him, though; and, to our great relief,
+we heard the wild rush of the frightened horse subside into a long
+stretching gallop, and the wind brought back a cheery hollo--"Forr'ard,
+forr'ard away!"
+
+"So far so good," said Ralph Mohun, as he sat down again, and went in
+steadily at a woodcock. "Don't hurry yourselves, gentlemen. We have
+three quarters of an hour yet; they will take that time to muster.
+Clontarf, some Hock?"
+
+The boy to whom he spoke held out his glass with a pleasant smile. The
+coming peril had not altered a tint on his fresh, beardless cheeks--rosy
+and clear as a page's in one of Boucher's pictures.
+
+A good contrast he made with the miserable attorney, who had followed us
+uninvited (it seemed he only felt safe in our presence), and who was
+crouching in a corner, his lank hair plastered round his livid convulsed
+face with the sweat of mortal fear.
+
+It struck Mohun, I think. He laid his hand on Clontarf's shoulder, and
+spoke with a kindliness of voice and manner most unusual with him--
+
+     "We'll quell the savage mountaineer,
+       As their Tinchell cows the game:
+     They come as fleet as forest deer;
+       We'll drive them back as tame."
+
+Even at that anxious moment I could not help laughing at the idea of
+Ralph quoting poetry--of that grim Saul among the prophets.
+
+I went in to keep up Kate's spirits. She bore up gallantly, poor child,
+and I left her tolerably calm. She believed in me as a "plunger" to an
+enormous extent, and in Mohun still more. When I returned my companions
+were in the gallery. This ran round two sides of the hall, which went up
+to the roof. The only access to the upper part of the house was by a
+stone staircase of a single flight. The kitchen and offices were on the
+ground floor, otherwise it was uninhabited.
+
+Ralph had his pistols by him, and his cavalry sword, long and heavy, but
+admirably poised, lay within his reach.
+
+"I have settled it," he said. "You and Connell are to take the guns.
+Smooth-bores are quickest loaded, and will do for this short distance.
+Clontarf, who is not quite so sure with the trigger, is to have the post
+of honor, and guard the staircase with his sabre. Throw another bucket
+of water over it, Connell--is it thoroughly drenched? And draw the
+windows up" (these did not reach to within ten feet of the floor); "we
+shall be stifled else. But there will be a thorough draft when the
+door's down, that's our comfort. One word with you, Carew."
+
+He drew me aside, and spoke almost in a whisper, while his face was very
+grave and stern.
+
+"You will do me this justice, whatever happens. Unless it had been
+forced upon me, I would not have risked a hair of your wife's head to
+save all the attorneys that are patronized by the father of lies. But,
+mark, me! if it comes to the worst, keep a bullet for _her_. Don't leave
+her to the mercy of those savage devils. I know them. She had better die
+ten times over than full into their brutal hands. You must use your own
+discretion, though. I shall not be able to advise you then. Not a man of
+them will be in this gallery till I am past praying for. Nevertheless, I
+hope and believe all will be right. Don't trouble yourself to reload;
+Fritz will do that for you. I have given him his orders. Aim very
+coolly, too; we must not waste a bullet. You can choose your own sword;
+there are several behind you. Ah! I hear them coming up. Now, men, to
+your posts."
+
+There was the tramp of many feet, and the surging of a crowd about and
+against the hall door. Then a harsh, loud voice spoke:
+
+"Onst for all, will ye give him up, or shall we take him, and serve the
+rest of yez as bad? Ye've got women there, too--"
+
+I will not add the rest of the threat for very shame. I know it made me
+more wolfish than ever I thought it possible to feel, for I am a
+good-natured man in the main. Mohun, who is _not_, bit his mustache
+furiously, and his voice shook a little as he answered,
+
+"Do you ever say a prayer, Pierce Delaney? You need one now. If you live
+to see to-morrow's sunset, I wish my right hand may wither at the
+wrist."
+
+A shrill howl pealed out from the assailants, and then the stout oak
+door cracked and quivered under the strokes of a heavy battering-beam;
+in a hundred seconds the hinges yielded, and it came clattering in; over
+it leaped three wild figures, bearing torches and pikes, but their
+chief, Delaney, was not one of them.
+
+"The left-hand man is yours, Carew; Connell, take the middle one," said
+Ralph, as coolly as if we had sprung a pack of grouse. While he spoke
+his pistol cracked, and the right-hand intruder dropped across the
+threshold without a cry or a stagger, shot right through the brain. The
+keeper and I were nearly as fortunate. Then there was a pause; then a
+rush from without, an irregular discharge of musketry, and the clear
+part of the hall was crowded with enemies.
+
+I can't tell exactly what ensued. I know they retreated several times,
+for the barricade was impassable; and while their shots fell harmlessly
+on the mattresses, every one of ours told--nothing makes a man shoot
+straight like being short of powder--but they came on again, each time
+with added ferocity.
+
+I heard Mohun mutter more than once, in a dissatisfied tone, "Why does
+not that scoundrel show himself? I can't make out Delaney." All at once
+I heard a stifled cry on my right, and, to my horror, I saw Clontarf
+dragged over the balustrade in the gripe of a giant, whom I guessed at
+once to be the man we had looked for so long. Under cover of the smoke,
+he had swung himself up by the balustrade of the staircase, and,
+grasping the poor boy's collar as he looked out incautiously from his
+shelter, dropped back into the hall, carrying his victim with him.
+
+With a roar of exultation the wild beasts closed round their prey.
+Before I had time to think what could be done, I heard, close to my ear,
+a blasphemy so awful that it made me start even at that critical moment:
+it was Ralph's voice, but I hardly knew it--hoarse and guttural, and
+indistinct with passion. Without hesitating an instant, he swung himself
+over the balustrade, and lighted on his feet in the midst of the crowd.
+They were half drunk with whisky, and maddened by the smell of blood;
+but--so great was the terror of Mohun's name--all recoiled when they saw
+him thus face to face, his sword bare and his eyes blazing. That
+momentary panic saved Clontarf. In a second Ralph had thrown him under
+the arch of a deep doorway, and placed himself between the senseless
+body and its assailants. Two or three shots were fired at him without
+effect; it was difficult to take aim in such a tossing chaos; then one
+man, Delaney, sprung out at him with a clubbed musket. "At last!" we
+heard Mohun say, laughing low and savagely in his beard as he stepped
+one pace forward to meet his enemy. A blow that looked as if it might
+have felled Behemoth was warded dexterously by the sabre, and, by a
+quick turn of the wrist, its edge laid the Rapparee's face open in a
+bright scarlet gash, extending from eyebrow to chin.
+
+His comrades rushed over his body, furious, though somewhat disheartened
+at seeing their champion come to grief; but they had to deal with a
+blade that had kept half a dozen Hungarian swordsmen at bay, and, with
+point or edge, it met them every where, magically. They were drawing
+back, when Delaney, recovering from the first effects of his fearful
+wound, crawled forward, gasping out curses that seemed floating on the
+torrent of his rushing blood, and tried to grasp Mohun by the knees and
+drag him down.
+
+Pah! it was a sight to haunt one's dreams. (You might have filled my
+glass, some of you, when you saw it was empty.)
+
+Ralph looked down on him, and laughed again; his sabre whirled round
+once, and cleared a wide circle; then, trampling down the wounded man by
+main force, he drove the point through his throat, and pinned him to the
+floor. I tell you I heard the steel plainly as it grated on the stone.
+There was an awful convulsion of all the limbs, and then the huge mass
+lay quite still.
+
+Then came a lull for several moments. The Irish cowered back to the door
+like penned sheep; their ammunition was exhausted, and none dared to
+cross the hideous barrier that now was between them and the terrible
+Cuirassier.
+
+All this took about half the time to act that it does to tell. I was
+hesitating whether to descend or to stay where my duty called me--near
+my wife. Fritz knelt behind me, silent and motionless; he had got his
+orders to stay by me to the last; but the sturdy keeper rose to his
+feet.
+
+"Faix," he said, "I'm but a poor hand at the swoording, but I must help
+my master, anyhow;" and he began to climb over the breastwork. The
+colonel's quick glance caught the movement, and his brief imperious
+tones rang over the hubbub of voices loud and clear,
+
+"Don't stir, Connell; stay where you are. I can finish with these hounds
+alone."
+
+As he spoke, he dashed in upon them with lowered head and uplifted
+sword.
+
+I don't wonder that they all recoiled; his whole face and form were
+fearfully transfigured; every hair in his bushy beard was bristling with
+rage, and the incarnate devil of murder was gleaming redly in his eyes.
+
+Just then there was a wild cry from without, answered by a shriek from
+my wife, who had been quiet till now. At first I thought that some
+fellows had scaled the window; but I soon distinguished the accents of a
+great joy. My poor Kate! She had roughed it in barracks too long not to
+know the rattle of the steel scabbards.
+
+When the dragoons came up at a hard gallop, there was nothing left in
+the court-yard but the dead and dying. Mohun had followed the flyers to
+get a last stroke at the hindmost. We clambered down into the hall, and,
+just as we reached the door, we saw a miserable crippled being clinging
+round his knees, crying for quarter. Poor wretch! he might as well have
+asked it from a famished jungle-tiger. The arm that had fallen so often
+that night, and never in vain, came down once more; the piteous appeal
+ended in a death-yell, and, as we reached him, Mohun was wiping coolly
+his dripping sabre: it had no more work to do.
+
+I could not help shuddering as I took his offered hand, and I saw
+Connell tremble for the first time as he made the sign of the cross.
+
+The Dragoons were returning from the pursuit; they had only made two
+prisoners; the darkness and broken ground prevented their doing more.
+Ralph went up to the officer in command.
+
+"How very good of you to come yourself, Harding, when I only asked you
+for a troop. Come in; you shall have some supper in half an hour, and
+Fritz will take care of your men. Throw all that carrion out," he went
+on, as we entered the hall, strewn with corpses. "We'll give them a
+truce to take up their dead."
+
+Clontarf came to meet us; he had only been stunned and bruised by the
+fall. His pale face flushed up as he said, "I shall never forget that I
+have to thank you for my life."
+
+"It's not worth mentioning," Mohun replied, carelessly. "I hope you are
+not much the worse for the tumble. Gad! it was a near thing, though. The
+quarryman's arms were a rough necklace."
+
+At that moment they were carrying by the disfigured remains of the dead
+Colossus. His slayer stopped them, and bent over the hideous face with a
+grim satisfaction.
+
+"My good friend Delaney," he muttered, "you will own that I have kept my
+word. If ever we meet again, I think I shall know you. _Au revoir_," and
+he passed on.
+
+I need not go through the congratulatory scene, nor describe how Kate
+blushed as they complimented her on her nerve. Fortunately for her, she
+had seen nothing, though she had heard all. Just as we were sitting down
+to supper, which Fritz prepared with his usual stolid coolness, and when
+Kate was about to leave us, for she needed rest, we remarked the
+attorney hovering about us with an exultation on his face yet more
+servile and repulsive than its late abject terror.
+
+"Mrs. Carew," said Mohun, "if you have quite done with your _protege_, I
+think we'll send him down stairs. Give him something to eat, Fritz; not
+with the soldiers, though; and let some one take him home as soon as
+it's light. If you say one word, sir, I'll have you turned out _now_."
+
+Mr. Kelly crept out of the room, almost as frightened as he had been two
+hours before.
+
+The supper was more cheerful than the dinner, though there was a certain
+constraint on the party, who were not all so seasoned as their host.
+_He_ was in unusual spirits; so much so that Clontarf confided to a
+cornet, his particular friend, that "it was a pity the colonel could
+not have such a bear-fight once a fortnight, it put him into such a
+charming humor."
+
+We had nearly finished when, from the road outside, there came a
+prolonged ear-piercing wail, that made the window-panes tremble. I have
+never heard any earthly sound at once so expressive of utter despair,
+and appealing to heaven or hell for vengeance.
+
+We all started, and set down our glasses; but Mohun finished his slowly,
+savoring like a connoisseur the rich Burgundy.
+
+"It is the wild Irish women keening over their dead," he remarked, with
+perfect unconcern. "They'll have more to howl for before I have done
+with them. I shall go round with the police to-morrow and pick up the
+stragglers. Your men are too good for such work, Harding. There are
+several too hard hit to go far, and my hand-writing is pretty legible."
+
+The stout soldier to whom he spoke bent his head in assent, but with
+rather a queer expression on his honest face.
+
+"Gad!" he said, "you do your work cleanly, Mohun."
+
+"It is the best way, and the shortest in the end," was the reply; and so
+the matter dropped.
+
+The Dragoons left us before daybreak; their protection was not needed;
+we were as safe as in the Tower of London. The next morning, while I was
+sleeping heavily, Ralph was in the saddle scouring the country, with
+what success the next Assizes could tell.
+
+I go there again this winter for the cock-shooting, but I don't much
+think Kate will accompany me.
+
+Now who says "a rubber?" Don't all speak at once.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+     "He has mounted her on a milk-white steed,
+       Himself on a dappled gray;
+     And a bugelet-horn hung down by his side
+       As lightly they rode away."
+
+
+It is hard to describe the terrible _prestige_ which, after the event I
+have been speaking of, attached itself to Ralph Mohun. As for attempting
+a second attack on the fatal house, the peasantry would as soon have
+thought of storming the bottomless pit. They did not even try a shot at
+him from behind a wall; considering him perfectly invulnerable, they
+deemed it a pity to waste good powder and lead that might be usefully
+employed on an agent or process server. As his gaunt, erect figure went
+by, the men shrunk out of his path, and the women called their children
+in hastily, and shut their cabin doors; the very beggars, who are
+tolerably unscrupulous, gave his gate a wide berth, crossing themselves,
+with a muttered prayer, "God stand betwixt us and harm." If Ralph
+perceived this, I think he rather liked it; at all events, he made no
+attempt, either by softening his manner or by any act of benevolence, to
+win the popular favor.
+
+Before going to the Lodge I had heard from Livingstone. He said that his
+cousin's affair with Charley was progressing satisfactorily (I knew what
+that meant), and that he was going himself to sell out. I was not
+surprised at this; for some time past even the light restraint of
+service in the Household Brigade had begun to bore him. But the
+intelligence conveyed in a brief note from him during my stay with Mohun
+startled me very much. It announced, without any preface or explanation,
+that he was engaged to Constance Brandon.
+
+I had observed that lately he never mentioned or alluded to Miss
+Bellasys, but he had been equally silent about his present betrothed. I
+told my host of the news directly.
+
+"I am very glad to hear it," he said. "I never heard any thing but good
+of his _fiancee_. She is wonderfully beautiful, too, I believe, and her
+blood is unexceptionable. And yet," he went on musingly, "I should
+hardly have fancied that she would quite suit Guy. I don't know any one
+who would exactly. By-the-by, was there not a strong flirtation with a
+Miss Bellasys?"
+
+"Yes; so strong that I should have been less surprised to have seen her
+name in this letter."
+
+"Then he has not got out of that scrape yet," Mohun observed. "That girl
+comes of the wrong stock to give up any thing she has fancied without a
+struggle. I knew her father, Dick Bellasys, well. He contrived to
+compress as much mischief into his five-and-thirty years, before De
+Launy shot him, as most strong men can manage in double the time. He was
+like the Visconti--never sparing man in his anger, or woman in his
+love."
+
+I felt that he was right. I did not fancy the idea of Flora's state of
+mind when she heard that all her fascinations had failed, and that her
+rival had won the day.
+
+"I think I must leave you sooner than I had intended," I said; "I
+should like to be in England to see how things are going on."
+
+"You are right," answered Ralph, "though I shall be sorry to lose you.
+You have some influence with Livingstone, I know, though he is so hard
+to guide and self-reliant that advice is almost useless. If I had to
+give you a _consigne_, it would be--Distrust. If Miss Bellasys seems to
+take things pleasantly, be still more wary. I never saw a peculiarly
+frank, winning smile on her father's face without there being ruin to
+some one in the background. After all, you can do but little, I suppose.
+_Che sara, sara_." He said this drearily, and with something like a
+sigh.
+
+I had some business which detained me in Dublin, and it was nearly a
+fortnight after I received Guy's letter before I reached London.
+
+Early on the morning after my arrival I went down to his lodgings in
+Piccadilly. I found him at breakfast; after the first greetings, before
+I could say one word about his own affairs, he began to speak eagerly.
+
+"What a pity you should have come too late for the catastrophe, when you
+had seen all the preface! Five days ago Bella and Charley made their
+great _coup_, and were married in Paris."
+
+"And Bruce?" I said, recovering from the intelligence, which was not so
+unexpected, after all.
+
+"Ah! Bruce"--Guy replied; "I should be very glad if I knew what he _was_
+doing at this moment. I have been expecting him every day; but nothing
+has been heard of him since he left my mother's presence in a rabid
+state of fury. Did I tell you it was from Kerton they fled? I thought
+he must have come to me for an explanation, knowing that I was an
+accessory before the fact. Indeed, I lent Charley the sinews of war in
+the shape of a blank check, which I see this morning he has filled up
+for a thousand--just like his modesty. Well, I hope they'll amuse
+themselves! Bruce has never been near me. Suicide is the most charitable
+suggestion I've heard yet; but coroners are silent, and the Thames, if
+it is conscious of that unlucky though disagreeable man, keeps his
+secret so far!"
+
+Then he went on to give me more particulars of the _escapade_. It seems
+that Miss Raymond had gone out to walk alone, after luncheon, and that
+nothing more was heard of her till dinner-time, when a note was found on
+her dressing-table, addressed to her aunt, containing the intelligence
+of her flight with Forrester, and a little piece of ready-made
+penitence--the first for all whom it might concern, the second for her
+father.
+
+That placid Lord Ullin received the news by telegraph when he was well
+into his second rubber at the "Travelers;" he put the message into his
+pocket without remark, and won the rubber before he rose. It has been
+reported that he was somewhat absent during its progress, so much so as
+to rough his partner's strongest suit; but this I conceive to have been
+an after-thought of some one's, or a _canard_ of the club. Impavid as
+the Horatian model-man--(just in all his _dealings_, and tenacious of
+the odd trick)--I can not imagine the convulsion of nature which would
+have made him jeopardize by any sin of omission or commission the
+winning of the long odds.
+
+He found Bruce that night, and told him all. He never would give an
+account of that interview: it must have been a curious one.
+
+     _"xunomosan gar, ontes echtistoi to prin,
+     pur kai thalassa--"_
+
+Fancy the well-iced conventionalities of the one brought in contact with
+the other's savage temperament, maddened by baffled desires and the
+sense of shameful defeat.
+
+Before noon the next day it was announced to Lady Catharine, at Kerton
+Manor, that Bruce was waiting for her in the drawing-room. It was with a
+diffidence and sense of guilt very strange to her pure, straightforward
+nature that she obeyed the summons.
+
+His back was to the door as she entered.
+
+"I can not tell you how sorry I am," she began.
+
+Bruce turned toward her his ghastly face, ravaged and deformed by
+passion and sleeplessness, like a cane-brake in the Western Indies over
+which a tornado has passed. He did not appear to notice her words or her
+offered hand, but spoke in a strange, broken voice, after clearing his
+parched throat once or twice, huskily:
+
+"When did they go? At what hour?"
+
+She told him as well as she could.
+
+"Where have they gone to?"
+
+"I have not the least idea. Bella gave no hint of this. Would you like
+to see her note?" and she held it out to him.
+
+The name appeared to sting him like the cut of a whip, for he started
+convulsively as he took the scrap of paper. He read it through more than
+once, as if unable to comprehend it; the power of discrimination seemed
+blasted in his dry, red eyeballs; they could only glare.
+
+He made it out at last, and crumpled it up in his hand, clenching it
+till the knuckles became dead-white under the strain.
+
+"We were to have been married this day month," he said to himself, in a
+hoarse whisper; then raising his voice, "You can guess, at least, which
+route they have taken?"
+
+"Indeed I can not," she answered; "I would have done any thing to
+prevent this; but you must see that pursuit now would be worse than
+useless; it could only lead to fresh evils."
+
+Then the smouldering passion burst into a flame.
+
+"It is false," he cried out; "you would have done nothing. It is a plot.
+You are all in it; you, your son, and more that I will know soon. I saw
+it from the first moment I set foot in this cursed house. And you think
+I will not be revenged? Wait--wait and see!" He spoke rapidly, but it
+seemed as if the words could hardly force their way through his gnashing
+teeth.
+
+Good and kind-hearted as she was, there breathed no prouder woman than
+Lady Catharine Livingstone. Before he had ended her hand was on the
+bell.
+
+"Not even your disappointment can excuse your language," she said, in
+her clear, vibrating tones; "our interview is ended. I have pitied you
+hitherto, and blamed my niece; I do neither now: she knew you better
+than I. Not one word more. Mr. Bruce's carriage."
+
+Bruce glared at her savagely. He would have sold his soul, I believe,
+to have strangled her where she stood; but Guy's own peculiar look was
+in the cold, disdainful eyes, which met his without flinching or
+faltering. He knew that look very well, and quailed under it now, as he
+had done many times before.
+
+"A last piece of advice," Lady Catharine said, as he turned to go; "you
+had better curb your temper if you think of seeing my son. He may
+scarcely be so patient with you as I have been."
+
+If he heard it he did not notice the remark, but left the room slowly.
+He lifted his hand, but not his head, in a stealthy gesture of menace as
+he reached the door.
+
+Lady Catharine stood for some moments after his departure as if in
+thought, unconsciously retaining her somewhat haughty attitude and
+expression. Then she went to her room, and prayed, with many tears, that
+Isabel Raymond might never have to repent the step she had taken so
+rashly. I think a presentiment of danger made her pray for Guy too. But
+did she ever forget him when she was on her knees?
+
+Nevertheless, Bruce had not shown upon the scene since, so that they
+could not convey to him the intelligence when Isabel Forrester wrote
+from Paris to communicate her marriage.
+
+Guy went to Mr. Raymond as a plenipotentiary from the recently allied
+powers, to obtain, if possible, fair conditions of peace. His uncle was
+breakfasting alone, and received him with perfect good-temper.
+
+"My dear boy," he said, "it was a match of your poor aunt's making, not
+mine. If she had lived to see it broken off, I think she would have been
+very much provoked. (He gave a slight shudder of reminiscence here, and
+finished his chocolate.) But they say there is no marrying or giving in
+marriage where she is gone, so let us hope it will not seriously affect
+her now. As to me, I have never been angry since I was twenty-two.
+Personally, I very much prefer Forrester to Bruce as a connection. I
+should have allowed Bella L300 a year, and I suppose the necessary
+outfit and presents would have cost me about L500. I will do just the
+same now--neither more nor less. You can tell Charley he may draw for
+the last sum and for the first quarter when he pleases. They had better
+travel for a year or so, I think, till the people have stopped talking
+about them. Charley will sell out, of course?"
+
+"His papers are sent in," Guy replied.
+
+"Just so," Raymond went on. "If they are in a pleasant place, I may very
+likely go and see them this summer. Suggest Hombourg. I should like to
+try the waters. And tell Charley not to go about too much alone after
+nightfall. The deserted one is capable of laying a trap for him. I
+didn't like his look when I saw him last. That is all, I think. Do you
+go to Lady Featherstone's to-night?"
+
+Raymond appeared at his clubs and elsewhere with a face so impenetrably
+cheerful and complacent that his bitterest friend dared not venture on a
+condolence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+     "Tu mihi, tu certe (memini), Graecine, negabas,
+     Uno posse aliquem tempore amare duas."
+
+
+When I had heard all this, I questioned Guy about his own affairs. He
+was not very communicative, though he seemed perfectly happy and hopeful
+as to the future. He said that his marriage was not to take place till
+the autumn, when Miss Brandon's brother (they were orphans) was expected
+to return from India. I could not help asking what Flora Bellasys
+thought of it.
+
+Livingstone bit his lip and frowned slightly as he answered, "Well,
+there _was_ a scene--rather a tempestuous one, to speak the truth, but
+we are perfectly good friends now. I wonder if she ever really expected
+me to marry her? She is the most amusing person alive to flirt with, but
+as for serious measures--" He shrugged his shoulders expressively.
+"Perhaps she _has_ something to complain of; but if she has any
+conscience at all, she ought to recognize the _lex talionis_."
+
+I was not convinced or satisfied, but it was useless to pursue the
+subject then.
+
+"Will you ride to-day?" Guy asked. "There are always horses for you
+here. I should like to introduce you to Constance. We shall be in the
+Park about five."
+
+I accepted willingly, and left him soon afterward.
+
+A little after the hour he had named I saw Livingstone's tall figure
+turn the corner of Kensington Gardens, riding on Miss Brandon's right;
+on her left was her uncle, Mr. Vavasour, her usual escort.
+
+She was rarely lovely, certainly, as I was sure she would be, for Guy's
+taste in feminine beauty was undisputed. Her features were delicate, but
+very clearly cut; the nose and chin purely Grecian in their outline; the
+dark gray eyes met you with an earnest, true expression, as if they had
+nothing to conceal. Her broad Spanish hat suited her well, shading as it
+did cheeks slightly flushed by exercise, and shining tresses of that
+color which with us is nameless, and which across the Channel they
+call--_blond cendre_. Her hand was strikingly perfect, even in its
+gauntlet. It might have been modeled from that famous marble fragment of
+which the banker-poet was so proud, and which Canova kissed so often.
+
+There is a face which always reminds me of hers, though the figure in
+the portrait is far more matured and developed than Constance's willowy
+form--the picture of Queen Joanna of Naples in the Palazzo Doria.
+
+I have stood before it long, trying in vain to read the riddle of the
+haughty lineaments, and serene, untroubled eyes. Gazing at these, who
+could guess the story of that most guilty woman and astute
+conspirator--unbridled in sensuality--remorseless in statecraft--who
+counted her lovers by legions, and saw, unmoved, her chief favorite torn
+limb from limb on the rack?
+
+But this is no singular instance. Marble and canvas are more discreet
+than the mask of the best trained living features. Messalina and Julia
+look cold and correct enough since they have been turned into stone.
+Only by the magic of her smile and by the glory of her golden hair do we
+recognize her who, if all tales are true, might have given a tongue to
+the walls of the Vatican. We forget the Borgia, with her laboratory of
+philtres and poisons--we only think that never a duke of all his royal
+race brought home a lovelier bride than Alfonso of Ferrara.
+
+Perhaps it is best so. Why should a mark be set upon those whom, it may
+be, history has condemned unrighteously? Let us not be more uncharitable
+than the painter or the sculptor, but pass on without pausing to
+reflect--_Desinit in piscem_.
+
+If one had wanted to find a fault in Constance Brandon's beauty, I
+suppose it would have been that her forehead was too high, and her lips
+too thin and decided in their expression, especially when compressed
+under any strong feeling. But this defect it would have been hard to
+discover on this first occasion of our meeting. She looked so bright and
+joyous, and the light from her face seemed reflected on Guy's dark
+features, softening their stern outline, and making them radiant with a
+proud happiness. She received me very cordially, and I well remember the
+pleasant impression left on my ear by the first sound of her voice, soft
+and low as Cordelia's. In these two attributes it resembled that of
+Flora Bellasys, yet their tones were essentially different--as different
+as is to the taste a draft of pure sparkling water from one of strong
+sweet wine. We had taken two or three turns, when a large party
+approached us, in the centre of whom I recognized instantly Miss
+Bellasys. If possible, she looked handsomer than ever as she swept by at
+a sharp canter, sitting square and firmly, but yielding just enough to
+the stride of the horse--perfectly erect, but inimitably lithe and
+graceful.
+
+Nothing in her demeanor betrayed the faintest shade of emotion; but I
+remembered the old maxim of the fencing-school--"Watch your enemy's
+eyes, not his blade;" and I caught Flora's, as she raised her head after
+returning our salutation, before she had time to discipline them
+thoroughly. I saw them glitter with defiant hatred as they lighted on
+her rival. I saw them melt with passionate eagerness as for one brief
+moment they followed Guy's retreating figure and averted face. Half of
+Mohun's warning became superfluous after that. I was in no danger of
+being deceived by "Miss Bellasys taking things pleasantly."
+
+Yet, as time wore on, the idea forced itself on me more and more that
+Livingstone's choice was in some respects a mistake. They were _not_
+suited to each other. Constance was as unsuspicious and as free from
+commonplace jealousies as the merest child; but some of her lover's
+proceedings did not please her, and she told him so, perhaps without
+attending sufficiently to the "_suaviter in modo_"; for, when it was a
+question of duty, real or fancied, to herself and to others, she was
+rigid as steel. Besides this, she was a strict observer of all Church
+canons and rituals; and more than once, when Guy had proposed some plan,
+a vigil, or matins, or vespers came in the way. She did all for the
+best, I am certain, and judged herself far more severely than she did
+others, but she could not guess how any thing like an admonition or a
+lecture grated on the proud, self-willed nature that from childhood had
+been unused to the slightest control. To speak the truth, too, she was
+not exempt from that failing which brought ruin on the brightest of the
+angels, and punishment eternal on the Son of the Morning; so that pride
+may often have checked the evidence of the deep love she really felt,
+and made her manner seem constrained and cold.
+
+I only guess all this; for neither then, nor at any future time, did I
+ever hear from Guy the faintest whisper of accusation or complaint.
+
+I do not think he contradicted her often; I am quite sure it never came
+to a quarrel or even a dispute. They were not a couple likely to indulge
+in the _amantium irae_; but sometimes, after quitting her, his brow was
+so ominously overcast that it would have gladdened the very heart of
+Flora Bellasys to have seen it. Once, I remember, after sitting some
+time in silence, his eyes turned toward a table, where, among other
+letters, lay a little triangular note unopened. He broke the seal and
+read it through, frowning still heavily; after a few moments of what
+looked like hesitation, he seemed to come to a decision, and burned it
+slowly at the flame of his spirit-lamp. Then he rose and shook all his
+mighty limbs--as the Danite Titan might have done before his locks were
+shorn--and sat down again with a long-drawn sigh, as of relief. I longed
+to interpose with a warning word, for in the handwriting I recognized
+the _griffe_ of the fatal Delilah. But I knew how dangerous it was to
+attempt interference with Guy; and besides, this time, I felt sure he
+had escaped the toils. Yet my heart sank as I thought of the seductions
+and temptations that the future might have in store. I could hardly
+keep my temper that evening when I saw at the Opera Flora
+Bellasys--triumphant, as if she could guess what the morning's work had
+been--and then thought of the single, guileless heart whose happiness
+she was plotting to overthrow.
+
+She and Guy met constantly, for he still went every where, often
+accompanied by his _fiancee_. They seemed to be on the most ordinary
+footing of old acquaintances, though it was remarked that no one could
+be said to have succeeded to the post of grand vizier at the Bellasys
+court, vacated by Livingstone. I can not trace the threads of the web of
+Circe. She concealed them well at the time; and since--between the
+knowledge of them and me is drawn the veil of a terrible remorse, which
+I have never tried to penetrate.
+
+I can only tell the end, which came very speedily.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+     "'Tis good to be merry and wise;
+       'Tis good to be honest and true;
+     'Tis good to be off with the old love
+       Before you are on with the new."
+
+
+There was a sound of revelry by night in Mrs. Wallace's villa at
+Richmond, and fair women and brave men mustered there strong. Every one
+liked those parties. The hostess was young and very charming, while her
+husband, a bald, inoffensive, elderly man, was equally eminent in his
+own department of the commissariat. His wines were things to dream of in
+after years, when, like Curran, "confined to the Port" of a remote
+country inn, one sacrifices one's self heroically on the altar of the
+landlord for the good of the house.
+
+The crowd was not so dense as at most London parties, and the
+temperature consequently something below that of a vapor-bath or of the
+_Piombi_, but the generality of the guests were either amusing, or
+pretty, or otherwise eligible. To be sure, it was rather an expedition
+and a question of passports to get down there, but the drive home
+through the cool dewy morning made you amends.
+
+Constance Brandon was present. I never saw her look so lovely as on
+this, her last appearance on the world's stage. No one could have
+guessed that, five hours later, the light was to die in her eyes and the
+color in her cheeks, never to return to either again till she shall
+wake on the Resurrection morning.
+
+Flora Bellasys was there too, in all the insolence of beauty, defying
+criticism, and challenging the admiration that was lavished on her. I
+should like to describe her dress; but I know how dangerous it is for
+the uninitiate to venture within the verge of those awful mysteries over
+which, as hierophants, Devy and Maradon-Carson preside. Conscious of my
+sex, I retire. Have we not read of Actaeon?
+
+Still I may say that I have an impression of her being surrounded by a
+sort of cloud of pale blue _tulle_, over which bouquets of geranium were
+scattered here and there; and I remember perfectly a certain serpent of
+scarlet velvet and diamonds flashing amid the rolls and braids of her
+dark shining tresses.
+
+The evening began with private theatricals, which were most successful.
+There was a _soubrette_--provoking enough to have set all the
+parti-colored world by the ears--who traced her descent from a vavasor
+of Duke William the Norman, and an attorney's clerk, who had evidently
+mistaken his profession when he took a commission in the Coldstreams.
+
+Soon after the ball which followed had begun, Livingstone arrived. He
+had been dining at the mess of his old regiment. I never remember seeing
+him what is called the worse for liquor. His head was marble under the
+influence of wine and of yet stronger compounds; but the instant I met
+his eyes, I guessed from their unusual brilliancy, and from the slight
+additional flush on his brown cheeks, that the wassail had been deep.
+
+He paused for a moment to say a word or two to me, and I noticed that
+the first person whom his glance lighted on was, not his betrothed, but
+Flora Bellasys. The latter was resting after her first polka, with her
+usual staff of admirers round her. Guy watched the circle paying their
+homage, and I heard him mutter to himself the formula of the Roman
+arena--_Morituri te salutant_. Then he passed on; and, after retaining
+Constance for her first disengaged turn, he began talking to a lady,
+whom I have not noticed yet, but who merits to be sketched hastily.
+
+Rose Thornton was not clever. She was no longer in her first youth, and
+had never been pretty or very attractive. Her figure was neat, and her
+face had a sort of nervous deprecating expression, that made you look at
+it a second time. Nevertheless, she was always deeply engaged, and
+generally to the best goers in the room. She was a good performer
+herself, but this would not account for it; ninety-nine girls out of
+every hundred are that, after two seasons' practice. Those who were in
+the secret did not wonder at her luck. She was the _ame damnee_ of Flora
+Bellasys.
+
+Whenever the latter ventured on any unusually daring escapade, she was
+always really accompanied by Miss Thornton, or supposed to be so. How
+the influence was originally acquired I know not; at the time I speak of
+she had no more volition left than a Russian Grenadier. She had some
+principles of action once, I suppose, and considered herself as an
+accountable being; but all such vanities her "dashing white sergeant"
+had drilled out of her long ago. Poor thing! It was no wonder that the
+frightened look had become habitual to her face, and that she always
+spoke with reserve and constraint, as if to guard against the
+chance-betrayal of some terrible secret. It was no sinecure, her
+office--alternately scapegoat and _confidante_. My own idea is, that
+having still a little feeble remnant of a conscience remaining, she
+suffered agonies of remorse at times in the latter capacity. Dancing was
+her great--almost her only pleasure, and Flora certainly provided her
+regularly with partners. Indeed, some one had irreverently designated
+Miss Thornton as The Turnpike, inasmuch as, before securing a waltz with
+the beauty, it was necessary to pay toll in the shape of a duty-dance
+with her _protegee_. Rose's gratitude was boundless. She never wearied
+in rendering small services to her patroness. She would write her notes
+for her, as La Raffe did for Richelieu, and fetch and carry like the
+best of retrievers; venturing every now and then on a timid caress,
+which was permitted rather than accepted with an imperial nonchalance.
+The only subject on which she ever expanded into eloquence was the
+fascinations of her friend. She spent all her weak breath in blowing
+that laudatory trumpet, as if she expected the defenses of the best
+guarded heart to fall prostrate before it, like the walls of Jericho.
+And yet, if all the truth were known, I think she had as much reason to
+complain as the dwarf in the story who swore fellowship in arms with the
+giant.
+
+I was sorry to see Livingstone linger at her side, yet more sorry when,
+by an easy transition, he passed on to Flora's, and the circle around
+her, from old habit, made room for him to pass. He did not stay there
+long, though--only long enough to make future arrangements, I
+suppose--and then, for some time, I lost sight of him.
+
+I had been driving heavily through a quadrille in the society of a very
+foolish virgin, whose ideas of past, present, and future seemed bounded
+by the last Opera, which she had and I had not seen. A horror of great
+dullness had fallen upon me, and I went out to restore the tone of my
+depressed spirits by a libation, wherein I devoted, solemnly, my late
+partner to the infernal gods. When I returned they were playing "The
+Olga," and Flora was whirling round on Guy Livingstone's arm.
+
+Among her many perilous fascinations, have I ever mentioned her
+wonderful waltzing? She was as untiring as an Alme; and when once fairly
+launched with a steerer who could do her justice, had a sway with
+her--to use an Americanism--like that of a clipper three points off the
+wind.
+
+As I watched her, almost reclining in her partner's powerful grasp, her
+lips moving incessantly, though audibly only to him, as her head leaned
+against his shoulder, I thought of the old Rhineland tradition of the
+Wilis; then the daughter of Herodias came into my mind; and then that
+scarcely less murderous _danseuse_, at whose many-twinkling feet they
+say the second Napoleon cast his frail life down.
+
+If, in his assault on St. Anthony, the Evil One mingled no Terpsichorean
+temptation, be sure it was because the ancient man had no ear for music,
+I do not think that weapon was forgotten when Don Roderick, who had once
+been a courtly king, did battle through a long winter's night with the
+phantasm of fair, sinful La Cava.
+
+The waltz was over, and I saw Guy and Flora disappear through the
+curtained door of the conservatory. If there was one thing Mrs. Wallace
+was prouder of than another, it was the arrangement of this sanctum.
+Very justly so; for it had witnessed the commencement and happy
+termination of more flirtations than half the ball-rooms in London put
+together. When you got into one of those nooks, contrived in artful
+recesses, shaded by magnolias, camellias, and the broad, thick-leaved
+tropical plants, lighted dimly by lamps of many-colored glass, you felt
+the recitation of some chapter in "the old tale so often told" a
+necessity of the position, not a matter of choice. Against eyes you were
+tolerably safe, though not against ears; but this is of very secondary
+importance. The man who would not assist a woman in distress (as the
+stage sailor has it) by adhering to the whisper appropriate to the
+imparting of interesting information, deserves to be--overheard.
+
+Flora sank down on a convenient _causeuse_, still panting slightly--not
+from breathlessness, but past excitement--the ground-swell after the
+storm.
+
+"Ah! what a waltz!" she said, with a sigh. "And what a pity it is so
+nearly the last! I shall never find any one else who will understand my
+step and pace so well."
+
+"Why should it be nearly the last?" Guy asked, contemplating the varying
+expression of her face and the somewhat careless _pose_ of her
+magnificent figure with more than admiration in his eyes.
+
+"_On se range,_" Flora answered, demurely. "And the first step in the
+right direction will be to give up one's favorite partners."
+
+He sat down by her with a short laugh that was rather forced.
+
+"Bah! do you think, because we are virtuous, there shall be no more
+cakes and ale?"
+
+"Of course I do. I could sketch your future so easily. It will be so
+intensely respectable. You will become a model country squire. You will
+hunt a good deal, but never _ride_ any more. (You must sell the Axeine,
+you know.) You will go to magistrates' meetings regularly, and breed
+immense cattle; and you will grow very fat yourself. That's the worst of
+all. I don't like to fancy you stout and unwieldy, like Athelstan."
+
+She ended, pensively. The languor of reaction seemed stealing over her,
+but it only made her more charming as she leaned still farther back on
+the soft cushions, watching the point of her tiny foot tracing the
+pattern of the carpet.
+
+"What a brilliant horoscope!" said Guy; "and so benevolently sketched,
+too! Now your own, Improvisatrice."
+
+"I shall marry too," she answered, gravely. "I ought to have done so
+long ago. Perhaps I shall make up my mind soon. Evil examples are so
+contagious."
+
+"And who will draw the great prize?"
+
+"I have not the faintest idea. I suppose some fine old English
+gentleman, who has a great estate."
+
+"I only hope the said estate will be near Kerton," Livingstone
+suggested; and he drew closer to his companion.
+
+"Ah! dear old Kerton," she said, sighing again, "I shall never go there
+any more."
+
+"The reason?"
+
+"Perhaps because my husband, whoever he may be, will not choose to bring
+me."
+
+"Absurd!" Guy retorted, biting his lip hard. "As if that individual
+would have any will of his own. You want to provoke me, I see."
+
+The answer came in so low a whisper that, though he bent his ear down,
+he had almost to guess at the words.
+
+"No, I have never tried to do that, even during the last three months. I
+am not brave enough. Perhaps I should not come, because--I could not
+bear it."
+
+They were silent. She was so near him now that her quick breath stirred
+his hair, and he could feel the pulse of her heart beating against his
+own side. The fiery Livingstone blood, heated seven-fold by wine and
+passion, was surging through his veins like molten iron. Memory and
+foresight were both swept away like withered leaves by the strength of
+the terrible temptation.
+
+His arm stole round her waist, and he drew her toward him--close--closer
+yet; then she looked up in his face. The cloud of thoughtful gravity has
+passed away from hers, and the provocations of a myriad of coquettes and
+courtesans concentrated in her marvelous eyes.
+
+He bent down his lofty head, and instantly their lips met, and were set
+together fast.
+
+A kiss! Tibullus, Secundus, Moore, and a thousand other poets and
+poetasters, have rhymed on the word for centuries, decking it with the
+choicest and quaintest conceits. But, remember, it was with a kiss that
+the greatest of all criminals sealed the unpardonable sin--it was a kiss
+which brought on Francesca punishment so unutterably piteous that he
+swooned at the sight who endured to look on all other terrors of
+nine-circled hell.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+         "God help thee, then!
+       I'll see thy face no more.
+     Like water spilled upon the plain,
+     Not to be gathered up again,
+       Is the old love I bore."
+
+
+Before that long caress was ended, close behind them there broke forth a
+low, plaintive cry, such as might be wrung from the bravest of delicate
+women, in her extremity of pain, when stricken by a heavy brutal hand.
+
+The hot blood ebbed back in Guy Livingstone's veins, and froze at its
+fountain-head. His punishment had begun already. Before her face, white
+as the dress she wore, was revealed through a break in the dark green
+foliage of the camellias, he knew that he had trifled away his life's
+happiness, and lost Constance Brandon.
+
+She came forward slowly. With a valiant effort she had shaken off the
+first feeling of faintness that had crept over her, and there was
+scarcely a trace of emotion left on her features--calm and pale as the
+Angel of Death.
+
+Guy had risen, and stood still, with his head bent down on his breast.
+For the first time in his life he was unable to raise his eyes, weighed
+down by the heavy sense of bitter disgrace and forfeited honor.
+
+But the bright flush on Flora's cheek spoke more of exultation than of
+shame; the bouquet which she raised to her lips only half concealed a
+smile of triumph. She wreathed her slender neck haughtily while she met
+her rival's glance without flinching. She thought that, if she had
+played for a heavy stake--no less than the jeopardy of her fair
+fame--this time, at least, the game was her own.
+
+Constance spoke first, in a voice perfectly measured and composed. There
+was not a false note in the soft, musical tones. After once conquering
+her emotion, she would have dropped dead at Flora's feet sooner than
+betray how she was wounded.
+
+"When you have taken Miss Bellasys back, will you come to me for a
+moment, Mr. Livingstone? I will wait for you here."
+
+Flora rose before Guy could answer. "Don't trouble yourself," she said,
+gayly. "Here is my partner for the polka looking anxiously for me. I am
+ready, Captain Ravenswood."
+
+She turned, before reaching the door, to fire a last shot.
+
+"It is the next galop I am to keep for you, is it not?"
+
+This was to Guy; but there was no answer. He stood in precisely the same
+attitude, without a muscle of his face stirring or an eyelash quivering.
+
+In all the Rifle Brigade there was not a more reckless dare-devil than
+Harry Ravenswood, nor one who adhered more devoutly to the convenient
+creed, "All is fair in war or love." But he saw that something had
+happened quite out of his line; and he did not venture on a single
+allusion to it as he led his partner back to the dancing-room, with a
+perplexed expression on his cheery face, which amused Flora intensely
+when she remarked it. When the subject came on for discussion afterward
+in the smoking-room at his club, he thus expressed himself, in language
+terse and elegantly allegorical.
+
+"You see, Livingstone is a very heavy weight; a good deal better than
+most in the ring. When I saw him so floored as not to be able to come to
+time, I knew there had been some hard hitting going on thereabouts, so I
+kept clear."
+
+The two who were left alone in the conservatory remained silent for a
+few seconds. Then Guy roused himself, and offered his arm to his
+companion with an impulse of courtesy that was simply mechanical. She
+took it without remark, and they passed out through the door which led
+into the garden.
+
+There Constance left his side; and, for the first time, their eyes met
+as they stood face to face under the bright moon. Guy read his sentence
+instantly--a sentence from which there was no appeal. The very
+hopelessness of his situation restored its elasticity to the somewhat
+sullen pride which was the mainspring of his character. He stood,
+waiting for her to speak; and his eyes were not cast down now, but
+riveted on her face--gloomily defiant.
+
+"I hope you will believe," Miss Brandon said, "that it was quite
+involuntarily I became a spy on your actions. I did not overhear one
+word; and my partner had that moment left me, when I saw--" Not all her
+self-command could check the shudder that ran through every limb, and
+the choking in her throat that would interrupt her.
+
+"I have very little to add," she went on, more steadily. "After what I
+witnessed, I need hardly say that we only meet again as the merest
+strangers. You might think meanly of me, indeed, if I ever allowed your
+lips to touch my cheek or my hand again. Remember, I told you from the
+first we were not suited to each other; perhaps I deserve all I have met
+with for allowing myself to be overruled. You can not contradict a word
+of this, or say that it is unjust or severe."
+
+Did she pause in the expectation or the hope of an excuse, or an appeal
+from her hearer? Only the hoarse answer came,
+
+"I have forfeited the right to defend myself or to gainsay you."
+
+"You would find it difficult to do either," Constance rejoined, rather
+more haughtily; perhaps she was disappointed in the tone of his reply.
+"One word more: if my name is ever called in question, I am sure no one
+will defend it more readily than yourself. My voice will never be heard
+against you; and if, hereafter, you shall desire my forgiveness more
+than you now do; remember, I have given it unasked and freely."
+
+Guy's tone was pregnant with cold, cruel irony as he answered,
+
+"I congratulate you on your position, Miss Brandon; it is quite
+unassailable. You are in the right now, as you always have been. You
+were right, of course, in always doling out the tokens of your love in
+such scanty measure as your pride and your priests would allow. They
+ought to canonize you--those holy men! I doubt if they have another
+disciple so superior to all human weaknesses. It must be very
+gratifying to so eminent a Christian to be able to forgive plenarily,
+without danger of the favor being returned. I have nothing to urge
+against your decision--that we part forever. You will have no difficulty
+in forgetting me, whom you ought never to have stooped to. Yet I will
+give you one caution. I am not romantic, as you know, and I generally
+mean what I say. If you should think hereafter of bestowing yourself on
+some worthier object, hesitate a little for _his_ sake, or wait till I
+am dead; otherwise, the day that makes his happiness certain may bring
+him very near his grave."
+
+His voice had changed during the last words into a growl of savage
+menace, and his forehead was black and furrowed with passion.
+
+It might have been his own excited fancy, or the passing just then of a
+light cloud over the moon; but, for an instant, he thought he saw her
+steady lip quiver and tremble. If so, be very sure it was not fear which
+caused the emotion, though even that the circumstances might have
+excused; rather, I think, it was a pang of self-reproach--a
+consciousness of having acted unwisely, though for the best; perhaps,
+too, the stubbornness of the heart she had ruled once--so strong and
+proud even in its abasement--was congenial to her own besetting sin: she
+liked the fierce threat better than the cool sarcasm. At any rate, she
+answered more gently than she had yet spoken.
+
+"I believe you. But you know me better than to think a threat would
+influence me. Yet you need not fear my ever again trusting this world
+with my happiness. You will be very sorry hereafter for some things you
+have said to-night. Ask yourself--if I had loved you, as you seem to
+have expected, better than my own soul, would the result have been
+different? It is too late now to say any thing but--farewell. Will you
+not say it, as I do, kindly, or at least not in anger--Guy?"
+
+She paused between the two last words, and their imploring accent was
+almost piteous. There must have been a strange fascination about
+Livingstone, for, saint as she was, no other living creature would have
+won such a concession from the Christian charity of Constance Brandon.
+
+Had Guy spoken then, as he ought to have done, I believe all might have
+been amended; but an angry devil was busy within him, and would not let
+go his prey; he stood with his black brows downcast, and with folded
+arms, never seeming to notice the slender fingers that sought to touch
+his hand. True it is that nothing makes a man so unforgiving as the
+consciousness of having inflicted a bitter wrong. He heard a sigh, heavy
+and despairing as Francesca's when her dying prayer was spurned, a light
+shadow flitted across the streak of moonlit grass, and, when he raised
+his head, he was left alone, like Alp on the sea-shore, to judge the
+battle between a remorseful conscience and a hardened heart.
+
+Livingstone was seen no more that night; Constance glided in alone, and
+her absence had been scarcely noticed. During the short time that she
+remained, no one could have guessed from her face that her heart was
+broken, any more than did Napoleon that the aid-de-camp who brought the
+news of Lannes' victory had been almost cut in two by a grape-shot.
+
+I speak it diffidently, with the fear of the divine voice of the people
+before my eyes, as is but fitting in these equalizing days, when
+territories, the title to which is possession immemorial, are being
+plucked away acre by acre, and hereditary privileges mined one by one;
+but it seems to me, in this, perhaps, solitary attribute, "the brave old
+houses" still keep their pre-eminence.
+
+They are not better, nor wiser in their generation (forbid it,
+Manchester!), nor even more daring in confronting danger than the
+thousands whose grandsires are creations of a powerful fancy or of a
+complaisant king-at-arms. In that terrible charge which swept away the
+Russian cavalry at Eylau, three lengths in front of the best blood in
+France rode the innkeeper's son. The "First Grenadier" himself was not
+more splendidly reckless, though he was a La Tour d'Auvergne. But in
+passive uncomplaining endurance, in the power of obliterating outward
+tokens of suffering, physical or mental, may we not still say, _Noblesse
+oblige_?
+
+Hundreds of similar isolated instances may be quoted from the annals of
+the Third Estate; but, in the class I speak of, this quality seems a
+sixth sense wholly independent of, and often contradicting the rest of
+the individual's disposition.
+
+I remember meeting in France an old Italian refugee. He had not much
+principle and very little pride; he was ready _quidvis facere aut pati_
+to get a five-franc piece, which he would incontinently stake and lose
+at baccarat or ecarte, as he had done aforetime with a large ancestral
+inheritance; but his quiet fortitude under privations that were neither
+few nor light was worthy of Belisarius.
+
+Very often, I am sure, his evening meal must have been eaten with the
+Barmecide; but his pale, handsome face, finished off so gracefully by
+the white, pointed beard, still met you, courteous and unruffled, the
+idea of an exiled doge, or a Rohan in disgrace. Once only I saw him
+moved--when the landlord of our inn, a vast bloated _bourgeois_, smote
+the Count familiarly on the shoulder, and bantered him pleasantly on the
+brilliant prospects of his eldest son. It was not unkindly meant,
+perhaps, but the old man shrunk away from the large fat hand as if it
+hurt him, and turned toward us a look piteously appealing, which was not
+lost on myself or Livingstone. When mine host, later in the evening,
+shook in his gouty slippers before an ebullition of Guy's wrath, excited
+by the most shadowy pretext, I wonder if he guessed at the remote cause
+of that outpouring of the vials? Count Massa did, for he smiled
+intensely, as only an Italian can smile when amply revenged.
+
+One instance more to close a long digression. I have read of a baron in
+the fifteenth century who once in his life said a good thing. He was a
+coarse, brutal marauder, illiterate enough to have satisfied Earl Angus,
+and as unromantic as the Integral Calculus. He was mortally wounded in a
+skirmish; and when his men came back from the pursuit, he was bleeding
+to death, resting against a tree. When they lifted him up, they noticed
+his eyes fixed with a curious, complacent expression on the red stream
+that surged and gurgled out of his wound, just as a _gourmand_ looks at
+a bumper of a rare vintage held up to the light. They heard him growl to
+himself, "_Qu'il coule rouge et fort, le bon vieux sang de Bourgogne_."
+And then he fell back--dead.
+
+O Publicola Thompson! Phoesphor to the Tower Hamlets and Boanerges of
+the platform--will you not allow that, amid a wilderness of weeds, this
+one fair plant flourishes under "the cold shade?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+     "Shy she was, and I thought her cold;
+       Thought her proud, and fled over the sea;
+     Filled I was with folly and spite,
+       When Ellen Adair was dying for me."
+
+
+When I came to Livingstone's chambers on the following morning, I found
+him alone. His head was resting listlessly against the back of the vast
+easy-chair in which he was reclining, and his face, thrown out in relief
+against the crimson velvet, looked haggard and drawn. The calumet--not
+of peace--was between his lips, and the dense blue clouds were wreathing
+round him like a Scotch mist. On a table near lay a heap of gold and
+notes. He had finished the night at his club, where lansquenet had been
+raging till long after sunrise. Fortune had been more kind than usual,
+and the fruits of "passing" eight times lay before me. An open
+liqueur-case close at his elbow showed that play was not the only
+counter-excitement to which he had resorted.
+
+I hoped to have found him in a repentant mood, but his first words
+undeceived me: "I start for Paris by this evening's train;" and then I
+remarked all about me the signs of immediate departure.
+
+I only had a confused idea of what had happened, and was anxious to know
+the truth, but he was very brief in his answers: the particulars of what
+had passed I learned long afterward.
+
+"Can nothing be done?" I asked, when he had finished all he chose to
+tell me.
+
+"Nothing!" replied Livingstone, decisively. "If excuse or explanation
+had been of any use, I think I should have tried them last night. You
+would not advise me to humiliate myself to no purpose, I suppose?"
+
+There is a certain scene in AEschylus which came into my mind just then.
+
+A group of elderly men, with grave, rather vacuous faces, and grizzled
+beards, stand in the court-yard of an ancient palace. On one side is the
+peristyle, with its square stunted pillars, looking as if the weight
+above crushed them, though it wearies them no more than the heavens do
+Atlas; on the other, a gateway, vast, low-browed, shadowy with Cyclopean
+stones. Somewhat apart is a strange weird figure, ever and anon starting
+up and tossing her arms wildly as she utters some new denunciation, and
+then cowering down again in a despairing weariness. There are traces yet
+in the thin, wan face of the beauty which enslaved Loxian Apollo, and of
+the pride which turned his great love into a greater hate: round it hang
+the black elf-locks, disheveled, that have never been braided since the
+gripe of Telamonian Ajax ruffled them so rudely. In her great, troubled
+eyes you read terrible memories, and a prescience of coming
+death--death, most grateful to the dishonored princess, but before which
+the frail womanhood can not but shudder and quail. No wonder that the
+reverend men glance at her uneasily, scarcely mustering courage enough
+sometimes to answer her with a pious platitude. Alas! alas! Cassandra.
+
+While we gaze, forth from the recesses of the gynaeceum there breaks a
+cry, expressing rather wrath and surprise than mere pain. Then there
+comes another, more plaintive--the moan of a strong man in the
+death-throe.
+
+We know that voice very well; we have heard it many times, calm and
+regal, above the wrangle of councils and the roar of battle; often it
+prayed for victory or for the people's weal, but it never yet called on
+earth or heaven to help Agamemnon. The Chorus hear it too; but they
+linger and palter, while each gives his grave sentence deliberately in
+his proper turn. One or two advise action and interference, and stand
+perfectly still. At last we hear a heavy, choking groan, and a great
+stillness follows. We know that all is over--we know that there is a
+stir already down there in Hades--we seem to catch a far-off murmur
+raised by a thousand weak, tremulous voices--the very ghost of a
+wail--as the shadows of those who died gallantly in their harness before
+Troy gather to meet their old leader, the mightiest Atride.
+
+In the background of all we fancy a hideous Eidolon, from whose side
+even the damned recoil in loathing. There is a grin on the lips yet red
+and wet with the traces of the unholy banquet. Thyestes exalts over the
+fulfillment of another chapter in the inevitable curse.
+
+Who has not grown savage over that scene? We hate the old drivelers less
+when, a few minutes later, they truckle and temporize with the awful
+shape, who comes forth with a splash of blood on her slender wrist, and
+a speck or two on her white, lofty forehead.
+
+Just so helpless and useless I felt at that moment. I was standing by
+while a foul wrong was being wrought. I saw nothing but ruin for Guy,
+and desolate misery for Constance, in the black future. Yet I could
+think of no argument or counsel that would in the least avail. I felt
+sick at heart. It was some minutes before I answered his last question.
+At last the words broke from me almost unconsciously: "Ah! how will you
+answer to God and man for last night's work?"
+
+I forgot that I was quoting the cry of the Covenanter's widow when she
+knelt by her husband's corpse, and looked up into Claverhouse's face
+with those sad eyes that were ever dim and cloudy after the carbines
+flashed across them. But Guy remembered it, and answered instantly in
+the words of his favorite hero,
+
+"I can answer it to man well enough, and I will take God in my own
+hand."
+
+Years afterward we both recalled that fatal defiance, when the speaker
+lay helpless, at the mercy of the Omnipotence whose might he challenged.
+Just then his servant, who was busily preparing for departure, entered
+the room.
+
+Willis was a slight, under-sized man, of about fifty; his complexion was
+muddy and indefinite; his small whiskers, of a grayish red, were trimmed
+and pruned as accurately as a box border-edging, and the partial absence
+of eyebrows and eyelashes gave his face a sort of unfinished look. The
+expression natural to it was, I think, a low, vicious cunning; but his
+features and little green eyes were so rigidly disciplined that, as a
+rule, neither had any characteristic save utter vacuity. In his own line
+he was perfect. No commission that could be intrusted to him would draw
+from him a remark or a look of surprise. He executed precisely what he
+was told, and fulfilled the minutest duties of his station
+irreproachably, with a noiseless, feline activity. He was like the
+war-horse of the Douglas:
+
+             "Though somewhat old,
+     Swift in his paces, cool, and bold."
+
+He held a miniature-case in his hand as he entered. "Am I to put this
+in, sir?" he asked, in the slow, measured voice that was habitual to
+him.
+
+His master gazed sharply at him, as if trying to detect a covert
+sneer--it would have been safer to have stroked a rattlesnake's crest
+than to have trifled with Livingstone just then--but Willis's face was
+as innocent of any expression as a dead wall.
+
+"Put it down, and go on with your packing; you have no time to spare."
+The man laid the case on a marble table near, and went out.
+
+Guy took the miniature and regarded it steadfastly for some moments,
+then he looked up and caught my eye. Perhaps there was an eager appeal
+there (for I knew well whose likeness lay before him) which displeased
+and provoked his sullen temper; for he frowned darkly, and then his
+clenched hand fell with the crashing weight of a steam-hammer. Nothing
+but a heap of shivered wood, glass, and ivory remained of what had been
+the life-like image of Constance Brandon.
+
+A thrill of horror shot through me icily, and a low cry burst from my
+lips. I felt at that moment as if the blow had fallen, not on the
+portrait, but on the original.
+
+But I kept silence. The dark hour was on Saul, and I knew no spell to
+chase the evil spirit away.
+
+Guy spoke at last. His manner was unusually chill and constrained.
+
+"I expect to meet Mohun in Paris, and we shall probably go on to Vienna.
+I hardly like troubling you with commissions, but I must. Listen. I
+leave my own name--and another person's--in your keeping. I wish it to
+be clearly understood that the engagement was broken off by Miss
+Brandon, not by me. If you hear any man speak disparagingly of her in
+connection with what has passed, you can insult him on my behalf as
+grossly as you please. I will be here, as fast as steam can bring me, to
+back what you may have said or done. This is the only point in which I
+hope you will guard my honor. As for blaming _me_, they may say what
+they please. Do you quite understand? And will you promise?"
+
+I did promise; and so, after a few more last words, we parted, more
+coldly than we had ever done in all the years through which we had been
+intimate.
+
+Guy left England the same evening, and descended like a thunder-clap on
+the joyous little _menage_ in the Rue de la Madeleine, where Forrester
+and his bride were still fluttering their wings in the honeymoon-shine
+of post-nuptial spring.
+
+They were miraculously happy, those two. Indeed, they seemed to have
+only one taste between them, and that was Charley's. If he felt
+inclined, which was not seldom, to utter inaction, his wife encouraged
+him in his laziness, sitting contentedly for hours on her footstool,
+with her silky hair just within reach of his indolent hand. If, after
+dinner, he suggested the "Italiens," or the "Bouffes," it was always
+precisely that theatre that she had been thinking of all the morning.
+She was in the seventh heaven when he won a hurdle-race in the Champ de
+Mars.
+
+They made excursions into the _banlieue_, and farther afield yet, like a
+couple of the _Pays Latin_ in their first loves. The cabinets of Bercy
+and St. Cloud knew them; so did the arbors of Asnieres, where, in
+oilskin and _vareuse_, muster for their Sabbat the ancient mariners of
+the Seine. Nay, it has been whispered that more than once--close veiled
+and clinging tightly to her husband's arm--Isabel witnessed at _Mabille_
+and the _Chaumiere_ the choregraphic triumphs of _Frisette_, _Pomare_,
+and _Mogador_.
+
+My hand trembles while I record such enormities and backslidings. O
+Brougham-girls of Belgravia, who "never gave your mothers a moment's
+uneasiness"--stars of the Western hemisphere, who can be trusted any
+where without fear of your wandering from your orbits--think on this
+lost Pleiad, once your companion, and be warned. Men are deceivers ever,
+even when they mean matrimony; and the tender mercies of the Light
+Dragoon are cruel.
+
+Isabel was dreadfully startled at the sudden appearance of her cousin.
+Her notions of his power were quite unlimited and irrational, and I
+believe her first thought was that he had changed his mind about the
+propriety of her marriage, and was come to carry her back into the house
+of her bondage with the strong hand.
+
+When his curt sentences told her the facts, sorry as she was, it
+certainly was rather a relief to her. Charley was full of compassion
+too, but he only confided this to his wife. He knew better than to try
+condolence with Guy, and felt instantly that the case was far beyond his
+simple powers of healing.
+
+They did not see much of him. The contrast of their happiness with his
+own state must have grated on his feelings. His grim presence chilled
+and clouded their little banquets at the Trois Freres or the Cafe de
+Paris. He sat there among the bright lamps and flowers like a statue of
+dark marble that it is impossible to light up, drinking all the while,
+moodily, of the strongest wines to that portentous extent that it made
+Isabel nervous and her husband grave.
+
+Perhaps Guy was conscious of the effect he produced; at all events, he
+rather avoided the Forresters, finding in Mohun more congenial society.
+The latter probably regretted what had happened; perhaps he felt an
+approach to sympathy, after his rough fashion, but with this mingled a
+dreary sort of satisfaction at the sight of a strong mind and hardy
+nature rapidly descending to his own misanthropical level. Such an
+exultation was breathed in that ghastly chorus of the dead kings and
+chief ones of the earth when they rose, each on his awful throne, and
+Hell beneath was moved at the advent of the Son of the Morning.
+
+These two did not stay long in Paris before they took their departure
+for Vienna.
+
+We who were left behind in England talked a little at first, of course,
+about the broken engagement, but I had no occasion to throw down the
+gauntlet that had been left in my hands. I never heard any thing more
+spiteful about Miss Brandon than that "she was never suited to her
+_fiance_--far too good for him." Others "had always thought how it
+would be; it would take a good deal more yet to tame Livingstone." Sir
+Henry Fallowfield observed, "Nothing could be more natural and correct.
+The lady was a saint, and there is always a sort of incompleteness about
+saints if they are not made martyrs. Suffering is their normal state."
+
+It was remarked that he was unusually cheerful for some days afterward;
+and when Guy's conduct was canvassed, seemed inclined to quote the old
+school-master's words on witnessing his pupil's success, "Bless the boy!
+I taught him."
+
+Some other subject soon came up and replaced the week's wonder.
+
+Constance left town with her uncle almost immediately, and I heard
+nothing of her for many months. Miss Bellasys remained. Very few persons
+even guessed at the share she had had in breaking off the match; so her
+credit was not much impaired, and her campaign was as brilliantly
+successful as usual. If she felt any disappointment at Guy's abrupt
+departure, she concealed it remarkably well. In some things, though
+naturally impetuous and impatient, she was as cool as a Red Indian, and
+would wait and watch forever if she saw a prospect of ultimate success.
+So the days rolled on, bringing swiftly and surely the bitter
+harvest-time, when he who had sown the wind was to reap the whirlwind.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+     "And from his lips those words of insult fell--
+     His sword is good who can maintain them well."
+
+
+It was the middle of October; the reflux of the winter season was
+beginning to fill Paris, and thither Mohun and Livingstone had returned
+from their German tour, the latter decidedly the worse for his
+wanderings. He had not suffered much physically, for the hard living
+that would have utterly broken up some constitutions had only been able
+to make his face thinner, to deepen the bistre tints under the eyes, and
+to give a more angular gauntness to his massive frame.
+
+But morally he was not the same man. Play, which had formerly been only
+an occasional excitement, had now become a necessary part of his daily
+existence. Mohun would never say--perhaps he did not know--how much Guy
+had lost during those few months. In spite of several gigantic _coups_
+(he broke the bank both at Baden and Hombourg), the balance was
+fearfully on the wrong side, so much so that it entailed a heavy
+mortgage--the maiden one in his time--on the fair lands of Kerton Manor.
+
+I wonder people have not got tired of quoting "_Heureux en jeu;
+malheureux en amour_." It seems one of the least true of all stale,
+stupid proverbs. Luck will run itself out in more ways than one; and
+sometimes you will never hold a trump, however often the suit changes.
+The ancients knew better than we when they called the double-sixes
+"Venus's cast." The monotony of Guy's reckless dissipations was soon
+broken up by an event which ought to have sobered him.
+
+He had been dining with Mohun at the Trois Freres, and they were
+returning late toward the Boulevards, when their attention was attracted
+by a group in one of the narrow streets leading out of the Rue Vivienne.
+Five or six raffish-looking men had surrounded a fair, delicate girl,
+and were preparing to besiege her in form, deriving apparently intense
+amusement from the piteous entreaties of their victim to be released.
+Not the _roues_ of the Regency after the suppers that have become a
+by-word--not the _mousquetaires_ after the wildest of their orgies--were
+ever so unrelenting in brutality toward women quite lonely and
+undefended as those unshorn ornaments of Young France, when replete with
+a dinner at forty _sous_, and with the anomalous liquor that Macon
+blushes to own.
+
+In all Europe there is no more genial companion and gallant gentleman
+than the aristocrat of France _pur sang_--in all the world no more
+terrible adversary than her wiry, well-trained soldier; but, from the
+prolific decay of old institutions and prejudices, a mushroom growth has
+sprouted of child-atheists and precocious profligates, calculating
+debauchees while their cheeks are still innocent of down, who, after the
+effervescence of a foul, vicious youth has spent itself, simmer down
+into avaricious, dishonest _bourgeois_ and bloated cafe politicians. The
+teeth of the Republican dragon have been drawn, but they are sown
+broadcast from Dan even to Beersheba. Ancient realm of Capet, Valois,
+and Bourbon--motherland of Du Guesclin and Bayard--you may well be proud
+of your Cadmean offspring!
+
+Guy was passing the scene with a careless side-glance when the accent of
+the suppliant caught his ear--not French, though she spoke the language
+perfectly.
+
+"By G--d," he said, dropping Mohun's arm, "I believe it's an
+Englishwoman they are bullying;" and three of his long strides took him
+into the midst of the group.
+
+Two of the aggressors reeled back, right and left, from the shock of his
+mighty shoulders; and griping another, the tallest, by the collar, he
+whirled him some paces off on his back in the streaming kennel, as one
+might do with a very weak, light little child. "_Au large, canaille_!"
+he said, as he advanced on the two who still kept their feet. These drew
+back from his path without a second warning. One indeed, eminent in the
+_savate_, made a demonstration for an instant; but his comrade, who had
+just gathered himself up, caught his arm, muttering "_Ne t'y frotte pas,
+Alphonse. C'est trop dur_." None of them fancied an encounter with the
+grim giant who confronted them, his muscles braced and salient, his eyes
+gleaming with the _gaudia certaminis_, and his nostrils dilated as if
+they snuffed the battle.
+
+So they made way for Guy and his charge to pass, only grinding out
+between their teeth the strange guttural blasphemies that characterize
+impotent Gallic wrath.
+
+Mohun, a reserve scarcely leas formidable, stood by all the while,
+looking on lazily; he saw that his companion was more than equal to the
+emergency.
+
+"I hope you have not been much annoyed," Livingstone said, kindly.
+"Where were you going to? I shall be too happy to escort you, if you
+will allow me."
+
+She named the street, only a few hundred yards off, and tried to thank
+him gratefully, but her voice was broken and scarcely audible, and the
+blinding tears would rush into her eyes. Poor child! it was very long
+since she had heard gentle, courteous words in her mother-tongue. She
+recovered herself, however, during their short walk, and they had nearly
+reached her destination when Livingstone said, "Forgive me for being
+impertinent; I have no right to advise you; but I think you would find
+it better not to walk alone, often, at this hour. There is always a
+chance of something disagreeable."
+
+He could see her blush painfully as she answered, "I have no one to
+accompany me. I work hard at drawing and painting as long as there is
+light, and I had gone out to see if I could sell what I have done. But I
+fear I am a very poor artist; no one would offer me as much as they had
+cost me. And I tried at so many places!"
+
+It was piteous to hear the heavy, heart-broken sigh.
+
+"Perhaps I have better taste," replied Livingstone. "Those print-sellers
+are absurdly ignorant of what is good and anonymous. At all events, they
+will interest me, as a memorial of to-night. Will you give them to me? I
+will promise not to be too critical."
+
+He drew the roll out of her hand as he spoke, replacing it by his
+note-case; and before she could open it or make any objection, he
+followed Mohun (for they had reached the artist's door by this time),
+first raising his hat to her in adieu as courteously as he would have
+done to a reigning archduchess.
+
+How much did the case contain? Guy himself could hardly have told you.
+But be sure the Recorder of his many misdeeds knew, and reckoned it to
+the uttermost farthing when he wrote down that one kind action on the
+credit side.
+
+"Philanthropic, for a change!" Mohun remarked, when his companion joined
+him. "Well, it's not worse than many of your vagaries. We shall have you
+founding an asylum next, I suppose."
+
+In his heart the savage old cynic approved, but, for the life of him, he
+could not check the sneer.
+
+Livingstone made no reply. It was a habit of his very often not to
+answer Ralph, and the latter did not mind it in the least. In a few
+moments they reached Guy's apartments, where they found about a dozen
+men--French and English--awaiting their arrival to begin an unbridled
+lansquenet. It was a favorite rendezvous for this purpose. The
+thoroughbred gamblers preferred it to the brilliant entertainments of
+the Quartier Breda. They liked to court or fight Fortune by themselves,
+without being congratulated in success or compassionated in defeat by
+the fair Phrynes and Aspasias, whose sympathy was somewhat expansive,
+inasmuch as they always would borrow from the heap whenever any one won,
+repaying the loan in kind by smiles and caresses, which cost the happy
+recipient about fifteen Napoleons apiece. Here was an Eden from which
+Eves were excluded; and on the nights of the _Mercurialia_, the
+brightest Peri that ever wore camellias might have knocked at the gate
+disconsolately, but in vain.
+
+While the tables were being prepared, Guy began to tell his late
+adventure. He spoke of it very lightly, but he thought, if he passed it
+over altogether, Mohun would probably betray him.
+
+Immediately there was a great cry for a sight of the performances of the
+unknown genius.
+
+Livingstone looked over the drawings himself carefully, and then passed
+them to the man who sat nearest him. "I have seen worse," he said.
+"There is no signature, and I shall not give you the address. You are
+none of you just the patrons she would fancy. You don't care much for
+high art."
+
+Among the guests was Horace Levinge, a pale, dark man, with a face that
+was decidedly handsome, in spite of its Jewish _contour_, and the
+excessive fullness of the scarlet, sensual lips. His grandfather, report
+said, had been a prize-fighting Israelite, and afterward a celebrated
+betting-man--equally eminent in either ring for an unscrupulous
+scoundrelism which made his fortune. His father had added to the family
+treasure and importance by cautious usury and adventurous stock-jobbing.
+Horace himself was a gentleman at large, with no other profession than
+the consistent pursuit of all kinds of debauchery. He was calculating
+even in his pleasures, and, they say, kept a regular ledger and daybook
+of the moneys disbursed in his vices.
+
+When the drawings came to him, he glanced at them for a moment, and
+then threw them down with a little contemptuous laugh.
+
+"I am sorry to spoil your romance, Livingstone, but I have a pretty good
+right to recognize the artist's touch. You know her, some of you; it is
+Fanny Challoner."
+
+"What! the girl you sent away about three weeks ago?" some one asked.
+"Poor thing! she was not sorry, I should think. She had a hard time of
+it before she left you."
+
+"Precisely," Levinge replied. "Her modesty and high moral principles,
+which I never could quite subdue, gave a zest to the thing at first. You
+understand?--a sort of caviare flavor. But at last it bored me horribly.
+I really believe she had a conscience. Can you conceive any thing so out
+of place? I did offer her a little money when she went away, but she
+would not take any, and said she would try to maintain herself honestly.
+Bah! I defy her. She was a governess, you know, when I took her first,
+so she is trying some of the old accomplishments. I wish you joy of your
+_protegee_, Livingstone; and as for her address, if any of you want it,
+I will give it you to-morrow."
+
+Before Guy could reply Mohun broke in. While Levinge had been speaking,
+the colonel's face had grown very dark and threatening.
+
+"Did her father live near Walmer? And was he a half-pay officer?"
+
+"Quite correct," was the answer. "He died about eighteen months before I
+met Fanny. You knew him, perhaps? How interesting! Excuse my emotion."
+
+"I did know him," Ralph said. "He was a gentleman, and well born.
+Perhaps that was the reason you could not get on long with his
+daughter?"
+
+It is a popular error that a bully is always a coward. Certainly Horace
+was an exception to the rule, if such exists. Nothing could be more
+calmly insolent than his tone as he answered deliberately,
+
+"How admirable to find Colonel Mohun in the character of the Censor! A
+Clodius come to judgment. I should hardly have expected it, from his
+past life, either."
+
+The reply came from the depths of Ralph's chest, very distinct, but with
+a strange effect of distance and echo, as if the words had been spoken
+under the vault of some vast dome.
+
+"You will leave my past life alone, if you are wise. I don't preach
+against immorality; it is only brutality that I find simply disgusting."
+
+"Bah!" the other retorted; "it comes to the same thing. I should have
+thought Lady Caroline Mannering might have taught you to be less
+critical."
+
+The Cuirassier rose from his seat and strode a pace forward, the gray
+hair bristling round his savage face like a wild-boar's at bay.
+
+"If you dare to breathe that name again, except with respect and honor,
+I'll cram the words down your throat, by the eternal God!"
+
+Levinge crimsoned with passion. The brutal blood of the dead
+prize-fighter, who, when he "crossed" a fight, lost it ever by a foul
+blow, was boiling in his descendant. He had been drinking too, and, as
+the French say--_avait le vin mauvais_--so he answered coolly and
+slowly, letting the syllables fall one by one, like drops of hail,
+
+"I shall mention it just as often as it pleases me, and with just so
+much respect as is due to Mannering's cast-off wife and your--"
+
+The foul word that was on his lips never left them, for Mohun's threat
+was literally fulfilled. His right hand shot out from the shoulder with
+a sudden impulse that seemed rather mechanical than an action of the
+will, and, catching the speaker full in the mouth, laid him on the
+carpet senseless and streaming with blood.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+     "Look doun, look doun now, ladye fair,
+       On him ye lo'ed sae weel;
+     A brawer man than yon blue corse
+       Never drew sword of steel."
+
+
+The dead silence that ensued was broken first by Guy Livingstone. "It
+was well done! I say it and maintain it; Mohun, I envy you that blow!"
+He looked round as if to challenge contradiction; but evidently the
+general opinion was that Levinge had only got his deserts. By this time
+the fallen man had recovered his consciousness, and struggled up, first
+into a sitting posture, then to his feet; he stood leaning against a
+table, swaying to and fro, and staring about him with wild eyes half
+glazed. At last he spoke in a thick, faint voice, stanching all the
+while the gushing blood with his handkerchief.
+
+"Will any one here be my second, or must I look for a friend elsewhere?"
+
+There was a pause, and then from the circle stepped forth Camille de
+Rosny. He did not like Levinge, and thought in the present instance he
+had behaved infamously, but it was the fashion hereditary in his gallant
+house to back the losing side; so, when he saw every one else shrink
+from the appeal, he bowed gravely and said,
+
+"I shall have that honor, if you will permit me. In an hour I shall be
+at the orders of M. le Colonel's second. Where shall I find him?"
+
+"Here," replied Livingstone. "I think no one will contest my right to
+see my old friend through this quarrel."
+
+Mohun grasped his hand. "I would have chosen you among a thousand. You
+understand me, and know what I wish."
+
+"Then I shall expect you, De Rosny," Guy went on. The Frenchman assented
+courteously, and then, turning to his principal,
+
+"Let us go," he said. "My _coupe_ is at your disposition, M. Levinge.
+_Messieurs, au plaisir._"
+
+Horace followed him with a step that was still faltering and uncertain;
+but at the door he turned, and, straightening himself up, faced his
+adversary with such a look as few human countenances have ever worn.
+There was more in it than mortal hatred: it expressed a sort of devilish
+satisfaction and anticipation, as if he knew that his revenge was
+secured.
+
+Mohun read all this as plainly as if it had been written down in so many
+words; but he only smiled as he seated himself and lighted a cigar.
+
+There was an end of lansquenet for that night. An ordinary quarrel would
+have made little impression on those reckless spirits, who had, most of
+them, at one time or another, "been out" themselves; but they felt that
+what they had witnessed now was the prologue to a certain tragedy; there
+was a savor of death in the air; so they dropped off one by one, leaving
+Guy and Ralph alone; not before the latter had expressed, with much
+politeness, "his desolation at having been compelled to interrupt a
+_partie_, which he trusted was only deferred till the morrow."
+
+Before long De Rosny returned. The preliminaries were soon arranged.
+Pistols were necessarily to be the weapons, for Levinge had seldom
+touched a foil; and, as the Frenchman said with a bow that made his
+objection a compliment, "Colonel Mohun's reputation as a swordsman was
+European." An early hour next morning was fixed for the _venue_, in the
+Pre aux Clercs of the nineteenth century--the Bois de Boulogne.
+
+When they were alone again Guy turned gravely to his companion. "It is a
+bad business, I fear, though you could not have acted otherwise; but I
+would rather your adversary were any other than Levinge. It is a
+murderous, unscrupulous scoundrel as ever lived. He can shoot--that's
+nothing; so can you, better than most men--but, mark me, Ralph, he has
+been out twice, and hit his man each time, the last mortally; but on
+neither occasion was _his fire returned_. Men say he has an awkward
+knack of pulling the trigger half a second too soon. I don't know if
+this is true, but I do know that Seymour, who seconded him at Florence
+when he killed O'Neill, has been more than cool to him ever since."
+
+"Faith, I can well believe it," Mohun answered, quietly, "and it is very
+probable I may get hard hit to-morrow; but of killing him I feel morally
+certain. Do you believe in presentiments? I do. Before that drunken
+brute had half done speaking, I saw imminent death written in his face
+as plainly as if I had possessed the Highland second-sight. I think I
+could almost tell you how it will look _after my shot_. Well, we must
+talk of business. My arrangements won't take me long. I have very little
+to dispose of; it is almost all entailed property. I shall leave you the
+choice of any thing among my goods and chattels. You will find some arms
+that you may fancy. But if my pistols fail me to-morrow, so that Levinge
+lives over it, do me the favor to throw them into the Seine; they
+deserve nothing better. As for the ready-money I have with me, and some
+more at my banker's--" he hesitated, and then went on in a gentler
+voice, "I should like it to go to that poor child whom we met to-night.
+If I live I will take care she is settled in England, where some one
+will be kind to her. Her father was a good soldier and a true-hearted
+gentleman. And, Guy, I am sorry that I sneered at you to-night; I hardly
+meant it when I said it."
+
+This was a great concession from Mohun, and his hearer thought so as he
+wrung his hand hard and replied,
+
+"Don't think of that again. I did you justice an hour ago."
+
+There was this peculiarity about Ralph; he was not only insensible to
+danger, like other men, but he absolutely seemed to revel in it. The
+genial side of his character came out at the approach of deadly peril,
+just as some morose natures will soften and brighten temporarily under
+the influence of strong wine.
+
+His mood seemed to change, however, suddenly; and when, after a long
+pause, he spoke again, it was in a low, broken voice, as if to himself.
+
+"'Be sure your sin will find you out.' It is thirty years since I heard
+that text; I forgot it the same day, and never thought of it again till
+now. There may be truth in that. It hunted _her_ to her grave, and it
+will not leave her in peace even there. And yet she suffered enough to
+make atonement. She tried not to let me see how much, but I did see it;
+I watched her dying for a year and more. I am sure she is an angel now.
+I like to think so, though I shall never see her again. I would not
+believe otherwise if a thousand priests said it and swore it; for I
+never moved from her side, after she was dead, till I saw the smile come
+on her face. She must have been happy then; do you not think so? They
+would hardly have gone on punishing her forever. It was all my fault,
+you know."
+
+He gazed at Livingstone anxiously, almost timidly. Guy bowed his head in
+assent, but he could not find words to answer just then. There was
+something very terrible in that opening of the flood-gates when a life's
+pent-up remorse broke forth.
+
+"I think you will end better than I have done," Mohun went on, "though
+you are going down-hill fast now. But I have no right even to warn you.
+Only take care--" He broke off suddenly, and roused himself with an
+effort. "I shall go home and dress now, and get through what little I
+have to write, and then lie down for an hour or two. Nothing makes the
+hand shake like a sleepless night. I'll call for you in good time." So
+he went away.
+
+Livingstone sat thinking, without ever closing his eyes, till Mohun
+returned. The latter looked fresh and alert; he had slept for the time
+he had allotted to himself quite calmly and comfortably; the old habits
+of picket-duty had taught him to watch or sleep at pleasure.
+
+After Guy had made a careful toilette, at the special request of his
+principal they started, and in forty minutes were on the ground. Levinge
+and his second, with the surgeon, arrived almost immediately; the former
+stood somewhat apart, keeping the lower part of his face carefully
+muffled.
+
+It was a dull, chill morning; the sky of a steely-gray, without a
+promise of a gleam from the sun, which had risen _somewhere_, but was
+reserving himself for better times. There was a sort of desultory wind
+blowing, just strong enough at intervals to bring the moist brown leaves
+sullenly down.
+
+After the pistols had been scientifically loaded, the seconds placed
+their men fifteen yards apart--with such known shots it was not worth
+while shortening the distance.
+
+The sensations of ordinary mortals under such circumstances are somewhat
+curious. Very few are afraid, I think; but one has an impression that
+one's own proportions are becoming sensibly developed--"swelling
+wisibly," in fact, like the lady at the Pickwickian tea-fight--while
+those of our adversary diminish in a like ratio, so that he does not
+appear near so fair a mark as he did a few minutes ago. But, with all
+this, there is a quickening of the pulse not unpleasurable--something
+like the excitement of the "four to the seven" chance at hazard, when
+you are backing the In for a large stake.
+
+I do not believe Mohun felt any thing of this sort. It was not his own
+life, but his adversary's death he was playing for; the other was busy,
+too, with still darker thoughts and purposes.
+
+"Listen," Guy said in French; "M. de Rosny gives the signal, _un_,
+_deux_, _trois_; if either fires before the last is fully pronounced, it
+is murder." He looked sharply at Levinge, but the latter seemed
+studiously to avoid meeting his eye. Guy felt very uncomfortable and
+very savage.
+
+The men stood opposite to one another like black marble statues, neither
+showing a speck of color which might serve as a _point de mire_, each
+turning only a side-front to his opponent.
+
+De Rosny pronounced the two first words of the signal in a clear,
+deliberate voice; the last left his lips almost in a shriek, for, before
+it was half syllabled, his principal fired.
+
+Quick as the movement was, it was anticipated; as Levinge's hand
+stirred, Mohun made a half-face to the right, and looked his enemy
+straight between the eyes. That sudden change of position, or the
+consciousness of detection, probably unsettled the practiced aim, for
+the ball, that would have drilled Ralph through the heart, only scored a
+deep furrow in his side.
+
+No one could have guessed that he was touched; he brought his pistol to
+the level just as coolly as he would have done in the shooting-gallery,
+and, after the discharge, dropped his hand with measured deliberation.
+Before the smoke had curled a yard upward, Horace Levinge sprang into
+the air, and, with out-stretched arms, fell crashing down upon the
+grass--a bullet through his brain.
+
+They turned him over on his back. It was a ghastly sight; the ball had
+penetrated just below the arch of the right eyebrow, and all the lower
+features were swollen and distorted with the blow of last night, adding
+to the hideous disfigurement.
+
+Is that the face on which the dead man used to spend hours, tending it,
+like an ancient coquette, with washes and cosmetics, dreading the
+faintest freckle or sunburn which might mar the smoothness of the
+delicate skin? No need of the surgeon there. Cover it up quickly. The
+mother that bore him, if she should recognize him, would recoil in
+disgust and loathing.
+
+"_C'en est fini_," Livingstone said to De Rosny, who stood by shuddering
+in horror, not at the death, but at the treachery which had preceded it.
+
+None but a Frenchman could have given such an accent to the low, hissing
+reply, "_Je l'espere_."
+
+Then they looked to Mohun's wound; it was nothing serious: there were a
+dozen deeper on the warworn body and limbs. Indeed, I imagine his
+general health was materially benefited by the blood-letting. The first
+remark he made was when he was depositing his pistol in its
+case--tenderly as you would lay a child in its cradle--"Do you believe
+in presentiments _now_, Guy?"
+
+The sullen sun broke out just as they turned to go, and peered curiously
+through the boughs, till it found out and lighted on the angular ominous
+heap, shrouded with a cloak, that, ten minutes ago, was a strong,
+hot-blooded man.
+
+There the _garde_ soon after discovered Horace Levinge; and, when he had
+been owned, they buried him in _Pere la Chaise_. Such events were common
+then, and the police gave themselves no trouble to trace who had slain
+the stranger. Among his tribes-men and kinsfolk in Houndsditch and the
+Minories there was great joy at first, and afterward bitter, endless
+litigation. They screamed and battled over the heritage like vultures
+over a mighty carrion, tearing it at length piecemeal. He did not keep a
+pet dog, and so no living creature regretted him, unless it were the
+thin, delicate girl, with white cheeks and hollow eyes, who came once,
+and knelt to pray by his grave for hours, her tears falling fast.
+
+Hard as they may find it to observe other precepts of the Great Master,
+this one, at least, most women have practiced easily and naturally for
+eighteen hundred years: "Forgive, until seventy times seven." The acts
+of some of these--how they warred with their husbands and were worsted;
+how they provoked the presiding Draco, and stultified the attesting
+policeman by obstinately ignoring their injuries, written legibly in
+red, and black, and blue; how they interceded with many sobs for the
+aggressor--are they not written in the book of the chronicles of
+Bow-street and Clerkenwell?
+
+This propensity leads them into scrapes, it is true, for our world, in
+its wisdom, will take advantage of such weakness. Perhaps the next will
+make them some amends.
+
+But the mourner strewed no flowers on the grave. It would have been too
+bitter a mockery; for, if there were sympathy in sweet roses and pure
+white lilies, on no other spot of God's earth would they have withered
+so soon: she hung up no wreath of _immortelles_; for, if such things
+could be, the dearest wish one could have formed for the dead man's soul
+would have been swift, utter annihilation.
+
+Yet Fanny Challoner would scarcely have accepted Mohun's good offices if
+she had guessed that the blood of her seducer and tyrant was on his
+hand. She never suspected it, and so went gratefully to the home he
+found for her; and there she lives yet, tranquil and contented, though
+always sad and humble, among people who know nothing of her history and
+love her dearly, trying her best to be useful in her generation--alone
+in her cottage, that nestles under a sunny cliff, just above the white
+spray-line of the Irish Sea.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+     "Let me see her once again.
+     Let her bring her proud dark eyes,
+     And her petulant quick replies;
+     Let her wave her slender hand
+     With its gesture of command,
+     And throw back her raven hair
+     With the old imperial air;
+       Let her be as she was then--
+     The loveliest lady in all the land
+         Iseult of Ireland."
+
+
+Mohun and Livingstone soon fell back into the groove of their old
+habits; if any thing, the former was more forbidding and morose, the
+latter more reckless than ever.
+
+Just at this time Mrs. Bellasys and her daughter arrived in Paris. It
+was Flora's _debut_ there, and she had an immense success. The _jeunesse
+doree_ of the Chaussee d'Antin and the cavaliers of the Faubourg
+thronged about her, emulously enthusiastic. Her repartees and sarcasms
+were quoted like Talleyrand's. They never wearied in raving over her
+perfections, taking them in a regular catalogue--from her magnificent
+eyes and hair, that flashed back the light from its smooth bands like
+clouded steel, down to the small _brodequins_ of white satin, which it
+was her fancy to wear instead of the ball-room _chaussure_ of ordinary
+mortals. The intrigues to secure her for a waltz or a mazurka displayed
+diplomatic talent enough to have set half a dozen German principalities
+and powers by the ears. The succession of admirers was never broken; as
+fast as one dropped off, killed by her coldness or caprice, another
+stepped into his place. It reminded one of the old "Die-hards" at
+Waterloo, filling up their squares torn and ravaged by the pelting
+grape-shot.
+
+Here, as elsewhere, she pursued her favorite amusement remorselessly.
+Fallowfield called it "her cutting-out expeditions." She used to watch
+till a mother and daughter had, between them, secured a good matrimonial
+prize, and then employ her fascinations on the captured one--seldom
+without effect--so as to steal him out of their hands.
+
+Do you remember Waterton's story of the osprey? The hard-working bird,
+by dint of perseverance, has brought up a good fish. Just as it emerges
+from the water, there is heard a flap and a whistle of mighty pinions,
+and from his watch-tower on the cliff far above swoops down the great
+sea-eagle. The poor osprey _a beau crier_, it must drop its booty, and
+the strong marauder sails off with a slow and dignified flight, to
+discuss it in the wood at his leisure. The only fault in the parallel
+was that Flora always dropped the prey with the coolest disdain when it
+was once fairly within her clutches. How the match-makers did hate her!
+What vows for her discomfiture must have been breathed into bouquets
+held up to conceal the angry flush of disappointment or the paleness of
+despair!
+
+I own this practice of hers did not raise her in my opinion. I can not
+think so hardly as it is the fashion to do of the junior and working
+members, at least, of the manoeuvring guild. It is not an elevating or
+very creditable profession, certainly, but it seems such a disagreeable
+one that none would take it up from choice. The chief fault, at all
+events, lies with the trainers; the jockeys (poor little things!) only
+ride to orders; and, by the way, I think they generally err in not
+knowing how to _wait_, and in making the running too strong at first.
+
+As I meet, year after year, one of these--to whom the seed sown in
+London ball-rooms and German watering-places had produced nothing yet
+but those tiresome garlands of the vestal--I look curiously to see how
+she wears, thinking of the courtier's answer to Louis XIV. when the
+latter asked if he was looking older: "Sire, I see some more victories
+written on your forehead." It is more defeats that one can read so
+plainly on poor Fanny Singleton's.
+
+How many shipwrecks close to port; how many races lost by a head, how
+many games by a point, she must have known before her silver laugh
+became so hollow, and her pleasant smile so evidently theatrical and
+lip-deep; before what once was chanceful became desperate, and she fell
+back into the ranks of the forlorn hope--of the "Lost Children!"
+
+On one of these occasions I met her. She was just beginning her
+_condottiere_ life then, and was very attractive even to those on whom
+she had no designs--believed in balls, and had an ingenious talent for
+original composition. I don't think those entertainments are dangerously
+exciting to her now; and Heaven forefend that she should write poetry!
+One shudders to think of what it would he. Well, she was returning to
+the house after a moonlight flirtation (if you can call it so when it
+was all on one side). She had been trying to fascinate a stupid, sullen,
+commercial Orson--a boy not clever, but cunning, who calculated on his
+share in the bank as a means of procuring him these amusements, as other
+men might reckon on their good looks or soft tongue. He had just left
+her, and I was wishing her good-night under the porch. She forgot her
+cue for a moment, and became natural. "I feel so very, very tired," she
+said. I remember how drearily she said it, and how the tears glittered
+in her weary eyes. I remember, too, how, ten minutes later, I heard that
+amiable youth boasting of what had happened, and giving a hideous
+travestie of her attempts to captivate him, till at last my wrath was
+kindled, and, to his great confusion (for he was of a timid
+disposition), I spoke, and sharply, with my tongue.
+
+Ah me! I mind the time when men used to waylay Fanny Singleton in the
+cloak-room, and shoot her flying as she went up the staircase, in their
+anxiety to secure her for a partner; and now she is a refuge for the
+destitute, except when some one, for old acquaintance' sake, takes a
+turn with one of the best waltzers in Europe.
+
+I like her for one thing--she has never tried the girlish dodge on yet.
+She has never been heard to say, "Mamma always calls me a wild thing."
+It is better that she should be bitter and sardonic, as she is
+sometimes, than that. Mars herself could hardly play the _ingenues_ when
+in mature age. Grisi's best part now is not Amina.
+
+The last thing I heard of Fanny was that she was about to unite herself
+(the _active_ voice is the proper one) to a very Low-Church clergyman, a
+distinguished member of the Evangelical Alliance, pregnant with the odor
+of sanctity--_bouquet de Baptiste_ treble distilled. I dare say they
+will get on well enough. If the holy man wants to collect "experiences,"
+his wife will be able to furnish them, that's certain. It will be very
+"sweet."
+
+I pity, but I condemn. In the name of Matuta and of common sense, is
+there an imperative necessity that all our maids should become matrons?
+
+If such exists, think, I beseech you, O virgins--pretty, but
+penniless--apt for the yoke, how many chances of subjection may turn up
+without rushing to put your necks under it. Is the aspiring race of
+H.E.I.C.S. cadets extinct? Are Erin's sons so good or so cold as not to
+be tempted by woman, even without the gold? Are there not soldiers still
+to the fore too inflammable to be trusted near an ammunition wagon? Are
+there not--the _bonne bouche_ comes at last--priests and deacons? The
+instant a man takes orders, celibacy becomes intolerable to him. I
+firmly believe that half the offers made in the year throughout broad
+England emanate from those energetic ecclesiastics.
+
+After all, what specimens you do pick up sometimes in your haste! If you
+_are_ to lead apes, is it not better to defer the evil day as long as
+possible, instead of parading the animals about by your sides here on
+this upper earth?
+
+My sermon is too long for the occasion--too short for the text. I close
+a discourse not much wiser, perhaps, than poor Wamba's, with his "_Pax
+vobiscum!_"
+
+Flora and Guy met with perfect composure on both sides. She did not
+appear to think that she had any claim upon him arising from what had
+passed, but it was evident that he was still the favorite, and that all
+others were complete "outsiders." No betting man would have backed the
+field for a shilling. She waltzed with him whenever he asked her, to the
+utter oblivion and annihilation of previous engagements, whereat the
+Frenchmen chafed inexpressibly, cursing and gnashing their teeth when,
+after the ball was over, they went forth into the outer darkness.
+Nothing but Livingstone's extraordinary reputation in the
+shooting-galleries, added to a certain ferocity of demeanor which had
+become habitual to him of late, saved him from more than one serious
+quarrel.
+
+He took it all as a matter of course. Flora amused him certainly; she
+sympathized with his tastes, and perhaps flattered his vanity. For
+instance, she always took an interest in his fortunes at play, watching
+and sometimes backing him at _ecarte_, and often inquiring the next
+morning how the battle had gone in her absence at the Board of Green
+Cloth.
+
+Once when an unfortunate adorer--in bitterness of spirit at being thrown
+over twice in one evening--hinted at some of the intrigues which had
+made Guy's name unenviably notorious (play was not the guiltiest of his
+distractions to thoughts that would come back), Miss Bellasys only
+smiled haughtily, and did not even deign to betray any curiosity on the
+subject. Those ephemeral passions were not the rivals she feared.
+
+Her mother all this time was very uncomfortable. Though herself
+perfectly innocent of any connivance in Flora's schemes, she was
+afflicted with a perpetual indistinct sort of remorse. Once or twice, I
+believe, she did venture on a remonstrance, but she was put down
+decisively, and did not try it again.
+
+One evening Guy had been lingering for some time in the Bellasys' box at
+the Opera. As he went out into the _foyer_ he saw an old acquaintance
+coming toward him.
+
+Lord Killowen was past sixty: the world had used him roughly, and he had
+been ruined very early in life, but he bore both years and troubles
+lightly. Looking at his smooth forehead, and square, erect figure, and
+listening to his ready, cheery laugh, you would never have guessed how
+long he had led that guerrilla existence--for forty years keeping the
+bailiffs at bay. His nerve and his seat in the saddle were as firm as
+they were on the first night of his joining the ---- Hussars, when he
+rode Kicking Kate over the iron pales round Hounslow Barrack-yard, and
+hit the layers of the long odds for a cool thousand.
+
+He had been intimate with Colonel Livingstone, and had known his son
+from childhood; but he was a still closer friend of the Brandon family,
+with whom, indeed, he was distantly connected. He had never seen Guy
+since the breaking off of the latter's engagement till this night, when
+he caught a glimpse of his lofty head bending over Flora Bellasys'
+chair.
+
+Lord Killowen's blood was as hot and his impulses as quick as if he had
+not yet seen his twentieth winter, and the chivalry within him was
+stirred at what he considered an insolent parade of treachery; for he
+had guessed much of what had happened, though he did not know all the
+truth; so he passed Guy's extended hand, turning his head studiously
+aside.
+
+The latter was startled for a moment, but he could not believe in an
+intentional "cut," and he knew his friend to be rather short-sighted; so
+with one stride he overtook him, and, touching him on the shoulder,
+said, "I must be very much changed if you do not know me, Lord
+Killowen."
+
+The brave old Irishman turned short upon his heel and confronted the
+speaker, bending on him all the light of his clear blue eyes: he drew
+himself up to the full height of a stature that nearly equaled
+Livingstone's, and said, coolly and slowly, "Pardon me, you are not
+changed in the least; I know you very well."
+
+The insult was palpable. Guy fairly staggered as if he had received a
+sword-thrust; then the angry blood rushed up to his temples, making the
+veins start out like muscles, and he spoke in a voice hoarse and
+indistinct with passion, "You will answer this."
+
+True, his antagonist was more than old enough to have been his father,
+but in feast, field, and fray, Lord Killowen remembered his own age so
+seldom that other men might be excused for forgetting it sometimes.
+
+The old man was going to answer eagerly, but he checked himself with an
+effort, as if repressing a strong temptation; when, after some seconds,
+he spoke, there was more of sadness and warning than of anger in his
+tone.
+
+"No, I will not fight, even in this quarrel, with your father's son;
+besides, I might be anticipating one who has a better right. Four days
+ago Cyril Brandon landed from India."
+
+It would have been difficult, I think, to have found another, among
+living men, both by constitution and temperament, so inaccessible to
+material terrors as Livingstone, yet when that name came upon him thus
+suddenly he felt a thrill and a start through his nerves, so
+unpleasantly like commonplace physical fear that ever, when he thought
+of it, it made his cheek burn with shame. He could not, after that,
+controvert gallant Lannes' maxim: "It is only a coward who says that he
+never was afraid."
+
+He stood silently, and allowed Lord Killowen to pass him, bowing
+courteously, though coldly, to him. The latter never knew what mischief
+he had done. After that momentary sensation had passed off, all the
+worst elements of Guy's stubborn, haughty nature rose in rebellion at
+what he deemed a despicable weakness. As if in defiance of the
+consequences, all that evening and on the succeeding days he devoted
+himself to Flora Bellasys with such unusual ardor that it made her
+nervous: she thought it was too good to last.
+
+When Mohun heard what had happened, he would not admit that there was
+the slightest chance of a meeting with Cyril Brandon, though he knew the
+character of the latter--fierce and intractable to a degree.
+
+"Don't flatter yourself you will wipe off the score in that way," he
+said to Guy, with his sardonic laugh. "Men will quarrel over cards and
+about _lorettes_ easily enough, but who fights for a 'broken covenant'
+now? We live two hundred years too late."
+
+Ralph remembered how long he had lingered on the French seaboard
+waiting for a challenge from beyond the Channel which never came, though
+there was deeper provocation to justify it.
+
+A few mornings after this had occurred Livingstone found himself without
+a servant. His demeanor toward this estimable class had always been
+imperious and stern to a fault, but latterly they, as well as others,
+had felt the effects of his exasperated temper, and he was sometimes
+brutally overbearing in his reprimands. On this particular occasion he
+must have been unusually oppressive, for it exhausted the patience of
+the much-enduring Willis, so that the worm turned again--insolently.
+
+Before he had said ten words his master interrupted him, his eye turning
+toward a heavy horsewhip that lay near with an expression that made
+Willis retreat toward the door.
+
+"So you have robbed me of enough to make you independent? Very well;
+make your book up; the _maitre d'hotel_ will settle with you. You will
+carry away some of my property, of course? I shall not trouble myself to
+have your trunks searched, but if you take any thing that I happen to
+want afterward, I'll have you arrested, wherever you are. Now go."
+
+The man left the room sulkily: an hour later he returned. "I am going
+this instant, Mr. Livingstone; but I could tell you something first that
+you ought to know, if you would promise not to be violent. I am very
+sorry now I did it." There was a curious expression--half spiteful, half
+frightened--on his cunning face as he spoke.
+
+Guy looked at him carelessly. "Thank you; I am in no humor to listen to
+your confessions. You may be quite easy; I give you credit for all
+imaginable rascality. Remember what I said: if I miss any thing, the
+police will be after you the same day. Now, once more, go. If I see your
+face about here again, it will be the worse for you."
+
+There was a good deal of meaning in Willis's smile, though, his lips
+were white with fear. "You will never miss what I was going to tell you
+about, sir," he said; and then faded away out of the room with his usual
+noiseless step, closing the door softly behind him.
+
+If his master could have guessed what was the secret he had refused to
+hear, haughty as he was, I do believe there is no earthly degradation to
+which he would not have abased himself to gain its knowledge.
+
+But the hour for the humbling of the strong, self-reliant nature had not
+come yet, though it was very near. The wild bull never saw the net till
+its meshes had trapped him fast.
+
+The same morning Guy, who was lounging an hour away at the Bellasys',
+mentioned to them what had occurred. If he had glanced at Flora's face
+just then, he would have been puzzled to guess what there was in the
+intelligence to turn her so deadly pale. It was only for an instant that
+the accomplished actress forgot her part, and when he looked at her next
+there was not a trace of emotion in her face.
+
+"Have you filled up his place?" she asked, carelessly.
+
+"I have ordered my landlord to provide me," replied Guy. "I shall find
+some well-trained scoundrel on my return, I hope. I shall never get
+another like Willis, though. It's just my luck. The great principle of
+the gazelle runs through life: When they come to know you well, &c. What
+made you ask? Surely you have no _protege_ to recommend?"
+
+Flora laughed gayly as she answered in the negative, and so the subject
+dropped; but all the afternoon she was pensive and absent, and flashes
+of vexation gleamed every now and then fitfully in her stormy eyes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+               "Let none think to fly the danger,
+     For, soon or late, Love is his own avenger."
+
+
+Christmas-tide had come round again, and hall, manor-house, and castle
+were filling fast. But the pheasants had a jubilee at Kerton, to the
+great discouragement of Mallett, who "could not mind such another
+breeding season." Foxes were strong and plentiful with the Belvoir and
+the Pytchley; and, during two months of open weather, many a
+straight-goer had died gallantly in the midst of the wide
+pasture-grounds, testifying with his last breath to the generalship of
+Goodall and Payne. But the best shot and the hardest rider in
+Northamptonshire lingered on still in Paris, wasting his patrimony in
+most riotous living, and trying his iron constitution presumptuously.
+
+Lady Catharine sat alone in the gray old house, paler and more care-worn
+than ever. I think she would have preferred the noisiest revel that ever
+broke her slumbers in the old times to the dead silence that brooded
+like a mist in the deserted rooms.
+
+Guy had always been a bad correspondent, and now he hardly ever wrote to
+her; but rumors of his wild life reached his mother often, though dimly
+and vaguely. It was best so; what would that poor lady have felt if she
+could have guessed at the scene in which her son was the principal
+figure as the Christmas morning was breaking?
+
+It is the close of a furious orgie; the Babel of cries, of fragments of
+songs, of insane, meaningless laughter, is dying away, through the pure
+exhaustion of the revelers; on the gay carpet and the rich damask are
+pools of spilled liquors, heaps of shivered glass, and bouquets and
+garlands that have ceased to be fragrant hours ago. All around, in
+different attitudes--ignoble and helpless--are strewn the bodies of
+those who have gone down early in the battle of the Bacchanals: they lie
+in their ranks as they fell. One figure towers above the
+rest--pre-eminent as Satan in the conclave of the ruined angels--the
+guiltiest, because the most conscious of his own utter degradation. The
+frequent draughts that have prostrated his companions have only brought
+out two round scarlet spots in the pale bronze of his cheeks; his voice
+retains still its deep, calm, almost solemn tone. Listen to it as he
+raises to his lips an immense glass brimming-full of Burgundy: "One
+toast more, and with funeral honors--'To the memory of those who have
+fallen gloriously on the 24th of December.'"
+
+Is it true that, six months ago, the soft, pure cheek of Constance
+Brandon rested often on the broad breast that pillows now the disheveled
+head of that wild-eyed, shrill-voiced Maenad? Draw the curtains closer
+yet; shut out the dawn of the Nativity for very shame.
+
+Mohun was breakfasting with Livingstone on a cold, gusty January
+morning, that succeeded a night of heavy drinking and heavier play. The
+colonel would see him through one of these readily enough, but if there
+was even a single female face present he would retreat in disgust and
+contempt unutterable. Guy had been hit so hard that it made him graver
+than usual as he thought of it, though he was tolerably inured and
+indifferent to evil fortune; so the conversation languished during the
+meal. After it was over, Mohun rose to light a cigar, while his
+companion took up a pile of letters and began to glance at them
+listlessly. Suddenly the former dropped the match from his hand,
+starting in irrepressible astonishment.
+
+He had seen strong men die hard, mangled and shattered by sabre or
+bullet, but he had never heard a sound so terribly significant of agony
+as the dull, heavy groan that just then burst from Livingstone's lips.
+
+In those few seconds his face had grown perfectly livid; his eyes were
+riveted upon a small note that he held in his shaking fingers; they
+glittered strangely, but there was no meaning or expression in their
+fixed stare.
+
+"In the name of God, what has happened?" Ralph asked.
+
+Guy's lips worked and moved, but no sound came from them, except an
+irregular catching of the breath and a gasping rattle in the throat.
+
+Mohun took the note from his hand without his seeming to be aware of it,
+and read it through. These were the words:
+
+"I have tried very hard to persuade myself that you never received the
+letter I wrote to you two months ago. I think you would have answered
+it, for you would know how much I must have suffered before my pride
+broke down so utterly. Yet I could not have risked being scorned a
+second time if I had not learned yesterday that my life must now be
+reckoned by weeks, if not by days. I do not know if I shall be allowed
+to see you if you come. But you will come; will you not? Dear, dear Guy,
+I can not die as I ought to do, contentedly, unless I speak to you once
+again. In spite of all, I will sign my last letter
+
+     "Your own                CONSTANCE BRANDON."
+
+
+It was dated Ventnor.
+
+Hard and cynical as he was, Mohun was thoroughly shocked and grieved;
+but the urgency of the crisis brought back the prompt decision of
+thought and purpose that were habitual to the trained soldier. He sprang
+to his feet, alert and ready for action, as he would have done in the
+old times, from his bivouac, to meet a night-surprise of the wild
+Hungarians.
+
+"Get every thing ready," he said to the servant, who entered at that
+moment; "your master is going to England immediately. The train starts
+for Havre at two o'clock. You will catch the night-boat for
+Southampton."
+
+When the man had left the room he turned to Guy: "Rouse yourself, man!
+There is all a lifetime for remorse, but only a few hours for the little
+amends you can make. You will be at Ventnor to-morrow; and mind--you
+_must_ see her, whatever difficulties may be thrown in your way. You
+won't lose your temper if you meet her brother? Ah! I see you are not
+listening."
+
+Then Livingstone spoke for the first time, in a hoarse, grating
+whisper, articulating the words one by one with difficulty.
+
+"I never dreamed of this. I did not mean to kill her."
+
+Mohun knew his friend too well to attempt consolation or sympathy, even
+if these had not been foreign to his own nature; so he answered
+deliberately and coldly,
+
+"Of having brought bitter sorrow on Constance Brandon I do hold you
+guilty; of having caused her death, not, and so you will find when you
+know all. But her note of two months ago--of course you never saw it?
+You must have overlooked it; you are so careless with your papers."
+
+"It never reached me," Livingstone replied. "I have always looked at the
+outside of my letters, and I should have known that handwriting among
+ten thousand. Some one must have intercepted it. I wish I knew who." He
+was recovering from the first stunning effects of the shock, and the old
+angry light came back into his eyes.
+
+"I will find out when you are gone," said Mohun. "You have not a moment
+to spare. I won't ask you to write; I will join you in England in three
+days. Only remember one thing--keep cool. Yes, I know what you mean; but
+your patience may be tried more than you have any idea of." He was
+thinking of Cyril Brandon.
+
+The hurry of departure prevented any further conversation. At the
+station, just before the train started, Ralph said, grasping his
+comrade's hand as he spoke, "I did not think you loved her so dearly."
+
+It was very long before he forgot the dreary look which accompanied the
+answer, "I did not know it myself till now."
+
+"I must trace the note," the colonel muttered, as he strode away from
+the station. "That handsome tiger-cat has laid her claw on it, I am
+certain. But she won't confess; red-hot pincers would not drag a secret
+from her, if she meant to keep it. I doubt if she will even betray
+herself by a blush. Poor Constance! What chance had she against such a
+Machiavel in petticoats? I am bad at diplomacy, too. If I only had the
+slightest proof, or if she had any weak point--unless she loses her head
+when she hears where Guy is gone, I have no chance of finding out much
+in that quarter. There's Willis, to be sure--she bribed him, no doubt.
+D--n them both!" In this complimentary and charitable mood, he went
+straight to Flora Bellasys.
+
+He found her alone. She was sitting in her riding-dress, and the broad
+Spanish hat, with its curling plumes, lay close beside her, with the
+gauntlets and whip across it.
+
+She did not much like Mohun, for she had an idea that his sarcasms, with
+her for their object, had made Guy smile more than once approvingly. She
+knew, too, that all her fascinations recoiled harmlessly from that
+rugged block of ironstone. Whatever he might have been in early years,
+he was harder of heart than stout Sir Artegall now. Radigund, unhelming
+her lovely face, would never have tempted him to forego his advantage
+and throw his weapons down.
+
+However, she greeted him with perfect composure and satisfaction.
+
+"Do you join our party this afternoon, Colonel Mohun? I expect them to
+call for me every moment. We are going to the Croix de Berny, to see the
+ground for the race next week. Mr. Livingstone was to have lunched here;
+but I never reckon on his keeping an engagement."
+
+There was something in Ralph's manner which made her uncomfortable. She
+took up her whip, and began twisting its slender stock rather nervously;
+you would not have thought there was so much strength in the delicate
+fingers.
+
+"You are right," he replied, coolly, "not to count too much on Guy's
+punctuality. He _is_ very uncertain in his movements. I fear he can not
+accompany you this afternoon. He would have charged me with his excuses,
+I am sure, if he had not been so hurried."
+
+Flora looked up quickly.
+
+"It must have been something very sudden, then. Have you any idea where
+he is now?"
+
+Ralph consulted his watch. "About Mantes, I should imagine. He started
+for Havre by the last train. He will be at Southampton, to-morrow, and
+the same day he can reach--"
+
+He stopped, gazing at his companion with a cold, cruel satisfaction. The
+blood was sinking in her cheeks, not with a sudden impulse, but
+gradually--as the sunset rose-tints fade from the brow of the Jungfrau,
+leaving a ghastly opaque whiteness behind them. During the silence that
+ensued, a sharp tinkle might be heard as the jeweled head of the
+riding-whip, snapped by a convulsive movement, fell at Flora's feet.
+
+It _was_ weak in her to betray such loss of self-command, but,
+remember, the blow came unexpectedly. She saw the edifice she had
+plotted, and toiled, and risked so much to build, ruined and shattered
+to its foundation-stone. How many whispers, and smiles, and eloquent
+glances had been lavished, only to end in this Pavia, where not even
+honor was saved from the utter wreck!
+
+Was not the perfect waxen mask of the first Napoleon shivered in that
+terrible abdication-night at Fontainebleau? Where was Cleopatra's
+queenly dignity when she heard that Antony had rejoined Octavia?
+
+"Why has he gone? What called him back?"
+
+Her voice had lost the clear ring of silver, and sounded dull and flat,
+like base metal.
+
+"Constance Brandon wrote to tell him she was dying. Do you wonder that
+he went to her?"
+
+A passing cloud of horror swept across Flora's pale face; but after it
+broke forth a gleam of strange, ferocious exultation, which stifled the
+rising pity in her hearer's breast, and changed it into contempt.
+
+"I don't believe it," she cried, passionately. "It is a trick. She was
+quite well two months ago. At least, she said nothing--"
+
+She checked herself, but too late. The practiced duelist laughed grimly
+in his mustache, as he might have done on discovering the weak point in
+his enemy's ward which laid him open to his rapier.
+
+"You make my task easier," he said; "I came to inquire about a note
+which miscarried about the time you speak of. I _will_ know what became
+of it, Miss Bellasys, though I wish to spare you unnecessary exposure
+and shame."
+
+He had gained a momentary advantage, but it did not profit him much.
+There are swordsmen who will not own that they are touched, though their
+life-blood is ebbing fast. Flora rose without a sign of yielding or
+weakness in her dry eyes, drawing up her magnificent figure proudly.
+Ralph could not help thinking how like her father she was just then.
+
+"I will answer, though I deny your right to question me. I have not the
+faintest idea of what you refer to. I have seen no note, except such as
+were addressed to myself; and you will hardly think that Miss Brandon
+would choose me as a _confidante_ or correspondent."
+
+Mohun saw that she would persist to the last, undaunted as Sapphira. So
+he rose to leave her, without another word.
+
+"You do not doubt me?" Flora asked, as he turned away after saluting
+her. It was a rash question, all things considered, and scarcely worthy
+of the accomplished speaker. There is no more useful maxim in diplomacy
+than this: _Quieta non movere_.
+
+Ralph faced her directly. "Miss Bellasys, when a lady tells me what I
+can not believe, I question--not her word, but--her agent." He was half
+way down stairs before she could answer or detain him.
+
+He found out Willis's direction at Guy's hotel, but he had to wait some
+time before obtaining it; and other things delayed him _en route_, so
+that it was nearly two hours before he reached the modest lodgings, _au
+quatrieme_, where the discharged valet was hiding his greatness.
+
+Willis had an extensive connection; this, and his well-known talents,
+made him tolerably sure of a situation whenever he chose to seek one. He
+had luxurious tastes, and thoroughly appreciated self-indulgence; so he
+determined to devote some time and a portion of his perquisites to
+relaxation before going into harness again.
+
+On this particular evening he had in prospect a little dinner at
+Philippe's--not uncheered by the smiles of venal beauty--and had just
+completed a careful toilette. He was above the small peculations of his
+order; indeed, had he been inclined to plunder his late masters
+wardrobe, the absurd disproportion in their size would have saved him
+from that vulgar temptation. He was somewhat choice in his tailors, and
+his clothes fitted him and suited him well. He was reviewing the general
+effect in the glass with a complacent and rather _egrillarde_ expression
+in his little eyes, when between him and his _partie fine_ rose the
+apparition of the colonel, like that of the commander before a bolder
+profligate. He knew that the interview must come, and did not wish to
+avoid it, but just at this moment it was singularly ill timed. What a
+contrast between the stern, fixed gaze that seemed to nail him to the
+spot where he stood and the well-tutored glances of fair, frail Heloise!
+He felt as if he had been put into the ice-pail by mistake for the
+Champagne. However, he met his ill luck placidly, and, handing his
+visitor a chair, begged to know "what he could do to serve him."
+
+"You can tell me what became of a letter from Miss Brandon, which ought
+to have reached yow master two months ago, and miscarried."
+
+Willis was forewarned and armed for the question; but, even with this
+advantage given in, his blank, unconscious look and start of
+astonishment did him infinite credit.
+
+"A letter, sir?" he said, vaguely, as if consulting his recollections.
+"From Miss Brandon? I have never seen or heard of such a thing. If I
+had, of course I should have given it to Mr. Livingstone. What else
+could I have done with it?"
+
+"I will give a thousand francs for it," Mohun went on, without noticing
+the denial, "or for a written acknowledgment of how you disposed of it,
+and at whose orders." He laid the bank-note on the table.
+
+The flats changed; the look of bewilderment gave place to one of injured
+innocence--an appeal against manifest injustice. It was really
+artistically done.
+
+"I am sorry, sir, that you should think I want a bribe to serve you or
+Mr. Livingstone. It is quite out of my power now. I don't know what you
+refer to."
+
+"I have no time to bargain," Ralph growled, and his eyes began to
+glisten ominously. "Name your price, and have done with it."
+
+Finale and Grand Tableau--virtuous indignation--the faithful servant
+asserting his dignity as a man. There was a hitch here somewhere; the
+scene-shifter was hardly up to his work, so that it was rather a
+failure.
+
+"I have told you twice, sir, that I do not know any thing about it. I
+beg you will not insult me with more questions. You have no right to do
+so; I am neither in your service nor Mr. Livingstone's now."
+
+Mohun bent his bushy brows in some perplexity. After all, he had not a
+shadow of proof, though he felt a moral certainty. His sheet-anchor was
+the avarice of the scoundrel he was dealing with, and this seemed to
+fail. Evidently a strong counter-influence had been at work.
+
+"Curse her!" he muttered between his clenched teeth, "she has been here
+before me."
+
+Then he looked up suddenly, and what he saw caused the shallow cup of
+his patience at once to overflow.
+
+In Willis's eyes was an ill-repressed twinkle of exultation and
+amusement, and on his thin lips the dawning of an actual sneer. It was
+but seldom the trained satellite allowed himself the luxury of betraying
+any natural feeling. In truth, he chose his time badly for its
+exhibition now. Before he could collect himself so as to utter a cry, he
+lay upon his back on the carpet, a heavy foot on his chest; and the
+colonel was gazing down on him with a fell murderous expression, that
+made the victim's blood run cold.
+
+"By G--d!" Mohun said, in the smothered tones of concentrated passion,
+"if you trifle with me ten seconds longer--if you open your lips except
+to answer my question, I'll crush your breast-bone in."
+
+Willis knew the desperate character of the man who held him in his
+power; it was no vain threat he had just heard; the pressure on his
+chest was agonizing already.
+
+"For God's sake don't murder me!" he gasped out; "I--I gave it to Miss
+Bellasys."
+
+"Of course you did," Mohun said, coolly; "I knew it all along. Now get
+up, and write that down."
+
+He spurned away the fallen man as he spoke till he rolled over and over
+on the floor.
+
+There is nothing which disconcerts a nature long used to obey like a
+sudden brutal _coup de main_. Remember the Scythians and their slaves.
+The rebels met their masters boldly enough on a fair field with sword
+and spear, but they cowered before the crack of the horsewhips.
+
+All the spider-webs of the unfortunate Willis's diplomacy were utterly
+swept away; his powers of thought and volition were concentrated now on
+one point--to get rid of his visitor as soon as possible.
+
+He rose slowly and painfully (for the mere physical shock had been
+heavy), and, placing himself at a table, tried to write the few words of
+acknowledgment that Mohun dictated; but his hand trembled so excessively
+that he could hardly form the letters. As he looked up in piteous
+deprecation, evidently fearing lest his inability to comply should be
+construed into unwillingness or rebellion, he presented a spectacle of
+degraded humanity so revolting in its abasement that even the cynic
+turned away in painful disgust.
+
+It was done at last. As Willis saw his confession consigned to Mohun's
+pocket-book, his avarice gave him courage to try one last effort to gain
+something by the transaction--a salve to his bruises--a set-off against
+the _relicta non bene parmula_.
+
+"I hope you will consider I have done all I can, sir," he said, looking
+wistfully at the bank-note, which still lay on the table. "I shall be
+ruined if this becomes known."
+
+The cast-steel smile which was peculiar to him hardened the colonel's
+face.
+
+"You must come down on Miss Bellasys for compensation. She pays well, I
+have no doubt. You never get another _sou_ from our side, if it were to
+keep you from starving. My second thought was the best, after all; it
+saved time and--money. (He put the note back into his purse.) I'll give
+you one caution, though. Keep out of Mr. Livingstone's way. If he meets
+you, after hearing all this, he'll break your neck, I believe in my
+conscience." So he left him.
+
+For the second time that evening Willis looked in the glass--the
+reflection was not so satisfactory. Was that unseemly crumpled ruin the
+white tie, sublime in its scientific wrinkles, on which its author had
+gazed with a pardonable paternal pride? No wonder that he stamped in
+wrath, not the less bitter because impotent, while he shook off the dust
+from his garments as a testimony against Ralph Mohun.
+
+He repaired the damages, though, to the best of his power, and then went
+off to keep his appointment; but the _pates a la bechamelle_ were as
+ashes, and the _gelee au marisquin_ as gall to his parched, disordered
+palate. He made himself so intensely disagreeable that poor Heloise
+thenceforth swore an enmity against his compatriots, which endured to
+the end of her brief misspent existence. "_Gredin d'Anglais, va!_" she
+was wont to say, grinding her little white teeth melodramatically,
+whenever she recalled that dreary entertainment, and the failure of her
+simple stratagems to enliven her saturnine host.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+     "Then let the funeral bells be tolled, a requiem be sung,
+     An anthem for the queenliest dead that ever died so young;
+     A dirge for her--the doubly dead, in that she died so young."
+
+
+For the first few minutes after the train had moved off Guy was unable
+to collect his thoughts. As the tall figure of Mohun passed from his
+view, it seemed as if a sustaining prop had been suddenly cut away from
+under him, and he felt more than ever helpless. The stubborn strength of
+his character asserted itself before long, and he faced his great sorrow
+as he would have done an enemy in bodily shape; but neither then, nor
+for many days after, could he pursue any one train of reflection long
+unbroken.
+
+First he began to think how Constance would look when he saw her. Would
+she be much changed? How beautiful she was the night they parted, with
+the blue myosotis gleaming through her bright hair! Would her eyes be as
+cold as he remembered them then (he had not seen their _last_ look), or
+would they forgive him at once, and tell him so? Not if she knew all.
+And then, in hideous contrast to her pure stately beauty, there rose
+before him faces and figures which had shared his orgies during the past
+months, gay with paint and jewels, and meretricious ornament. There was
+a deeper horror in those mocking shapes than in the most loathsome
+phantasms of corporeal corruption that feverish dreams ever called up
+from the grave-yard. If his lips were unworthy, months ago, to touch
+Constance's cheek or hand, what were they now? He ground his teeth in
+the bitterness of self-condemnation. It would be easier to bear, if she
+met him coldly and proudly, than if she yielded at once, as her letter
+seemed to promise. Her letter! What became of the first one? If that had
+reached him, how much had been saved! Perhaps Constance's
+life--certainly much of his own dishonor. The idea did cross him that
+Flora might have been concerned in intercepting it, but it seemed
+improbable, and he drove it away. With all his revived devotion to
+Constance, he did not like to think hardly of her rival; in a lesser
+degree he had wronged her too.
+
+You will rarely find the sternest or wisest of men disposed to be harsh
+toward errors that spring from a devotion to themselves. It is only
+just, as well as natural, that it should be so. If the second cause of
+the crime did not find an excuse for the defendant, I don't know where
+he or she would look for an advocate. St. Kevin need not have troubled
+himself: there were plenty of people ready to push poor Kathleen down. I
+think it is a pity they canonized him.
+
+Through all Guy's reflections there ran this under-current--"how easily
+all might have been avoided if the slightest things had turned out
+differently." Just so, after a heavy loss at play, a man _will_ keep
+thinking how he might have won a large stake if he had played one card
+otherwise, or backed the In instead of the Out. I have heard good judges
+say that this pertinacious after-thought is the hardest part to bear of
+all the annoyance. Of course he worries himself about it, just as if
+"great results from small beginnings" were not the tritest of all
+truisms. I don't wish to be historical, or I would reflect how often the
+Continent has been convulsed by a dish that disagreed with some one, or
+by a ship that did not start to its time. The Jacobites were very wise
+in toasting "the little gentleman in black velvet" that raised the fatal
+mole-hill. Does not the old romance say that an adder starting from a
+bush brought on the terrible battle in which all the chivalry of England
+were strewn like leaves around Arthur on Barren Down?
+
+Guy could still hardly realize to himself the certainty of Constance's
+approaching death. He tried to fix his thoughts on this till a heavy,
+listless torpor, like drowsiness, began to steal over him. He roused
+himself impatiently, and began to think how slow they were going.
+Nevertheless, the green _coteaux_ that swell between Rouen and the sea
+were flying past rapidly, and they arrived at Havre, as Mohun had said,
+just in time to catch the Southampton packet.
+
+There was threatening of foul weather to windward. The clouds, in masses
+of indigo just edged with copper, were banking up fast, and the "white
+horses," more and more frequent, were beginning to toss their manes
+against the dark sky-line.
+
+To the few travelers whom the stern necessities of business drove forth,
+lingering and shivering, from their comfortable inns on to the deck,
+already wet and unsteady, Livingstone was an object of great interest
+and many theories. His impatience to be gone was so marked that the
+conscientious official looked more than once suspiciously at his
+passport.
+
+Mr. Phineas Hackett, of Boston, U.S., Marchand (so self-described in
+the Livre des Voyageurs at Chamounix), made up his mind that he saw
+before him the hero of some gigantic forgery, or a fraudulent bankrupt
+on a large scale; but, just as he had fixed on the astute question which
+was to drive the first wedge into the mystery, Guy turned in his quick
+walk and met him full. I doubt if he even saw the smooth-shaven, eager
+face at his elbow; but he was thinking again of the lost letter, and the
+savage glare in his eyes made the heart of the "earnest inquirer" quiver
+under his black satin waistcoat. "D----d hard knot, that," he muttered,
+disconsolately, and retreated with great loss, to writhe during the rest
+of the passage in an orgasm of unsatisfied curiosity.
+
+The weather looked worse every moment as the wild north wind came
+roaring from seaward with a challenge to the vessels that lay tossing
+within the jetty to come forth and meet him. The waste-pipe of the
+_Sea-gull_ screamed out shrilly in answer; and the brave old ship,
+shaking the foam from her bows after every plunge, as her namesake might
+do from its breast-feathers, steamed out right in the teeth of the gale.
+
+A regular "Channel night"--a night which Mr. Augustus Winder, Paris
+traveler to H---- and Co., the mighty mercers of Regent Street, spoke of
+in after days with a shudder of reminiscence mingling with the pride of
+one who has endured and survived great peril; who has gone down to the
+sea in ships, and seen the wonders of the deep. His associates--the
+_elite_ of the silk-and-ribbon department--youths of polished manners
+and fascinating address, than whom _non alii leviore saltu_ took the
+counter in their stride--would gather round the narrator in respectful
+admiration, just as the young sea-dogs of Nantucket might listen to a
+veteran hunter of the sperm whale as he tells of a hurricane that caught
+him in the strait between the Land of Fire and terrible Cape Horn.
+
+Mr. Winder represented himself as having assisted all on board, from the
+captain down to the cabin-boy, with his counsel and encouragement, and
+as having been materially useful to the man at the wheel. The fact was,
+that he cried a good deal during the night, and was incessant in his
+appeals to the steward and Heaven for help. In his appeals to the latter
+power he employed often a strangely modified form of the Apostles'
+Creed; for his religious education had been neglected, and this was his
+solitary and simple idea of an orison. However, no one was present to
+detract from his triumph or to controvert his concluding words:
+
+"An awful night, gents; but duty's duty, and the firm behaved handsome.
+Mr. Sassnett, I'll trouble you for a light, sir." And so he ignited a
+fuller-flavored Cuba, and drank, in a sweeter grog, "Our noble
+selves"--_olim haec meminisse juvabit_.
+
+There was one striking contrast on board to the gallant Winder.
+Livingstone did not go below, but walked the deck all night long,
+straining his eyes eagerly forward through the thick darkness and the
+driving rain.
+
+Captain Weatherby regarded him approvingly, as, halting in his walk, Guy
+stood near him, upright and steady as a mainmast of Memel pine. "That's
+the sort I like to carry," the old sailor remarked confidentially to
+his second in command as they shared an amicable grog under the shelter
+of the companion.
+
+The wind abated toward morning; and, as the dawn broke, they were under
+the lee of the Wight, and moving steadily into the quiet Solent.
+
+Guy made his way straight to Ventnor. Twenty-four hours after her
+summons reached him, Constance knew that her lover had never received
+her first letter, and that now he was within five hundred yards of her,
+waiting to be called into her presence.
+
+It was long before her answer came. It only contained a few hurried
+words, saying that it was impossible for her to see him that day, and
+begging him not to be angry, but to wait. The hand-writing was far more
+faltering and uncertain than that which had struck him so painfully with
+its weakness the day before. It spoke plainly of the effort which it had
+cost the invalid to trace even those brief lines. He did not try to
+delude himself any more, but all that day remained alone, face to face
+with his despair.
+
+He went out after nightfall, and stole up cautiously to the house where
+Constance was staying.
+
+It is not only ghosts that _walk_. Men, as powerless to retrieve the
+past as if they were already disembodied spirits, _will_ haunt the
+scenes and sepulchres of their lost happiness even before they die.
+Though the world was all before them where to choose, I doubt not that
+the exiles from Paradise lingered long just without the sweep of the
+flaming sword.
+
+Two rooms in the house were lighted, one with the faint glimmer peculiar
+to the shaded lamp of a sick-room. Guy's pulse bounded wildly at first,
+and then grew dull and still. In that room he knew Constance lay dying.
+The other window was brightly lighted, but half shaded by a curtain.
+While he gazed, this was torn suddenly aside, as if by an angry,
+impatient hand, and a man leaned out, throwing back the hair from his
+forehead, to catch the cold wind which was blowing sharply. Guy had
+never seen the dark, passionate face before, but he know whose it was
+very well, though there was little family likeness to guide him. Cyril
+Brandon's features were small and finely cut, like his sister's; but
+there the resemblance ended. His complexion, naturally sallow, had been
+burnt three shades deeper by the Indian sun. His fierce black eyes, and
+thin lips, that seemed always ready to curl or quiver, made the contrast
+with Constance very striking.
+
+Livingstone drew back into the farthest shadow of the garden trees. He
+knew how much reason Cyril had for hating him above all living men, and
+he did not wish to risk a meeting. Mohun's warning shot across his mind,
+and he felt it was rightly founded.
+
+Brandon looked out for some minutes without moving, then he dropped his
+head suddenly on his arms with a heavy groan. The bright light was
+behind him, and Guy could see his clasped fingers twisting and tearing
+at each other, as if he wished to distract mental agony by the sense of
+bodily pain. The gazer saw that another besides himself had given up all
+hope; and, with a heavier heart than over, he stole away home--not to
+sleep, but to think, and wait for the morning.
+
+About noon next day the expected message came:
+
+     "DEAR GUY,--I have got leave to see you at last, but it
+     was very difficult to gain. It is only on these conditions: you are
+     not to stay with me a moment beyond three hours, and you must leave
+     Ventnor immediately afterward, and not return. I have promised all
+     for you. It seems very hard; but we must not think of that now.
+     Come directly.                            C.B."
+
+Ten minutes later there was only a closed door between Livingstone, and
+the interview he longed for and dreaded so much. His steel nerves stood
+him in good stead then; it was not at the crisis that these were likely
+to fail. When Constance heard his step, it was measured and firmly
+planted as she always remembered it. So it would have been if he had
+been walking to meet the fire of a platoon. Her aunt, Mrs. Vavasour, was
+with her, but left the room, as Guy opened the door, and so they met
+again as they had parted--alone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+     "I charge thee, by the living's prayer,
+       By the dead's silentness,
+     To wring from out thy soul a cry
+       That God may hear and bless;
+     Lest heaven's own palm fade in my hand,
+     And, pale among the saints I stand
+       A saint companionless."
+
+
+Constance was lying on a couch near the fire propped up by many pillows.
+She felt weaker than usual: what she had gone through in the morning had
+exhausted her. Guy never knew, till long after, that the effort she had
+made to secure the meeting with him had, in all human probability,
+shortened her life by weeks. She thought it cheaply purchased at that
+price--and she was right. Even the excitement of the moment had hardly
+brought a tinge of color into the pure waxen cheeks, but the beautiful
+clear eyes were more brilliant than ever. A ribbon of the blue which was
+Guy's favorite was twisted in her bright glossy hair.
+
+He saw nothing of this at first; he did not see her raise herself with a
+faint joyful cry as he advanced with his eyes cast down; he never knew
+how it was that he found himself kneeling by Constance, with her arms
+clinging fondly round his neck, and her voice murmuring in his ear, "I
+said you would come--I knew you would come."
+
+Though her soft cheek lay so very near his lips, they never touched it.
+He drew back, shuddering all over, and said, hoarsely,
+
+"I can not; I dare not; I am not worthy."
+
+I do not know if she guessed what he meant, but she tried to lift his
+head, which was bent down on the cushion beside her, so that he might
+look into her true eyes as she answered,
+
+"You must not think that--you must not say so. I know you have been
+angry and almost mad for many months, but you are not so now, and you
+never will be any more. It was my fault--yes, mine. If I had not been so
+cold and proud, you would never have left me. You thought I did not love
+you; but I did; my own, my darling, I did--so dearly!"
+
+All Guy's stout manhood was shivered within him, utterly and suddenly,
+as 4000 years ago the rock was cloven in Horeb, the Mount of God. Now,
+too, from the rift in the granite the waters flowed; the first tears
+that he had shed since he was a very little child--the last that any
+mortal saw there--streamed hot and blinding from his eyes down on the
+thin, transparent hand that he held fast.
+
+Would those with whom he was a by-word for hard sternness of character
+have known him then? They would have been almost as much surprised to
+see Constance Brandon--thought so haughty and cold--overcoming her
+terror at his passionate burst of grief, to soothe him with every
+tenderest gesture and with words that were each a caress, till the
+convulsion passed away, and calm self-government returned.
+
+Guy did not speak till he could quite control himself; then he said
+firmly, but with a sob in his voice still,
+
+"Yet I have killed you!"
+
+"No, no," Constance answered, quickly; "indeed it is not so. A cold
+which attacked my chest caused this illness; but they say my lungs were
+affected long ago, and that I could hardly have lived many months. You
+must think of that, dear; and perhaps it is much better that it should
+be so. Life is very hard and difficult, I think, and I should never have
+been strong enough to bear my part in it well."
+
+Guy shook his head sadly, as if only half convinced, though he knew she
+would not have said an untrue word even to save him from suffering.
+
+"If you could only stay with me--if I could only keep you!" he cried
+out, and threw his arms round her, as if their strong clasp would hold
+her back one step on the road along which the messengers of God had been
+beckoning her for many days past.
+
+"Hush!" Constance whispered; "you must be patient. Yet I like to think
+that you will not forget me soon. Now listen--" and she held up her
+finger with something of the "old imperial air." "I have something to
+ask of you. Will you not like to do it for my sake, even if it is hard?"
+
+He did not answer; but she understood the pressure of his hand, and went
+on.
+
+"I have been fearing so much that something terrible will happen between
+you and Cyril. He is so passionate and willful, he will not listen to
+me, though he loves me dearly, and though I have tried every entreaty I
+could think of. (She grew paler than ever, and shuddered visibly.) And
+you are not patient, Guy, dear; but you would be this time, would you
+not? Only think how it would grieve me if--"
+
+The deep hollow cough that she had tried hard to keep back _would_
+break in here.
+
+"You can not doubt me," Guy replied, caressing her fondly: "I promise
+that nothing he can say or do shall tempt me to defend myself by word or
+deed. How could I, even if you had not asked this? Has he not bitter
+cause? Ask me something harder, my own!"
+
+Constance hesitated; then she spoke rapidly, as if afraid to pause when
+she had once made up her mind. The lovely color came and flickered for a
+moment on her cheek, and then went out again as suddenly.
+
+"I know it is easier for me to submit than for you, yet it is very hard
+to be obliged to leave you, Guy; it is harder still to leave you to
+Flora Bellasys. I hope my jealousy--I _am_ jealous--does not make me
+unjust; but I don't think she will make you better, or even happier in
+the end. Now do forgive me; perhaps I ought not--"
+
+Guy interrupted her here: he had not stopped her till she began to
+excuse herself.
+
+"I must see her once again (the knitting of his black brows omened ill
+for the peace of that interview); afterward, on my honor and faith, I
+will never speak to her one word, or willingly look upon her face."
+
+O true heart! that had suffered so long, and hitherto unavailingly, till
+your life-blood was drained in the struggle, be content, for the victory
+is won at last. Never did loyalty and right triumph more absolutely
+since those who stood fast by their King in the _dies irae_ of the great
+battle saw the rebel angels cast headlong down.
+
+If, in the intense joy that thrilled through every fibre of Constance's
+frame, there mingled an element of gratified pride, who shall blame her?
+Not I, for fear of being less indulgent than I believe was her Eternal
+Judge when, not many days later, she stood before him.
+
+She needed no further protest or explanation; she never thought that,
+because her lover had once been entangled, there was danger of his
+falling into the net again; she never doubted for an instant--and she
+was right. The gaze of the spirit is far-seeing and rarely fallible when
+so near its translation as was hers.
+
+As she leaned her head against his shoulder, murmuring, "You have made
+me so very, very happy!" there were pleasant tears in the beautiful eyes
+that had known so many bitter ones, and had not lost their brightness
+yet.
+
+There was silence for some minutes; then Constance spoke again, looking
+wistfully, and more sadly than she had yet done, on her companion:
+
+"Do you know, Guy, I have been thinking that yours will not be a very
+long life? You are so strong that it seems foolish in me, but I can not
+help it."
+
+The faintest glimmer of satisfaction, like the ghost of a smile, came
+upon Livingstone's miserable, haggard face: there had been nothing like
+it there for many hours; there was nothing like it again for many days.
+
+"You may be right," he said, very calmly. "I trust in God you are."
+
+"Yes," Constance went on; "but I was thinking more than that. I was
+hoping that perhaps, for my sake, if not for your own, you would try to
+grow better every day. Only think what it would be if, throughout all
+ages, we were never to meet after to-day." She drew him closer to her,
+and her voice almost failed her. "I don't believe you ever could be what
+is called a very religious character. I am so weak--strong-minded as you
+thought me--that I fear I have found an attraction in this fault of
+yours; but you could keep from great sins, I am sure. Try and be gentler
+to others first, and with every act of unselfish kindness you will have
+gained something. Any good clergyman will tell you the rest better than
+I. Remember how happy you will make me. I believe I shall see and know
+it all. It may be hard for you, dear, but it may not be for long."
+
+The same strange, wistful look came into her eyes again, as if shadows
+of the dim future were passing before them.
+
+Poor child! Pure as she was in principle and firm in truth, she would
+have made but a weak controversial theologian; but her simple words went
+straight to her hearer's heart, with a stronger power of conversion than
+could have been found in the discourses of all the surpliced Chrysostoms
+that ever anathematized a sinner or anatomized a creed.
+
+Yet Guy did not answer so soon this time. When he did, he spoke firmly
+and resolutely: "Indeed, indeed, I will try."
+
+Constance nestled down on his broad chest, wearily, but with a
+long-drawn breath of intense relief.
+
+"I have said all my say," she whispered; "I have not tired you? Now I
+will rest, and you shall pet me and talk to me as you used to do."
+
+What broken sentences--what pauses of silence yet more eloquent--what
+lavish, tender caresses passed between those two, over whom the shadow
+of desolation was closing fast, I have never guessed, nor, if I could,
+would I write them in these pages. I hold that there are partings
+bitterer to bear than a father's from his child, and sorrows worthier of
+the veil than those of Agamemnon.
+
+Though Guy repressed now all outward signs of painful emotion, he
+suffered, I believe, far the most of the two. It is always so with those
+whom death is about to divide. The agony is unequally distributed,
+falling heaviest on the one that remains behind. If the separation were
+for years, and both were healthy and hopeful, very often the positions
+would be reversed; but--whether it be that bodily weakness blunts the
+sharp sense of anticipated sorrow, or that, to eyes bent forward on the
+glories and terrors of the unknown world, earthly relations lessen by
+comparison--you will find that with most, however impetuous it may have
+been in mid-channel, the river of life flows calmly and evenly just
+before its junction with the great ocean stream. Besides, the dying girl
+had suffered so much of late that the present change left no room for
+other feelings than those of unalloyed happiness, and the words of love
+murmured into her ear brought with them a deeper delight than when she
+heard them for the first time from the same lips.
+
+Both were so engaged with their own thoughts and with each other that
+they never noted how the narrow space of time allotted to them was
+vanishing, rapidly as the last dry islet of sand when the spring-tide is
+flowing. They never heard the footsteps, more impatient at every turn,
+sounding from the room beneath, where Cyril Brandon paced to and fro.
+Constance had cut off one of her long sunny braids, and was twining it,
+in and out, in fetter-locks round Guy's fingers as she lay nestling in
+the clasp of his other arm: it was only their eyes that were speaking
+then. They started as the door opened suddenly, and Mrs. Vavasour came
+in, her face white, and her eyes wild with terror. She was too
+frightened to be gentle or considerate.
+
+"You must go this instant!" she cried out, catching Livingstone's arm.
+"Constance, make him go; he has staid too long already. You know you
+promised."
+
+"I did promise," Constance answered, calmly, almost proudly "and he will
+keep it."
+
+Then she turned to Guy, who was kneeling by her, and hid her face in his
+neck, locking her arms round him. Her aunt caught the words--"Not
+forget!" Beyond these her farewell was a secret known only to her lover
+and the angels.
+
+But the parting, which had come so suddenly, drained the last weak
+remnant of strength already taxed too hardly. Guy felt the lips that
+were murmuring in his car grow still at first, and then cold; the tender
+arms unknit themselves, and his imploring eyes could draw no answer from
+hers that were closed.
+
+"She has only fainted," Mrs. Vavasour said, answering his look: "I will
+recover her. But pray, pray go!"
+
+He laid the light burden that scarcely weighed upon his arm down on the
+pillows, very softly and gently, smoothing them mechanically with his
+hand. Then he stooped and pressed one kiss more on the pale lips; they
+never felt it, though the passion of that lengthened caress might almost
+have waked the dead. And so those two parted, to meet again--upon earth
+never any more.
+
+The next time woman's lips touched Guy Livingstone's they were his
+mother's, and he had been a corpse an hour.
+
+He went, without looking back; his step was slow and unsteady, very
+different from the firm, even tread of three hours ago. The power of
+volition and self-direction was very nearly gone. Through a half open
+door on the lower story he caught a glimpse of a haggard face lighted up
+by wolfish eyes, and heard a savage, growling voice. He felt that both
+eyes and voice cursed him as he passed; and afterward, recalling these
+things vaguely, as one does the incidents of a hideous dream, he knew
+that, for the second time, he had seen Cyril Brandon. Guy could hardly
+tell how he reached London that night, for the brain fever was coming on
+that the next morning held him in its clutches fast.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+     "Quanto minus est cum reliquis versari, quam tui meminisse."
+
+
+The tidings of her son's illness reached Lady Catharine quickly at
+Kerton Manor. I did not hear of it till a day later, and when I arrived
+I found her nearly exhausted by sleeplessness and anxiety, though she
+had not been Guy's nurse for more than thirty-six hours.
+
+The sick-bed of delirium taxes the energies of the watcher very
+differently from any other. There is a sort of fascination in the roll
+of the restless head, tossing from side to side, as if trying to escape
+from the pressure of a heavy hot hand; in the glare of the eager eyes,
+that follow you every where, with a question in them that they never
+wait to have answered; in the incoherent words, just trembling on the
+verge of a revelation, but always leaving the tale half told, that
+creates a perpetual strain on the attention, enough to wear out a strong
+man.
+
+There have been men, they say, who, sensible of the approach of
+delirium, chose the one person who should attend them, and ordered their
+doors to be closed against all others, preferring to die almost alone to
+the risk of what their ravings might betray; but I have heard, also,
+that there are secrets--secrets shared, too, by many confederates--to
+which neither fever or intoxication ever gave a clew. The hot blood grew
+chill for an instant, and the babbling tongue was tied when the dreamer
+came near the frontier ground, where the oath reared itself distinct and
+threatening as ever, while all else was fantastic and vague.
+
+There was something of this in Guy's case. We could hear distinctly many
+of his broken sentences, relating sometimes to the hunting-field,
+sometimes to the orgies of wine or play. There were names, too,
+occurring now and then, which to his mother were meaningless, but to me
+had an evil significance. Once or twice--not oftener--he was talking to
+Flora Bellasys. But when the name of Constance Brandon came, the harsh
+loud voice sank into a whisper so low that if you had laid your ear to
+his lips you would not have caught one syllable. Very, very often I had
+occasion to remark this, and to wonder how the heart could guard its
+treasure so rigidly when the brain was driving on, aimless as a ship
+before the hurricane with her rudder gone.
+
+On the fifth day after Guy's illness began, an angel might have
+interceded for him in the stead of a pure true-hearted woman, for
+Constance was dead.
+
+I saw Lady Catharine tremble, and bend her head down low when she heard
+the news, as if herself crushed by the blow which would fall so heavily
+on her son. She had known but very little of Constance; that little had
+made her love her dearly--who could help doing that? Yet it was not
+Constance she was regretting then. I could see the same thought was in
+her mind as in mine--who will tell Guy this if he recovers? I did all I
+could to spare her; but the anxiety she felt when out of the sick-room
+tried her almost more than the bodily fatigue. It was best to let her
+have her way. I never guessed, till then, the extent of a weak woman's
+endurance.
+
+It was a close struggle, indeed, between life and death. The fire of the
+fever died out when there was little left for it to feed on. The arm
+which, a month ago, was fatal as old Front-de-Boeuf's, had not
+strength enough in its loosened sinews to lift itself three inches from
+the coverlet.
+
+Guy had fallen at last into a heavy sleep. The doctors said it was the
+turning-point. If he woke quite calm and sane, the immense power of his
+constitution would probably enable him to rally; if not, the worst that
+could be feared was certain.
+
+He woke after many hours. There was such a stillness in the room as he
+unclosed his eyes that you might have heard his mother's heart beat as
+she sat motionless by his bedside. They recognized her at once--heavy
+and dim as they were--for he tried to turn his head to kiss her hand
+that lay on the pillow beside him. Then we knew that he was saved; and I
+saw, for the first time, tears stream down Lady Catharine's worn cheeks.
+She could check the evidence of her grief better than that of her joy.
+
+He saw me, too, as I came forward out of the shadow. "Is that you,
+Frank?" he said, faintly. "How very good of you to come." We would not
+let him speak any more.
+
+On the third day after the change for the better, I was alone with the
+invalid. He turned to me suddenly, and spoke in a low voice, but so
+steady that it surprised me. "Frank, what have you heard of Constance?"
+
+Had I been arming myself to meet that question--disciplining my voice
+and countenance for days, only to fail so miserably at last? I felt
+unspeakably angry and self-reproachful when I saw that my face had told
+him all.
+
+"When did she die?" He went on in the same measured tone, without taking
+his eyes off me. I think he had nerved himself just enough for the
+effort, and was afraid of breaking down if he paused.
+
+I could speak now, and told him. I was going on to tell him, too, how
+calmly and happily her life had ended (her aunt had written all this to
+Lady Catharine), when Guy stopped me--not coldly, but with a hopeless
+sadness in his accent very painful to hear. "Thank you; it is meant
+kindly, but I would rather not speak of this, even to you--at least for
+some time."
+
+His self-command carried him through bravely, but it only just lasted
+out. Then he turned his head aside and threw his arm across it. As I
+drew back to the window, I saw the quivering of the long, emaciated
+fingers that veiled his face. I did not look again till Guy's voice
+called to me, quite composedly, for I did not dare to pry into or meddle
+with the secrets of the strong heart that knew its own bitterness so
+well.
+
+I told Lady Catharine what had passed. She was very much relieved to
+hear that it was all over. She never opened her lips on the subject to
+her son; indeed, though those two understood each other thoroughly,
+there were wonderfully few confidences between them.
+
+Guy's convalescence was slow--far slower than we had hoped for. It
+seemed as if some spring was broken in his being not easily to be
+replaced. He was moody and listless always, speaking very seldom; but
+his words and manner, when he did talk, were gentler and more kindly
+than I ever remembered them.
+
+One of his first visitors was Colonel Mohun. He had been incessant in
+his inquiries, and had offered to share our watching, but Lady Catharine
+would not hear of it. She had a sort of dread at the idea of that grim
+face lowering over the sick man's bed.
+
+No one was present at their first interview. Ralph was more moved than
+he cared to show at his old friend's altered looks and ways; but he gave
+him the account of his search after the lost letter conscientiously,
+without sparing a single detail. "It must have gone hard with Guy," he
+remarked to me, thoughtfully, as he came away. "He's very far from right
+yet. When I told him what Willis had done, I made sure he would be very
+angry. He only said, 'Poor wretch! He acted under orders, and did not
+know what mischief he was doing.' He wants rousing; but I am sure I
+don't know what is to do it."
+
+Forgiveness and forgetfulness of injuries seemed to that hard old
+heathen the most dangerous sign of bodily and mental debility.
+
+He came almost daily after that, and I think his rough ways, and sharp,
+sarcastic remarks acted on Livingstone as a sort of tonic--bitter, but
+strengthening.
+
+A few days later Mrs. Vavasour called. She, too, saw Guy alone. She
+surely had a message to deliver, or she would not have ventured on an
+interview which must have been so painful to both. It did not last long;
+but when she came down, her thick black veil was drawn closely over her
+face, and that evening Guy was denied to Ralph Mohun.
+
+One afternoon Livingstone was quite by himself. The colonel had gone
+into Warwickshire for a few days' hunting; Lady Catharine had paid her
+usual visit and had gone back to her hotel, and I was out for an hour or
+two. We did not mind leaving him a good deal alone; indeed, he preferred
+it very often, and said so.
+
+His servant came in, looking rather puzzled, to say that a lady wished
+to see him. She would not give her name, but said that she would not
+detain him many minutes.
+
+Guy had not time to refuse admittance to the visitor, she followed so
+close upon her message. Though she was closely-wrapped in her mantle,
+and her veil fell in triple folds, there was no mistaking the turn of
+the haughty head, the smooth, elastic step, and the lithe undulations of
+a figure matchless between the four seas. No wonder that he drew his
+breath hard as he recognized Flora Bellasys.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+     Treu und fest.
+
+
+As the door closed, Flora advanced quickly. "Confess you are surprised
+to see me," she said, holding out her little gloved hand. The courtesy
+toward the sex, which was hereditary with the Livingstones, contrasting
+strangely with their fierce, ungovernable tempers, made him not reject
+it; but his lay passive and nerveless in her slender fingers, never
+answering their eager pressure; it had no longer the elastic quiver of
+repressed strength that she remembered and liked so well.
+
+"I am surprised to see you here, and so soon," he answered, coldly; "but
+I knew we should meet before long."
+
+"The surprise does not seem too charming," Miss Bellasys said, pouting
+her scarlet lip as she threw herself into a deep _bergere_ opposite to
+the couch on which Livingstone had already sunk down again--he was very
+weak and unsteady in his movements still.
+
+Was it by chance or calculation that a fold of her dress disarranged
+displayed the slender foot, with its arched instep--set off by the
+delicate _brodequin_, a labor of love to the Parisian Crispin--and the
+straight, beautifully-turned ankle, cased in dead-white silk? The
+latter, I think; for Flora knew how to fall as well as Caesar or
+Polyxena, and had studied her part to its minutest shade. It was by the
+senses that she had always been most successful in attacking Guy, and
+she knew that, in old days, no point of feminine perfection had a
+greater attraction for him.
+
+The temptation, if so it was intended, had about as much effect upon him
+now as it might have had on weather-beaten St. Simeon Stylites when his
+penances had lasted twenty years.
+
+After a minute's silence, during which Flora was gazing intently on her
+companion, leaning her chin upon her hand, she spoke again.
+
+"I fear you must have been very ill. How--how changed you are!"
+
+Livingstone was, indeed, fearfully altered. The healthy brown of his
+complexion had given place to a dull, opaque pallor; there were great
+hollows under the prominent cheek-bones, and his loose dressing-robe of
+black velvet hung straight down from the gaunt angles of the immense
+joints and bones. His voice sounded deeper than ever as he replied,
+
+"Yes, I have been very ill, and I am utterly changed. But you must have
+had something more important to say to me, or you would hardly have
+ventured on this step."
+
+She was getting very nervous--inexplicably so for her, who generally
+kept her head, while she made others lose theirs,
+
+"No. I only wished--" she hesitated, trying to force a smile, and then
+broke off suddenly--"Guy, do speak kindly to me. Don't look at me so
+strangely."
+
+His answer came, brief and stern.
+
+"I will speak, then. Miss Bellasys, on what authority from me did you
+venture to interfere in my concerns so far as to intercept my
+correspondence?"
+
+She tried denial still; it was her way; she always _would_ do it, even
+when it could avail nothing--perhaps to gain time.
+
+"I don't know what you mean. I never--"
+
+Livingstone interrupted her, with a curl of contempt on his lip.
+
+"Stop, I beg of you. It is useless to stoop lower than you have done
+already. I have Willis's written confession here. Ah! I know your
+talents too well to accuse you without material proof."
+
+She raised her head, haughtily enough now. There was something Spartan
+about that girl. She had such an utter recklessness of exposure--it was
+in failure that she felt the shame.
+
+"At least _you_ ought not to reproach me. You might guess my motive--my
+only one--without forcing me to confess it. Have I not gratified your
+pride enough already?"
+
+"You know that is not the question," Guy answered, gravely. "Yet you are
+half right. I could not reproach you for any fair, honest move. In much,
+I own myself more guilty than you. But this is very different. Miss
+Bellasys, you must have distrusted greatly your own powers of
+fascination before you stooped to such cruel treachery."
+
+"I did not know what I was doing," she whispered; "I did not know she
+was dying. Ah! Guy, have pity!"
+
+"But you knew it might kill her to find her letter--such a
+letter--unanswered. You knew what she must have suffered before she
+wrote it. You did all this in cold blood, and now you say to me, 'Have
+pity!' If an accountable being--not a woman and her miserable
+instrument--had wronged me so, I would have risked my soul to have
+revenge; and, because that is impossible, you think that I feel less
+bitterly? You might have known me better by this time."
+
+Instead of being softened by her appeal, his heart, features, and tone
+were hardening more and more.
+
+The sting of defeat, imminent and unavoidable, that, ere this, has
+driven strong and wise men headlong into the thickest of the battle to
+hunt for death there, proved too much for a temper never well regulated.
+
+"You have decided, then?" she cried, passionately, her eyes flashing and
+her lip quivering. "After all I have risked and borne for you, I am to
+be sacrificed to a shadow--a memory--the memory of that cold, pale
+statue of propriety?" She checked herself suddenly, only just in time.
+
+Guy had sprung to his feet, excitement bringing back for the moment all
+his lost strength. If Ralph Mohun had seen him, he would not have feared
+that the wrathful devil was cast out. It was raging within him then,
+untamed and dangerous as ever.
+
+"Do you dare to insult her now that she is dead--and to me, not a month
+after I have lost her? It is not safe: take care, take care!"
+
+The tempest of his passion made him forget, for the first time in his
+life, the weakness of her who had roused it.
+
+Flora was only a woman after all, though haughty and bold of spirit as
+any that had breathed. Her own outbreak of anger vanished before that
+terrible burst of wrath, just as the camp-fire, when the prairie is
+blazing, is swallowed up in the great roaring torrent of flame. She
+bowed her head on her hands, trembling all over in pure physical fear.
+Guy felt ashamed when he saw the effect of his violence, and spoke more
+gently than he had done yet.
+
+"Forgive me. I was very wrong; but I have not learned to control
+myself--I never shall, I fear; but you ought not to say such words, even
+if I could bear them better. Now it is time that we should part; you
+have staid here too long already. You must not risk your reputation for
+me, who can not even be grateful for the venture. We shall never meet
+again, if we can avoid it; it would be strange to do so as mere
+acquaintance, and in any other way--no, don't stop me--it is impossible.
+It will be long before I go much into society again, so I shall not
+cross your path."
+
+Flora knew it was hopeless then. She was quite broken down, and did not
+raise her head from her hand, through the fingers of which, half shading
+her face, the tears trickled fast. Guy heard her murmur, very low and
+plaintively, "I have loved you so long--so dearly!"
+
+Mistress as she was of every art that can deceive, I believe she only
+spoke the simple truth then. With all the energy of her strong and
+sensual nature, I believe she did worship Livingstone. To most men she
+would have been far more dangerous thus, in the abandonment of her
+sorrow, than ever she had been in the insolence of her splendid beauty.
+
+There are some women, very few (Johnson's fair friend, Sophy
+Streatfield, was one), whom weeping does not disfigure. Their eyelids do
+not get red or swollen; only the iris softens for a moment; and the
+drops do not streak or blot the polished cheeks, but glitter there,
+singly, like dew on marble; their sobs are well regulated, and follow in
+a certain rhythm; and the heaving bosom sinks and swells, not too
+stormily. It is a rare accomplishment. Miss Bellasys had not practiced
+it often, being essentially Democritian--not to say Rabelaisian--in her
+philosophy; but she did it very well. Like every other emotion, it
+became her.
+
+Guy hardly glanced at her, and never answered a word.
+
+She rose to go; then turned all at once to try one effort more. "Yes, we
+must part," she said. "I know it now. But give me a kind word to take
+with me. I shall be so lonely, now that you are my enemy. Will you not
+say you wish me well? Ah! Guy, remember all the hours that I have tried
+to make pleasant for you. Say 'Good-by, Flora,' only those two little
+words, gently." Her voice was broken and uncertain, but full of music
+still, like the wind wandering through an organ.
+
+Just at that moment I opened the door. (I had not an idea Livingstone
+was not alone.) I closed it before either had remarked my entrance, but
+not before I had caught sight of a very striking picture.
+
+Guy was leaning one arm against the mantel-piece; the other was crossed
+over his chest: on that arm Flora was clinging, with both her hands
+clenched in the passion of her appeal. Her slight bonnet had fallen
+rather back, showing the masses of her glorious hair, and all her
+flushed cheeks, and her eyes that shone with a strange lustre, though
+there were tears still on their long, trailing lashes. I saw the
+impersonation of material life, exuberant and vigorous, yet delicately
+lovely--the Lust of the Eye incarnate.
+
+He stood perfectly still, making no effort to cast her off. Had he done
+so with violence, it would scarcely have evinced more repulsion than did
+the expression of his face. There was no more of yielding or softening
+in the set features and severe eyes than you would find in those of a
+corpse three hours old, whose spirit has passed in some great anger or
+pain. Can you guess what made him more than ever hard and unrelenting?
+He was thinking _who_ tried to win a kind farewell from him six months
+ago, and utterly failed. Should her rival have this triumph, too, over
+the dead?
+
+As he answered deliberately, each slow word shut out another hope, like
+bolts shot, one by one, in the lock of a prison door.
+
+"I remember nothing of the past except your last act, for which I will
+never, never forgive you. I form no wish for your welfare or for the
+reverse. There shall not stand the faintest shadow of a connecting link
+that I can break asunder. Between you and me there is the gulf of a
+fresh-made grave, and no thought of mine shall ever cross it--so help me
+God in Heaven!"
+
+Flora's last arrow was shivered: if she had had another in her quiver,
+she would have had no courage to try it after hearing those terrible
+words. She caught his hand, however, before he could guess her
+intention, and pressed her lips upon it till they left their print
+behind, and then she was gone. Her light foot hardly sounded as it
+sprang down the stairs, but its faint echo was the last living sound
+connected with Flora Bellasys that ever reached the ear of Guy
+Livingstone.
+
+When I heard more of the interview, I thought, and think still, that he
+erred on the side of harshness. He was so fixed and steady in his
+purpose that he could have afforded to have compromised a little in
+expressing it. But he did things in his own way, and fought with his own
+weapons--effective, but hardly to be wielded by most men, like the axe
+of the King-maker or the bow of Odysseus. In carrying out his will, he
+was apt to consider the softer feelings of others as little as he did
+his own. It was just so with him when riding to hounds: he went as
+straight as a line, and if he did not spare his horses, he certainly did
+not himself.
+
+To each man alive, one particular precept of the Christian code is
+harder to realize and practice than all the rest put together. It was
+this, perhaps, which drove the anchorites on from one degree of penance
+to another, and made them so savage in self-tormenting. When the
+macerated flesh had almost lost sensation, the thorn that had galled it
+sometimes in their hot youth rankled incessantly, more venomous than
+ever. That one injunction--"Forgive, as you would hope to be
+forgiven"--was ever a stumbling-block to Guy.
+
+Besides all this, he knew, better than any one, what sort of an
+adversary he was contending against; one with whom each step in
+negotiation or temporizing was a step toward discomfiture. It was like
+the Spaniard with his _navaja_ against the sabre: your only chance is
+keeping him steadily at the sword's-point, without breaking ground; if
+he once gets under your guard, not all the saints in the calendar can
+save you.
+
+Perhaps, then, he was right, after all. Certainly Ralph Mohun thought
+so, as he listened to a sketch of the proceedings with a grim
+satisfaction edifying to witness.
+
+As for me, before I went to bed that night, I read through those
+chapters in the "Mort d'Arthur" that tell how the long, guilty loves of
+Launcelot and Guenever ended. In the present case, there was certainly
+wonderfully little penitence on the lady's side, but yet there were
+points of resemblance which struck me. [I always think the queen must
+have been the image of Flora.] It is worth while wading through many
+chapters of exaggeration and obscurity to come out into the noble light
+of the epilogue at last.
+
+Good King Arthur is gone. It bit deep, that blow which Mordred, the
+strong traitor, struck when the spear stood out a fathom behind his
+back; and Morgan la Fay came too late to heal the grievous wound that
+had taken cold. The frank, kind, generous heart, that would not mistrust
+till certainty left no space for suspicion, can never be wrung or
+betrayed again. The bitter parting between the lovers is over too; and
+Launcelot is gone to his own place, without the farewell caress he
+prayed for when he besought the queen "to kiss him once and never more."
+After a very few short months, the beautiful wild bird has beaten
+herself to death against her cage, and the vision comes by night,
+bidding Launcelot arise and fetch the corpse of Guenever home. She
+wandered often and far in life, but where should her home be _now_ but
+by the side of her husband? Hardly and painfully in two days, he and
+the faithful seven accomplish the thirty miles that lay between; so
+utterly is that unearthly strength, before which lance-shafts were as
+reeds, and iron bars as silken threads (remember the May night in
+Meliagraunce's castle), enfeebled and broken down. He stands in the
+nunnery-church at Almesbury; he hears from the queen's maidens of the
+prayer that was ever on her lips through those two days when she lay a
+dying, how "she besought God that she might never have power to see Sir
+Launcelot with her worldly eyes." Then, says the chronicler, "he saw her
+visage; yet he wept not greatly, but sighed. And so he did all the
+observance of the service himself, both the dirge at night and the mass
+on the morrow." Not till every rite was performed, not till the earth
+had closed over the marble coffin, did Launcelot swoon.
+
+I know nothing in fiction so piteous as the words that tell of his
+dreary, mortal sorrow. "Then, Sir Launcelot never after ate but little
+meat, nor drank, but continually mourned until he was dead; and then he
+sickened more and more, and dried and dwined away; for the bishop nor
+none of his fellows might make him to eat, and little he drank; so that
+he waxed shorter by a cubit than he was, and the people could not know
+him; for evermore day and night he prayed; but needfully as nature
+required, sometimes he slumbered a broken sleep; and always he was lying
+groveling on King Arthur's and Queen Guenever's tomb. And there was no
+comfort that his fellows could make him; it availed nothing."
+
+We know it can not last long; we know that the morning is fast
+approaching, when they will find him "stark dead, and lying as he had
+smiled;" when they will bear him forth, according to his vow, to his
+resting-place in Joyous Guard; when there will be pronounced over him
+that famous funeral oration--the truest, the simplest, the noblest, I
+think, that ever was spoken over the body of a sinful man.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+     "I pray God pardon me,
+     That I no more, without a pang,
+       His choicest works can see."
+
+
+It was long before Livingstone's health recovered the check to its
+improvement given by that interview. However, as the spring advanced he
+began to regain strength rapidly, and toward the end of May he and I
+started in the _Petrel_, which he had just bought, for a cruise in the
+Mediterranean.
+
+It would seem hard that any one, coasting for the first time along the
+shores of Italy, and penetrating ever and anon far into the interior,
+should not feel and display some interest in the succession of pictures,
+of living Nature and dead Art, that meet you at every step. I can not
+say that I ever detected the faintest symptom of such in my companion.
+He strayed with me through the old Forum, and through Adrian's Villa,
+and lingered by the Alban Lake; but it was more to keep me in
+countenance than any thing else. I liked them better this second time of
+seeing them than I did the first; I doubt if they left an impression on
+his mind equal to the dimmest photograph that ever was the pride of an
+amateur and the puzzle of his friends. The brilliant landscapes made up
+of bold headlands, hanging woods, and sunny bays fared no better. Guy
+did not come on deck for two hours after we cast anchor off Mola di
+Gaeta.
+
+Our _ciceroni_ were much pained and scandalized at an indifference
+which exceeded all they had yet encountered in the matter-of-fact
+_Signori Inglesi_. I saw one of them look quite relieved when, after
+quitting us, he had to listen to an excitable young Jewess endeavoring
+to express her raptures in the most execrable Italian. The physical
+effort it cost her was awful to witness, especially as she was wintering
+in Italy for her lungs. O, long-suffering stones of the Coliseum! which
+returned the most barbarous echo--the growls from the cells when their
+tenants scented the Christian; the jargon of the Goth and the Hun; or
+the _lingua Anglo-Romana in bocca Bloomsburiana_? The two first-named
+classes, at all events, confined themselves to their own dialect, and
+spoke it, doubtless, with perfect propriety. However, in the present
+instance, the _custode_ took the sentimental ebullition of the Maid of
+Judah for an _amende honorable_, and rubbed his key complacently.
+
+I do not believe that our travels brought to Guy a single distraction to
+the great sorrow that all the while held him fast.
+
+A German philosopher under similar circumstances would have written
+reams and spoken volumes (eating and drinking all the while
+Pantagruelically), theorizing and abstracting his emotions till they
+vanished into cloud and vapor. A true disciple of Rousseau or Lamartine
+would have analyzed his grief, dividing it into as many channels as
+Alexander did the Oxus, till the main stream was lost, and each
+individual rivulet might be crossed dry-shod. Both would have shed tears
+perpetual and profuse. I read the other day of a Frenchman who, in the
+midst of a mixed assembly, remembering that on that day ten years he had
+lost a dear friend, instantly went out and wept bitterly. He was so
+charmed with the happiness of the thought that, as he says, "I took the
+resolution henceforth to weep for all whom I have loved, each on the
+anniversary of their death."
+
+Can you conceive any thing more touching than the picture of the
+Bereaved One consulting his almanac and then "going at it with a will?"
+It _was_ an athletic performance certainly; but remember what condition
+he must have been in from the constant training.
+
+From the episode of Niobe down to the best song in the "Princess," how
+many beautiful lines have been devoted to those outward and visible
+signs of sorrow?
+
+Sadder elegiacs, more pathetic threnodies might have been written on the
+tears that were stifled at their source, either from pride or from
+physical inability to let them flow. Great regrets, like great schemes,
+are generally matured in the shade. If I had to choose the tombs where
+most hopes and affections are buried, I should turn, I think, not to
+those with the long inscriptions of questionable poetry or blameless
+Latinity, but to where just the initials and a cross are cut on the
+single stone.
+
+The philosophical and poetical mourners hardly suffered much more than
+Guy did during those months, and for long after too, though he was
+always quite silent on the subject, and would speak cheerfully on others
+now and then, and though, from the day that he parted with Constance to
+that of his own death, his eyes were as dry as the skies over the Delta.
+He used to lie for hours in that state of utter listlessness which
+gives a reality to the sad old Eastern proverb, "Man is better sitting
+than standing, lying down than sitting, dead than lying down."
+
+With all this, however, his health improved every day. After the wild
+life he had led lately, the perfect rest and the clear pure air
+refreshed him marvelously. It had the effect of coming out of a room
+heated and laden with smoke into the cool summer morning. His strength,
+too, had returned almost completely. I found this out at Baiae.
+
+The guardian of the _Cento Camerelle_, a big _lazzarone_, became
+inordinately abusive. My impression is that he had received about
+fifteen times his due; but, seeing our yacht in the offing, he conceived
+the idea that we were princes in our own country, and ought to be robbed
+in his proportionally. Guy's eyes began to gleam at last, and he made a
+step toward the offender. I thought he was going to be heavily visited;
+but Livingstone only lifted him by the throat and held him suspended
+against the wall, as you may see the children in those parts pin the
+lizards in a forked stick. Then he let him drop, unhurt, but green with
+terror. A year ago, a straightforward blow from the shoulder would have
+settled the business in a shorter time, and worked a strange alteration
+in good Giuseppe's handsome sunburnt face. But the old hardness of heart
+was wearing away. I had another proof of this some days later.
+
+We were dropping down out of the Bay of Naples. Though we weighed anchor
+in early morning, it was past noon before we cleared the Bocca di Capri,
+for there was hardly wind enough to give the _Petrel_ steerage-way. The
+smoke from our long Turkish pipes mounted almost straight upward, and
+lingered over our heads in thin blue curls; yet the sullen, discontented
+heave and roll in the water were growing heavier every hour. The black
+tufa cliffs crested with shattered masonry--the foundations of the sty
+where the Boar of Capreae wallowed--were just on our starboard quarter,
+when Riddell, the master, came up to Livingstone. "I think we'd better
+make all snug, sir," he said. "There's dirty weather to windward, and we
+haven't too much sea-room." He was an old man-of-war's boatswain, and
+had had a tussle, in his time, on every sea and ocean in the known
+world, with every wind that blows. He had rather a contempt for the
+Mediterranean, esteeming it just one degree above the Cowes Roads, and
+attaching about as much importance to its vagaries as one might do to
+the fractiousness of a spoiled child. If he had been caught in the most
+terrible tempest that ever desolated the shores of the Great Lake, I
+don't believe he would have called it any thing but "dirty weather." He
+was too good a sailor, though, not to take all precautions, even if he
+had been sailing on a piece of ornamental water; and he went quickly
+forward to give the necessary orders, after getting a nod of assent from
+Guy.
+
+The latter raised himself lazily on his arm, so as to see all round over
+the low bulwarks. There was a blue-black bank of cloud rolling up from
+the southwest. Puffs of wind, with no coolness in them, but dry and
+uncertain as if stirred by some capricious artificial means, struck the
+sails without filling them, and drove the _Petrel_ through the water by
+fits and starts.
+
+"I really believe we are going to have a white squall," Guy remarked,
+indifferently. "Well, we shall see how the boat behaves. Riddell only
+spoke just in time."
+
+Suddenly his tone changed, and he said, quickly and decidedly, "Hold on
+every thing!"
+
+The master turned his weatherwise eye toward the quarter where the
+danger lay, and frowned. "We're none too soon with it, Mr. Livingstone.
+If there's a yard too much canvas spread when _that_ reaches us, I won't
+answer for the spars."
+
+Deeper and deeper the blackness came rushing down upon us, an angry
+ridge of foam before it--the white squall showing its teeth.
+
+Guy took the old man by the arm, and pointed to an object to leeward
+that none on board had remarked yet. It was a small _barca_ with four
+men in it. They were Capriotes, as we found afterward, the boldest
+boatmen in the Bay. Had they been pure-bred Neapolitans, they would have
+been down on their faces long ago, screaming out prayers to a long
+muster-roll of saints. As it was, they stood manfully to their oars,
+straining every muscle to reach us; there was no other safety for them
+then. "They will never get alongside in time, unless we bear down to
+meet them," Livingstone said, "and what chance will they have in ten
+minutes hence?"
+
+Riddell was only half satisfied. His creed evidently was that a sailor's
+first duty is to his own ship; but neither he nor any one else ever
+argued with Guy. "As you like, sir," he grumbled, somewhat
+discontentedly. "Keep her full, Saunders; we shall fetch them so."
+
+If a stitch of sail had been taken off our vessel she could never have
+reached the _barca_, though her crew strove hard to meet us. She forged
+down slowly enough as it was, but we were just in time to take them on
+board.
+
+"Reef every thing now!" Riddell shouted, leaping himself first into the
+rigging like a wild-cat. "Cheerily, men--with a will!" All his ill-humor
+was gone when the peril became imminent.
+
+We were strong-handed, and the four Capriotes did us seaman's service;
+but it was "touch and go." The last man had scarcely reached the deck
+when the line of foam was within half-cable's length. Then there came a
+sound unlike any I had ever heard before in the elements, beginning with
+a whistling sort of scream and deepening into a roar as of many angry
+voices, bestial and human, striving for the mastery; and then the
+_Petrel_ staggered and reeled over almost on her beam-ends, in the midst
+of a white boiling caldron of mad water. She recovered herself, however,
+quickly, quivering and trembling as a live creature might do after
+severe punishment; and we drove on, the strong arms at the wheel keeping
+her well before the blast. In a very few minutes, I suppose (though it
+seemed very long), I heard old Riddell say, "Sharp while it lasted, Mr.
+Livingstone; but they're right to call it a squall. They've nothing down
+here-away like a good right down hard gale."
+
+I looked up, clearing my eyes, blinded with the hissing spray, just as
+Guy answered, coolly as ever. He had run his arm through a becket, and
+did not seem to have moved otherwise, whereas I disgraced myself by
+falling at full length as the squall struck us.
+
+"Ah! you've got difficult to please; it's always so when one sees so
+much of life. Never mind, Riddell, the Mediterranean does its best, and
+perhaps we'll go and try your tornadoes some day. Where's the _barca_
+now?"
+
+Where? The eyes that could have told you that must have looked a hundred
+fathoms deep. There was not the faintest vestige of such a thing to be
+seen--not even a shivered plank. The poor Capriotes' "bread-winner" had
+gone the way of Antonio's argosies--another whet to the all-devouring
+appetite, for which nothing that swims is too large or too small.
+
+It was almost calm again when we landed the rescued men at Salerno; we
+were glad to get rid of them, for their gratitude was overpowering,
+especially as all the salt water that had soaked them could not disguise
+the savor of their favorite herb.
+
+You may break, you may ruin the clay if you will, but the scent of the
+garlic will cling to it still.
+
+Guy gave them enough to buy two such boats as they had lost--about as
+much as one wins or loses in an evening's whist, with fair luck and
+half-crown points.
+
+This incident showed the change that was coming over my companion. His
+principle had always been that a man who could not help himself was not
+worth helping. He never asked for aid himself, and never gave it to his
+own sex, as a rule. I believe his rescuing me at B---- was a solitary
+case, and I took it as a great compliment. You will say this one was
+only an act of common humanity. If you had known the man, you would have
+thought, as I did, that the words of her, who was an angel then, were
+bearing fruit already.
+
+Nothing happened of the slightest interest as we ran down through the
+Straits of Messina, and up the eastern coast of Calabria. We did not
+stay to see Sicily then, for we had settled to be in Venice by a certain
+day, to meet the Forresters.
+
+If I were to be seduced into "word-painting," the Queen of the Adriatic
+would tempt me. I know no other scene so provocative of enthusiasm as
+the square acre round St. Mark's. All things considered, the author of
+the "Stones of Venice" seems very sufficiently rational and
+cold-blooded.
+
+We can not all be romantic about landscapes. Nature has worshipers
+enough not to grudge a few to Art. For myself, admiring both when in
+perfection, I prefer hewn stones to rough rocks--the Canalazzo to _any_
+cascade. The glory of old days that clings round the Palace of the Doges
+stands comparison, in my mind's eye, with the Iris of Terni.
+
+But why trench on a field already amply cultivated? I will never
+describe any place till I find a virgin spot untouched by Murray, and
+then I will send it to him, with my initials. Does such exist in Europe?
+"Faith, very hardly, sir." _Nil intentatum reliquit._ What obligations
+do we not owe to the accomplished compilers? Rarely rising into poetry
+(I except "Spain"--the field, and bar one), never jocose, they move on,
+severe in simplicity, straight to their solemn end of enlightening the
+British tourist. Upright as Rhadamanthus, they hold the scales that
+weigh the merits of cathedrals, hotels, ruins, guides, pictures, and
+mountain passes, telling us what to eat, drink, and avoid. Let us repose
+on them in blind but contented reliance.
+
+I heard of one man, clever but eccentric, who became so exasperated at
+seeing the volumes in every body's hand, and hearing them in every
+body's mouth, that he conceived a sort of personal enmity to them,
+impiously dissenting from their conclusions and questioning their
+premises. The well-known red cover at last had the same effect on him as
+the scarlet cloak on the bull in the _corrida_, making him stamp and
+roar hideously. The angry gods had demented him. _Vae misero!_ How could
+such sacrilege end but badly? Braving and deriding the solemn warning of
+the prophet, he attempted a certain pass in the Tyrol alone, and, losing
+his way, caught a pleurisy which proved fatal. He died game, but, I am
+sorry to say, impenitent, speaking blasphemy against the book with his
+last breath. _Discite justitiam, moniti, et non temnere--_
+
+Such heresy, be it far from me! If I had my will, I protest I would
+found a "Murray's Traveling Fellowship" in one or both of the
+Universities. If I had the poetic vein, I would indite a pendant to
+Byron's iambics to that enlightened bibliopole. He published "Childe
+Harold," and the Hand-book to Every Where. Could one man in one century
+do more for the Ideal and the Real?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+     "Sweetest lips that ever were kissed,
+       Brightest eyes that ever have shone,
+     May sigh and whisper, and _he_ not list,
+     Or look away, and never be missed
+       Long or ever a month be gone."
+
+
+It was a very curious _menage_ that of the Forresters'. They were
+wonderfully happy, yet you could not call theirs _domestic_ felicity.
+They went out perpetually every where, and were scarcely ever alone
+together at home. Tho cold-water cure of matrimony had not been able to
+cool either down into the dignity and steadiness befitting that
+honorable state. As far as I could see, Charley flirted as much as ever;
+the only difference was, that he stole upon his victims now with a sort
+of protecting and paternal air, merging gradually, as the interest
+deepened, into the old confidential style. The whole effect was, if any
+thing, more seductive than before.
+
+The fair Venetians admired him intensely. His bright, clear complexion
+and rich chestnut hair had the charm of novelty for them. Though without
+the faintest respect for grammar or idiom, he spoke their language with
+perfect composure, confidence, and self-satisfaction, and his tones were
+so well adapted to the slow, soft, languid tongue, that his blunders
+sounded better than other men's correctness of speech. _Mallem
+mehercule cum Platone errare_. When he said "_Si, Siora_," it seemed as
+if he were calling the lady by a pet name.
+
+Isabel did a good deal of mischief too in her unassuming way, but I
+think she confined her depredations chiefly to her compatriots.
+
+The best of it was, that neither objected in the least to the other's
+proceedings, appearing, indeed, to consider them rather creditable than
+otherwise. Perhaps it would be as well if this principle of reciprocal
+free agency were somewhat extended, though not quite to the latitude to
+which they carried it.
+
+We can not send our wives about surrounded by a detachment of semiviri
+to keep the peace; our climate is too uncertain, and influenza too
+prevalent, for us to watch their windows ourselves, as they do at Cadiz.
+Fancy mounting guard in Eaton Square at 4 P.M., shrouded in a yellow
+fog, on the chance of surprising a forbidden morning visitor!
+
+Supposing that we could adopt either of those methods, why should they
+prove more efficacious than they are said to be on their native soil? If
+the British husband will allow nothing for the principles, charitably
+supposed by others to be inherent in the wife of his bosom--nothing for
+the Damoclean damages hanging over the imaginary plotter against his
+peace--why should he depreciate his own merits and powers so completely
+as to consider himself out of the lists altogether? If he would only
+desist from making himself consistently disagreeable, I believe, in most
+cases, his substantial interest would be little endangered.
+
+That poor Hephaestus! The net was an ingenious device, and a pretty
+piece of workmanship, but--it didn't answer.
+
+In despite of Mrs. Ellis, there are women whose mission it is _not_ to
+be good housewives; they can't be useful if they would, any more than
+May-flies can spin silk. Like them, they can attract fish (and sometimes
+get snapped up if they go too close), that's all. If you marry them, you
+must accept them as they are, and take your chance. Be generous, then,
+and don't stop their waltzing. I believe there may be flirting without
+the most distant idea of criminality--fencing with wooden foils, where
+no blood is drawn.
+
+A lady was asked the other day "what she did when an admirer became too
+lover-like." Her answer was, "I never had such a case." I think she
+spoke the truth; yet she was a coquette renowned through a good part of
+two hemispheres.
+
+As for the doubts and fears of the other sex, the subject is too vast
+for me. To the end of time there will be Deianiras (with imaginary
+Ioles), Zaras, and Mrs. Caudles. Tragedy and comedy have tried in vain
+to frighten or to laugh them out of the indulgence of the fatal passion,
+that wreaks itself indiscriminately on the beat and the worst, the
+youngest and the oldest, the simplest and the most guileful of adult
+males. Let us not attempt to argue, then, but, wrapping ourselves in our
+virtue, endure as best we may the groundless reproaches and accusations
+of our ox-eyed Junos.
+
+We _did_ Venice very severely, with the exception of Forrester, who,
+after strolling once through the Palace of the Doges (a pilgrimage
+interrupted by many halts and profuse lamentations), declined seeing any
+thing more than what he could view from his gondola. I never saw any
+one so completely at home in that most delicious of conveyances. His
+Venetian friends encouraged and sympathized with him in his laziness,
+and pitied him with eyes and words, forever being teased about it.
+Indeed, he was generally left alone; but one day we were landing to see
+a church of great repute, and Miss Devereux made a strong appeal to him
+to follow her. She was a handsome, clever girl, a great favorite of
+Charley's. I believe they used to quarrel and make it up again about six
+times in every twenty-four hours. We saw that it was hopeless, but she
+was obstinate enough to try and persuade him.
+
+"Now, Captain Forrester, you must come. I have set my heart upon it."
+
+He lifted his long eyelashes in a languid satisfaction. "Thank you very
+much; I like people to be interested about me; but you see it's simply
+impossible. Look at Rinaldo; there's a sensible example for you. He
+doesn't mean to stir till he is obliged to do so." The handsome
+gondolier had already couched, to enjoy a bask in the sun, which was
+blazing fiercely down on his brown face and magnificent black hair.
+
+"There is the most perfect Titian," she persisted.
+
+"No use. I should not appreciate it," he replied. "I have been through a
+gallery _with you_ before. It's a delusion and a snare. I never looked
+at a single picture. The canvas won't stand the comparison."
+
+"I did not think you would have refused me," Miss Devereux went on,
+"particularly after last night, when you were so very--amusing." She
+hesitated out the last word with a blush. It evidently was not the
+adjective that ought to have closed the sentence.
+
+"Amusing!" replied Charley, plaintively. "You need not say any more. I
+am crushed for the day. I meant to be especially touching and pathetic.
+Well, there's some good in every thing, though. I entertained an angel
+unawares."
+
+"I shall know how far to believe you another time, at all events," she
+retorted, getting rather provoked.
+
+"Don't be unjust," said Forrester, profoundly regardless of the fact
+that his wife was within three paces of them. "I said I was ready to die
+for you. So I am. You may fix the time, but I may choose the place. If
+you insist upon it, I'll make an end of it now--here." And he settled
+himself deeper into the pile of cushions.
+
+We had no patience to listen to any more, but went off to perform our
+duty. Long before he had exhausted his arguments against moving, we had
+returned. Margaret Devereux missed seeing the church and its Titian, but
+she got a "great moral lesson." She never wasted her pretty pleadings in
+such a hopeless cause again.
+
+I remember, when we mounted the Campanile, the solemn way in which he
+wished us _buon viaggio_. When we reached the top, we made out his
+figure reclining on many chairs in front of "Florian's."
+
+He saw us, too, and lifted the glass before him to his lips with a wave
+of approval and encouragement, just as they do at Chamounix when the
+telescopes make out a few black specks on the white crests of the
+mountain. When we came down, he stopped us before we could say one
+word. "Yes, I know--it was magnificent. Bella, I see you are going to
+rave about the view. If you do, I'll shut you up for a week _en
+penitence_, and feed you on nothing but 'Bradshaw' and water."
+
+We spent a very pleasant month in Venice. It did Guy good being with the
+Forresters. He had always been very fond of his cousin, and she seemed
+to suit him better than any one else now. She would sit by him for
+hours, talking in her low, caressing tones, that soothed him like a cool
+soft hand laid on a forehead fever-heated. Isabel was not afraid of him
+now, but a great awe mingled with her pity.
+
+It is curious, and tells well perhaps for our human nature; neither
+pride of birth, nor complete success, nor profound wisdom, surrounds a
+man with such reverence as the being possessed with a great sorrow. At
+least no one can envy him; and so those who were his enemies once--like
+the gallant Frenchman when he saw his adversary's empty sleeve--bring
+their swords to the salute, and pass on.
+
+At last we started for Rome, our party nearly filling two carriages.
+There are only two ways of traveling: in your own carriage, with courier
+and fourgon, like Russian or transatlantic noble, or with vetturino.
+This last mode, which was ours, is scarcely less pleasant, if you are
+not in a hurry. The charm of having, for a certain period, every care as
+to ways and means off your mind, compensates for the six-miles-an-hour
+pace. So we moved slowly southward through Verona, where one thinks more
+of the Avon than the Adige--where, in tombs poised like Mohammed's
+coffin, the mighty Scagliari sleep between earth and heaven, as if not
+quite fit for either--where are the cypresses in the trim old garden,
+soaring skyward till the eyes that follow grow dizzy, the trees that
+were green and luxuriant years before the world was redeemed. So through
+Mantua and Bologna down to Florence, where, I think, the spirits of
+Catharine and Cosmo linger yet, the women and the men all so soft-toned,
+and silky, and sinful, and cruel. We did not stay long there, for we had
+all visited it before once or twice, but kept on our way, by the upper
+road, to Rome, till we reached our last halting-place--Civita
+Castellana.
+
+We were gathered round the wood fire after dinner (for the October
+evenings grew chilly as they closed in); I don't know how it was that
+Forrester began telling us about their flight.
+
+"You ought to have seen Bella's baggage," he said, at last; "it was so
+compact. You can't fancy any thing so tiny as the _sac de nuit_. A
+courier's moneybag would make two of it. Then a vast cloak, and that's
+all. Quite in light marching order."
+
+"I wonder you are not ashamed to talk about baggage," his wife retorted.
+"When we got to Dover, there was his servant with four immense
+portmanteaus and a dressing-case nearly as large, waiting for us. Was it
+not romantic?"
+
+"Bah!" Charley said. "A man must have his comforts, even if he is
+eloping. I am sure I arranged every thing superbly. I don't know how I
+did it--an undeveloped talent for intrigue, I suppose."
+
+"Was it not kind of him to take so much trouble?" Isabel asked, quite
+innocently, and in perfect good faith, I am sure; but her husband
+pinched the little pink ear that was within his reach.
+
+"She means to be sarcastic," he said. "You've spoiled her, Guy. If I had
+had time to deliberate, though, I don't think I should ever have come to
+the post. I wonder how any one stands the training."
+
+"I'll tell you what would have suited you exactly," Livingstone
+remarked--"to have been one of those men in the Arabian Nights, who wake
+and find themselves at a strange city's gate, 10,000 leagues from home,
+to whom there comes up a venerable vizier, saying, 'My son, heaven has
+blessed me with one daughter, a very pearl of beauty; many have sought
+her in marriage, but in vain. Your appearance pleases me, and I would
+have you for my son-in-law.'"
+
+"Exactly," said Forrester. "I should not have minded turning out
+somebody else's child eventually--(they all did that, didn't they?)--for
+such a piece of luck as to be taken in and done for off-hand, without
+the trouble of thinking about it."
+
+Instead of looking vexed, Isabel laughed merrily, and her eyes glittered
+as they rested on him, full of a proud, loving happiness.
+
+"The best of it was," Charley went on, "she was in the most dreadful
+state of alarm and excitement all the way to Dover, looking out at every
+station, under the impression that she should see the bridegroom there,
+'dangling his bonnet and plume' (though how he was to have got ahead of
+us, unless he came by electric telegraph, does not appear). What sport
+it would have been! I should have liked so to have seen the 'laggard in
+love' once more."
+
+"He was not quite _that_," Isabel interrupted, rather mischievously.
+
+"Ah! I dare say you kept him up to the traces," her husband remarked,
+languidly. "You have a talent that way. What 'passages,' as Varney
+called them, there must have been, eh! Guy? We won't hear your
+confession now, Puss. In pity to Mademoiselle Aglaee's eyes (which are
+very fine), if not to your own (which are very useful), I think you had
+better go to bed. That ferocious vetturino will have us up at unholy
+hours, and is not to be mitigated."
+
+We sat talking for a little while after Isabel left us; then Forrester
+rose and strolled to the window. The flood of light that poured in when
+he drew the curtain was quite startling, making the three beaked oil
+lamps look smoky and dim.
+
+"I shall smoke my last cigar _al fresco_," Charley said; "I suppose it's
+the correct thing to do, with such a moon as that. Won't you come, Guy?
+I must not tempt you out into the night air, Hammond."
+
+"Not to-night," Livingstone answered. "I am not in the humor for
+admiring any thing. I should be rather in your way."
+
+One of his gloomy fits was coming over him, at which times he always
+chose to be alone.
+
+"Well, I shall go and consume the 'humble, but not wholly heart-broken
+weed of every-day life,' as Tyrrell used to say. (Don't you remember his
+double-barreled adjectives?) If you hear any one singing _very_ sweetly,
+don't be alarmed; you'll know it is the harmless lunatic who now
+addresses you; the fit won't last more than an hour. We shall be in Rome
+to-morrow. The only thing on my mind now is whether I shall find any
+thing there to carry me across the Campagna. K---- has a very fair pack,
+I understand, and no end of foxes."
+
+Have you ever watched the completion of a photograph, when the nitrate
+of silver (or whatever the last lotion may be) is applied? First one
+feature comes out, that you may indulgently mistake for a tree, or a
+gable-end, or a mountain top; then another, till the whole picture
+stands out in clear, brilliant relief.
+
+Just so when I recall that scene--little heed as I took at the time of
+them--every gesture, and look, and tone of Forrester's becomes as
+distinct as if he stood in the body before me now. I can see him
+standing in the shadow of the doorway, the red glare from the blazing
+wood with which he was lighting his cigar falling over his delicate
+features and bright chestnut hair--I can hear his kind soft voice as he
+speaks these last two words, "_Al rivederci_."
+
+Whether that wish will be accomplished hereafter, God alone can tell; if
+so, it must be beyond the grave. In life we never saw him any more.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+     "But time at length makes all things even,
+     And if we do but bide the hour,
+     There never yet was human power
+       That could evade, if unforgiven,
+     The patient search and vigil long
+     Of him who treasures up a wrong."
+
+
+Three quarters of an hour later, Guy was sitting in his room, gazing at
+the embers on the hearth, in the attitude of moody thought that of late
+he was apt to fall into. Suddenly there came a timid knock at his door.
+When he opened it, his cousin stood on the threshold--ghost-like,
+against the background of darkness, with her white dressing-gown, pale
+cheeks, and long hair unbound.
+
+"Guy, don't be angry," she said; "it's very foolish of me, I know; but
+Charley has not come in yet, and just now I am certain there was a shot
+quite near. Aglaee heard nothing, but I did. You know he always carries a
+pistol. I made him do so. It is nothing, I am sure; but I am so
+frightened. If you would--"
+
+She tried to smile, but that ghastly look of terror that he had seen
+once before, long ago, in the library at Kerton Manor, again swept over,
+and possessed all her face like a white chill mist.
+
+"Don't be absurd, you silly child," Guy said, kindly. "Of course I'll go
+out directly, and bring him in in five minutes, to laugh at you. Now go
+back to your room; there's nothing on earth to be alarmed about."
+
+But the instant she had gone, I heard his voice quick and stern: "Frank,
+come here." There was a door of communication between our rooms, and,
+though it was closed, I had caught some words of this conversation, so I
+was ready nearly as soon as he. Guy only staid to take a short
+lance-wood club, headed with a spiked steel head, which was his constant
+traveling companion--a very simple weapon, but deadly in his hands as
+the axe of Richard the King--and then we sallied out, taking our
+servants and some other men that were below, with torches, in case the
+moon should fail us unexpectedly.
+
+Twice, three times, when we had gone a short distance, Livingstone
+shouted Forrester's name. His powerful voice rang far through the
+ravines, and struck against the rocks, rolling and reverberating in
+their hollows like a blast fired in a deep mine; but no answer came.
+
+I looked at my companion very nervously. He never spoke, but I saw him
+gnaw his under lip till the blood ran down.
+
+We had gone a hundred paces or so farther along a narrow path outside
+the town. On our right the cliff fell almost abruptly toward the river.
+Guy was a few paces in front, when suddenly there broke from his lips
+such a sound as I have never heard from those of any mortal before or
+since.
+
+It is impossible to describe it. It was utterly involuntary, as if some
+spirit had spoken within the man--a cry of horror and of unspeakable
+wrath, such as might have burst from the chest of one of the Old-World
+giants, when the rock fell from heaven that crushed him like a worm. The
+Italians, used to every tone that can express passion, shrunk and
+cowered back in terror.
+
+Our eyes all followed the direction of his, that were staring down upon
+a flat open space, clear from brush-wood, down in the hollow on our
+right. Our search was ended, and we knew it. The moon, that flickered
+and quivered elsewhere through bough and brake, settled there steadily
+on a single white spot.
+
+In all the world there is but one object on which she can cast so
+ghastly a reflection--a dead man's face.
+
+Guy recovered himself first, and plunged recklessly down the cliff side.
+When we reached him, he was supporting on his knee the head of poor
+Charley Forrester, stone dead, and foully murdered.
+
+The first glance told how unavailing all human aid must be. One small
+deep wound just above the left temple must have been fatal instantly.
+Close by his side lay the instrument of the slaughter--a thin,
+triangular piece of granite--and, ten paces off, his pistol, one barrel
+discharged. His watch and (as we afterward found) his purse were gone,
+but an emerald ring of great value was still untouched on his finger.
+
+I staggered back, heart-sick and faint. When I recovered I saw dimly the
+group of men, awe-stricken and whispering, and Guy still gazing down at
+the face that rested on his knee, as if it fascinated his eyes. I could
+not bear to look upon the piteous sight. All through the bright hair the
+dark blood had soaked, and a slow stream was stealing through it still;
+the fair features were all defaced and deformed with the wrath and
+agony of the last mortal struggle. Yet I do remember that, if any one
+definite expression still lingered there, it was bitter contempt and
+scorn.
+
+"In God's name, sir, what is to be done?" It was Hardy who spoke, poor
+Forrester's own servant, the only Englishman among our attendants. He
+was choking, and could hardly gasp out the words.
+
+Livingstone rose slowly, first pillowing the mangled head on a soft tuft
+of moss, tenderly as if it were conscious still. His nature was such
+that no shock, or pain, or sorrow to which humanity is liable, could
+bend or quell it, so as to deprive him, beyond a brief instant, of
+self-possession and calmness. It was not insensibility now, and hardly
+stoicism, but an elasticity of resistance and strength of endurance
+that, in my own knowledge, have never been matched. In history or in
+Indian life you might find many parallels.
+
+He answered quite steadily, though in a low tone, as if reverencing the
+presence of the dead.
+
+"There is no hope. It is useless to send for a surgeon. Hardy, you will
+take all the men whom you can collect and scour the country. Send to the
+_sbirri_ immediately; they will go with you. There must be traces of the
+murderer. Frank, will you see that--he--is brought carefully to the
+house? I will"--he stopped, and drew a long, hard breath--"I will go and
+break it to Isabel." His hand, that happened to touch mine as he spoke,
+was damp and icy cold.
+
+In his life Guy Livingstone had done and dared more than most men, but
+he never ventured on any thing so thoroughly brave, and valiant, and
+strong-hearted as when he left me, without another word, on that
+errand. For myself, though weak both in body and nerve, I swear I would
+rather have gone up the breach at Badajoz with the forlorn hope, than up
+that bank with the certainty before me of what awaited him.
+
+Trees overhanging, and high walls on either side, and the change from
+the bright moonlight, made it so dark just as you approached the inn
+that Guy scarcely saw a white figure crouching down a few paces from the
+door till he was close upon it.
+
+He threw his arm round Isabel Forrester's waist before she could pass
+him. Half his task was done; there was nothing to break to her now. She
+understood all when she saw him come back alone.
+
+For a few moments, there they stood in the dark, no word passing between
+them; the only sound was her quick panting, as she struggled in his
+grasp, battling to get free.
+
+"Isabel," he said, at last, gravely, "come in; I must speak to you."
+
+No answer still, but the same desperate struggle to get loose. There was
+a savage, supernatural power in her writhings that taxed even his
+gigantic strength to hold her; as it was, he yielded unconsciously to
+her impulse so as to recede some paces till they issued out into the
+moonlight. He could scarcely recognize her features; they were all
+working and contorted, the lips especially horribly drawn back and
+tense. She bent her head down at last, and made her teeth meet in the
+arm that detained her.
+
+Guy never flinched nor stirred, but spoke again in the same slow,
+deliberate tone.
+
+"Isabel, come in. I swear that you shall see him when it is safe. They
+are bringing him back now."
+
+She ceased struggling and stood straight up, shaking all over, straining
+her eyes forward to the turning in the path where the torches began to
+gleam.
+
+"Is he not dead, then?" she said, in a strange, harsh voice, utterly
+unlike her own. Her cousin did not try to delude her; all the stern
+outline of his face softening in an intense pity told her enough.
+
+Such a scream--weird, long drawn out, and unearthly, such as we fancy the
+Banchee's--as that which pierced through my very marrow (though I stood
+three hundred yards away, as if it had been uttered close at my ear), I
+trust I shall never hear again.
+
+Then followed the contrast of a great stillness; for, as the last
+accents died away on her lips, Isabel sank down, without a struggle,
+into a dead swoon.
+
+A sad satisfaction came into Guy's face. "It is best so," he muttered;
+"I hope she won't wake for an hour," and he carried her into the house.
+They were trying to revive her, unsuccessfully, when I reached it with
+those who bore the corpse on a litter of pine branches. By Guy's
+directions, it was laid on his own bed; and there the Italian women
+rendered the last offices to the dead man, weeping and wailing over him
+as though he had been a brother or dear friend--only for his rare
+beauty--even as the Moorish girls mourned over that fair-faced Christian
+knight whom they found lying, rolled in blood, by the rock of Alpujarro.
+
+Soon they came to tell Guy that Isabel was recovering from her swoon.
+She was hardly conscious when he entered the room, and he heard her
+moaning, "I am so cold, so cold," shivering all over, though she was
+warmly wrapped in cloaks and shawls.
+
+The village doctor, a mild, helpless-looking man, was sitting by her
+bedside. He tried to feel her pulse just then, I suppose to show that he
+could be of some use; but she shrunk away from him, and beckoned to her
+cousin to come near. He motioned to the others to leave them alone, and,
+kneeling down by her, took her hand in his.
+
+"Guy, dear," she said, "I know I have been so very wicked and ungrateful
+to you; but you must not be angry. I have no one left to take care of me
+but you, now. I will try to be patient; indeed, indeed I will." Her
+voice was faint and exhausted, but as gentle as ever.
+
+He held her hand faster, and bent his forehead down upon it.
+
+"You are not wicked--only too weak to bear your sorrow. If I only knew
+what to do to comfort you! But I am so rough and harsh, even when I mean
+to be kind. I can say nothing, either. I suppose you ought to submit,
+but I can not tell you how; it is a lesson I have never been able to
+learn."
+
+"You can do this," she said. "Let me go to him. Ah! don't refuse. I will
+be calm and good. Indeed I will. But I must go"--she sank her voice into
+a lower whisper yet--"I have not kissed him to-night."
+
+There was something so unspeakably piteous in her tone and in her
+imploring eyes, that had grown quite soft again, though no tears had
+moistened them, that Guy could hardly answer her.
+
+"I did not mean to refuse you, dear," he said, at last. "I won't even
+ask you to wait. If you are not strong enough to walk, I will carry
+you."
+
+She rose slowly and painfully, as if her limbs were stiff with cold; but
+she could stand, and walk with his arm round her; and so these two moved
+slowly along the deserted passages toward the room where the corpse lay.
+
+There was nothing shocking in its appearance now. All the traces of
+murder had been washed away, and they had arranged the silky chestnut
+hair till it concealed the wound, and fell in smooth waves over the
+white forehead. That sweet calm which will sometimes descend on the face
+of the dead, even when their end has been violent--the sad _Alpen-gluth_
+that comes only when the sun has set--was there in all its beauty. Save
+that the features were somewhat sharper than in life, there was nothing
+to mar their pure classical outline. It was well, indeed, that Guy held
+her back two hours ago. If Isabel had looked on them then, I believe she
+would have gone mad with terror, if not with sorrow. It matters much,
+the expression of a face, when it is sure to mingle in our dreams for
+many after years.
+
+Guy led her up to the bedside, and left the room as she sank down on her
+knees. He remained outside the closed door, for he thought she might
+need help if her strength failed suddenly; and I joined him there.
+
+For some time we heard only the quick, stormy sobs, and the kisses
+showering down; then came the piteous, heart-broken wail that called
+upon her husband's name; and then the great gush of tears that saved
+her. After that there was a murmur, often broken off but always
+renewed: we both bowed our heads reverently, for we knew the widow was
+praying.
+
+She came forth at length, her head buried in her hands; but she could
+walk to her room unassisted, and allowed them to undress her there,
+without a word but thanks. Before long nature would have her way, and
+she was sleeping quietly.
+
+While we were waiting the return of the men who had gone out in pursuit,
+Livingstone went alone into the death-chamber. He staid there some
+minutes. When he came out his face was paler than ever, and there was a
+sort of horror in his eyes.
+
+He took my arm and led me into the room without speaking. "Do you see
+that?" he asked, lifting the hair gently that fell over the left check
+of the corpse.
+
+Distinctly and lividly marked on the waxen flesh were the five fingers
+of a man's _open hand_.
+
+"Do you think that was a brigand's work?" he went on, his gripe
+tightening till I could scarcely bear the pain. "They always strike with
+a weapon or with the clenched fist. Shall I tell you whose mark that is?
+Bruce's. If he did not murder him himself, he struck him after he was
+dead."
+
+"Impossible," I said; "how could he? He has never--"
+
+Livingstone cast my arm loose somewhat impatiently. "We shall know all
+some day," he growled, his whole face black with passion. "I am
+convinced of it. If he's on earth I'll find him; and when I do, if I
+show him mercy or let him go--" The imprecation that followed was not
+less solemn and terrible because it was muttered to his own heart.
+
+"We must never let Isabel guess the truth," he said, when he became
+calmer. "It would be worse than all. She would always think she had
+caused this, and she has enough to bear up against already. God help
+her!"
+
+Soon Aglaee came to tell us that her mistress was asleep. The
+Frenchwoman's first impulse had been to be hysterical and helpless; it
+was only her terror of Guy prevailing over all others that made her, as
+she was, very useful.
+
+He went to the door for an instant, and looked at Isabel. Dreamland was
+kinder and pleasanter to her than real life, poor child, for there was a
+smile on her lips that, when she was waking, would be long in visiting
+them. How would ships or men ever last out if there were not some
+harbors of refuge to rest in before going out into the wild weather
+again? Truly she had won hers for the moment; it looked as if an angel
+had come down to smooth, this time, instead of troubling the waters.
+
+The pursuers came back empty-handed; they had not come upon the faintest
+trace, nor could they hear of any suspicious character having been seen
+in the neighborhood.
+
+Guy betrayed no impatience when he heard this; but he went out himself
+with some of the best men, and spent the rest of the night and all the
+following morning on the quest. All to no purpose. He returned about
+noon, with his companions quite fagged out; but fatigue and
+sleeplessness seemed to have no grasp upon his frame.
+
+Isabel was up, and had been asking for him several times. When he saw
+her, she offered no opposition to his wish to go on straight to Rome the
+next day. Neither then nor at any future time did she ever ask for any
+particulars of her husband's death.
+
+Her old child-like dependence and trust in her cousin had come back, and
+all through the journey she was quite tranquil. It is true, we hardly
+ever saw her face, for her veil was closely drawn. Her grief was not the
+less painful to witness because it was so little demonstrative. Very old
+and very young women, in the plenitude of their benevolence, are good
+enough to sympathize with any tale of woe, however absurdly exaggerated;
+but men, I think, are most moved by the simple and quiet sorrows. We
+smile at the critical point of a spasmodic tragedy, complacently as the
+Lucretian philosopher looking down from the cliff on the wild sea; we
+yawn over the wailings of Werter and Raphael, but we ponder gravely over
+the last chapters of the _Heir of Redclyffe_, and feel a curious
+sensation in the throat--perhaps the slightest dimness of vision--when
+we read in _The Newcomes_ how that noble old soldier crowned the
+chivalry of a stainless life, dying in the Gray Brother's gown.
+
+There were many at Rome who had known Forrester and loved him well, and
+all these followed him to his grave. I do not think he had an enemy on
+earth except the man who slew him.
+
+What are the qualifications of a general favorite? Good looks, good
+birth, good-humor, and good assurance will do much; but the want of one
+or more of these will not invalidate the election, nor the union of all
+four insure it. It must be very pleasant to serve in the _compagnie
+d'elite_. They have privileges to which the Line may not aspire. It does
+not much matter what they do. Their victories make them no enemies, and
+their defeats raise them up hosts of sympathizers and apologists. When
+they err gravely, if you hint at the misdemeanor, a "true believer"
+looks at you indignantly, not to say contemptuously, and says, "What
+could you expect? It's only poor--" Yes, it is a great gift--Amiability;
+and when the possessor dies, it is profoundly true that better men might
+be better spared.
+
+Very soon Raymond came to take his daughter back to England. That calm
+old calculating machine was more deranged and shocked by the catastrophe
+than I should have thought it possible he would have been by any earthly
+disaster. He was getting older now, and more broken, it is true, and so,
+perhaps, was more accessible to the weakness of sympathy. At all events,
+nothing could be kinder and more considerate than his conduct to Isabel.
+
+Guy and I still lingered on in Rome. He was untiring in his researches,
+but quite unsuccessful. Yet it was not that the police were remiss, or
+the country people inclined to shield the murderer. The best of them
+would have sold his own father to the guillotine for half the reward
+offered by Livingstone, for he lavished as much gold in trying to clear
+up that crime as in old days the Cenci or Colonna did to smother theirs.
+At length we were forced to give it up, and returned home in the
+_Petrel_. I own I despaired of ever being more successful; but my
+companion evidently had not done so, for I heard him, more than once,
+mutter to himself, in the same low, determined tone, "If he is on
+earth, I'll find him."
+
+Immediately on our arrival, Guy went up to Bruce's home in Scotland. He
+only learned that the latter had not been there for a long time; but
+that some months back, Allan Macbane, a sort of steward and old
+dependent of the family, had left suddenly, summoned, it was supposed,
+by his master. More the people could not or would not tell.
+
+At his banker's it was discovered that, immediately after the
+Forresters' marriage, he had drawn out a very large sum--not in letters
+of credit, but in bank-notes--and had not been heard of since. After
+much trouble, we did find out that one of the large notes had been
+changed at Florence about the time of the murder, but the description of
+the person did not answer in the least to that of Bruce or the man who
+was supposed to be his attendant. All trace stopped there. So the months
+rolled away. I constantly saw Guy, and sometimes was with him both in
+town and at Kerton, where Isabel was staying with Lady Catharine. He
+still appeared to have no doubt of the ultimate result of the search,
+which, personally or by deputy, he never intermitted for a day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+                                 "He threw
+     His wrathful hand aloft, and cried 'Away!
+     Earth could not hold us both, nor can one heaven
+     Contain my deadliest enemy and me.'"
+
+
+We were sitting in Livingstone's chambers one night in the following
+March, and dinner was just over, when the detective was announced who
+for months had been in Guy's pay and on Bruce's track.
+
+He was a stout, hale man, rather past middle age, with a rosy face, a
+cheerful, moist eye, and full, sensual lips--just the proper person to
+return thanks for "The Successful Candidates" at an agricultural
+meeting. Originally of a kindly convivial nature, he had grown familiar
+with crime till he despised it. The reward set upon the criminal's
+capture was his only standard of guilt. He took a real pleasure in the
+chase, I imagine, but had no preference for any game in particular, and
+was quite indifferent whether the cover he had to draw was a saloon or a
+cellar. He would hunt a fraudulent bankrupt or a parricide with equal
+zeal, and, when he had caught him, be just as jocularly affable with the
+one as with the other. In a drama of life and death, the fierce passions
+of the actors were only so many gleams of light showing him where the
+right path lay, for which assistance he thanked them heartily. The
+foulest mysteries of the sinful human heart touched and shocked him no
+more than the evidences of disease do the dissecting surgeon: with both
+it was a simple question of defective organization. The possession of
+secrets, far less weighty than some that he never told, have made men
+look worn, and miserable, and gray; but he would pat his corpulent
+leather pocket-book with a self-sufficient satisfaction, scarcely
+hinting that the publication of its contents would have caused more
+devastation in some well-regulated families than the bursting of a
+ten-inch shell in their front drawing-room.
+
+His lips and eyes wore a smile pleasantly significant as he entered,
+and, before he could speak, Guy leaped up, waving his hand high in
+irrepressible triumph. "I told you so, Frank. I knew we should find him.
+Come--come quickly." He was more excited than I had seen him in the last
+dozen years.
+
+I exulted too, but I confess a certain repugnance and nervousness
+mingled with that feeling: it was a new thing to me to stand face to
+face with a murderer.
+
+Neither of us gave as much attention as it deserved to the narrative
+with which the officer favored us _en route_, of how he had been
+gradually getting the clew to the fugitive's many doublings and
+disguises till he came upon his retreat at last. "They mostly make for
+home when they're dead beat," he remarked, alluding to Bruce's having
+selected London as his final hiding-place.
+
+We soon reached the spot--one of those dreary by-ways that trend
+westward out of the Waterloo Road. As we drew up, the outline of a
+figure revealed itself out of the darkest nook of the dim street, and a
+man came forward and opened the door of the cab, interchanging a word
+or two with our companion.
+
+As we got out, the detective laid his hand on Guy's arm. "Gently, sir,"
+he said. "You must be careful. We've not quite so much proof as I could
+wish. It would be straining a point to arrest him as it stands. I'd do
+it though--_for you_. Get him to talk, and don't hurry him; he's safe to
+commit himself; and we'll nail him at the first word. My comrade says he
+has not left his bed since yesterday. Perhaps he's ill. All the better.
+We can frighten him if we get his man out of the way."
+
+Guy's hand was on the bell before the last words were said, and he rang
+it sharply. The two officers drew back into the shadow.
+
+In a few moments an old man opened the door, whom we guessed to be
+Bruce's attendant. He had one of those stubborn, rough-hewn faces that
+even white hair can not soften any more than hoar-frost can the outline
+of a granite crag.
+
+"What's ye're wull?" he drawled out, in the rugged Aberdeen Doric.
+
+"I wish to see Mr. Bruce."
+
+"No sic a pairson here," was the reply, accompanied by a vigorous effort
+to close the door.
+
+A heavy groan, proceeding from a room on the ground floor, gave him the
+lie as he spoke. Guy threw up his head like a hound breaking from scent
+to view, and thrust Macbane back violently. The old man staggered and
+fell; but he clung round Livingstone's knees, as he groveled, till he
+was actually trampled down. There was a difficulty in the lock
+somewhere; but bolt and staple were torn away in an instant by the
+furious hand that grasped the handle, and so at last we stood in the
+presence of the man we had sought so long.
+
+Do you remember that hideous picture in Hogarth's "Two Apprentices,"
+where the sleeping robber is alarmed by the crash in the chimney? That
+was exactly Bruce's attitude. He had started into a sitting posture, and
+was braced up on his hands, his face thrust forward, half covered by the
+straight unkempt hair. What a face it was! White and flecked with
+sweat-drops, marbled here and there with livid stains, the lips
+quivering and working till they twisted themselves sometimes into a
+ghastly mockery of a smile, the long teeth gleaming more wolfish than
+ever. The iris of the prominent eyes had grown yellowish, and the whites
+were bloodshot, so that the light seemed to flash from them _tawnily_.
+
+Bruce had always been very much afraid of Livingstone. His terror had
+gone on increasing during months of relentless pursuit; it had reached
+its climax now. Guy stood at the foot of the bed, contemplating the
+unhappy wretch with a cruel calmness that seemed to drive him wild. He
+writhed and cowered under the fixed gaze, as if it gave him physical
+pain.
+
+"What are you here for?" he screamed out at last.
+
+In strong contrast to the shrill, strained voice, the answer came slow
+and stern. "To arrest Charles Forrester's murderer."
+
+Then Bruce seemed to lose his head all at once, and began to rave. It is
+impossible to transcribe the string of protestations, prayers for mercy,
+and horrible blasphemies; but there was enough of self-betrayal to
+complete the proof we wanted ten times told. The detective chuckled
+more complacently than ever as he insinuated the handcuffs round
+Macbane's wrists. Over all Bruce's cries, I remember, the old man's
+harsh voice made itself heard, "Whisht, whisht, I tell ye, and keep a
+quiet tongue; they canna harm ye." The other did not seem to hear him,
+or to notice his removal by the officers, muttering, as he went, that
+"we had driven his master mad, and were killing him."
+
+Livingstone waited patiently till the outbreak had spent itself; then he
+said, "Get up, and come with us instantly. You shall finish your night
+in Newgate."
+
+Tho sick man lay back for some moments with his eyes closed, panting and
+evidently quite exhausted. When he opened his eyes there was a
+steadiness in them which surprised us. He spoke, too, quite calmly. "I
+do not mean to deny any thing, nor to resist, even if I could. I am
+tired of running away; it is as well over; but I was taken by surprise
+at first. Guy Livingstone, do you choose to listen to me for five
+minutes? My head is clear now. I do not know how long it will last; but
+I do know that, after to-night, I will never speak about Forrester's
+death one word."
+
+"Will you tell me how you killed him?" Livingstone asked, controlling
+his voice wonderfully.
+
+"That is what I wish to do," Bruce said. I believe he was glad of the
+opportunity of showing us how much we had misjudged him in thinking him
+harmless, for a curious sort of grin was hovering about his mouth. Guy,
+whose eyes were bent down at the moment, did not see it, or the tale
+would never have been told.
+
+"You know how you were all against me at Kerton," he began. "She did
+not care for me then, perhaps; but I would have been so patient and
+persevering that she must have loved me at last--only you never gave me
+fair play. Ah! do you think, because I was ugly and awkward, I had no
+chance?"
+
+"No; but because she knew you were a coward," Guy said.
+
+There was something grand in the utter indifference with which Bruce met
+the insult.
+
+"You are wrong," he replied, coolly; "she did not know it. You all did,
+and reckoned on my being long-suffering and inoffensive. I saw, at last,
+what Forrester had done; yet I never guessed but that she would marry
+me. I trusted to her father and her own fears for keeping her straight.
+After marriage I would have tried still what great love and tenderness
+could do. I meant--never mind what I meant--it's all over now. I was
+nearly mad for a week after their flight. Then I became quite cool, and
+I said, 'I will kill him myself.' And so I did. Mind, I swear, Allan
+knew nothing of it till all was done. I thought I should be brave enough
+for that. Fifty times during the months that I tracked them, always
+changing my disguise, I nearly caught him alone; but each time I was
+balked. Wherever they went, I watched under their windows for the chance
+of his coming out; but I only saw--"
+
+He gnashed his teeth, and rolled over and over in a paroxysm of jealous
+recollection. We guessed what he meant. Then he went on: "That night he
+sauntered backward and forward for some time. I thought he would not go
+far enough away, and I called to the devil to help me. He did; for, very
+soon, Forrester walked straight down the path. I crept after him till
+he had gone some hundred yards--my heart was beating so quickly that I
+could hardly breathe--then I ran forward and stood before him. I had
+taken off the black wig and beard that I always wore, and he knew me
+directly.
+
+"'Mr. Bruce, I believe?' he said, raising his hat, just as if he had met
+me by appointment.
+
+"'Yes,' I said. 'I have got you at last, as I wished.' I tried to speak
+as steadily as he had done; but, as the moment for action came near, my
+d----d cowardice made me stammer.
+
+"'I am not invisible, as a rule,' he replied. 'You, or any friend of
+yours, might have found me long ago. You have been some time making up
+your mind. It's that unfortunate constitutional--caution, I suppose.
+Well, I'll meet you in Rome: it's more than you deserve.'
+
+"'You'll fight me here--now,' I said.
+
+"'I shall do nothing half so melodramatic,' he answered. 'I'll give you
+a fair chance on the ground; but, if you do not move out of my path now,
+I'll shoot you as I would any other disagreeable ruffian,' and he put
+his hand into his breast, where, I knew, he carried a pistol.
+
+"I _was_ brave then. I sprang in upon him all at once. 'You may shoot
+now, if you like,' I said. 'I swear I am quite unarmed. But show _that_
+to your wife when you go back,' and I struck him with my open hand."
+
+(I remembered the mark on the corpse's cheek, and looked at Guy eagerly.
+I could not see his face, which was hidden by the curtain, but all his
+lower limbs were shaking and quivering.)
+
+"I thought how it would be," Bruce went on; "he drew his hand out with
+the pistol in it, but he only flung it over the bank--one barrel went
+off in the fall--then we grappled. After wrestling for a minute or two
+on the narrow path, we lost our footing and rolled down the rocks;
+neither quitted his hold, but I fell uppermost and kept him down. He
+struggled desperately at first; but when he found that I was much the
+stronger, he lay quite still, looking up into my face. I said, 'It's my
+turn at last. Do you think I'll let you off?'
+
+"He did not answer at first. I believe he would not till he had quite
+recovered his breath; then he said, coolly, 'No, I don't. Finish it
+quickly, if you can, that's all.' I would have delayed a little, to
+enjoy my triumph, but I thought the pistol-shot might bring some one; so
+I tightened my gripe on his throat, and looked round for a weapon. I
+found none at first, and my purpose actually began to soften when I saw
+him so helpless; but, as I relaxed my fingers, I heard him whisper to
+himself, 'Poor Bella! we have been very happy: I wish we had more
+time--' I got mad again directly. 'D--n you!' I cried out, 'I'll kill
+you now, and marry her some day.' His old insolent smile came on his
+lip. 'No you won't,' he said; 'you don't know how she hates you, and how
+we have laughed--' He had no time to say more, for I found my weapon
+then--a stone triangular and sharp-pointed like a dagger--and I struck
+him over the temple with all my force. He gave one convulsive spring
+that threw me clear of him, and never stirred again.
+
+"I did not repent when it was done; I have never repented since; I do
+not now. I only thought how best to escape the consequences. I took his
+watch and purse, that brigands might be suspected, and threw them into
+the river a mile off. I robbed him of one thing more--this!" All his
+haggard face was transfigured with a ghastly triumph as he opened a
+small leathern case that hung round his neck, and held up before us two
+locks of hair.
+
+There they were--the love-gift and the death-spoil--the memorials of
+defeat and of victory, of foiled affection and of gratified hate--the
+one, beguiled from Isabel by Bruce himself, with many earnest pleadings,
+in the early days of their engagement; the other, torn from her
+husband's temples before they were cold. The long light brown tress was
+scarcely more soft and satin-smooth than the chestnut curl; but one end
+of the last was matted, and discolored by a dark rusty stain--the stain
+that, the Greek poet said, all the rivers of earth flowing in one
+channel could never wash away--the testimony, to our ears mute enough
+now, but which, perhaps, will make itself heard above the Babel of all
+other cries at the Day of Judgment.
+
+The two tokens were twined together lovingly, as if they were sensitive
+and conscious still. Bruce plucked them asunder: "I never can keep them
+apart," he said, querulously. Then he put them back into the case
+separately, and began to mutter to himself many words that I could not
+distinguish.
+
+"Have you any thing more to say?" Livingstone asked. His lips were rigid
+and compressed like a steel-trap, opening and closing mechanically. As
+he spoke, he snatched the leathern bag from Bruce's hand and threw it
+into the blazing fire.
+
+A sharp howl, like a flogged hound's, broke from the sick man as he saw
+his treasure shrivel up in the flame. Then he began to whimper out all
+sorts of incoherent supplications, crying "that we did not know how much
+he had suffered before he killed Forrester, and since too; that he had
+been cruelly used from the beginning; that he was very, very ill now;
+would not we let him die in peace?" The tears were streaming down his
+face. It was a sight of abasement that sent a shiver through one's
+veins.
+
+Guy laid his hand on the miserable creature's shoulder. Though he
+scarcely touched it, I saw the great muscles starting out on his arm
+like ropes from the intensity of his suppressed emotion; his lower lip
+trembled, but his tones did not in the least. I can give no idea of
+their pitiless, deliberate ferocity.
+
+"Listen!" he said. "I told you before to get up and come with us--that
+is my answer now. If you have life enough left to be carried to the
+gallows-foot, you shall never cheat the hangman."
+
+Bruce looked up into the speaker's face for some moments. Gradually the
+agonized appeal in his wild eyes died away into vacancy; an expression,
+half cunning, half amused, stole over his face; and, leaning gently
+back, he began pulling threads out of the coverlet, laughing low.
+
+The blood gushed from Guy's clenched hand as he struck it furiously
+against the stone mantel.
+
+"By ----," he said, with a fearful oath, "he has escaped me, after all."
+
+It was so. The mind, worn and strained by the terrors of the long
+pursuit, perhaps by remorse not acknowledged even to himself; and by the
+last great effort at self-control, had given way at last--forever. God
+had recorded his verdict, and no earthly court could try the criminal
+again. Bruce is living now (and I dare say will outlive most of us, for
+his bodily health is perfect), vicious sometimes, but never conscious;
+hard to please, but easy to manage, so long as his attendant is a man,
+and a strong one; accessible only to the one emotion which drove him
+mad--physical fear.
+
+Livingstone called the officers; they came in with Macbane. The old man
+pretended to be very wroth when he saw his master's state, but I believe
+he rejoiced secretly. The credit of the family, with him, outweighed all
+considerations of personal attachment, and he would think public
+disgrace cheaply averted at any price.
+
+On our poor detective, perhaps, the blow fell heaviest; for, after some
+time, Guy did come round to my idea, that no punishment we could have
+brought about would have been so ample and terrible; but Mr. Fitchett
+could not see it in that light at all. Not only was the termination of
+the affair dreadfully unprofessional, but the little triumph he had
+anticipated at the trial was spoiled. If human weakness ever could touch
+this great man, it was when he heard the judge pay a compliment to "the
+sagacity and zeal of that most efficient officer." On such occasions,
+his bow of conscious merit abnegating praise was, I am told, wonderful
+to see. After a few words of explanation, he glanced wistfully at Bruce,
+and shook his head, like a broken-hearted Lord Burleigh. Then he
+unloosed the handcuffs from Macbane's wrists, whistling all the while
+softly a popular air, lively in itself, with a cadence so plaintive that
+it might have been a penitential psalm. No romantic school-girl opening
+the cage to her pet starling ever displayed more hesitation and
+reluctance than Mr. Fitchett setting that grim old bird free.
+
+In truth, there was no evidence to attach to the servant, so we left him
+and his master together. I could not have stood that room much longer.
+The ceaseless complacent chuckle of the idiot, and his fearful grimaces
+when he could not make the threads match, had the effect on my chest of
+a nightmare. Very slowly and silently we walked home through the
+darkness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+     "Be the day weary or never so long,
+     At length it ringeth to even song."
+
+
+There is little to chronicle in the events of the next few years.
+Livingstone resided almost entirely at Kerton. He rode as hard, and
+distinguished himself in all other field-sports as much as ever. But
+even in these, his favorite pursuits, he had lost the intense faculty of
+enjoyment which once seemed a part of his powerful organization.
+
+Do you remember that scene in the Nekuia, where the Eidolon of Achilles
+comes slowly through the twilight to meet his old brother in arms? Not
+only are his form and features altered after so ghastly a fashion that
+even the wanderer, wave-worn and travel-stained, looks brilliant by
+comparison, but all his feelings are utterly and strangely changed.
+Listen! He asks after the father from whom he parted when quite a child;
+after the son, whom he never saw; but not one word of his fair
+first-love--not one of her who was the passion of his manhood, whom he
+bucklered once against ten thousand. He had rather hear of Peleus and
+Neoptolemus than of Deidamia or Briseis. Of Polyxena, be sure that he
+remembers nothing but that he was holding her hand when her brother slew
+him. Will he ever forgive her that? Not if she could have made amends by
+the sacrifice of ten lives instead of that one which she gave,
+willingly, on Sigaeum. Has ambition any hold on him either? Only to
+breathe the fresh clear air above instead of that murky, heavy
+atmosphere, he would resign the empire of the dead, and be a drudge to
+the veriest boor. Yet once, if we remember right, he chafed fiercely
+enough at a word of authority uttered by the King of Men. One of his old
+tastes clings to him still--a very simple one. He has forgotten the
+savor of Sciote and Chian wine; but--were it only for the sake of the
+carouses they have had together--Odysseus will not grudge him another
+draught out of the black trench. It is so long since be tasted blood!
+
+Guy was no more like his former self than the shadow was like the
+substance of Pelides. He was not languid, but simply apathetic and
+indifferent, so that one could not help being constantly struck by the
+contrast between his moral and physical state: the latter was still the
+perfection of muscular power.
+
+He was every thing that was kind to his mother, and to Isabel Forrester
+too, who spent much of her time at Kerton, and whose health was very
+delicate. If Lady Catharine could only have seen him more cheerful, she
+would have been _too_ happy. It was her great delight to try and spoil
+him, as she used to do when he was a child--trying to suit his tastes to
+the minutest shade. For instance, Guy was always finding in his own
+rooms some new ornament or addition to their comfort. Indifferent as he
+was to every thing, it was good in him that he never failed to remark
+these instantly. You would not have thought a cold, haughty face could
+light up so brilliantly as his mother's always did when he thanked her.
+Poor lady! Those last few years were her summer of St. Martin--not the
+less pleasant because winter was gathering already on the crests of the
+whitening hills.
+
+There were a good many guests in the house at times, almost invariably
+men, but none of the wild revels of the old days, very little hard
+drinking, and no play to speak of.
+
+One thing was remarkable--the great eagerness Guy displayed to keep the
+party together at night. He would engage us in arguments, and employ all
+sorts of ingenious devices to prevent us from going to bed, so that it
+became very trying to a weak constitution. I observed this to him one
+night when the rest had gone.
+
+The slight flush left by the excitement of conversation was vanishing
+rapidly from his cheeks, and a gray tinge was creeping over them like
+that which we see on a sick man very near his end.
+
+"It is too bad to keep you up, and too selfish," he said; "but I find
+the nights so long!"
+
+I left him without another word; but I lay long awake, haunted by that
+haggard face and dreary eyes. I wish I did not see them so often still
+in my dreams.
+
+There were changes in other houses besides Kerton Manor, and a vacancy
+in the most luxurious set of chambers in the Albany.
+
+Duns, and rheumatic gout, and satiety had proved too much at last for
+the patience of Sir Henry Fallowfield; so one night he preached his
+farewell sermon in the smoking-room of the ----, in which he was
+especially severe and witty on the absurdity and bad taste of a man
+condescending to suicide under any circumstances. The next morning they
+found him with--"that across his throat that you had scarcely cared to
+see." The hand whose tremor used to make him so savage when he was
+lifting a glass to his lips, had been strong and steady enough when it
+shattered the Golden Bowl and cut the Silver Cord asunder.
+
+Whether he was looking death in the face while he uttered those last
+cynicisms, and calculated on heightening the stage effect of the morrow,
+or whether a paroxysm of pain drove him mad, as it had done better men,
+who can tell? I think and hope the latter was the case, but--I doubt.
+Though Sir Henry Fallowfield had never read Aristotle, he had studied,
+all his life, the principles of the peripeteia.
+
+Godfrey Parndon no longer ruled over the Pytchley. He had backed his own
+opinions and other men's bills once or twice too often, and had retired
+temporarily into private life till he could get "his second wind." The
+new M.F.H. was his complete contrast--pale-faced, low-voiced, mild-eyed,
+and melancholy as a lotus-eater--one of the class of "weak-minded but
+gentlemanly young men" that Tom Cradock used to ask his friends to
+recommend to him as pupils. The farmers missed sadly Godfrey's bluff
+face and stalwart figure at the cover-side, while the "bruisers" from
+Leamington, and the "railers" from town, hearing no longer his great
+voice, good-naturedly imperative, adjuring them to "hold hard, and not
+to spoil their own sport," rode over the hounds rejoicing.
+
+Flora Bellasys was married.
+
+It was just the match I thought she would make. Sir Marmaduke
+Dorrillon's possessions were vast enough to satisfy any ambition, and
+his years put love out of the question.
+
+His friends had been as prophetic in their warnings as January's were,
+but even, they never guessed what he would have to endure at the hands
+of that cruel May. He tried very hard not to be jealous, but he could
+not help being sensitive; and so, day by day, she inflicted on him the
+_peine forte et dure_, "laying on him as much as he could bear, and
+more." It was sad to see how the kind old man withered and pined away;
+yet he never complained, and quarreled mortally with his best friend for
+daring to compassionate him.
+
+He was so courteous, and gentle, and chivalrous; so conscious of his own
+disadvantage in age; so generous in trusting her, and in hoping against
+hope; so considerate in anticipating all her wishes and whims, that it
+might have moved even Flora to pity. But her great disappointment had
+strangely altered and imbittered her character. She was _quite_
+merciless now, and never seemed really amused unless she was doing harm
+to some one.
+
+It was not that her manner had become harsh or repellent, or even more
+sarcastic; she wag to the full as fascinating as ever; but she was cool
+and calculating in her caprices. She took pains to make the momentary
+pleasure as exquisite as possible, that the after suffering might be
+more terrible; just like that ingenious Borderer who fed his enemy with
+all pungent and highly-seasoned dishes, and then left him to die of
+thirst.
+
+Yet all the while her own feelings must have been scarcely enviable.
+They say that great enchantresses, from Medea and Circe downward, have
+generally been unhappy in their loves. Either they could not raise the
+spirit, or it proved unmanageable; either their affection was not
+returned, or its object was unfaithful at last. In the single case where
+they put their science and their philtres aside, and were womanly, and
+natural, and sincere; where, to gain or to keep their treasure, they
+would gladly have broken their wand, they failed utterly, and found they
+were only half omnipotent. The justice was retributive, but it was very
+complete. Be sure, with those passionate natures, the honey of a
+thousand triumphs never deadened the sting of the one discomfiture.
+Suitors flocking from every shore and island of the AEgean never made
+Sappho forget, for one hour, that stubborn impassible Phaon. No wonder
+such are cruel and unjust to their subjects in after days. Poor innocent
+AEgeus very often has to do penance for the infidelity of Jason.
+
+I have little more to tell, and that is of the sort that is best told
+briefly.
+
+The hounds met one morning not far from Kerton. A three-days' frost had
+broken up; but it was not out of the ground yet, making the "take-off"
+slippery, and the north side of the fences dangerously hard. Livingstone
+rode the Axeine that day. The chestnut was still his favorite, and the
+crack hunter of three counties, though he had never lost his habit of
+pulling.
+
+It was a large, straggling cover that we drew, but the fox went away
+very soon. From the lower end of the wood a great pasture sloped down,
+at the bottom of which was a flight of post-and-rails--very high, new,
+and strong, with a deep cutting on the farther side. At one end of this
+was an open gate, through which the whole field passed.
+
+The hounds were just settling to the scent, when I happened to turn my
+head, and saw Livingstone coming down at the rails. He had got a bad
+start, and saw that, by taking them straight in his line, he would gain
+greatly on the pack, which was turning toward him.
+
+As the Axeine tore down the hill at furious speed, pulling double, it
+was evident that neither he nor his rider had the remotest idea of
+refusing.
+
+It was the last fence that either of them ever charged. As the chestnut
+rose to the leap, his hind legs slipped; he chested the rail, which
+would not break, and turned quite over, crushing Guy beneath him.
+
+I had seen the latter fall a hundred times without feeling the
+presentiment that seemed to _tighten_ round my heart as I galloped up to
+the spot. Many others must have felt the same, for they let the hounds
+go away without another glance, and some were before me there.
+
+The Axeine lay stone dead, with his neck broken, the huge carcass
+pressing on the legs of his rider. Guy was quite senseless; his face of
+a dull, ghastly white; there was a deep cut on his forehead; but we all
+felt we did not see the worst. With great trouble we drew him from under
+the dead horse. Still we could discover no broken bones or further
+external injury. We dashed water over him. In a few minutes he opened
+his eyes, and seemed to recognize every one directly, for he looked up
+into the frightened face of the first whip, who was supporting him, and
+said,
+
+"You always told me I went too fast at timber, Jack."
+
+I was sure, then, he was desperately injured, his voice was so weak and
+changed.
+
+"Where are you hurt, Guy?" some one asked. I could not speak myself.
+
+"I don't know," he said, looking down in a strange, bewildered way. "My
+head and arm pain me; but I feel nothing _below the waist_."
+
+His lower limbs were not much twisted or distorted, but they bore a
+horribly inert, dead appearance. There was not even a muscular quiver in
+them.
+
+I saw the Squire of Brainswick turn his head away with a shudder and a
+groan (he loved Guy as his own son), and I heard him mutter, "The
+_spine_!"
+
+It was so, and Livingstone soon knew it himself. He sighed once,
+drearily; but not a man there could have commanded his voice as he did
+when he said,
+
+"You must carry me home, heavy as I am. My walking days are ended."
+
+We made the best litter we could of poles and branches; and I remember,
+as we bore him past the carcass of the Axeine, he made us stop for an
+instant, and dropping his hand on the stiff, distorted neck, stroked it
+softly,
+
+"Good-by, old horse," he said. "It was no fault of yours. How well you
+always carried me!" He never spoke again till we reached Kerton Manor.
+
+Isabel Forrester was fortunately out, but Lady Catharine met us on the
+hall steps. She did not shriek or faint when she saw the horror, which
+had haunted her for years, fulfilled there to the uttermost. She knelt
+by her son when we laid him down, and wiped off a spot or two of blood
+from his forehead, and then kept his hand in hers, kissing it often. We
+had sent on before to warn the village doctor, and he visited Guy alone
+in his room.
+
+Powell had been a surgeon's mate in his youth, and was serving under
+Collingwood at Trafalgar when his ship stood first into action, and,
+like a sovereign of the old days, led the van of the battle. There was
+no shape of shattered and maimed humanity with which he had not been
+familiar, and my last hope died away when I saw him come forth,
+trembling all over, his rugged features convulsed with grief.
+
+"I saw him born," the old man sobbed out. "I never thought to see him
+die--and die _so_!"
+
+Guy had received a mortal injury in the spine, though how long he might
+linger none could tell.
+
+There broke from Lady Catharine's white lips one terrible heart-broken
+cry--"If God would only take me first!" Then her self-control returned,
+and she went into her son's room, outwardly quite calm.
+
+I have never tried to fancy what passed at the meeting of those two
+strong hearts, after the one had been brought suddenly, face to face,
+with an awful death, the other with a yet more awful sorrow.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+     "Ah! Sir Launcelot, there thou liest, that never wert matched of
+     earthly hands. Thou wert the fairest person, and the goodliest of
+     any that rode in the press of knights; thou wert the truest to thy
+     sworn brother of any that buckled on the spur; and thou wert the
+     faithfullest of any that have loved _paramours_: most courteous
+     wert thou, and gentle of all that sat in hall among dames; and thou
+     wert the sternest knight to thy mortal foe that ever laid spear in
+     the rest."
+
+
+When Powell's self-command gave way so completely after he saw the
+nature of Guy's case, it was not because he knew it must end fatally,
+but because his skill told him what fearful agonies must precede the
+release. All the surgeons who were called in could do nothing but
+confirm these forebodings. The colossal strength and vital energy of
+Livingstone's frame and constitution yielded but slowly to a blow which
+would have crushed a weaker man instantly. All the outworks were ruined
+and carried, but Death had still to fight hard before he won the
+citadel. I can not go through the details; I will only say that,
+sometimes, none of us could endure to look upon sufferings which never
+drew a complaint or a moan from him.
+
+Almost every pleasure has been discussed and dissected, but we know
+comparatively nothing of the physiology of pain. There is no standard by
+which to measure it, even if the courage and endurance of any mortal man
+could enable him to analyze his own tortures philosophically. Was it not
+always supposed that the guillotine is merciful, because quick in
+annihilation? Look at Wiertz's pictures at Brussels. If his idea (shared
+too, now, by many clever surgeons) be true, you will see the amount of a
+long life's suffering exceeded by what seems to us a minute's agony. But
+it is like the Eastern king's gaining the experience of fifty years by
+dipping his head for a second in the magic water. For a soul in torment
+there is no horologe.
+
+Of one thing be sure; the strong temperaments who enjoy greatly, suffer
+greatly too--those who endure in silence, most of all. I think the
+wolf's death-pang is sharper than the hare's.
+
+But Guy was not only patient, he was actually more cheerful than I had
+seen him since Constance died. He liked to see his old friends, and to
+hear accounts of their sport with hound and gun. To do these justice,
+there was not one who would not give up, gladly, the best meet of the
+Pytchley, or the shooting of the best cover in the county, to sit for
+half a day in that sick-room. He talked, too, always pleasantly and
+kindly to his mother and his cousin.
+
+Poor Isabel Forrester was quite broken down by this second blow. Next to
+her dead husband, I believe, she loved Guy better than any one; not
+unnaturally, for he had petted and protected her all her life long. She
+could not help giving way, though she tried hard, for the sake of
+others. It was piteous to see her, sitting alone for hours, gazing out
+on the bleak winter landscape, while the tears welled slowly from under
+her heavy eyelids.
+
+Foster, who was still at Kerton, came often to visit Livingstone. No
+one could do him so much good. The curate was just as confident and
+uncompromising in the discharge of his office as he was yielding and
+diffident when only himself was in question. He was so honest, and
+straightforward, and true--so free from rant or cant--so strong in his
+simple theology, that Guy soon trusted him implicitly when he spoke of
+the past and of the future that was so near. The repentance that was
+begun by Constance's dying bed was completed, I am sure, on his own.
+
+"Frank," Guy said, one morning, suddenly, "I have written to ask Cyril
+Brandon to come to me. He will be here to-day. It would make me very
+happy if I could hear him say he forgave me."
+
+"Do you think you will succeed?" I asked, sadly; for I felt a nervous
+certainty that the pain the interview must cost him would be unavailing.
+
+"I can not tell," he answered, firmly; "but Foster says, and I know,
+that it is my duty to try. You may be present, if you like, on one
+condition--you must promise, whatever he may say or do, not to interfere
+by a look or a word."
+
+I did promise; but I looked forward with dread to Brandon's coming. In
+an hour's time he was announced.
+
+It was the first time I had seen him; and I was much struck by the
+mingled expression of suffering and ferocity that sat, like a mask, on
+his worn dark face. I have seen its like but once--in a dangerous
+maniac's. He walked straight up to Guy's couch without noticing me, and
+stood there silent, glaring down on the sick man with his fiery black
+eyes.
+
+"It is very good of you to come," Guy said; "I scarcely hoped you
+would. I have wronged you, more deeply than any living man--so deeply
+that I could never have dared to ask your forgiveness if I had not been
+very near my death. Can you give me your hand? Indeed, indeed, I have
+repented sorely."
+
+Brandon's hoarse tones broke in:
+
+"I came, because, years ago, to see this sight, to see you lying there
+like a crushed worm, I would have sold my soul. Wronged me? Shall I tell
+you what you have done? There was only one creature on earth I cared
+for; that was my sister. All those years in India I had been fancying
+our meeting. I came back, and found her dying; more than that, I found
+her love turned away from me. You did _all_ this. I tell you, I never
+could get one of her old fond looks or words from her all the time she
+was dying. She was only afraid of me. By hell! you stood between us to
+the last. Do you know that she dragged herself across the room at my
+knees--mine, who never refused to indulge her in a whim before--first to
+be allowed to see you, and then to make me swear not to attempt your
+life?"
+
+He stopped, gnashing his teeth.
+
+All Guy's features, wan and worn by pain, were lighted up with a
+tenderness and joy inexpressible as he heard what his dead love had
+borne and done for him. He would have hidden his face had he guessed how
+its expression would exasperate Cyril's furious temper.
+
+"D--n you!" he howled out, like a madman, "do you dare to triumph?" and,
+tearing off his glove, he struck Livingstone on the cheek with it a
+sharp blow.
+
+A great shudder swept through every fibre of the maimed giant's frame,
+in which sensation lingered still; the blood surged up to his forehead
+and ebbed again instantly, leaving even the lips deathly white; he
+raised his hand quickly, but it was only to warn me back; for, mild and
+peaceable as I am, I leaped up then, as savage as Cain. With that hand
+he caught Brandon's wrist. The latter stood with his eyes cast down,
+sullenly--already, I am sure, horror at the act of foul cowardice into
+which his passion had driven him was creeping over him--he did not try
+to disengage himself. Had he done so, thrice his strength would not have
+set him free.
+
+"I thank God, from my heart," Guy said, very slowly and steadily, "that,
+if I meet your sister hereafter, I shall not shrink before her, for I
+believe all I promised her has been kept. Listen! you would feel shame
+to your life's end thinking that you had struck a helpless, dying
+cripple. It is not so. You don't know what you risked. You were within
+arm's-length, and at close quarters I could be dangerous still. Look."
+
+He took up a small silver cup that lay near, and crushed it flat between
+his fingers.
+
+There was silence then; only Brandon's breath was heard, drawn hard and
+irregularly, as if he was trying to throw off a weight from his chest.
+
+Guy looked up at him, and said very gently, holding out his hand, "Once
+more, forgive me."
+
+Cyril answered in a thick, smothered voice,
+
+"I will not take your hand. I will never forgive you. But I forgive
+Constance; for--I understand her now."
+
+He turned on his heel, and left the room without another word, still
+with his head bent down, as if in thought. I gazed after him till the
+door shut softly. Then I looked round at Guy. His head had fallen back,
+and the features looked so drawn and changed that I cried out, thinking
+he was dead. It was only a long, long swoon.
+
+Just another scene, and my tale is told.
+
+I was reading in Guy's room one evening. He had not spoken for some
+time, and I fancied he was asleep. Suddenly he called to me,
+
+"Frank, come here--nearer. I have several things to say to you, and I
+feel I must make haste. No, don't call any one. I said farewell to my
+mother yesterday, and we must spare her all we can."
+
+In the presence of that sublime self-command, I _dared_ not betray my
+grief by any outward sign. I knelt down by his side silently.
+
+He went on in a voice that, though hollow and often interrupted by
+failing breath, was perfectly measured and steady.
+
+"You can only be glad that the end has come at last, though it is well I
+have had time to prepare myself. Am I ready now? I can not tell. Foster
+says I ought to hope. I trust it is not wicked to say I do not _fear_. I
+have sinned often and deeply; but He who will judge me created me, and
+He knows, too, how much I have suffered. I do not mean from _this_ (he
+threw his hand toward his crippled limbs with the old gesture of
+disdain), but from bitterness and loneliness of heart. More than all, I
+am sure my darling has been pleading for me ever since she died. I will
+not believe her prayers have been wasted.
+
+"I want to tell you what I have done. You know the direct line of my
+family ends with me. I am glad it does. The next in succession would be
+a cousin, who has taken to some trade in Edinburgh; a good man, I
+believe--but he would not do here. So I have left Kerton to my mother
+for her life, and then--to you. Hush! the time is too short for
+objections or thanks, and death-bed gifts show little generosity.
+Besides, I would have left it to Isabel, only it would be more a trouble
+to her than any thing else. You will take care of every thing and every
+body. Say farewell for me to my old friends, especially to Mohun. Poor
+Ralph! he will be sorry--though he will not own it--when he comes back
+from Bohemia and finds me gone."
+
+He raised himself a little, so as to rest his hand on my shoulder as I
+knelt, while his voice deepened in its solemn calm:
+
+"Dear Frank, one other word for yourself, who have borne so patiently
+with my perverse temper since we were boys together. I have been silent,
+but, indeed, not ungrateful. For all your kind, unselfish thoughts, and
+words, and deeds--for all the good you would have counseled--for all
+your efforts to stand between me and wrong-doing--tried friend, true
+comrade! I thank you now, heartily, and I pray God to bless you always."
+
+It was only self-control, almost superhuman, that enabled him to speak
+those words steadily, for the fierce death-throe was possessing him
+before he ended. Through the awful minutes that followed, not another
+sound than the hissing breath escaped through his set lips; his face was
+not once distorted, though the hair and beard clung round it, matted and
+dank with the sweat of agony. The brave heart and iron nerve ruled the
+body to the last imperially--supreme over the intensity of torture.
+
+When he opened his eyes, which had been closed all through the
+protracted death-pang, there was a look of the ancient kindness in them,
+though they were glazing fast. He found my hand, and grasped it, till I
+felt the life ebbing back in his fingers. I saw his lips syllable
+"Good-by;" then, he leaned his head back gently, and, without a sigh or
+a shiver, the strong man's spirit went forth into The Night.
+
+A sense of utter desolation, as it were a horror of great darkness,
+gathered all around me as I leaned my forehead against the corpse's
+cheek, sobbing like a helpless child.
+
+You will not care to hear how we all mourned him.
+
+Will you care to hear that, often as his mother visits his grave, there
+is _one_ woman who comes oftener still?
+
+None of us have ever met her, for she comes always at late night or
+early morning. But finding, in the depth of winter or in the bleak
+spring, the ground about strewed with the choicest of exotic
+flowers--not carefully arranged, but showered down by a reckless,
+desperate hand--we know that Flora Dorrillon has been there.
+
+Do not laugh at her too much for clinging to the one romance of her
+artificial existence. Remember, while he lived, there was nothing so
+rare and precious--ay, even to the sacrifice of her own body and
+soul--that she would not have laid ungrudgingly at Guy Livingstone's
+feet.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Guy Livingstone;, by George A. Lawrence
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GUY LIVINGSTONE; ***
+
+***** This file should be named 17084.txt or 17084.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/0/8/17084/
+
+Produced by David Garcia, Martin Pettit and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Kentuckiana Digital Library)
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+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
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/17084.zip b/17084.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9934d23
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17084.zip
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..996a683
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #17084 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17084)